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So choose literally every other text editor or IDE, except possibly Vim. There's nothing wrong with not wanted to customize your environment, but don't sour gra

So choose literally every other text editor or IDE, except possibly Vim. There's nothing wrong with not wanted to customize your environment, but don't sour grapes when people get excited about the one tool that actually lets you seriously and relatively easily modify things.

pdimitar 6y ago
I am "sour graping" it because I can easily bet $50 that it won't work for me on the first try. :) I am considering VIM btw because I also want my editor to work in TUI mode. Why do you recommend against it? I've been told by people who use both editors that VIM is easier to customize. Do you think that's not true?
- tarboreus 6y ago
  Emacs works well in a terminal. I'd recommend the GUI version, but it was originally a terminal program, after all. Vim has some great advantages, like the ubiquity of Vi on servers and the ergonomic layout (though Emacs can emulate that pretty easily). But yes, Emacs is far easier to modify, it's built from the ground up for modification, and is written (mostly) in the language you modify it with, Emacs Lisp. The self-documenting element also helps tremendously with modification. If you're curious about Emacs modification, I'd recommend this article: https://malleable.systems/blog/2020/04/01/the-most-successful-malleable-system-in-history/ https://malleable.systems/blog/2020/04/01/the-most-successfu... And, not saying you should, but if you ever do want to get started with Emacs, just load it up and hit Control-h t (or select the tutorial option from the splash screen) to start the great built-in tutorial, which is really strong. If you get past that, there is a lesser-known tutorial on Emacs Lisp built in as well that is quite excellent and more people should know about it. To access it, hit Alt-x, then type info and hit Enter, then select the "Emacs Lisp Intro" tutorial from the list.

pdimitar 6y ago

I am "sour graping" it because I can easily bet $50 that it won't work for me on the first try. :) I am considering VIM btw because I also want my editor to work in TUI mode. Why do you recommend against it? I've been told by people who use both editors that VIM is easier to customize. Do you think that's not true?

tarboreus 6y ago
Emacs works well in a terminal. I'd recommend the GUI version, but it was originally a terminal program, after all. Vim has some great advantages, like the ubiquity of Vi on servers and the ergonomic layout (though Emacs can emulate that pretty easily). But yes, Emacs is far easier to modify, it's built from the ground up for modification, and is written (mostly) in the language you modify it with, Emacs Lisp. The self-documenting element also helps tremendously with modification. If you're curious about Emacs modification, I'd recommend this article: https://malleable.systems/blog/2020/04/01/the-most-successful-malleable-system-in-history/ https://malleable.systems/blog/2020/04/01/the-most-successfu... And, not saying you should, but if you ever do want to get started with Emacs, just load it up and hit Control-h t (or select the tutorial option from the splash screen) to start the great built-in tutorial, which is really strong. If you get past that, there is a lesser-known tutorial on Emacs Lisp built in as well that is quite excellent and more people should know about it. To access it, hit Alt-x, then type info and hit Enter, then select the "Emacs Lisp Intro" tutorial from the list.