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> Emacs lisp is not a bad language, but it's also not the reason for the existence of Emacs Early Emacs and the modern GNU/Emacs I think, are two distinct worl

> Emacs lisp is not a bad language, but it's also not the reason for the existence of Emacs Early Emacs and the modern GNU/Emacs I think, are two distinct worlds. I believe Lisp has shaped Emacs into its modern form. I just can't imagine the possibility of building something like Org-mode, with the same level of extensibility and flexibility in any other language that is not a Lisp. I bet if you ask any serious Emacsen - authors and maintainers of Magit, CIDER, or any other serious Emacs package if they could replicate their work, for example, in Python. I have no doubts, they'd definitely say: "that's nearly impossible"

coliveira 5y ago
Funny, because Magit has been ported to Vim, I use it daily.
- iLemming 5y ago
  Magit is not just a user interface. It's also a number of emacs-lisp packages useful on their own. It's Transient that's gaining popularity for building modal key UIs in Emacs. It's Forge that paved the road for nice packages like github.com/anticomputer/gh-notify. It is Org-mode integration and many other things. What you're using is a ported subset of them.
  - coliveira 5y ago
    So much better, because what I want is to interact with git, not to manage a hodge podge of libraries.
    - iLemming 5y ago
      There are always multiple paths to get something done. Some people prefer automation. Having "a bucket of bolts and nuts" makes it possible to hack your way around things. Some people like Ferrari. For some - the utilitarian value of it, is minimal. They'd rather have "a bucket of bolts and nuts" instead. They can't go camping in a Ferrari. They can't take their bullmastiff to a vet in it. They can't help a friend to move furniture. Emacs is that - it's not akin to a shiny, expensive but not very useful car. It's like a transformer - you can build a pickup truck, a camper, an ambulance, or a race car. But some people like Ferrari. And that's totally fine.

coliveira 5y ago

Funny, because Magit has been ported to Vim, I use it daily.

iLemming 5y ago
Magit is not just a user interface. It's also a number of emacs-lisp packages useful on their own. It's Transient that's gaining popularity for building modal key UIs in Emacs. It's Forge that paved the road for nice packages like github.com/anticomputer/gh-notify. It is Org-mode integration and many other things. What you're using is a ported subset of them.
- coliveira 5y ago
  So much better, because what I want is to interact with git, not to manage a hodge podge of libraries.
  - iLemming 5y ago
    There are always multiple paths to get something done. Some people prefer automation. Having "a bucket of bolts and nuts" makes it possible to hack your way around things. Some people like Ferrari. For some - the utilitarian value of it, is minimal. They'd rather have "a bucket of bolts and nuts" instead. They can't go camping in a Ferrari. They can't take their bullmastiff to a vet in it. They can't help a friend to move furniture. Emacs is that - it's not akin to a shiny, expensive but not very useful car. It's like a transformer - you can build a pickup truck, a camper, an ambulance, or a race car. But some people like Ferrari. And that's totally fine.