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I've been using emacs for approximately 30 years. Every once in a while, someone ask me what editor or IDE I suggest they learn, and I never suggest emacs. It's

I've been using emacs for approximately 30 years. Every once in a while, someone ask me what editor or IDE I suggest they learn, and I never suggest emacs. It's incredibly powerful, but it's a fossil. I keep using emacs mostly because of muscle memory.

rjrodger 5y ago
That's it. That's the reason. You can usually get Emacs key bindings (or a shallow approximation thereof) in most editors. But yeah, we're stuck, so I guess we just gotta double down. It is fun when the young 'uns do a double take after you execute a particularly fancy macro. I do love that.
- MereInterest 5y ago
  I've customized my setup to the point where I don't just want emacs keybindings, I want my emacs keybindings. Because those are the ones that are in my fingertips.
- jdblair 5y ago
  The macros are always the deal-breaker. I tried sublime text, set up emacs keybindings, then tried to ctrl-x-( to start a macro and... switched right back to emacs. (and then proceeded to modify me emacs config so it approximated many sublime text features)
  - azeirah 5y ago
    I used to be a heavy Sublime Text power user a couple years ago. I found out at some point that while Sublime does market itself as supporting macros, many commands were one of these four - extremely basic (ie, move left or right) - poorly thought out - Straight up not implemented as a recordable macro command - Buggy
mark_l_watson 5y ago
Same situation for me, but much longer than 30 years. I still use Emacs with SBCL Common Lisp (but use VSCode if I am exploring someone else’s large codebase) and for routine non-programming editing, but otherwise I use IDEs: LispWorks, PyCharm for Python, IntelliJ for Java and Clojure, XCode for Swift, and Racket IDE for Racket Scheme. I like having Emacs key bindings for other editors and IDEs.
AQuantized 5y ago
I'm relatively young and for me Emacs isn't a fossil just because there isn't a better alternative I've found for taking notes than Org mode. This is especially true if you want to embed LaTeX or code into your notes (and even execute it). As I've gotten into learning Lisp and using Magit occasionally I can't think of a an editor that's more versatile in its extensibility or offers a Git interface on Magit's level (although I still mostly use command line). I did rebind a lot of stuff to more common shortcuts, with the exception of C-c just because it was too much work. This may be more of an argument for Emacs as a general editor than IDE specifically however.
tazjin 5y ago
I think it's interesting that there are Emacs users who use it for so long and yet still regard it as a text editor. For me it's a window manager, mail client, terminal emulator and so much more and I don't know of a rivaling ecosystem where I could get these things in a consistent way. Maybe something Apple makes, but that's a non-starter really (especially if you care about keyboard accessibility).

rjrodger 5y ago

That's it. That's the reason. You can usually get Emacs key bindings (or a shallow approximation thereof) in most editors. But yeah, we're stuck, so I guess we just gotta double down. It is fun when the young 'uns do a double take after you execute a particularly fancy macro. I do love that.

MereInterest 5y ago
I've customized my setup to the point where I don't just want emacs keybindings, I want my emacs keybindings. Because those are the ones that are in my fingertips.
jdblair 5y ago
The macros are always the deal-breaker. I tried sublime text, set up emacs keybindings, then tried to ctrl-x-( to start a macro and... switched right back to emacs. (and then proceeded to modify me emacs config so it approximated many sublime text features)
- azeirah 5y ago
  I used to be a heavy Sublime Text power user a couple years ago. I found out at some point that while Sublime does market itself as supporting macros, many commands were one of these four - extremely basic (ie, move left or right) - poorly thought out - Straight up not implemented as a recordable macro command - Buggy

mark_l_watson 5y ago

Same situation for me, but much longer than 30 years. I still use Emacs with SBCL Common Lisp (but use VSCode if I am exploring someone else’s large codebase) and for routine non-programming editing, but otherwise I use IDEs: LispWorks, PyCharm for Python, IntelliJ for Java and Clojure, XCode for Swift, and Racket IDE for Racket Scheme. I like having Emacs key bindings for other editors and IDEs.

AQuantized 5y ago

I'm relatively young and for me Emacs isn't a fossil just because there isn't a better alternative I've found for taking notes than Org mode. This is especially true if you want to embed LaTeX or code into your notes (and even execute it). As I've gotten into learning Lisp and using Magit occasionally I can't think of a an editor that's more versatile in its extensibility or offers a Git interface on Magit's level (although I still mostly use command line). I did rebind a lot of stuff to more common shortcuts, with the exception of C-c just because it was too much work. This may be more of an argument for Emacs as a general editor than IDE specifically however.

tazjin 5y ago

I think it's interesting that there are Emacs users who use it for so long and yet still regard it as a text editor. For me it's a window manager, mail client, terminal emulator and so much more and I don't know of a rivaling ecosystem where I could get these things in a consistent way. Maybe something Apple makes, but that's a non-starter really (especially if you care about keyboard accessibility).