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The best reason to use Emacs is that it’s fun. Would you learn the guitar because it’s “good for you” to learn it or because you enjoy playing music? I think th
by pzone 5y ago
The best reason to use Emacs is that it’s fun. Would you learn the guitar because it’s “good for you” to learn it or because you enjoy playing music? I think the only sustainable motivation is the latter. If learning Emacs is simply a chore with an abstract promise of “productivity” as a reward you’re not missing out on anything.
- asoneth 4y agoBy "Good For Me" I don't just mean productivity-wise, I mean a positive and rewarding experience. And frankly I do not know whether I would enjoy using Emacs. (I similarly don't know whether I would enjoy playing music.) But I know that learning Emacs is a chore. I did not enjoy having to relearn common interaction concepts like windows, frames, yank, kill. I did not enjoy retraining muscle-memory (or modifying bindings) because editing and navigation shortcuts don't match the standards that have been codified in every other desktop text area. I did not enjoy the endless search for the right distribution/mode/extension to solve a particular problem. I did not enjoy that none of these are generalizable skills that transfer beyond the esoteric priesthood of Emacs use. I liked the core concepts in principle and I enjoyed the new perspective it provided, like peeking into an alternate universe with a parallel evolutionary path. Eventually life intervened and I had to retreat back to editors that take minutes to learn rather than hours or days. I suspect I'll give it another go someday when I can afford to devote the better part of a weekend to it, perhaps when the kids are older.