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What helped you most getting up to speed in emacs? Every time I try I give up

mark_l_watson 4y ago
In the early days, it was easy to install Emacs on any system I was working on. In modern times, VSCode is a fine substitute for Emacs, so try that. I generally prefer Emacs because I am so used to it.
- User23 4y ago
  VS Code has many pleasant properties, but its lack of respect for user freedom is a real turn off. Also it is considerably less conveniently extensible than Emacs. That however is definitely a double edged sword and there are valid reasons to go with a less customizable tool.
  - philsnow 4y ago
    I would guess there's about 1000x as many people who are capable with javascript as there are who are capable with elisp though. ... that could be a feature, depending on the person, I guess.
    - User23 4y ago
      It’s not so much the particular extension language as it is the design philosophy. JavaScript is considerably lispier than most squiggly brace languages.
- firecall 4y ago
  I find the Electron based GUI of VSC to be laggy compared to other GUI editors like Sublime Text. It's subtle, but there is a noticeable lag when clicking on a file and the view refreshing in VSC that isnt there in Sublime Text, for instance.
rayiner 4y ago
I learned it by using it to do a project in college in Common Lisp using SLIME. There wasn’t really a good Lisp environment for the editor I was used to before that (visual studio) so o had to power through.
SoftTalker 4y ago
Ha. I feel the same about vi. I know enough to use it for basic edits if emacs isn't available, but I struggle with it. In one of my first programming classes in school, the available editors were vi and emacs. The modal operation of vi kept throwing me, so I used emacs. Over 30 years later I have rarely used anything else. I had one job where Visual Studio was used. I tried using it with emacs keybindings, but eventually switched to using emacs in cygwin and only used VS to run builds.
Forge36 4y ago
Starting small. I started with org mode and plain text files. Magit has been a very handy tool. I've started using it for markdown more recently. Don't try to do everything. You'll get burnt out from learning/spending too much time customizing.
srcreigh 4y ago
What happened when you gave up? This question to me is like, how did you navigate this jungle? I got lost. Theres many answers depending.
fm2606 4y ago
I can completely relate to this. What helped me the most was Ch 2 from "Clojure for the Brave and True" https://www.braveclojure.com/basic-emacs/ https://www.braveclojure.com/basic-emacs/ Basically how to open, save and basic editing. I knew it was going to be slow and mildly painful to learn but I wanted to learn Clojure (since moved on to Common Lisp). I used Vim for several years and would still consider myself very novice. I don't dig into anything for the sack of digging. I learn just enough to do what I need to do. When I need something new then I look it up. Same thing with Emacs, I've been using it for 4 or 5 months. I enjoy it and it lets me work with Common Lisp so I'm happy.

In the early days, it was easy to install Emacs on any system I was working on. In modern times, VSCode is a fine substitute for Emacs, so try that. I generally prefer Emacs because I am so used to it.

User23 4y ago
VS Code has many pleasant properties, but its lack of respect for user freedom is a real turn off. Also it is considerably less conveniently extensible than Emacs. That however is definitely a double edged sword and there are valid reasons to go with a less customizable tool.
- philsnow 4y ago
  I would guess there's about 1000x as many people who are capable with javascript as there are who are capable with elisp though. ... that could be a feature, depending on the person, I guess.
  - User23 4y ago
    It’s not so much the particular extension language as it is the design philosophy. JavaScript is considerably lispier than most squiggly brace languages.
firecall 4y ago
I find the Electron based GUI of VSC to be laggy compared to other GUI editors like Sublime Text. It's subtle, but there is a noticeable lag when clicking on a file and the view refreshing in VSC that isnt there in Sublime Text, for instance.

rayiner 4y ago

I learned it by using it to do a project in college in Common Lisp using SLIME. There wasn’t really a good Lisp environment for the editor I was used to before that (visual studio) so o had to power through.

SoftTalker 4y ago

Ha. I feel the same about vi. I know enough to use it for basic edits if emacs isn't available, but I struggle with it. In one of my first programming classes in school, the available editors were vi and emacs. The modal operation of vi kept throwing me, so I used emacs. Over 30 years later I have rarely used anything else. I had one job where Visual Studio was used. I tried using it with emacs keybindings, but eventually switched to using emacs in cygwin and only used VS to run builds.

Forge36 4y ago

Starting small. I started with org mode and plain text files. Magit has been a very handy tool. I've started using it for markdown more recently. Don't try to do everything. You'll get burnt out from learning/spending too much time customizing.

srcreigh 4y ago

What happened when you gave up? This question to me is like, how did you navigate this jungle? I got lost. Theres many answers depending.

fm2606 4y ago

I can completely relate to this. What helped me the most was Ch 2 from "Clojure for the Brave and True" https://www.braveclojure.com/basic-emacs/ https://www.braveclojure.com/basic-emacs/ Basically how to open, save and basic editing. I knew it was going to be slow and mildly painful to learn but I wanted to learn Clojure (since moved on to Common Lisp). I used Vim for several years and would still consider myself very novice. I don't dig into anything for the sack of digging. I learn just enough to do what I need to do. When I need something new then I look it up. Same thing with Emacs, I've been using it for 4 or 5 months. I enjoy it and it lets me work with Common Lisp so I'm happy.