5 ms·

I tried to switch to EMacs a year or so ago. I used it for a couple months and I enjoyed the configurability in elisp. One of the last straws for me was that w

I tried to switch to EMacs a year or so ago. I used it for a couple months and I enjoyed the configurability in elisp. One of the last straws for me was that when scrolling down, the cursor moved to stay on the screen. This is one of the quirks of it being a TUI originally. (There is of course a package to for this functionality, but I found it would break frequently.)

seabass-labrax 3y ago
Are you referring to scroll-restore[1], by any chance? [1]: http://elpa.gnu.org/packages/scroll-restore.html http://elpa.gnu.org/packages/scroll-restore.html
- MatthiasPortzel 3y ago
  Yes. If I remember correctly, selecting a region with the mouse would cause it to error and only resume working when emacs was restarted.
taeric 3y ago
This is a fun one, all told. The Mac way of leaving the cursor at the top of a document is infuriating to me. Why would I want the cursor to be off of the visible screen? Point being that I suspect this is very much a learned behavior and you can grow to like either way. Not that one is superior to the other.
Syntonicles 3y ago
I think it's misguided to think of Emacs having moved away from the TUI paradigm at all. I have lived in Emacs for two years and have never even considered scrolling with my mouse. My hand never touches the mouse. As I move through the document, I already have the location of the cursor origin saved in a register and can jump there, or any of several other locations with a single keypress. I've always considered the mouse & menu system to be an emergency backup for beginners who have hit a wall. They will probably never be first class citizens. What editor do you use?
- rgoulter 3y ago
  > I've always considered the mouse & menu system to be an emergency backup for beginners who have hit a wall. They will probably never be first class citizens. Perhaps, but ideally you'd want your on-ramp experience (or your gateway experience) to be smooth, rather than a full cold-turkey.
- MatthiasPortzel 3y ago
  Thanks for sharing your view. I definitely prefer a GUI editor, I’m currently using Sublime. I was attracted to emacs because I like writing lisp and I hoped that the high level of customizability would let me smooth over any rough edges. But even though Sublime is not very flexile at all, it’s closer to what I want than I was able to script emacs to be.
- mcpackieh 3y ago
  Implying a dichotomy between TUI and mouse scrolling is very strange to me. I use my mouse to scroll in TUIs, including emacs, all the time. Emacs has full mouse support and scarcely discourages it's use.
michaelcampbell 3y ago
> One of the last straws for me was that when scrolling down, the cursor moved to stay on the screen. I mean, to each their own, but saying this like it's bad is just baffling to me.
akira2501 3y ago
I'll split the window and then open up the same buffer in the other window. Now I have a separate window that I can scroll (using alt-pgup with alt-pgdn) while keeping my cursor and editing state right where I want it in the original window.

seabass-labrax 3y ago

Are you referring to scroll-restore[1], by any chance? [1]: http://elpa.gnu.org/packages/scroll-restore.html http://elpa.gnu.org/packages/scroll-restore.html

MatthiasPortzel 3y ago
Yes. If I remember correctly, selecting a region with the mouse would cause it to error and only resume working when emacs was restarted.

taeric 3y ago

This is a fun one, all told. The Mac way of leaving the cursor at the top of a document is infuriating to me. Why would I want the cursor to be off of the visible screen? Point being that I suspect this is very much a learned behavior and you can grow to like either way. Not that one is superior to the other.

Syntonicles 3y ago

I think it's misguided to think of Emacs having moved away from the TUI paradigm at all. I have lived in Emacs for two years and have never even considered scrolling with my mouse. My hand never touches the mouse. As I move through the document, I already have the location of the cursor origin saved in a register and can jump there, or any of several other locations with a single keypress. I've always considered the mouse & menu system to be an emergency backup for beginners who have hit a wall. They will probably never be first class citizens. What editor do you use?

rgoulter 3y ago
> I've always considered the mouse & menu system to be an emergency backup for beginners who have hit a wall. They will probably never be first class citizens. Perhaps, but ideally you'd want your on-ramp experience (or your gateway experience) to be smooth, rather than a full cold-turkey.
MatthiasPortzel 3y ago
Thanks for sharing your view. I definitely prefer a GUI editor, I’m currently using Sublime. I was attracted to emacs because I like writing lisp and I hoped that the high level of customizability would let me smooth over any rough edges. But even though Sublime is not very flexile at all, it’s closer to what I want than I was able to script emacs to be.
mcpackieh 3y ago
Implying a dichotomy between TUI and mouse scrolling is very strange to me. I use my mouse to scroll in TUIs, including emacs, all the time. Emacs has full mouse support and scarcely discourages it's use.

michaelcampbell 3y ago

> One of the last straws for me was that when scrolling down, the cursor moved to stay on the screen. I mean, to each their own, but saying this like it's bad is just baffling to me.

akira2501 3y ago

I'll split the window and then open up the same buffer in the other window. Now I have a separate window that I can scroll (using alt-pgup with alt-pgdn) while keeping my cursor and editing state right where I want it in the original window.