5 ms·

Ok, good. I was so confused. I thought this was like nerd supremacy but it does ring true: your text editor doesn't matter, you are not a better writer / progr

Ok, good. I was so confused. I thought this was like nerd supremacy but it does ring true: your text editor doesn't matter, you are not a better writer / programmer / person because of what editor you use. I did thoroughly enjoy the dig about BSD supremacy. Those guys are worse than vegans and environmentalists. :)

heyoni 3y ago
Yea like what's a fake unix person like?
- bluetomcat 3y ago
  Someone using WSL 2 on Windows 11, or a macOS user who only knows how to type "ls" in their terminal :-)
- RichardCA 3y ago
  Anyone who didn't start during the CRT era, when you couldn't even count on curses support in the terminal. The "everything is a printer" abstraction started because PDP's that ran V7 Unix at Bell Labs really did use Teletypes for user interaction. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teleprinter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teleprinter
foobarian 3y ago
I mostly agree, however it seems that a certain core of editor controls has managed to spread and become a commonly available default in various products. The emacs shortcuts in particular seem to be available any place there is a text editor box like in browsers, in web IDEs, mainstream IDEs like VSCode or IntelliJ etc etc and as such I think it makes good sense to learn those just as a matter of education.
- sproingie 3y ago
  Emacs keybindings are even baked into NSText, the basis of everything to do with text handling in macOS.
  - hollerith 3y ago
    A bit of an exaggeration because VSCode (on macOS or any other OS) for example does not recognize any Emacs keybindings. Ditto textareas in Chrome and Firefox.
- SllX 3y ago
  They’re associated with Emacs now but at least some of them seem to go back to TENEX: http://unix-kb.cat-v.org/ http://unix-kb.cat-v.org/
fragmede 3y ago
> you are not a better writer / programmer / person because of what editor you use somebody uses Emacs... But seriously, the tribalism over which is better is ridiculous, but a good writer/programmer/person chooses their tools intentionally, and makes their tools work for them instead of against them. My choice of editor doesn't make me better than you, but it makes me better than a version of me using sub par tools that I have to fight to make work. It's about reaching flow state and being able to do work, and make work happen. If forced to cut down a tree in 5 minutes, the learned lumberjack will spend 3 sharpening their axe.

heyoni 3y ago

Yea like what's a fake unix person like?

bluetomcat 3y ago
Someone using WSL 2 on Windows 11, or a macOS user who only knows how to type "ls" in their terminal :-)
RichardCA 3y ago
Anyone who didn't start during the CRT era, when you couldn't even count on curses support in the terminal. The "everything is a printer" abstraction started because PDP's that ran V7 Unix at Bell Labs really did use Teletypes for user interaction. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teleprinter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teleprinter

foobarian 3y ago

I mostly agree, however it seems that a certain core of editor controls has managed to spread and become a commonly available default in various products. The emacs shortcuts in particular seem to be available any place there is a text editor box like in browsers, in web IDEs, mainstream IDEs like VSCode or IntelliJ etc etc and as such I think it makes good sense to learn those just as a matter of education.

sproingie 3y ago
Emacs keybindings are even baked into NSText, the basis of everything to do with text handling in macOS.
- hollerith 3y ago
  A bit of an exaggeration because VSCode (on macOS or any other OS) for example does not recognize any Emacs keybindings. Ditto textareas in Chrome and Firefox.
SllX 3y ago
They’re associated with Emacs now but at least some of them seem to go back to TENEX: http://unix-kb.cat-v.org/ http://unix-kb.cat-v.org/

fragmede 3y ago

> you are not a better writer / programmer / person because of what editor you use somebody uses Emacs... But seriously, the tribalism over which is better is ridiculous, but a good writer/programmer/person chooses their tools intentionally, and makes their tools work for them instead of against them. My choice of editor doesn't make me better than you, but it makes me better than a version of me using sub par tools that I have to fight to make work. It's about reaching flow state and being able to do work, and make work happen. If forced to cut down a tree in 5 minutes, the learned lumberjack will spend 3 sharpening their axe.