4 ms·

We've been seeking proof for years that Emacs still attracts new users--finally found one :D

BeetleB 2y ago
Actually, he's a 40+ year old person. His obsession with Emacs is what prevented him from graduating high school all these years :-)
- timacles 2y ago
  He opened his ~/.emacs file as a Junior in High School. Says he'll be ready to close it as soon as he gets this particular edit just right
taeric 2y ago
I mean, this and native compilation. And the new json parser that landed. And... (I'm sure I could go on.) What it doesn't have is a marketing department pushing it. But it has plenty of new users. No?
- globnomulous 2y ago
  The comment you answered is tongue in cheek, the joke being that emacs is for old people.
  - taeric 2y ago
    :) Always fun to realize you missed an obvious joke.
  - dustfinger 2y ago
    I'm an old person. I love emacs, no complaints here. Does this mean that when you are old, you will love emacs as well? Conclusion: in the long run, everyone loves emacs :-)
  - endgame 2y ago
    My favourite emacs-is-for-old-people joke is the backronym "Editor for Middle-Aged Computer Scientists".
- Buttons840 2y ago
  Joking aside, you're right. It's easy to imagine that Emacs has stagnated, but there are regular releases with improvements, some of them important fundamental improvements like native compilation. I recently saw a Reddit post in a vim subreddit about using AI for coding, the response was "we don't do that here". I saw the same thing in the Emacs subreddit, and there's like 10 different packages for AI integrations, and, allegedly, Emacs is state-of-the-art when it comes to AI interactions through the editor (if only the user can configure it correctly). It's something I've been meaning to try. https://www.reddit.com/r/neovim/comments/1js30ep/whats_everyone_using_these_days_for_ai_in_neovim/ https://www.reddit.com/r/neovim/comments/1js30ep/whats_every...
  - skydhash 2y ago
    Vim is an editor with quite a good API for integration with other tools and I don't see how you can't build one for AI (and you can use python for the integration). Emacs will have it much easier as almost everything you need has a better interface there.
  - terrabiped 2y ago
    I’m pretty sure that the answer you quoted was a joke, mainly because the topic of AI packages comes up all the time on that subreddit and people are starting to make fun of the same question that’s asked every other day. Codecompanion (Zed-like experience), Avante (Cursor-like experience), and Copilot all exist and integrate well with the rest of the neovim ecosystem.
  - throwanem 2y ago
    gptel.el is straightforward to configure and comfortable to use. It is indeed opinionated in ways that don't exactly match anything else out there, but if that sort of thing bothers you, you should not expect a comfortable time at first with Emacs. I like it a lot.
    - endgame 2y ago
      This undersells gptel.el, because IMHO it does a really good job of feeling emacs-native: you can read from the minibuffer or active region; send outputs to the message area, another buffer, or replace the marked region; use buffers or files as context sources; build "tools" out of elisp, ...

Actually, he's a 40+ year old person. His obsession with Emacs is what prevented him from graduating high school all these years :-)

timacles 2y ago
He opened his ~/.emacs file as a Junior in High School. Says he'll be ready to close it as soon as he gets this particular edit just right

taeric 2y ago

I mean, this and native compilation. And the new json parser that landed. And... (I'm sure I could go on.) What it doesn't have is a marketing department pushing it. But it has plenty of new users. No?

globnomulous 2y ago
The comment you answered is tongue in cheek, the joke being that emacs is for old people.
- taeric 2y ago
  :) Always fun to realize you missed an obvious joke.
- dustfinger 2y ago
  I'm an old person. I love emacs, no complaints here. Does this mean that when you are old, you will love emacs as well? Conclusion: in the long run, everyone loves emacs :-)
- endgame 2y ago
  My favourite emacs-is-for-old-people joke is the backronym "Editor for Middle-Aged Computer Scientists".
Buttons840 2y ago
Joking aside, you're right. It's easy to imagine that Emacs has stagnated, but there are regular releases with improvements, some of them important fundamental improvements like native compilation. I recently saw a Reddit post in a vim subreddit about using AI for coding, the response was "we don't do that here". I saw the same thing in the Emacs subreddit, and there's like 10 different packages for AI integrations, and, allegedly, Emacs is state-of-the-art when it comes to AI interactions through the editor (if only the user can configure it correctly). It's something I've been meaning to try. https://www.reddit.com/r/neovim/comments/1js30ep/whats_everyone_using_these_days_for_ai_in_neovim/ https://www.reddit.com/r/neovim/comments/1js30ep/whats_every...
- skydhash 2y ago
  Vim is an editor with quite a good API for integration with other tools and I don't see how you can't build one for AI (and you can use python for the integration). Emacs will have it much easier as almost everything you need has a better interface there.
- terrabiped 2y ago
  I’m pretty sure that the answer you quoted was a joke, mainly because the topic of AI packages comes up all the time on that subreddit and people are starting to make fun of the same question that’s asked every other day. Codecompanion (Zed-like experience), Avante (Cursor-like experience), and Copilot all exist and integrate well with the rest of the neovim ecosystem.
- throwanem 2y ago
  gptel.el is straightforward to configure and comfortable to use. It is indeed opinionated in ways that don't exactly match anything else out there, but if that sort of thing bothers you, you should not expect a comfortable time at first with Emacs. I like it a lot.
  - endgame 2y ago
    This undersells gptel.el, because IMHO it does a really good job of feeling emacs-native: you can read from the minibuffer or active region; send outputs to the message area, another buffer, or replace the marked region; use buffers or files as context sources; build "tools" out of elisp, ...