5 ms·

I would be interested to hear what modern features are not possible in vim or emacs.

briangonzalez 14y ago
Marco talked in Build & Analyze about loving multiple cursors, which I believe emacs/vim don't support: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5bPRhFHEz0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5bPRhFHEz0
- terhechte 14y ago
  In VIM, you can edit multiple adjacent lines at the same time. You can place multiple cursors at random lines though and start editing. I think I saw a plugin for that once, though.
  - notJim 14y ago
    Did you mean to say “can't” in your second sentence?
    - terhechte 14y ago
      Yes, sorry, wrote it in a hurry.
- osener 14y ago
  Some Emacs extensions that implement Sublime Text features (and IMHO are better than their ST equivalents): mark-multiple[1] and CUA (builtin) for multiple cursors, helm[2] (formerly "anything") for file selection that allows quick previewing (C-z) and much much more, mini-map[3], and expand-region[4] (not sure if this is inspired by a ST feature but it is nice nonetheless). [1] https://github.com/magnars/mark-multiple.el https://github.com/magnars/mark-multiple.el Video: http://emacsrocks.com/e08.html http://emacsrocks.com/e08.html [2] https://github.com/emacs-helm/helm https://github.com/emacs-helm/helm [3] http://www.emacswiki.org/MiniMap http://www.emacswiki.org/MiniMap [4] https://github.com/magnars/expand-region.el https://github.com/magnars/expand-region.el Video: http://emacsrocks.com/e09.html http://emacsrocks.com/e09.html
- boon 14y ago
  Something like that is also VERY easily accomplished with macros. The added benefit of macros is that you can then store that "edit" in case you need to replay it later.
- saurik 14y ago
  In osener's reply to your comment, mark-multiple.el is mentioned; here is a talk from the developer that demonstrates using the feature many times. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3Te_a-AGqM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3Te_a-AGqM
billturner 14y ago
I'm curious as well. I'm able to do everything and more in Vim/MacVim that I was able to do in TextMate 1. Sure, it may not look like a "native" app, but I don't see how that should be an issue. You want to focus on the text, not the pretty box around the text. Edited to add: Granted, a lot of the niceties have to be installed after the fact as a plugin, and are not built in. Where with Sublime Text 2, perhaps a lot of those things are there from installation.
10098 14y ago
Refactoring and intellisense. You can do those to some degree in vim, but eclipse and visual studio do it better. I'm still using vim though, because i don't really need those features that often, and i feel handicapped in other editors.
- terhechte 14y ago
  Intellisense depends on the language. For C, C++ clang_complete is fantastic. For Javascript, Python, Ruby, there's also static analyzer based completion. IMHO Vim is pretty advanced there.
heretohelp 14y ago
>I would be interested to hear what modern features are not possible in vim or emacs. None technically. There still isn't a very nice IDE/Analysis-refactoring engine for Java in Emacs, but there is one for Scala oddly enough. So there are rough-edges, but the point is that Emacs is a programmable environment that belongs to you and the larger community, not to a solo absentee developer. You can make it do anything you want.
- tikhonj 14y ago
  > ...but there is one for Scala oddly enough. I don't think this is odd at all. There is also one for OCaml and Haskell. (Well, maybe the Haskell one isn't as good, but I haven't tried it.) in my experience, far more functional programmers like Emacs/Vim and far more Java people like Eclipse/IDEA. So in the Java version, the people who care over-much for IDE features already use an IDE and aren't going to spend time improving Emacs. In functional programming land, people are less worried about IDE features and so don't use IDEs. However, these features are nice, so people are willing to spend time writing backends like Ensime or TypeRex that can be plugged into Emacs.
  - heretohelp 14y ago
    Ensime is truly heavenly. <3 The cultural note seems to be more or less on point but I would make it less about Functional Programming than simply..."avant-garde".
wonderzombie 14y ago
For my part, it wasn't so much that plugins weren't available as it was trying out multiple versions, installing them, configuring them, and troubleshooting them. Sometimes they'd make Vim much slower, or break altogether. Much of what I wanted out of Vim worked right out of the box in ST2, and with minimal fuss.

Marco talked in Build & Analyze about loving multiple cursors, which I believe emacs/vim don't support: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5bPRhFHEz0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5bPRhFHEz0

terhechte 14y ago
In VIM, you can edit multiple adjacent lines at the same time. You can place multiple cursors at random lines though and start editing. I think I saw a plugin for that once, though.
- notJim 14y ago
  Did you mean to say “can't” in your second sentence?
  - terhechte 14y ago
    Yes, sorry, wrote it in a hurry.
osener 14y ago
Some Emacs extensions that implement Sublime Text features (and IMHO are better than their ST equivalents): mark-multiple[1] and CUA (builtin) for multiple cursors, helm[2] (formerly "anything") for file selection that allows quick previewing (C-z) and much much more, mini-map[3], and expand-region[4] (not sure if this is inspired by a ST feature but it is nice nonetheless). [1] https://github.com/magnars/mark-multiple.el https://github.com/magnars/mark-multiple.el Video: http://emacsrocks.com/e08.html http://emacsrocks.com/e08.html [2] https://github.com/emacs-helm/helm https://github.com/emacs-helm/helm [3] http://www.emacswiki.org/MiniMap http://www.emacswiki.org/MiniMap [4] https://github.com/magnars/expand-region.el https://github.com/magnars/expand-region.el Video: http://emacsrocks.com/e09.html http://emacsrocks.com/e09.html
boon 14y ago
Something like that is also VERY easily accomplished with macros. The added benefit of macros is that you can then store that "edit" in case you need to replay it later.
saurik 14y ago
In osener's reply to your comment, mark-multiple.el is mentioned; here is a talk from the developer that demonstrates using the feature many times. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3Te_a-AGqM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3Te_a-AGqM

billturner 14y ago

I'm curious as well. I'm able to do everything and more in Vim/MacVim that I was able to do in TextMate 1. Sure, it may not look like a "native" app, but I don't see how that should be an issue. You want to focus on the text, not the pretty box around the text. Edited to add: Granted, a lot of the niceties have to be installed after the fact as a plugin, and are not built in. Where with Sublime Text 2, perhaps a lot of those things are there from installation.

10098 14y ago

Refactoring and intellisense. You can do those to some degree in vim, but eclipse and visual studio do it better. I'm still using vim though, because i don't really need those features that often, and i feel handicapped in other editors.

terhechte 14y ago
Intellisense depends on the language. For C, C++ clang_complete is fantastic. For Javascript, Python, Ruby, there's also static analyzer based completion. IMHO Vim is pretty advanced there.

heretohelp 14y ago

>I would be interested to hear what modern features are not possible in vim or emacs. None technically. There still isn't a very nice IDE/Analysis-refactoring engine for Java in Emacs, but there is one for Scala oddly enough. So there are rough-edges, but the point is that Emacs is a programmable environment that belongs to you and the larger community, not to a solo absentee developer. You can make it do anything you want.

tikhonj 14y ago
> ...but there is one for Scala oddly enough. I don't think this is odd at all. There is also one for OCaml and Haskell. (Well, maybe the Haskell one isn't as good, but I haven't tried it.) in my experience, far more functional programmers like Emacs/Vim and far more Java people like Eclipse/IDEA. So in the Java version, the people who care over-much for IDE features already use an IDE and aren't going to spend time improving Emacs. In functional programming land, people are less worried about IDE features and so don't use IDEs. However, these features are nice, so people are willing to spend time writing backends like Ensime or TypeRex that can be plugged into Emacs.
- heretohelp 14y ago
  Ensime is truly heavenly. <3 The cultural note seems to be more or less on point but I would make it less about Functional Programming than simply..."avant-garde".

wonderzombie 14y ago

For my part, it wasn't so much that plugins weren't available as it was trying out multiple versions, installing them, configuring them, and troubleshooting them. Sometimes they'd make Vim much slower, or break altogether. Much of what I wanted out of Vim worked right out of the box in ST2, and with minimal fuss.