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Is there a better way to get started with Emacs than the built in tutorial? I've tried a couple times (due to increasing annoyance with VS Code), but have strug
by bpye 1mo ago
Is there a better way to get started with Emacs than the built in tutorial? I've tried a couple times (due to increasing annoyance with VS Code), but have struggled to get to a point where I feel productive enough.
- mickeyp 1mo agoI recommend the tutorial (Help -> Tutorial) from the menu bar inside Emacs to get you started. Don't listen to people telling you to disable this or that. Use your mouse and arrow keys to get started. Don't worry about what other people are doing with their Emacs too much. Pick one thing you want to do with Emacs and focus purely on that (writing Go, taking notes in Org, etc.) and avoid a wholesale move unless you have infinite time and patience. See also my reading guide: https://www.masteringemacs.org/reading-guide https://www.masteringemacs.org/reading-guide My book is of course an option also, but it costs money.
- alfiedotwtf 1mo agoYour book should be mandatory. It’s a gem and I think I’d still be on Vim or VSCode without it!
- mickeyp 1mo agoThank you so much for the kind words :) I'm glad I could help you switch!
- kstrauser 1mo agoSo, uh, v31 update coming soon? crossing-fingers.gif
- mickeyp 1mo agoYeah I'll be working on it. Been busy on another product (see bio) which has taken up a year-plus of my time. Hence the lack of regular postings!
- kstrauser 1mo agoLovely! I’ll check it out.
- mickeyp 1mo agoHappy to supply you with a beta key; give me a ping via email.
- code-blooded 1mo agoWonderful. I'll be among buyers the day it releases
- mickeyp 1mo agoI'll happily hook you up with a key for you to play around with - feel free to drop me an e-mail.
- roundcan7998 1mo agoMastering Emacs: worth every cent. (ignore what author says about it costing money) It is what got Emacs to “stick” for me. Just get it already
- throwa356262 1mo agoCan you expand this a little bit? What makes this book different?
- roundcan7998 1mo agoIt speaks to people like you and me. Folks in the modern age, who want to get up to speed with an old trusty tool, without the biases of other folk getting in the way. You get up to speed enough, that you can then go find your own way. Mickey’s writing is conversational yet pithy and laconic. (in a very good way)
- jmmv 1mo agoStart with Doom Emacs. I haven't felt the need to customize almost anything since I switched (from VSCode) 4 years ago. TBH, I had used Emacs before VSCode and had accumulated a bunch of cruft in my .emacs configuration, and I never felt it was "mine" anyway...
- sinker 1mo agoIt's no different from learning vim. Just stick with it until the shortcuts become cognitively automatic. It also helps to learn upfront the idiosyncratic terms and concepts like buffers, windows, frames, yanking, killing, etc. Most of these terms map one-to-one to more familiar nomenclature like copy, paste, etc. Buffers is a concept a bit more unique and integral to emacs. It's easier to understand in practice than in reading. Most importantly though, emacs is a lisp machine, and exposes the highest level of granularity, and enables the finest level of customization for the user.
- stackghost 1mo agoI'm in the minority and think the tutorial is awful. "Here's this software everyone says is so great. Before you can actually use it, be sure to spend 20 minutes doing a bunch of stuff for which you don't have context/don't have motivation for" No thanks. Instead, literally just start using it and ask an LLM for help as you go.
- everybodyknows 1mo agoAn LLM is great at writing a first shot at key bindings to suit your taste, and recipes for Emacs' four syntactically different yet functionally overlapping configuration schemes. The maybe complementary, or at least deterministic source of advice is old school 'M-x info'.