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I've written my own editor too. Would you like to see my .emacs file? All kiding aside, the most important thing about an editor is an ability to customize it

by tsally 18y ago

I've written my own editor too. Would you like to see my .emacs file? All kiding aside, the most important thing about an editor is an ability to customize it, whether it be via Emacs Lisp, Vim Script, or some other means. No software developer or plugin writer is going to be able to anticipate your needs, instead give yourself the ability to fulfil them. For example, just recently I wrote up a quick Emacs Lisp function to allow me to toggle between header files and source files for C/C++. I'll add a recursive search (to account for more complex project layouts with /inc and /src) after exams. http://paste.lisp.org/display/77348 http://paste.lisp.org/display/77348 For those that think learning to customize an editor takes too long, learning to program takes even longer. You'll learn how to make your editor do anything you want longer before you become an excellent programmer. Textmate and textmate like editors are great shortcuts, but probably crutches in the long run. That being said, Textmate does anticipates the average programmer's needs suprisignly well out of the box, so in that sense it fills a niche.

mannicken 18y ago
I think one can compare customization against wizards in Studio or scaffolding in Rails. Sure, it's an easy way to get started with whatever: MFC apps, Rails apps, or text editing. But when you outgrow hello world application, you'd want much more power. I used Emacs on and off for maybe four years but never customized it. I finally gathered up some attention month or so ago, got through tutorials and now I'm editing everything in Emacs (and this comment too). There is just a lot of accidental complexity in my brain, which can and is successfully automated by Emacs. If you are a programmer, you should be pissed off and outraged by anything that doesn't allow you to automate itself. After all, automation is what we all do -- to get away from all the boring stuff and concentrate on things that are really fun. Like sex. Or running. That's why I don't like GUI: remembering key chords is a way of automating tasks through memorization, and clicking on buttons requires much more cognition and interaction with the screen. And that my friends, is what really grinds my gears.
- jodrellblank 18y ago
  If you are a programmer, you should be pissed off and outraged by anything that doesn't allow you to automate itself. Ooh, burn burn, rage rage, agreement!

by tsally 18y ago

mannicken 18y ago

I think one can compare customization against wizards in Studio or scaffolding in Rails. Sure, it's an easy way to get started with whatever: MFC apps, Rails apps, or text editing. But when you outgrow hello world application, you'd want much more power. I used Emacs on and off for maybe four years but never customized it. I finally gathered up some attention month or so ago, got through tutorials and now I'm editing everything in Emacs (and this comment too). There is just a lot of accidental complexity in my brain, which can and is successfully automated by Emacs. If you are a programmer, you should be pissed off and outraged by anything that doesn't allow you to automate itself. After all, automation is what we all do -- to get away from all the boring stuff and concentrate on things that are really fun. Like sex. Or running. That's why I don't like GUI: remembering key chords is a way of automating tasks through memorization, and clicking on buttons requires much more cognition and interaction with the screen. And that my friends, is what really grinds my gears.

jodrellblank 18y ago
If you are a programmer, you should be pissed off and outraged by anything that doesn't allow you to automate itself. Ooh, burn burn, rage rage, agreement!