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"would learning my way around emacs also get me a productivity boost?" No. Although I first used emacs roughly 22 years ago so my memory might be rusty, the l

by VLM 12y ago

"would learning my way around emacs also get me a productivity boost?" No. Although I first used emacs roughly 22 years ago so my memory might be rusty, the learning curve was extremely steep. Its not a GUI app with low maximum performance but very short learning curve, its more like something you'll have to mess with for a month to year to wrap your brain around. Its like learning dwarf fortress vs angry birds. In the very long run you'll probably like DF more, but not for the first day / week / month.

elwell 12y ago
I feel like it took me about a month to get to the point where I was glad I had invested the time to learn.
chetanahuja 12y ago
"the learning curve was extremely steep" I beg to disagree. I learned me an emacs around the same time period (mid 90's). I don't remember the learning curve to be that steep. I started by doing the tutorial. If you download a GUI emacs (e.g. from http://emacsformacosx.com/ http://emacsformacosx.com/ ), and open the program, you'll see a mouse clickable invitation to take a tutorial. Do this. Don't take shortcuts. Just spend the one or two hours and go through the entire tutorial complete with practice exercises. Or if that's intimidating, start by reading this gist: https://gist.github.com/ChetanAhuja/42ee8321c906466b601c https://gist.github.com/ChetanAhuja/42ee8321c906466b601c
- VLM 12y ago
  Sorry for responding late, but completing the tutorial merely brings you up to the level of using vim. Like, OK, hit C-x C-s to save instead of esc :w to save. That doesn't really help, it just teaches equally productive keystrokes. You can "rise above" by using emacs but its going to take a lot more than learning a different keystroke to scroll the screen. Learning all the features of your language mode, its debugger integration, integrated refactoring tools, project tool integration, it all takes time, and those are the areas where you get huge productivity gains when you put in the time. I agree you are correct that the FIRST step is the tutorial but that won't provide any performance gains over any other bare text editor.

by VLM 12y ago

elwell 12y ago

I feel like it took me about a month to get to the point where I was glad I had invested the time to learn.

chetanahuja 12y ago

"the learning curve was extremely steep" I beg to disagree. I learned me an emacs around the same time period (mid 90's). I don't remember the learning curve to be that steep. I started by doing the tutorial. If you download a GUI emacs (e.g. from http://emacsformacosx.com/ http://emacsformacosx.com/ ), and open the program, you'll see a mouse clickable invitation to take a tutorial. Do this. Don't take shortcuts. Just spend the one or two hours and go through the entire tutorial complete with practice exercises. Or if that's intimidating, start by reading this gist: https://gist.github.com/ChetanAhuja/42ee8321c906466b601c https://gist.github.com/ChetanAhuja/42ee8321c906466b601c

VLM 12y ago
Sorry for responding late, but completing the tutorial merely brings you up to the level of using vim. Like, OK, hit C-x C-s to save instead of esc :w to save. That doesn't really help, it just teaches equally productive keystrokes. You can "rise above" by using emacs but its going to take a lot more than learning a different keystroke to scroll the screen. Learning all the features of your language mode, its debugger integration, integrated refactoring tools, project tool integration, it all takes time, and those are the areas where you get huge productivity gains when you put in the time. I agree you are correct that the FIRST step is the tutorial but that won't provide any performance gains over any other bare text editor.