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Welcome to what I've felt with Emacs since I first used it. Might be time to work on some tutorials and examples to make Emacs easier to hack on and contribute

by omouse 11y ago

Welcome to what I've felt with Emacs since I first used it. Might be time to work on some tutorials and examples to make Emacs easier to hack on and contribute to...

davidshepherd7 11y ago
The ease of installing packages in Emacs has improved hugely in the last few years, so I think it's getting better for beginners already.
- outworlder 11y ago
  Indeed. For example: http://tullo.ch/articles/modern-emacs-setup/ http://tullo.ch/articles/modern-emacs-setup/
kajecounterhack 11y ago
I've felt largely the same about vim. I think atom is the GUI'ed equivalent of excellent extensible minimalist command line tools.
- afarrell 11y ago
  You have felt it is easy to install, debug, and write vim plugins? As a vim user, I am super curious how?
  - palmer 11y ago
    Installing and managing plugins at least is pretty easy with pathogen and vundle.
    - kajecounterhack 11y ago
      And for writing: https://github.com/google/vim-maktaba https://github.com/google/vim-maktaba
jflatow 11y ago
Yes. I keep trying to like Atom because I want to have native WebView buffers while I'm editing. Every time I try it, I end up wondering how anyone can be comfortable using it. I'm not sure how much of that is due to instability that will be fixed over time, and how much is because I'm coming from Emacs. Have any experienced Emacs users found that Atom makes them more productive in any dimension? I want to like it but I can't see the light at the end of the tunnel.
- davexunit 11y ago
  >Have any experienced Emacs users found that Atom makes them more productive in any dimension? No. Emacs is far and away superior. It doesn't have a flashy web UI, but it is better in every way that matters.
- danneu 11y ago
  My custom Emacs init file that's grown over the years reminds me of my main problem with Emacs: to do anything, it just feels like a bunch of magical incantations using global variables and function calls I wouldn't know how to discover on my own. Random example from my user.el file: (set-cursor-color "White") (setq blink-cursor-interval 0.5) With some trial and error, I could find out if `(setq cursor-color "White")` works. Or see if `set-blink-cursor-interval` exists. Or look up why `set-cursor-color` exists in the first place when surely it's more consistent to just modify a config variable. Or find some best Emacslisp practices online. Or figure out why I could never get working my one attempt to write a custom function to scratch my own itch. But I just can't be bothered anymore. Seems like Atom is having an easy time beating Emacs on this front, and I'll probably switch over for good the next time something breaks in my .emacs.d folder.
  - webkike 11y ago
    I think you'll find that Atom is going to be the exact same, but with Javascript.
    - kansface 11y ago
      No, Atom's API is probably an order of magnitude smaller than Emacs.

by omouse 11y ago

Welcome to what I've felt with Emacs since I first used it. Might be time to work on some tutorials and examples to make Emacs easier to hack on and contribute to...

davidshepherd7 11y ago

The ease of installing packages in Emacs has improved hugely in the last few years, so I think it's getting better for beginners already.

outworlder 11y ago
Indeed. For example: http://tullo.ch/articles/modern-emacs-setup/ http://tullo.ch/articles/modern-emacs-setup/

kajecounterhack 11y ago

I've felt largely the same about vim. I think atom is the GUI'ed equivalent of excellent extensible minimalist command line tools.

afarrell 11y ago
You have felt it is easy to install, debug, and write vim plugins? As a vim user, I am super curious how?
- palmer 11y ago
  Installing and managing plugins at least is pretty easy with pathogen and vundle.
  - kajecounterhack 11y ago
    And for writing: https://github.com/google/vim-maktaba https://github.com/google/vim-maktaba

jflatow 11y ago

Yes. I keep trying to like Atom because I want to have native WebView buffers while I'm editing. Every time I try it, I end up wondering how anyone can be comfortable using it. I'm not sure how much of that is due to instability that will be fixed over time, and how much is because I'm coming from Emacs. Have any experienced Emacs users found that Atom makes them more productive in any dimension? I want to like it but I can't see the light at the end of the tunnel.

davexunit 11y ago
>Have any experienced Emacs users found that Atom makes them more productive in any dimension? No. Emacs is far and away superior. It doesn't have a flashy web UI, but it is better in every way that matters.
danneu 11y ago
My custom Emacs init file that's grown over the years reminds me of my main problem with Emacs: to do anything, it just feels like a bunch of magical incantations using global variables and function calls I wouldn't know how to discover on my own. Random example from my user.el file: (set-cursor-color "White") (setq blink-cursor-interval 0.5) With some trial and error, I could find out if `(setq cursor-color "White")` works. Or see if `set-blink-cursor-interval` exists. Or look up why `set-cursor-color` exists in the first place when surely it's more consistent to just modify a config variable. Or find some best Emacslisp practices online. Or figure out why I could never get working my one attempt to write a custom function to scratch my own itch. But I just can't be bothered anymore. Seems like Atom is having an easy time beating Emacs on this front, and I'll probably switch over for good the next time something breaks in my .emacs.d folder.
- webkike 11y ago
  I think you'll find that Atom is going to be the exact same, but with Javascript.
  - kansface 11y ago
    No, Atom's API is probably an order of magnitude smaller than Emacs.