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0 pointsllm_trw1y ago0 comments

Since I graduated, I've had people try to sell me on the following editors, which were going to be the future: BBEdit, TextMate, Sublime Text, Atom, Komodo Edit, NetBeans, and Eclipse.

Each was going to kill Emacs.

Somehow, I think I'll be using a version of Emacs until the day I can no longer type.

Meanwhile, everyone else is wasting months getting up to speed on the latest and greatest thing every 8 years or so.

This adds up over a career.

Oh, and by the by, this was written in Emacs using GhostText as the link between Firefox and Emacs.

0 comments

stackghost1y ago

>Meanwhile, everyone else is wasting months getting up to speed on the latest and greatest thing every 8 years or so.

Yeah I used to think this way, because you're right: becoming proficient in emacs takes significant effort and time.

But becoming proficient in VS code takes maybe 25 minutes. 25 minutes to change IDEs every 8 years or so doesn't seem like an onerous requirement to me.

Emacs just has extremely poor defaults and out of box UX.

llm_trwOP1y ago

>But becoming proficient in VS code takes maybe 25 minutes.

Becoming proficient in kicking a ball takes 5 minutes. Becoming proficient in football takes slightly longer. Magit alone makes VS Code look like a child's finger painting.

stackghost1y ago

>Magit alone makes VS Code look like a child's finger painting.

Magit is indeed a great git client, but I don't see what that has to do with emacs having bad defaults and an out of box experience that could be charitably described as antique.

2 more replies

imp0cat1y ago

So true! Now don't get me wrong, I quite like VS Code as it's so easy to set up and there is a plugin for almost anything, but I find myself always coming back to Emacs.

He's right about the defaults though. Use something like Spacemacs or Doom if you just want to dip your toes in the goodness that is Emacs.

1 more reply

aulin1y ago

I honestly believe emacs UX to be fairly superior. I watch my colleagues struggle to find open files among tens of open tabs in vs code every day. Or endlessly navigating on the filesystem tree with the side bar before finding what they need. Things that take half a second in emacs take minutes for them. And the UI is so cluttered.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 pointsllm_trw1y ago0 comments

Since I graduated, I've had people try to sell me on the following editors, which were going to be the future: BBEdit, TextMate, Sublime Text, Atom, Komodo Edit, NetBeans, and Eclipse.

Each was going to kill Emacs.

Somehow, I think I'll be using a version of Emacs until the day I can no longer type.

Meanwhile, everyone else is wasting months getting up to speed on the latest and greatest thing every 8 years or so.

This adds up over a career.

Oh, and by the by, this was written in Emacs using GhostText as the link between Firefox and Emacs.

0 comments

stackghost1y ago

>Meanwhile, everyone else is wasting months getting up to speed on the latest and greatest thing every 8 years or so.

Yeah I used to think this way, because you're right: becoming proficient in emacs takes significant effort and time.

But becoming proficient in VS code takes maybe 25 minutes. 25 minutes to change IDEs every 8 years or so doesn't seem like an onerous requirement to me.

Emacs just has extremely poor defaults and out of box UX.

llm_trwOP1y ago

>But becoming proficient in VS code takes maybe 25 minutes.

Becoming proficient in kicking a ball takes 5 minutes. Becoming proficient in football takes slightly longer. Magit alone makes VS Code look like a child's finger painting.

stackghost1y ago

>Magit alone makes VS Code look like a child's finger painting.

Magit is indeed a great git client, but I don't see what that has to do with emacs having bad defaults and an out of box experience that could be charitably described as antique.

2 more replies

imp0cat1y ago

So true! Now don't get me wrong, I quite like VS Code as it's so easy to set up and there is a plugin for almost anything, but I find myself always coming back to Emacs.

He's right about the defaults though. Use something like Spacemacs or Doom if you just want to dip your toes in the goodness that is Emacs.

1 more reply

aulin1y ago

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse