- #Exciting emacs text editor full#
- #Exciting emacs text editor Pc#
- #Exciting emacs text editor windows#
So maybe it really is a matter of personal preference. On the other hand, you can go deep down the rabbit hole making custom set ups. If you are a hardcore hacker, Emacs has one other advantage: it is fully programmable using a version of LISP.
Even if you want keyboard-driven window management, there are solutions for that too.
#Exciting emacs text editor windows#
But most of us use a GUI desktop now and it is less important to have Emacs manage windows for shells, browsers, and so forth. You could use GNU screen, although it works a little different. Granted, today, you don’t need a text-based windows manager. Being able to create, manipulate, and switch windows without taking your hands off the keyboard is very valuable to fast typists. This leads to the popularity, I think, among touch typists. If YouTube doesn’t excite you, maybe you’d be more impressed by opening GitHub, Google, or Hackaday. You can watch a YouTube video from within Emacs. The most recent version even has a WebKit-based browser. You can even run a shell inside an Emacs window. Sure, the most common thing to have in a “window” is a text editor, but Emacs can also display file managers, games, e-mail clients, web browsers, and plenty of other window types. The first reason is because Emacs is a text-based window manager. Second–and this is a secondary effect–they tend to be touch typists. First, they are people who either predate widespread use of X11, or that could not use it for one reason or another. However, I have noticed that there are two things people who are passionate about Emacs have in common. If it were just the fact that Emacs always lets you type plain text, it really would be just a matter of personal preference. However, there’s a reason for that, as you’ll see in a minute. Generally, vi starts faster than Emacs, all other things being equal (although you can bog down either one). That’s somewhat true, although modern versions of vi (like vim) are not very skinny, either. You’ll often hear the argument that vi is lean and Emacs is bloated. There are other “standard” editors, but they are not screen-oriented and are very painful to use. The best argument, in my opinion, for vi is that it is fairly lean and it is on just about every Unix-like system you’ll ever encounter. Sure, you might have a normal letter after a prefix (Control+X C, for example) but that’s only for the short duration of the command. Commands use special prefix characters like Control+X or Escape. When you type normal characters they go into the current file. The problem with that, of course, is that if you start typing in the wrong mode you either get command characters in your file or you issue lots of random commands.Įmacs works more like a normal text editor. Most commands are just ordinary letters (for example, the I key enters insert mode). Superficially, there is one big difference between the two editors. My preference isn’t based out of not wanting to learn something new.
I don’t have to be fair when it comes to my opinions. I’ll try to be balanced and fair in my discussion, unless I’m talking about my preference. Many of my friends are fans of vi–I try not to hold it against them.
#Exciting emacs text editor full#
Full disclosure: I’m firmly in the Emacs camp. Like most religious wars, this one is partly based on history that might not be as relevant as it used to be. However, that’s like calling a shopping mall “a store.” Technically, that’s correct, but the connotation is all wrong. If you aren’t familiar with these two programs, they are–in a way–text editors. Windows users aren’t immune, although fewer of them know the details. If you use Linux, Unix, or anything similar, you are probably at least aware of the violence surrounding this argument.
#Exciting emacs text editor Pc#
There are two I can’t help but jump into: PC vs Mac (although, now that Mac has turned into Unix, that’s almost more habit than anything else) and–the big one–Emacs vs vi. As a rule, I try hard not to get sucked into religious wars.
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