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can someone help or give me some YT videos to watch to have a good idea about emacs ?
I hesitate to be the curmudgeon here, but if you can't--or won't--bother to visit youtube.com and type "emacs" into the search box, then you probably won't enjoy using Emacs. Emacs is most appreciated by people who take a bit of initiative.
Is this why people type "emacs" and click search? I still find it odd, like, I wish search results on "emacs" would show something other than "how to get started". But maybe it's a good thing.
Try DOOM Emacs as entrypoint. You can find a ton of videos about it.
Emacs doesn't follow the UNIX philosophy. It didn't originate on UNIX - it was born in a mainframe environment. Instead of lots of independent specialized utilities it's a Lisp engine with a text editor as its default program.
That said, there's nothing to be afraid of. It's not like vi will stop working. Just install it and run the tutorial, play around with customize, learn how to make an init file and install which-key, read some blogs (Mastering Emacs is a good one), browse the info pages, and use it.
First two weeks might be difficult. But you'll stop caring about vi bindings quickly once you have your bindings. It's like learning how to drive instead of riding a bicycle.
The point is I like philosophy of Unix using like tmux + nvim + mutt .
Emacs is at least on the surface orthogonal to the Unix philosophy. It's a programmable interface to a computer. Instead of remixing a bunch of fixed tools using bash pipes and arguments, you do most of your lightweight automation and integrations in Emacs Lisp.
It may take a few days to get used to, but just start by learning the basic movement commands (char up/down, char left/right, scroll page up/down, i-search backwards/forwards) and navigation commands (find file, switch buffer, split window) down and you have a decent baseline start with, then just gradually learn more commands afterwards. It's really not that difficult... I recommend the basic internal tutorial, just press "Control+h" and then "t". Stop thinking and just start now!
It's hard to convince people but, Emacs is simple. Have you tried showing your grandmother how to use a computer? Emacs has it's own way a little, but it's a simple way. So long as you don't commit to it before you're comfortable with it, and so long as you don't install packages except magit, Emacs won't come at a cost.
Also can we all agree that tmux nvim and mutt don't quite follow the Unix philosophy? Compared to Emacs, one could say Emacs is closer to the Unix philosophy (until you bloat it)
In 1988, I'd been using vi (vomit incessantly) for 3 years. I had a light day, so I fired up the Emacs. It was a confusing day figuring things out. I was taking an AI class, so the LISP intrigued me. I just did C to start though. Wrote a short program. Figured out how to run gcc etc from Emacs. Figured out how to run the Makefile from Emacs. So, small step by small step.
Do small programs in your preferred language. Figure out how to compile/run/debug them. Try writing a small program in a weird language. That might make you need to learn elisp. Don't be scared of it. Keep going.
I know, I will get a lot of downvotes, but as someone who using emacs for 5 years and switched from vim. And also as someone who have friends who are using vim/nvim and tried emacs. I have to say, if you are into unix philosophy (writing small programs which solve one problem really good), you should be at least prepared - emacs is anything but unix philosophy. It’s about having the whole universe on your laptop just to play tetris. Which is obviously not about clean small solutions. And as I noticed, there two groups of hardcore devs - those who go vi way and those who go emacs way. So, if you want to try, just run emacs and use builtin documentation. It’s great. But if you will feel that it is not your thing, I suggest trying nvim. Because it is vim which gets some emacs benefits (like having a normal language to write configs).
i feel the same 'panic' i'm on that for a while and that's wrong. start and go ahead
Is there a easy way to use emacs ?
Yes. Start it and type C-h t. Follow the simple tutorial directions.
Emacs is the opposite of the Unix way, as are many of the GNU tools. It's the opposite of "each tool does one thing and does it well" and is a "one thing will do everything, sometimes well and sometimes less". And since you already have a solution you are using, and are committed to the cargo cult of VI keybindings, then there's no reason for you to try emacs.
philosophy of Unix
emacs -nw loads pretty fast if you defer loading your packages until first use. It can easily fit into a vim-like command line workflow on modern computers. The emacs demon is an option if you have a slow init.
Although traditionally you treat Emacs as a giant program you never quit. Stay inside and open files within Emacs.
tmux
Emacs + tmux works great too. Most people are GUI Emacs users, but the TUI is first class.
but I feel that I will find some difficulties and I am afraid
You need to try Emacs at least once in your life. It gives a glimpse at what lisp development feels like. In lisp you develop your program while it runs. The code is more than dead text in a file. It's alive. The software is alive and you develop it by interacting with it. The relationship between source and image is more seamless. Emacs embodies this.
No one knows what they don't know. Emacs is the first step to knowing. Emacs is god.
Is it just me or is there so much more "analysis paralysis" these days. A nice little essay I came across recently, that you may find wisdom in:
Preparing to do the thing isn’t doing the thing.
Scheduling time to do the thing isn’t doing the thing.
Making a to-do list for the thing isn’t doing the thing.
Telling people you’re going to do the thing isn’t doing the thing.
Messaging friends who may or may not be doing the thing isn’t doing the thing.
Writing a banger tweet about how you’re going to do the thing isn’t doing the thing. Hating on yourself for not doing the thing isn’t doing the thing.
Hating on other people who have done the thing isn’t doing the thing.
Hating on the obstacles in the way of doing the thing isn’t doing the thing.
Fantasising about all of the adoration you’ll receive once you do the thing isn’t doing the thing.
Reading about how to do the thing isn’t doing the thing.
Reading about how other people did the thing isn’t doing the thing.
Reading this essay isn’t doing the thing.
The only thing that is doing the thing is doing the thing