EmacsConf 2020 Talks
emacsconf.org
emacsconf.org
I would expect any heavy Emacs user, fully immersed in the Emacs-is-an-extensible-environment paradigm to operate in similar fashion.
To be fair, I try to go through it every year or two and mercilessly cull everything I haven't recently used, and refactor what I do; including everything that has been in my init at some point or another would easily double, and possibly even triple, this number.
My config[0] for example is 10k lines with >1k commits.
Though, 186 does sound surprisingly low if this is truly just 186 lines applied to vanilla Emacs.
My bindings file is a little over 200 (one binding per line). custom-set-variables block is 170. Total across a few files is around 3-4k. But some of that is config code, patches/modified versions of functions from other packages and simple wrappers. It accrues rather easily. Actual original code that does something non-trivial is probably below 1k.
I don't do the org-babel->tangle->init.el thing (yet?). That would probably triple the amount of text involved.
I do have a bunch of nice-to-have todo items that would mean writing code for my Emacs instance. If I had to guess I'd say it would add another 1,000 to 2,000 lines somewhere.
I also share my config between 3 different operating systems; Mac, Windows, and Linux. So a small amount of those lines are just "(when os-is-mac)(when os-is-win)(when os-is-gnu)" choices.
Epistemic mode, A scalable UI paradigm https://emacsconf.org/2020/talks/07/
Richard Stallman: Configuration files are personal and will not be shared.
This cracked me up! xD
Many years ago, some new founder I knew asked to see my elaborate .emacs file. I was reluctant, because it had some slightly sensitive info in it , as well as unreleased bits I might turn into packages. But he reassured me he just wanted to see how I'd done some things, to inform some non-Emacs thing he was about to build, and he'd keep it private.
Sometime later, one of the developers at his startup happened to mention that "everyone" uses my .emacs file.
Today, that person I let see my very personal .emacs has sold the original startup, and is CEO of a different business you've heard of, but I received nothing from the indiscretion. :)
We all know that configurable editors are a huge time sink ;-)
We still do. Consider that I have coordinates for weather in my .emacs, and yes, I should probably externalize that, but FFS, sharing my own incredibly personalized and personal configuration files was not first on my mind when I did that.
You want snippets, that will be useful to someone other than me? Fine. But there's no contradiction in arguing for openness in infrastructure and privacy in personal affairs.
One day I changed something in an incompatible way and received complaints. Unbeknownst to me there was a community of people who linked (symlinked) directly to my init file and whose workflows were disrupted by my change.
(load "~/.emacs.d/init")
I love to see that there is still room for fun in our field.
I hadn't heard of this one before, and it's hugely interesting. A shame that it can't ever make it into core because of licensing issues.
Similarly I'd love it if it was more possible to embed Emacs into other applications, like IDEs. That way IDEs could focus on what they do well, and still have a good text editor.
[0] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.orgzly
And Orgzly has already been mentioned.
Check it out: https://beorgapp.com/
I used Emacs for years and one day i realized i had a huge .emacs file and spend lots of time maintaining it, that's when i was conviced it was not the editor for me or I was using it wrong. I moved to sublime, vscode and now im giving vim/neovim a try.
As much as i liked Emacs i dont see myself using it again soon.
I used my table saw for years and one day realized I had accumulated a lot of very detail knowledge of how to use it and spend lots of time maintaining it, thats when i was convined it was not the tool for me or I was using it wrong. I moved to a hand-held jigsaw, then a crosscut saw, and now im giving a handsaw a try.
As much as I liked my table saw, i dont see myself using it again soon.
The same cannot be said of Emacs. It is a general purpose tool on a rapidly evolving platform. Its C interpreter is starting to show its age, it requires some tinkering (and many outside tools) to interact with on mobile devices and as the world moves on it feels like it's trying to keep up with specialized tools. I'm an Emacs user, but I will also argue that the comparison with a table saw is not a fair one.
With emacs I actually need to read documentation. I need to have some sort of understanding of what I'm actually installing. It's frustrating at first, but overall has made me much more aware of what's going on. I've learned so much throughout the process and it has made me a better developer.
Other than that, yeah, 100% VS Code for typescript and regular VS + ReSharper for my regular life.
Oh, also, emacs for Haskell. And whatever other weird language.
Having used it in quite a few different languages now it varies greatly; but you can hardly blame Emacs for that.
The people having success with language servers are using a language that bundles a build system, which is common in more modern languages.