The Absolute Beginner's Guide to Emacs | Hacker News Reader

The Absolute Beginner's Guide to Emacs

systemcrafters.net

39 pointsmodinfo15 comments

This guide should really start with why an absolute beginner, such as myself, would benefit from using emacs in 2024.

I use VS Code, Sublime Tet, Word, Powerpoint, Obsidian, Google Docs, etc. for my various text/data editing needs - what would emacs do above this collection of software?

I have another video for that:

https://youtu.be/bEfYm8sAaQg

Thanks - appreciate this

I was expecting https://youtu.be/urcL86UpqZc

Because emacs is so Lindy.

If you don't spend much time in the terminal, and don't need to be proficient at navigating and jumping back and forth between files and buffers, then yeah, stick with PowerPoint.

I think one benefit to Emacs is having one app to do it all.

One could argue that Obsidian is just a file manager and markdown editor, VS Code gives you the same functionality, right? Three of the apps you mentioned have significant overlap in functionality. Three configs to manage, back up, etc...

Why context switch between apps and various conventions, when you could do all or most of your work, very well/quickly in one app?

I'm not trying to convince you Emacs is right for you. Just offering one perspective/benefit.

That said, I do love how I can paste an image from my clipboard straight into an Obsidian file. I've configured org-mode in Emacs to do the same (maybe a decade ago) but the experience wasn't as seamless. VS Code is pretty amazing in it's own right as well.

Is it possible to use Emacs effectively if you never want to do any Lisp programming at all?

You can steal config snippets and create kbd-macros for the rest but I don’t know if that has you covered. works for my case

Maybe an example is in order: I have a kbd macro (M-x doit) that fetches 3 hostfiles from the web, merges them into 1, dos2unix, makes all entries 0.0.0.0, removes comments empty lines and useless whitespace, then appends current hostfile entries, sorts lines, removes duplicate lines, inserts the header back in, saves it and sudoplonks it into etc.

I recorded that because I can’t program it in lips or anything else, not smart enough

In my opinion, if you have no interest (or correctly put as 'never want to') doing any lisp programming -- then, yes, I would not recommend Emacs to you.

Even if find config done by other people, you still need to open the .emacs file (lisp file) to amend/paste it.

I get it. I am sure I have turned down programs because its config or language is something I cannot be bothered to touch.

I do not call myself a elisp expert by any stretch of the means. However, I am conftable 'Schemer' so it is very similar generally speaking. With this I dont really have any trouble mucking around with my emacs config.

I am an emacs user. I always mention emacs as a good investment IF you want to put the effort in. If Emacs is not your thing - there are other options like VSCode etc.

Thanks. I remember I managed to download packages from Melba but I had no idea how to get them to load, so it meant trying to learn Lisp while also trying to learn how to configure Emacs, while learning unique keyboard combinations etc.

A lot of the time, you can just download with: `M-x package-list-packages`

However, I prefer to do (use-package ...) function in my .emacs file. It is easier to manage and you can normally find the function to copy-paste on the github page.

Of course, it is elisp you are playing with.

My .emacs file has been used for years and works well for Windows and Linux. Whenever I start my new job, I have my .emacs file ready. I install emacs, add my .emacs file and leave it to install. Very little mess.

My recommendation is to learn the keyboard combinations and already supported packages before adding new ones (which is when you start looking into elisp)

To help with this--- Emacs, on the splash screen, does have an Emacs tutorial which I recommend reading.

I remember the first time I tried Emacs. Likely 2010 but could be more than that (2005???) - based on comments I was reading. When it first loaded I had no clue what to do. We all have to start somewhere. :-)

The best reason to use Emacs is because it is _yours_ in a way no other software is.

You can change practically every aspect of it; and crucially it's really, really easy like no other editor or program.

> I use VS Code, Sublime Tet, Word, Powerpoint, Obsidian, Google Docs, etc

Why are you using all these editors? Surely you only need to narrow this down to one or two?

Anyway.. One of the great things about all these choices of editors (or even IDEs) is that if gives you the CHOICE to solve a problem.

For me - Emacs is my main editor. However, at times, I also use Notepad++ when on a Windows Server or similar.

The reason I chose Emacs over things like VS Code or SText is because it is more than just a text editor. I use it for note taking, git interaction, coding, building, debugging, FTP'ing, shell.. and others.

By having all this in one editor means I can use the same set of commands.. and reducing my need of using the mouse.

Without emacs, I have seperate programs for 'this, another program for 'that, and they all come with their own flavour of GUI and shortcut keys.

I am sure other editors can also "do more than code" - but emacs takes it the extra mile (or 100 if you want it)

I think the absolute beginner should never be exposed to the bare defaults, including to health hazards like the C- combos, so the guide should apply all the extensive expertise of the author to steer them to greener pastures

It would be great if emacs had a LLM co-pilot, I could have it look at my config (and tell me what I could improve). Also i could ask how to do things in emacs, it would have some knowledge of my setup, even my active modes etc, often I get stuck and not sure what key combo or even command I want (the naming of commands are a bit weird at times).

Reply on news.ycombinator.com