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Comment by btilly | Hacker News Reader

You give a long list of features that I don't want. And then go on to encourage everyone to switch text editors, and adopt a specific plugin that happens to work in the way that you personally like.

As a vim user, this is kind of what I have come to expect from emacs users. Honestly, I'm glad that you've found something that works well for you. But I hope that some day you internalize the fact that other people aren't you, and they shouldn't always be "encouraged" to give up their existing solutions to do things in the way that you've decided is perfect.

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Don’t switch text editors, and don’t use a plugin.

For a few years I used Orgmode. I didn’t use Emacs. That is, when I needed to edit text files, I used Vim or macOS TextEdit. I used Orgmode to track my tasks and keep notes. That Emacs was underneath it was purely incidental, and I didn’t use Emacs for anything else. For me, Orgmode was not a plugin. It was the primary software I used, and there was this Emacs thing under it.

Ironically, these days I do actually use Emacs, and I use OmniFocus for tasks, mostly because OmniFocus gets multi-device sync right so it’s worth the price. But don’t hesitate to use Orgmode even if you don’t want Emacs otherwise.

And now you encounter the issue of, "a long list of features that I don't want".

It is hard to sell someone on a solution to a problem that they don't have.

org-mode is basically better Markdown with a bunch of automated things that don't get in your way unless you specifically put them in there.

The only unwanted feature you're likely to encounter is automatic sub/superscript conversion, and that's documented and easy to turn off.

I'm not recommending org-mode. I personally don't care if you use org-mode or not. I never understood that mentality. But the type of software you're describing is crap, and org-mode doesn't fall into that category.

> As a vim user, this is kind of what I have come to expect from emacs users.

I'm a vim user, with two exceptions:

1. SLIME

2. Org mode

There's a vim plugin for org mode that I used to use, but TBH, Emacs excels at org mode.

> There's a vim plugin for org mode that I used to use, but TBH, Emacs excels at org mode.

Which one did you use? I use https://nvim-orgmode.github.io/ and am happy with it, it's fairly modern written as a lua script.

I did see an older one https://github.com/jceb/vim-orgmode but i don't think that's maintained anymore.

Probably the one that is not maintained anymore. I stopped using the plugin in 2018 or thereabouts.

I think the OP is far from saying what you are implying. He is not advocating for changing text editor or installing any plugins. Just recommends trying out org mode. I think is very valid. I’ve known many many people (in the order of hundreds) that use vi for editing in general but emacs for other tasks, e.g. org mode, sbcl repl, etc. I think the suggestion ist just to give org mode a try. No need to feel offended or pushed to leave your favorite editor. At the end, is all about personal preference.

To quote the OP:

I would encourage everyone to try out emacs with org-mode. It takes some time to get used to the editor and its keybindings...

He's literally recommending that everyone who doesn't use emacs should install and use a different text editor.

I see this just as someone being genuinely enthusiastic about their own approach, and trying to convince people out of that enthusiasm, to make them experience the same happiness they are getting from it. I think most of us here are old enough to know not to take recommendations from some dude on the internet as obligations, which, for me, just leaves the enthusiasm between the lines.

He says we should try it out. He doesn't say anything about long-term use.

You didn’t need to go all tribalistic mate.

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