faustlast

> Obsessive hacker tools like Emacs are not a productivity enhancer.

Emacs wouldn't survive if it didn't provide a net benefit to its users.

another example of people inventing something that Emacs already has.

Has anyone here read Lanczos 1952 book on variational mechanics? It is beautifully written.

me too! The peace of mind of getting any computer, cloning my config and feel at home.

> I didn't even know the major scale at that point, but by trial and error

That is not productive. Sure, you can do that once or twice. But it gets painful quickly.

> but I wouldn't say it's a prerequisite.

I firmly believe it is a prerequisite. Just by knowing what an interval is and playing that repeatedly, trains your brain to recognize it. Specifically 1-3-5 interval range.

Berkeley + iosevka = https://github.com/ahatem/IoskeleyMono

I'm I the only one who gets headaches after some time with light mode?

Edit: I underwent LASIK eye surgery, and I don't recall experiencing headaches beforehand. Or maybe, just getting old?

Have you tried a tiling window manager? All I want is an empty black screen and an app launcher.

> Defending Matlab code in 2025 is like defending Emacs

I feel attacked.

In theory, it is nice; however, valuing assets is not easy, especially for the whole population. This arbitrariness clashes with the principle of equal rights in most constitutions. On the other hand, taxing income is very easy since the number has a precise origin.

I’ve been a long-time user of (h)ledger. I use a custom script to generate a cost basis when computing capital gains for selling transactions. Are there any recent updates or tools that improve cost-basis tracking or capital gains handling in hledger?

Besides being a markup for structured text with special syntax for links/tables/math, here are my highlights that I use:

1. Code blocks that can be executed have their result captured

2. Links to everything

3. Drawing vector images (SVG) with a tablet

4. Perform calculations on tabular data (like a simple Excel sheet)

5. Agenda (connected to Google Calendar)

6. Spaced repetition system for language learning

7. LaTeX export for reports/presentations with citations

Expanding:

1.1. Execute code on different remote machines

1.2. Work with sessions and execute code asynchronously

1.3. Use noweb syntax for reusing code blocks

1.4. Tangle ("export") source blocks to files (locally or in a remote machine!)

1.5. Use a source block to generate a graph/plot and view the figure in the same place

1.6. Use narrow functionalities to automate script executions (example: execute all blocks in this section).

2.1. Links to PDF pages, commits/pr`s/branches, email, other files` particular lines, remote files, web pages, etc.

7.1. Very easy to select which sections I want to export or not

7.2. Include hand-drawn SVG graphics in the PDF output

7.3. Generate Beamer presentations

This is the way for developing in a remote computer. Alternatively one could start an emacs as daemon on remote and use regular ssh.

For quick file transfer/check, it is faster with Tramp.

have you tried aider? Using it with magit to see the changes is a good workflow. the aider integrations to emacs are also worth it, you can easily add/remove files and send highlighted parts of your buffer.

Traveling to big cities certainly loses its appeal after a while. Nowadays, I tend to prefer little adventures involving nature/sport.

I also use ledger/hledger to process a decade of finances. I reconcile once a year when doing taxes. I have multiple python scripts orchestrated with org-mode to generate reports/plots. I run them in separate processes since they are independent, which makes it fast enough (seconds).

What is Shake?

I learned from the structural engineering perspective. What are you struggling with? In my mind I have this logic flow: 1. strong form pde; 2. weak form; 3. discretized weak form; 4. compute integrals (numerically) over each element; 5. assemble the linear system; 6. solve the linear system.

I have also used hledger and ledger (specifically the lots feature) for many years. One nice feature of hledger is its csv rules system, which is very flexible. I extended it with simple python scripts to add extra information for registering capital gains. So, end of the day the raw input data is just some csv files with records and the output is financial reports with various levels of detail.

Do you get headaches because of your dry eyes? (specifically, after staring at screens for a long time)

emacs has existed for many decades already.

I use that, it is useful for small drawings, not so much for handwriting. When using it with a tablet, maybe with some algorithm improvements, it can be as good as Inkscape.

I used to do this. But now I only register cash expenses. The rest I rely on the bank to keep track of transactions and just use hledger csv rules to create ledger journals. I find it more convenient and since I deal with many bank accounts, I can check the balance on each bank report.

Well, income getting the negative number only makes sense if you know that it is a credit account that increases with credit.

In summary for me: hledger has better csv importing system and ledger has support for lots. I use both.

On the note of TRAMP. One nice use case is to analyze a large dataset in a remote location and see the result figures on an org-mode buffer in your local emacs instance.

I would like to see Taleb's reaction to this.

I wish org-mode was standard and more appreciated. It is so good, but I feel that I'm the only one using it and it is hard to sell emacs to others.

anyone fishmans long season?

All Perry Mehrling books are also great. The Fischer Black biography is fascinating for anyone who studied a bit of finance.

have you read their page? it is really good https://orgmode.org/.