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by mrspeaker 2632 days ago
I followed the crowd on the switch from Hot Dog Pro to Notepad++, then followed the crowd again to TextMate. Then again to Sublime Text. Then again to Atom. I installed VSCode and it took over my file extensions without asking me and I got annoyed and was going to go back to Atom, but then wondered why I was still playing this game. So I switched to Emacs.

Now I wish I did that 20 years ago!
2 comments
xrd 2632 days ago
Emacs is amazing and I still use it when I'm inside an ssh session. But I'm a convert to VSCode because of the node debugging capabilities. Those are just awesome.
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ngrilly 2632 days ago
Why? (compared to Sublime Text, Atom and VSCode)
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mrspeaker 2632 days ago
I think it's a case of "you can't be told, you have to discover for yourself"... I've written it off a few times in the past. I thought Emacs was just a text editor - and after trying it a couple of times it seemed like a clunky relic with really stupid keybinds.

This time when I tried it I started to realised that Emacs is a text editor like a saucepan is a popcorn maker: it can do it, but that's not the point.

Once you commit the stupid keybinds to memory, it works the same in most "modes" - git mode, JS mode, file management mode, ftp/remote file mode, hackernews mode... Now I rarely leave Emacs - my entire workflow is inside it and everything starts to feel like "one". It's replaced a dozen third-party apps and websites I'd normally use. I'm annoyed when I have to leave.

It's crap by default, you have to make it your own. Then it's lisp all the way down. You can ask "what is the command bound to the down arrow key?" and it says "next-line". Then you can ask "what is 'next-line"? and it tells you all the function, including a hyperlink to the actual executable source code that you can inspect, or change in place, or use in your higher level scripts.

It's simultaneously living in the past and way in the future. I wouldn't outright recommend it to anyone trying to choose between VSCode and Atom though... you'll just have to discover it for yourself in 20 years time ;)

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xrd 2631 days ago
Do you use it as a debugger? For me, this was the difference in switching (when I am in a desktop environment) to VS Code. The debugger is just so powerful and I have no learned (despite using Emacs for 20 years) how to replicate that in Emacs.
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yyoncho 2628 days ago
https://github.com/emacs-lsp/dap-mode brings vscode debugger into Emacs.
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mrspeaker 2631 days ago
Nope, just lsp-mode (and Tide). Perhaps that'll take me another 20 years, but I've poured so many hours into debuggers and have never found them as useful as I think they should be. I'm probably "holding it wrong", and if so - I'll get there eventually!
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ngrilly 2631 days ago
I got it, but I'm not sure I'm ready :-) Thanks for sharing!
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