[gnull]

I'm not sure if Emacs qualifies as an editor for saving time. As you say yourself, Emacs people tend to play a lot with customization (and Emacs didn't seem useful with default config to me; what the hack is C-x 2?). At the same time, it doesn't add anything useful to editing itself. It's basically scriptable MS Notepad.

Try a text editor that does something for text editing, not scripting. Vim is an option. I personally used Kakoune with (almost) default config for some 3 years and I'm sure it saved me a lot of time. I never redefined default keys, they were good enough, I only added a few user mode bindings. (Although I felt a lack of some features over that time; Kakoune with no plugins is a bit too minimalistic.)

Recently I spent a few days setting up LSP and some useful plugins, now I'm going to forget about customization for few more months again.

[daptaq]

> At the same time, it doesn't add anything useful to editing itself. It's basically scriptable MS Notepad.

I don't know, fill-paragraph (M-q), the sexp commands, transpose commands, upcase-downcase-capitalize commands, indent-rigidly are all built-in, bound by default and I use them a lot. And let's not forget Macros.

[gnull]

Vim provides a different, more efficient modal language for talking to the editor (which Kakoune further improves). Emacs on the other hand doesn't, it just gives you some ad-hoc shortcuts. Emacs's language is no different from the one of Notepad or VS Code. It's the language of insert mode + scripted shortcuts.

Shortcuts can improve your experience, yes, but not in such a fundamental way as a new model of editing.

UPD.

For example, the Emacs way of dealing with tables in markdown/latex is to have a custom plugin which will have a separate shortcut for each action one might want. As a consequence, you need to remember the keys for each of them.

Kakoune, on the other hand, gives you a language that can express most of those operations naturally. And the language is no different than the one you use for other everyday tasks, no need to memorize new shortcuts.

[gnubison]

> it just gives you some ad-hoc shortcuts

Give me M-q any day over gqap (or, if you're inside a multiline comment, 3gqq; or, if you're inside a multiline comment starting on the same line as code, just giving up).

Edit: though I have to admit that I'm missing 'dt.', 'd/something', etc.

[karthink]

'df.' is simulated with M-z (zap-to-char). There's also a zap-up-to-char command that corresponds to 'dt.', but it's not bound to anything by default.

There's no doubt that it's all ad hoc though. 'd/something' is doable with C-s something RET C-w, but it's already getting tedious in comparison.

[gnubison]

Thanks for the tip about zap-up-to-char.

> 'd/something' is doable with C-s something RET C-w Doesn't this need to be C-s something C-r RET C-w? Because C-s positions the cursor at the end of the search match.

[cosmojg]

Have you tried Evil?

[daptaq]

> it just gives you some ad-hoc shortcuts

What do you mean by ad-hoc? They seem to me be chosen and bound by default, because they are useful in practice.

> Kakoune, on the other hand, gives you a language that can express most of those operations naturally. And the language is no different than the one you use for other everyday tasks, no need to memorize new shortcuts.

Could you point me to some example?

And I am not sure if what you say about Emacs is necessarily true, you could have a minor mode that modifies the default keys to work with text tables. Org-mode's table implementation is a good example for that.

[gnull]

> they are useful in practice

Useful, yes, but ad-hoc.

> What do you mean by ad-hoc?

I mean that in Emacs you have one ready to use action for everything you might want to do. One shortcut covers exactly one use case; if you want more use cases covered, install plugins or write scripts. M-q is an example, it formats the current paragraph. What if I want to format something other that a paragraph? In Emacs, you will need a new shortcut and a new keybinding for that.

In Vim-like editors you have some small atomic terms that you can combine to build the actions. You can have a small number of atomic terms, which can be combined in a multitude of ways and therefore cover a multitude of use cases. In Vim the gqap is not a single take it or leave it action, it's a sentence with verb gq and noun ap. If you want the verb to act on something different, you replace the ap part with something else.

Think of keybindings as a language you speak to your editor. In Vim the language has a number of words that you can combine to build sentences. In Emacs you have only a given number of ready to use sentences, and you have to memorize each one. This is a big distinction if we're talking about a text editor for efficiency, because it defines the ratio “time spent customizing” / “time saved editing”.

> Could you point me to some example?

You can cut and paste columns in Markdown tables using Kakoune's multiple selections. Like this:

- <a-i>p -- select the paragraph

- <a-s><a-;>; -- this creates a cursor at the beginning of each line

- <a-f>| -- move cursor to the next pipe symbol (selecting everything as it moves)

- <a-.> -- repeat the last move command (do this to select the column you want)

- d -- delete the selected (by each of the selection)

- <a-f>| (or <a-b>|) -- again to move cursors where you want to paste things

- p -- paste the deleted column

In this example, I haven't used a single command that I don't normally use while editing, say, Rust or Haskell. And you can manipulate Org, Latex tables with similar commands. In Emacs, you'd need a separate plugin for each of these, wouldn't you?

Kakoune.org has more videos where they show what it can do (without plugins).

[daptaq]

> M-q is an example, it formats the current paragraph. What if I want to format something other that a paragraph? In Emacs, you will need a new shortcut and a new keybinding for that.

You'd usually have a DWIM command, e.g. that it formats the region, but default to the paragraph if nothing else is selected. I have the feeling you are making this out to be a bigger difference than it actually is.

What I think is the mistake is that vim/kak are all just interfaces, while Emacs is software. Emacs can steal anything that any other program does, and have it combined with it's existing strengths, like the ball of mud that it is. And even without emulation modes, there is inherently nothing in Emacs that is stopping it from using the same kind of sentence mentality you are talking about (and that I am familiar with, I have used both, but prefer Emacs).

> In Emacs, you'd need a separate plugin for each of these, wouldn't you?

Plugin is the wrong word, you mean package, but not necessarily. Emacs has syntactic commands, that can operate on a major-mode specific definition of expressions, sentences, top-level definitions (defuns).

To do what you did in your example, I'd just use macros, recording this sequence:

C-a M-SPC C-s | (repeat C-s to select the column you want) C-w (again move cursors where you want to paste things) M-w

and then repeat that for all the following lines. Multiple cursors are just visualized macros, after all.

[gnull]

M-spc just inserted a space for me. Do I need some package for it to work? What does your sequence of commands mean in English?

I have no doubt that what I've shows can be done in Emacs. How natural is it to express? How much scripting and packaging does it require? How much extra memorizing does it require?

> What I think is the mistake is that vim/kak are all just interfaces, while Emacs is software

Yes, I am talking about interfaces, not software. I was talking about the interface that Emacs offers by default. Of course, you can script anything in it, but it's a meaningless argument; Linux kernel allows you to implement any program you want, but it doesn't make Linux a good text editor.

And in particular, I was talking about interfaces that are efficient, take little time to setup and save you a lot of time when you use them. My claim is that Emacs is not one of them. (Which doesn't make Emacs bad in the ultimate sense. It can be good for other things.)

> Multiple cursors are just visualized macros, after all.

Yes and no. Any text editing operation can expressed in ex commands, but it doesn't make ex a good editor, and definitely doesn't make it an efficient one.

Multiple cursors give instant feedback, this is a big advantage over blindly shooting macros at your text.

[lelanthran]

> fill-paragraph (M-q),

I use C-u-M-q. I prefer that text layout.

[Scarbutt]

Emacs and Vim are both equally efficient at text editing, I don't think you gave Emacs a fair shot. OTOH, VSCocde is frustrating to use if you are proficient at vim/emacs.

[pmontra]

> Emacs people tend to play a lot with customization

I used to do that when I was young. Lots of elisp. Then I threw away a lot of customizations I didn't use anymore, added packages for the languages I'm using now and I think I ended up with a straightforward configuration.