[stackghost]

I bought a copy of Mickey's book, and it's great, but "read about the inner workings of an editor before you use it" is horrible UX.

Better to just start using it, and ask your friendly local LLM when you need help. Back in the early 2000s, I think I used emacs for 3 or 4 years knowing only how to open/save/close files, switch buffers, undo, and quit.

[skydhash]

> but "read about the inner workings of an editor before you use it" is horrible UX.

You can start using it without reading, but the UX does not follow common patterns like found in Notepad or VSCode. It is its own thing and reading the tutorial, Mickey's book, or the official manual is way faster than fumbling around. Even my bluetooth speakers came with a manual.

[stackghost]

>the UX does not follow common patterns like found in Notepad or VSCode. It is its own thing

I know. Emacs is my daily driver.

>reading the tutorial, Mickey's book, or the official manual is way faster than fumbling around.

Hard disagree. It may be more efficient in terms of total time spent, but you can learn 5 commands and start using emacs immediately.

Compared to spending multiple hours reading a book or, worse, the manual, I know which one I'd choose.

[skydhash]

> Compared to spending multiple hours reading a book or, worse, the manual, I know which one I'd choose.

Why multiple hours? You can always skim it.