[michaelsbradley]

I have these in ~/.bash_aliases:

    alias e="emacsclient -t -a ''"
    alias eb="emacsbare"
    alias ec="emacsclient -c -n -a ''"
    alias emacsbare="emacs -nw -Q --eval \"(load-theme 'misterioso)\""
    alias vim="e"
    alias vi="e"

eb/emacsbare very quickly fires up a "clean" (ignores init files) terminal-mode Emacs instance.

e/vim/vi launches a terminal-mode client for the Emacs daemon, which only takes a split-second if the daemon is already running. If the daemon isn't running, it gets started automatically by virtue of the empty string being passed with the -a flag, per the man page for emacsclient.

ec launches a "gui-mode" (X/quartz) client for the daemon, which is started automatically if isn't running, same as before.