[jflatow]

Yes. I keep trying to like Atom because I want to have native WebView buffers while I'm editing. Every time I try it, I end up wondering how anyone can be comfortable using it. I'm not sure how much of that is due to instability that will be fixed over time, and how much is because I'm coming from Emacs.

Have any experienced Emacs users found that Atom makes them more productive in any dimension? I want to like it but I can't see the light at the end of the tunnel.

[klibertp]

I've got the same problem with both Atom and LightTable. They have potential; they are just 30-years too young for me.

Emacs has much more commands for simple text manipulation than any other editor (ofc, excluding Vim). No editor that I know of implements all the Emacs commands for even simple things. For example for marking and navigation in a text (mark-, backward-, forward-). Indentation and newline behavior, searching and replacing in a file (search- and replace-*; also occur-mode). And more.

I'm sure all editors will, sooner or later, get most or all of those, but using them right now would be inconvenient. I don't want to have to record macros to deal with such simple things!

And then of course is a matter of Emacs plugin ecosystem. It is enormous and includes some neat stuff, like Magit, Org, Helm, Undo-Tree, multiple cursors, Paredit, Minimap, Speedbar and so on. Some of those are "outside of scope" of the new editors, but some would be very welcome in them. I suspect that they will appear in time, but right now I wouldn't have access to them at all if I used some other, new editor. (By the way, in my experience as both Emacs and Vim user, these two are interchangeable in terms of available plugins. Emacs seems to have a little more of them, probably because Elisp sucks a little bit less than VimL)

[davexunit]

>Have any experienced Emacs users found that Atom makes them more productive in any dimension?

No. Emacs is far and away superior. It doesn't have a flashy web UI, but it is better in every way that matters.

[danneu]

My custom Emacs init file that's grown over the years reminds me of my main problem with Emacs: to do anything, it just feels like a bunch of magical incantations using global variables and function calls I wouldn't know how to discover on my own.

Random example from my user.el file:

    (set-cursor-color "White")
    (setq blink-cursor-interval 0.5)

With some trial and error, I could find out if `(setq cursor-color "White")` works. Or see if `set-blink-cursor-interval` exists. Or look up why `set-cursor-color` exists in the first place when surely it's more consistent to just modify a config variable. Or find some best Emacslisp practices online. Or figure out why I could never get working my one attempt to write a custom function to scratch my own itch.

But I just can't be bothered anymore.

Seems like Atom is having an easy time beating Emacs on this front, and I'll probably switch over for good the next time something breaks in my .emacs.d folder.

[klibertp]

> I wouldn't know how to discover on my own.

Go read the manual. I mean, I know it's not cool to read books, and manuals at that, but the Emacs Lisp and Emacs manuals (available in info format for viewing directly in Emacs, among other) are well written and there's a wealth of information there. Even relatively low-level stuff gets explained quite well. And also, try using the help system/apropos tool. It's great for finding functions and variables. Lastly, you can always issue "find-function" or "find-library" which will take you directly to the source code.

> With some trial and error, I could find out if `(setq cursor-color "White")` works.

Use iELM session for this (M-x ielm). You'll get Elisp REPL, where you can write expressions and it'll show you their values. In this case:

  ELISP> cursor-color
  *** Eval error ***  Symbol's value as variable is void: cursor-color

so, no.

> Or see if `set-blink-cursor-interval` exists.

In ielm:

  (symbol-function 'set-blink-cursor-interval) ;; (no, it doesn't)

Via help system: C-h a; then input the name.

> Or look up why `set-cursor-color` exists in the first place when surely it's more consistent to just modify a config variable.

Don't know why is is so, but you can possibly find some explanation in the source code. `set-cursor-color` is defined in /usr/local/share/emacs/25.0.50/lisp/frame.el.gz on my system on line 1223. You can get there with M-x find-function.

> Or find some best Emacs lisp practices online.

Does it really have to be online? There is a full book for this: "Writing GNU Emacs Extensions". It's old, but solid. [EDIT: and also https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/pdf/eintr.pdf]

> Or figure out why I could never get working my one attempt to write a custom function to scratch my own itch.

Sorry to break it to you, but if it's not working it's because you coded it wrong. All my defuns do work...

BTW, do you know that you can one-step Elisp code with a built-in debugger? Just find a defun, eval it via C-u C-M-x and you'll get breakpoint at the defun entry.

[webkike]

I think you'll find that Atom is going to be the exact same, but with Javascript.

[kansface]

No, Atom's API is probably an order of magnitude smaller than Emacs.

[webkike]

For now. And in JS! Yay!

[outworlder]

> Have any experienced Emacs users found that Atom makes them more productive in any dimension? I want to like it but I can't see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Don't think so. Atom is still a toy compared to Emacs (but awesome compared to almost everything else except for Vim).

However, it has enormous potential and, given enough momentum, could reach parity with Emacs.