diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'web/blog/posts/emacs-is-underrated.md')
| -rw-r--r-- | web/blog/posts/emacs-is-underrated.md | 233 |
1 files changed, 0 insertions, 233 deletions
diff --git a/web/blog/posts/emacs-is-underrated.md b/web/blog/posts/emacs-is-underrated.md deleted file mode 100644 index afb8dc889e53..000000000000 --- a/web/blog/posts/emacs-is-underrated.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,233 +0,0 @@ -TIP: Hello, and thanks for offering to review my draft! This post -intends to convey to people what the point of Emacs is. Not to convert -them to use it, but at least with opening their minds to the -possibility that it might contain valuable things. I don't know if I'm -on track in the right direction, and your input will help me figure it -out. Thanks! - -TODO(tazjin): Restructure sections: Intro -> Introspectability (and -story) -> text-based UIs (which lead to fluidity, muscle memory across -programs and "translatability" of workflows) -> Outro. It needs more -flow! - -TODO(tazjin): Highlight more that it's not about editing: People can -derive useful things from Emacs by just using magit/org/notmuch/etc.! - -TODO(tazjin): Note that there's value in trying Emacs even if people -don't end up using it, similar to how learning languages like Lisp or -Haskell helps grow as a programmer even without using them day-to-day. - -*Real post starts below!* - ---------- - -There are two kinds of people: Those who use Emacs, and those who -think it is a text editor. This post is aimed at those in the second -category. - -Emacs is the most critical piece of software I run. My [Emacs -configuration][emacs-config] has steadily evolved for almost a decade. -Emacs is my window manager, mail client, terminal, git client, -information management system and - perhaps unsurprisingly - text -editor. - -Before going into why I chose to invest so much into this program, -follow me along on a little thought experiment: - ----------- - -Lets say you use a proprietary spreadsheet program. You find that -there are features in it that *almost, but not quite* do what you -want. - -What can you do? You can file a feature request to the company that -makes it and hope they listen, but for the likes of Apple and -Microsoft chances are they won't and there is nothing you can do. - -Let's say you are also running an open-source program for image -manipulation. You again find that some of its features are subtly -different from what you would want them to do. - -Things look a bit different this time - after all, the program is -open-source! You can go and fetch its source code, figure out its -internal structure and wrangle various layers of code into submission -until you find the piece that implements the functionality you want to -change. If you know the language it is written in; you can modify the -feature. - -Now all that's left is figuring out its build system[^1], building and -installing it and moving over to the new version. - -Realistically you are not going to do this much in the real world. The -friction to contributing to projects, especially complex ones, is -often quite high. For minor inconveniences, you might often find -yourself just shrugging and working around them. - -What if it didn't have to be this way? - -------------- - -One of the core properties of Emacs is that it is *introspective* and -*self-documenting*. - -For example: A few years ago, I had just switched over to using -[EXWM][], the Emacs X Window Manager. To launch applications I was -using an Emacs program called Helm that let me select installed -programs interactively and press <kbd>RET</kbd> to execute them. - -This was very useful - until I discovered that if I tried to open a -second terminal window, it would display an error: - - Error: urxvt is already running - -Had this been dmenu, I might have had to go through the whole process -described above to fix the issue. But it wasn't dmenu - it was an -Emacs program, and I did the following things: - -1. I pressed <kbd>C-h k</kbd>[^2] (which means "please tell me what - the following key does"), followed by <kbd>s-d</kbd> (which was my - keybinding for launching programs). - -2. Emacs displayed a new buffer saying, roughly: - - ``` - s-d runs the command helm-run-external-command (found in global-map), - which is an interactive autoloaded compiled Lisp function in - ‘.../helm-external.el’. - - It is bound to s-d. - ``` - - I clicked on the filename. - -3. Emacs opened the file and jumped to the definition of - `helm-run-external-command`. After a few seconds of reading through - the code, I found this snippet: - - ```lisp - (if (get-process proc) - (if helm-raise-command - (shell-command (format helm-raise-command real-com)) - (error "Error: %s is already running" real-com)) - ;; ... the actual code to launch programs followed below ... - ) - ``` - -4. I deleted the outer if-expression which implemented the behaviour I - didn't want, pressed <kbd>C-M-x</kbd> to reload the code and saved - the file. - -The whole process took maybe a minute, and the problem was now gone. - -Emacs isn't just "open-source", it actively encourages the user to -modify it, discover what to modify and experiment while it is running. - -In some sense it is like the experience of the old Lisp machines, a -paradigm that we have completely forgotten. - ---------------- - -Circling back to my opening statement: If Emacs is not a text editor, -then what *is* it? - -The Emacs website says this: - -> [Emacs] is an interpreter for Emacs Lisp, a dialect of the Lisp -> programming language with extensions to support text editing - -The core of Emacs implements the language and the functionality needed -to evaluate and run it, as well as various primitives for user -interface construction such as buffers, windows and frames. - -Every other feature of Emacs is implemented *in Emacs Lisp*. - -The Emacs distribution ships with rudimentary text editing -functionality (and some language-specific support for the most popular -languages), but it also brings with it two IRC clients, a Tetris -implementation, a text-mode web browser, [org-mode][] and many other -tools. - -Outside of the core distribution there is a myriad of available -programs for Emacs: [magit][] (the famous git porcelain), text-based -[HTTP clients][], even interactive [Kubernetes frontends][k8s]. - -What all of these tools have in common is that they use text-based -user interfaces (UI elements like images are used only sparingly in -Emacs), and that they can be introspected and composed like everything -else in Emacs. - -If magit does not expose a git flag I need, it's trivial to add. If I -want a keybinding to jump from a buffer showing me a Kubernetes pod to -a magit buffer for the source code of the container, it only takes a -few lines of Emacs Lisp to implement. - -As proficiency with Emacs Lisp ramps up, the environment becomes -malleable like clay and evolves along with the user's taste and needs. -Muscle memory learned for one program translates seamlessly to others, -and the overall effect is an improvement in *workflow fluidity* that -is difficult to overstate. - -Also, workflows based on Emacs are *stable*. Moving my window -management to Emacs has meant that I'm not subject to the whim of some -third-party developer changing my window layouting features (as they -often do on MacOS). - -To illustrate this: Emacs has development history back to the 1970s, -continuous git history that survived multiple VCS migrations [since -1985][first-commit] (that's 22 years before git itself was released!) -and there is code[^3] implementing interactive functionality that has -survived unmodified in Emacs *since then*. - ---------------- - -Now, what is the point of this post? - -I decided to write this after a recent [tweet][] by @IanColdwater (in -the context of todo-management apps): - -> The fact that it's 2020 and the most viable answer to this appears -> to be Emacs might be the saddest thing I've ever heard - -What bothers me is that people see this as *sad*. Emacs being around -for this long and still being unparalleled for many of the UX -paradigms implemented by its programs is, in my book, incredible - and -not sad. - -How many other paradigms have survived this long? How many other tools -still have fervent followers, amazing [developer tooling][] and a -[vibrant ecosystem][] at this age? - -Steve Yegge [said it best][babel][^5]: Emacs has the Quality Without a -Name. - -What I wish you, the reader, should take away from this post is the -following: - -TODO(tazjin): Figure out what people should take away from this post. -I need to sleep on it. It's something about not dismissing tools just -because of their age, urging them to explore paradigms that might seem -unfamiliar and so on. Ideas welcome. - ---------------- - -[^1]: Wouldn't it be a joy if every project just used Nix? I digress ... -[^2]: These are keyboard shortcuts written in [Emacs Key Notation][ekn]. -[^3]: For example, [functionality for online memes][studly] that - wouldn't be invented for decades to come! -[^4]: ... and some things wrong, but that is an issue for a separate post! -[^5]: And I really *do* urge you to read that post's section on Emacs. - -[emacs-config]: https://git.tazj.in/tree/tools/emacs -[EXWM]: https://github.com/ch11ng/exwm -[helm]: https://github.com/emacs-helm/helm -[ekn]: https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/efaq/Basic-keys.html -[org-mode]: https://orgmode.org/ -[magit]: https://magit.vc -[HTTP clients]: https://github.com/pashky/restclient.el -[k8s]: https://github.com/jypma/kubectl -[first-commit]: http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/emacs.git/commit/?id=ce5584125c44a1a2fbb46e810459c50b227a95e2 -[studly]: http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/emacs.git/commit/?id=47bdd84a0a9d20aab934482a64b84d0db63e7532 -[tweet]: https://twitter.com/IanColdwater/status/1220824466525229056 -[developer tooling]: https://github.com/alphapapa/emacs-package-dev-handbook -[vibrant ecosystem]: https://github.com/emacs-tw/awesome-emacs -[babel]: https://sites.google.com/site/steveyegge2/tour-de-babel#TOC-Lisp |