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Diffstat (limited to 'web/blog/posts')
| -rw-r--r-- | web/blog/posts/emacs-is-underrated.md | 49 |
1 files changed, 25 insertions, 24 deletions
diff --git a/web/blog/posts/emacs-is-underrated.md b/web/blog/posts/emacs-is-underrated.md index 9c779d035604..afb8dc889e53 100644 --- a/web/blog/posts/emacs-is-underrated.md +++ b/web/blog/posts/emacs-is-underrated.md @@ -5,10 +5,10 @@ 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): Rewrite the last section to highlight that the primary -UX paradigm of Emacs is *interactive text* (from which fluidity is -derived). This ties together stuff like muscle memory being universal -across programs. +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.! @@ -36,15 +36,13 @@ follow me along on a little thought experiment: ---------- -Imagine you have a computer running a standard, proprietary operating -system. +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. -On it, 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 about this? 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. +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 @@ -72,15 +70,13 @@ 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 a simple example: A few years ago, I had just switched over to -using [EXWM][], the Emacs X Window Manager. To launch applications I -was using a program called Helm, which is similar in spirit to dmenu, -that let me select installed programs interactively and press -<kbd>RET</kbd> to execute them. +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. -Helm was very useful - until I discovered that if I tried to open a -second terminal emulator while one was already running, it would -display an error: +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 @@ -123,8 +119,11 @@ Emacs program, and I did the following things: The whole process took maybe a minute, and the problem was now gone. -For those to whom this means something: Emacs is the closest we can -get to the experience of Lisp machines on modern hardware. +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. --------------- @@ -152,8 +151,10 @@ 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 can be -introspected and composed like everything else in Emacs. +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 |