u/hrsIIin r/emacs • Recommends
Perry Metzger—The Editor of a Lifetime: 31 Years of Emacs
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- Recommended by 2 people: 1 on Lobsters and 1 in engineering communities.
- Presented by Perry Metzger
- An opinion. It argues one side of a question engineers disagree on.
Intermediate. Assumes working knowledge.
132K views12 years ago2 recommendations
Tools and practiceHistory and cultureVim, Emacs and editorsHistory of computing
Perry Metzger shares the history, philosophy, and long-term benefits of using Emacs as a primary user interface for decades.
Perry Metzger has been using Emacs as his text editor since early September, 1983 -- nearly 31 years. Over much of that time, it has also been his primary way to read email, compile programs, and perform a variety of other tasks. Why would anyone use a single program for that long? This talk is partially intended to answer that question. Emacs remains one of the most important user interfaces (and text editors) for computer professionals almost 40 years after it was created. The talk is intended to be part history, part philosophy, and part speculation on the future. It will also teach Emacs fans how to explain to their skeptical friends why it is still a good idea to learn a tool from the terminal era that requires memorization of dozens of control sequences in an age of GUIs and smart phones. Learn more from the developers at thoughtbot ⌨️ Head over to tbot.io/dev-blog to read more great articles on our blog.Why it's here
2 people recommend thisWhat people say. Recommended as a classic talk on the longevity and philosophical appeal of Emacs.
pmoriartyon Hacker News • Mentions
On “Emacs as the Ultimate LaTeX Editor”
…going off and doing some extended computation and I can't go in another window and do anything else at the same time. ... If it's doing extended computation and a lot of file IO and talking to the network, it blocks you. There's not more than one thread there." There's also this2 discussion of lack of threading in Emacs on the Emacs Wiki. 1 - link to this video 2 - link…
elviejoon Hacker News • Mentions
On “Polar as a Personal Knowledge Repository”
"Will... any other system be around in 30 years?" Yes, Emacs. "The editor of a lifetime" link to this video
phaeron Hacker News • Mentions
On “Toward a “modern” Emacs”
> That's great and all, but people who are learning emacs for the first time don't know or care that it's one of the most successful text editors or that it's been around for 40 years. They care about being able to write code effectively. I started using Emacs ~2008 and it's longevity has been a major factor in my decision, as I thought it would likely be usable for the next 30 years as well and help me to avoid changing environments every few years with each new hype. Later I found a talk which expresses the same sentiment in it's title: "The Editor of a Lifetime" link to this video