Sticking With EMACS

Before I touch off a flame war about vi vs emacs vs whatever other editor you happen to prefer, let me preface this with the following: I understand and appreciate different editors do things a little differently and each has their own advantages and disadvantages. That said, much of what I like about emacs is pretty true of vi too.

<holds up asbestos blanket>

I stick with emacs to edit text for one overriding reason: it’s actually pretty good at it. Perfect? No. I can never remember how to cut/copy and paste (kill and yank? What?). I find myself resorting to backspace when I want to delete marked chunks of text, and no matter how much I play with it I don’t think I’ll ever use 90% of its functionality.

One reason why it’s great for plain text is all those crazy macro keys are really handy for getting around a file (and as I learn more of them it’s even cooler). I mean, the ability to move around a file efficiently without needing to resort to the mouse is pretty awesome. Second, it doesn’t do much in the way of trying to guess what you want. It just takes it as it comes and lets it go at that. Even the spell checker is pretty minimal: oh look, you spelled a word wrong. What would you like it to be? I might be the last American under 25 who doesn’t mind reaching for a hard-copy dictionary.And there’s nothing wrong with that. Most of the time it’s simple typos anyway.

<\holds up asbestos blanket>

If you laughed at the tags, thanks.