[prog] replacement strings

[Eeva Järvinen]

2010/5/27 Miriam English <mim at miriam-english.org>

> I know too many amazing folk who use emacs constantly to doubt that it has
> terrific capabilities, but I think it would just slowly drive me nuts. :) I
> can't help thinking... almost 60MB and it doesn't have even basic things
> like intelligent word-wrap, line-joining, visual scrollbar dragging, and
> filesystem browser dialog. It feels like a supercharged antique from the
> '80s... which, to be fair, I guess you could say it is.
>
> Yup, emacs is a bit of a beast: it's like a machine that can do almost
anything you like it to do (I irc from emacs), but it has everything turned
off at the start. Like word-wrap :D (Esc, x, auto-fill-mode - but my emacs
turns it on automatically whenever I edit a text file, 'cos I told it to).
It's also very much keyboard- and text-oriented, which is precisely my cup
of tea: easy to use over ssh, you can screen it, you don't have to use the
mouse at all, which probably isn't a major selling point for many people.


> Thanks for the taste of elisp. I actually rather enjoyed it, and will
> almost certainly dabble with that more in the future.
>
> That's one of the reasons why emacs is so big. A fair bit of it is written
in elisp, and emacs contains the elisp compiler/interpreter. Emacs also
contains an introductory manual for elisp (C-h, i, scroll down until you
find Emacs Lisp Intro, point at the asterisk and press Enter (clicking with
a mouse might work!)) plus all kinds of other manuals on emacs-y topics. In
true 80's style, of course - no pictures or anything of that sort to divert
you. :D


have fun!
Eeva