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Comment by luqtas

1 day ago

you can always install Emäcs and put this at your init.el file;

(menu-bar-mode -1)

(scroll-bar-mode -1)

(tool-bar-mode -1)

pronto, a solid decades old platform that is privacy oriented (whatever that means on text editors); runs flawlessly on Android too, has an easy sync with Syncthing (just add (global-auto-revert-mode) for real-time synchronization) to your computer/server; ALL shortcuts are customizable so you can set Copy/Paste/Cut to whatever is most ergonomic and crazy stuff like accessing your ibuffer with i-search mode for an easy navigation at your files that's keyboard-centric but you can use your mouse with its buttons doing whatever you want/set, just fine; org-mode...

it can even run on a, distraction free, terminal ^-^

19 comments

luqtas

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methyl  21 hours ago

This is truly an infamous Dropbox comment moment https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224

  • spudlyo  20 hours ago

    Is it though? That comment recommended a hodge-podge of open source tools to approximate what Dropbox offered in as a complete solution. GNU Emacs literally has a several decades head start on any new niche electronic writing tools and is, in my estimation, a towering achievement in this space.

    • DoingIsLearning  16 hours ago

      Warning: this comment may offend some in the Emacs community.

      > GNU Emacs literally has a several decades head start on any new niche electronic writing tools and is, in my estimation, a towering achievement in this space.

      I love Emacs but I had to spend more time that I would like to admit making changes to my init file in the first months of seriously using it. The 'average' user expects to be able to hit the ground running with reasonable defaults.

      A large fraction of my (blasphemous) changes was of course overriding keyboard shortcuts to match the expectations that average users have of what keyboard shortcuts should do, in at least the last 40 years of software. I don't have the mental bandwidth or appetite to learn incantations.

      So to me I see emacs as a tool no different from Notepad++/VS Code but a tool I can actually open the hood and mod to my needs/preferences that also happens to have a huge community that I can leverage with all the packages and minor modes.

      However, neither of this is realistic or practical as a key turn solution for the 'average' user looking for a distraction free editor.

      3 replies →

  • leovingi  4 hours ago

    But it's true. I've written a novella-length book in emacs org mode and using a simple keyboard shortcut ended up with a generated ready-to-upload-to-KDP PDF.

    As far as writing tools are concerned, nothing else has come even close and that's with very minimal config tweaking.

fyt2024  18 hours ago

I would use emacs in a blink of an eye. It is such an incredible and powerful software. Unfortunately it lacks a decent editor.

  • ashton314  17 hours ago

    Alt-x package-install RET evil RET Alt-x evil-mode RET

    Har har, and I'm sure you know about that. What's neat though is that snippet should work in plain stock vanilla Emacs—no need to setup package sources! Emacs 29 has gotten some much-needed improvements.

fipar  21 hours ago

I second your suggestion.

Or, alternatively, do as I did and just have an entry for darkroom-mode in your visibility Hydra :)

  • luqtas  20 hours ago

    this 10 year old package was updated only 4 years ago! does it still works? /s

    • jpcom  19 hours ago

      in Clojure we come across this question all the time, it's really quite a delight when you realize that packages do not have a "Done" category on github; for some languages they need it.