Comment by dedward
13 years ago
Out of the gate, Emacs feels clumsy and frustrating compared to ST or any other more standard text editor.
Where emacs shines is when you start to micro-analyze your text editing process and learn how to optimize it with emacs.
Until you get to that stage, though, which isn't always the beginning for many - emacs probably isn't for you.
It's not going to make you edit text faster just because you use it - you have to actively study and look at new ways of editing. Watch an emacs master at work, it will blow your mind.
Right. This is the part that is a waste of time. How much time do developers spend typing in a given day inside their text editor? Maybe its 1% of their workday? The vast majority of their time is spent thinking. I'm highly doubtful that using emacs improves the thing that matters- code quality.
Perhaps it is possible to be more efficient with emacs than Sublime or TextMate. Editing code 20% faster is not a convincing argument for switching to emacs and the months of study it would require.
I find the hazing around emacs/vim to be peculiar. In what other arena would it be appropriate to tell a new user to study your software instead of making software that doesn't need to be studied?
disclaimer: I use emacs and sublime.
I spend about 95% of my time in my editor. I really can't fathom what you're getting at, here. For most developers I know, reading or writing code is what programming is. What are you doing with your time?