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So I decided to install Emacs on my writing PC for while I work on writing my gemlogs. This I felt was a good way to get a sense of what Emacs feels like basically by default, since I've installed a bunch of stuff on my other machines, since I want it to be an IDE. I expected it to work well, because, well, Emacs is an old piece of software! So.. let me talk through my Emacs setup on a virtual-terminal only PC.
So realistically the only things I need on this PC are:
markdown-mode - I use this for ""gemini formatting"" (helps collapse sections and highlight some stuff)
visual-fill-column-mode - Keeps the text from being full width. Sets a virtual column to adjust the text to. This helps when I only have one window open in Emacs. And it plays nicely when I add an additional window to the left/right.
Make C-e C-a play nicely with visual-line-mode (which should be the default?!)
A few of the Emacs setups Sandra from idiomdrotnning has shared
I have more than just that here. Mostly just other quality of life things. But it's ~35 lines WITH comments - so that's a pretty light config!
I've been using Emacs for about a week and I really enjoy it. I know there is a holy war going on, and my compatriots over on the vim side won't like me saying this. But I do feel like they fill two VERY different spaces. At least for me. Vim is that light agile text editor. It has all the niceties like syntax highlighting and other quality of life features - but it's BUILT to be just `vim setup.conf` `:wq` and be done with it. It's LIGHT and FAST. Emacs is just HUGE. It's huge. That's not a bad thing. It's just out-of-the-box way MORE than vim is. It starts up slower, even with a minimal configuration, which removes it from like my default vim usage pattern of "editing in the command line". I'm sure I could tune it more - but yeah. It's great, just not in every situation (for me). But what Emacs is for is working in. It's not meant to be "add a quick line here", but for you actually work with. That's why it can be an OS! And when it comes to authoring gemlogs and other writing I do here, it's very useful and has improved my overall experience.
Emacs is an interactive text editor that can do so much it's frankly unbelievable. And it's just setup to be forever extensible, making it much more approachable to extend. Emacs-Lisp is so simple, and its self-documenting rules make it easier for a noob like me to see what this function I copied off the internet does, and why it works the way it does. I cannot really wrap my head around vimrc syntax or anything. It's been AGES since I've used a lisp too, so that's fun. But as an authoring tool, I very much like it. And with a bit more time under my belt at work and at home, I'll likely do a follow-up with how I'm using it and how I got adjusted to it for proper graphical editor usecases.
But it's safe to say, at least on my writing PC, I'll be using Emacs from here on out!
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