55 lines
2.8 KiB
Markdown
55 lines
2.8 KiB
Markdown
# Emacs
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*This article is part of the humor series*
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Emacs is a [bloated](bloat.md) text editor that got overextended into some kind
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of [operating system](operating_system.md) (half-assed of course).
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Even some Emacs users themselves reluctantly acknowledge that vi-style bindings are superior. Indeed, vi bindings
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don't cause RSI (repetitive strain injury). While a vi user may remap Escape to Caps Lock for
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convenience, an Emacs user must remap Control to Caps Lock out of necessity, to save his tendons.
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Part of why Emacs is so slow is because it is mostly built on its own language (with a "small" [C](c.md) core),
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Emacs Lisp; some bad ripoff of [Common Lisp](common_lisp.md)
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(because RMS didn't like Common Lisp for who knows why).
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This also contributed to its historically high memory usage; is not that it decreased, is just that
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computers now have more memory.
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Notoriously, Emacs can't handle big files. This is because it loads it entirely on memory LMAO. Even
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Electron-based VS Code don't have this problem.
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**IMPORTANT PSA**: to escape from Emacs, use `Ctrl-x Ctrl-c` (hold Control, press x, press c, release Control).
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If that doesn't work, open a new terminal because this bastard clobbers Ctrl-Z (so job control
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won't work) and run this command: `pkill -9 emacs`. Run that command again to be sure. Run it
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three more times if you want to rest well at night.
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If you used the "Emacs" way to exit, your tendons may hurt now, so do some stretching exercises.
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vi does [one thing and does it well](unix_philosophy.md); edit text. But Emacs does everything, in the worst possible way.
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## How Emacs keys became so RSI inducing
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Turns out in the beginning it wasn't that bad. Originally, Emacs was developed on the so called "Space Cadet"
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keyboard where the Control key was now where the Alt key is on a IBM PC keyboard. Similar to how vi was developed
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in a different keyboard (where the Escape key was on a more convenient position).
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## What does Emacs stand for
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- *Escape Meta Alt Control Shift*
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- *Eight Megabytes And Constantly Swapping*
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- *Emacs Makes Any Computer Slow*
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- *Editor MACroS* (disputed)
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- ...
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vi: `<Esc>:wq`, Emacs: `Ctrl-Meta-x Ctrl-Alt file-actions Alt-Ctrl save-file-in-current-directory-with-current-name-and-exit-please-emacs-let-me-exit`.
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## The cult of Emacs
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Never attempt to engage in debate with an Emacs user. They swear that:
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1. RSI is not real
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2. Emacs key chord soup and 80> command names are fine and superior to vi
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3. Elisp is not slower than [Python](python.md) by a factor of 4
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4. Anyone that doesn't use Emacs is an ignorant that is too stupid to "understand" the "Emacs" way.
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5. They don't suffer from a severe case of learned helplessness
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6. "org-mode" is different from just writing plain Markdown and piping the buffer into a converter
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7. Having a startup time of >=1s is fine
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TODO roast more
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## See also
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- [vi](vi.md)
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