Start Learning Emacs

March 7th, 2019.

I need to mark this date because on that day I decided to seriously learn Emacs and switch to it as my primary text editor after my 12 years Vim journey.

Why? Because currently I am working on the new design of Gemsby and I have chosen to use TypeScript for the work. Unfortunately, TypeScript support in Vim is very weak at this moment, I need to spend a lot of time to fight my text editor which I would rather not to do. And the plugins’ development seems to be moving very slowly. This is critial becase TypeScript the language itself is moving very quickly, if the plugins can’t keep up with the pace, developers will abandon the editor, then I will have no choice but switch to a different text editor… 😢

Then, I have stumbled on this video a few days ago:

I actually have been thinking about trying Emacs again for quite some time now since my previous encounter with spacemacs, but I have never felt the urgency. This video is very interesting, and it is so convincing at the same time, which has led me to where I am right now – writing this blog post in Emacs!

I want to learn Emacs properly, so I am using the Homebrew’s stock configuration and following the tutorial. I am like a 4-year old typing on a computer for the first time in this editor, the speed is very slow, and I am learning new commands and fighting with my Vim muscle memory at the same time 😖.

It is very painful, but no pain no gain! This time I will keep learning and make Emacs my new text editor of choice.

✌️