Orlando Andico <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:

> the tons of packages for emacs are.. nice. but i think there are
> better individual pieces of software that do what the emacs packages
> do (e.g. mail client, web browser). i never did like the emacs "one
> size fits all" philosophy.

"One size fits all" is definitely not the Emacs philosophy. <laugh> In
fact, I'd venture to say that it is the exact opposite of the Emacs
way. With more than five mail clients, three ways of browsing the Web,
and numerous libraries for doing everything from making coffee[1] to
playing Tetris[2], the wealth of code available for Emacs attests to
its _fun_ as a hacking platform.

My mail client[3] beats the pants off your mail client. <grin> Heck, as
much as I like Gmail's labels, that's not enough to tempt me away from
my auto-scoring ultra-funky Gnus. I've remapped all the keys in my web
browser to give me a level of friendliness that Mozilla can only dream
of (even with the conkeror keyboard-friendly extension), from
del.icio.us bookmarking to tab navigation using keys under my
fingertips. Because everything's hackable at runtime, I can modify the
behavior on the fly to make Emacs the environment I want it to be.

One of the biggest features of Emacs is the way it fits _me._ <grin> I
can make it dance to my tune. I can extend it in nifty little ways. I
can pull code off the Net to do crazy stuff.

"One size fits all" is also certainly not the motto of Planner.el, the
personal information manager I maintain for Emacs. Zakame mentioned it
previously. What's cool about Planner? Well, not much, if you're the
kind of person who prefers pretty little schedules in Evolution. It
can, however, hyperlink to just about anything, and you can publish
your planner/blog as HTML. Plus, you'll get me at your beck and call,
eager to help you tailor Emacs to your personal needs... ^_^

That said, I used to use Eclipse when I was still doing a lot of Java
stuff. The refactoring support totally rocked. But Emacs--Emacs is
more than a development environment, more than a text editor. I can do
silly things in Emacs that I wouldn't dream of hacking a 'real' editor
to do.

Emacs isn't for everyone, perhaps. But it's a mindblowing experience,
and certainly something I'd recommend to everyone--even if they just
try it out. (You know, some HCI studies found that Emacs is more
consistent than vi and actually easier for newbies, but let's not get
into _that_ holy war...)

I'm not out to get people to shift from their favorite text editor.
<laugh> I'm just saying that Emacs is something I'm personally rather
crazy about--and I have good reason to be. ;)

[1] I kid you not. Google for coffee.el.
[2] M-x tetris

(I'm serious. Emacs rocks my world. The people I meet, the code I hack
on... =D )

-- 
Sacha Chua <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> - open source geekette
http://sacha.free.net.ph/ - PGP Key ID: 0xE7FDF77C
interests: emacs, gnu/linux, personal information management, CS ed
sachac on irc.freenode.net#emacs . YM: sachachua83
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