On Sunday, July 26, 2015 at 12:25:42 PM UTC+5:30, Marko Rauhamaa wrote: > Chris Angelico: > > > Emacs tries to be absolutely everything, not just editing text files; > > that's why it's big. > > I use emacs for most of my text inputting needs. Sometimes I even use it > to type in web forms (prepare it in emacs and copy the text over into > the form). > > I'm typing now. Hence, I'm using emacs. It's great that I don't have to > settle for less. > > No matter what I'm typing, M-$ spell-checks the word under the cursor. > No matter what I'm typing, M-x picture-mode allows me to draw a picture > in ASCII graphics. And C-x ( starts a macro -- immensely useful in many > circumstances. > > Emacs also works over text terminal connections. I use it all the time > to access virtual machines at the office as well as my home machine from > overseas.
Emacs 'tries to be everything' in exactly the same way that a 'general purpose programming language' is too general and by pretending to solve all problems actually solves none (until you hire a programmer). Problem with emacs (culture) is that its aficionados assume that a superb conceptual design trumps technological relevance, UI clunkiness etc. Which is true... within reasonable limits. For something a little more contemporary (and successful) than mail clients here's emacs doing git: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zobx3T7hGNA [Did you notice that you used the locutions 'M-$', 'M-x'? What sense does this 80s terminology make to an emacs uninitiate in 2015? >From seeing my 20-year-olf students suffer all this combined with the hopelessness of convincing the emacs folks that we are in 2015, not 1980, I conclude this is a losing battle ] -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list