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Embracing Vanilla Emacs as a Vim user

In 2021 I started using Emacs and learning to use the vanilla

keybindings.

Being a Vim user

I started using Vim somewhere around 1997~1998, and arranged my working habits so that I could use Vim for almost everything. Like using Markdown and Latex at work, Mutt for email, and so on.

In the past I have tried to use Emacs before, but never with success.

Micro-emacs

During the last year I also tried some micro-emacses. The number of features and possibilities of micro-emacses are, compared to "real" Emacs, very limited. For me, this also felt less intimidating.

After some trial I settled for "pe" ("puny emacs") as my preferred micro-emacs, see the following web-page (http):

MicroEMACS "puny emacs", a tiny but powerful Micro Emacs

I definitely think that using a micro-emacs has helped me in my learning process.

Motivation

Vim and Emacs are both outstanding editors.

I had discovered that Emacs has some really great modes for things like GNU recutils and ledger, which do much more, compared to the Vim-scripts for those applications. And this is just an example.

Also, I want to dive into Lisp and Forth, and, as far as I have read, Emacs can be helpful.

One year on the road

For RSS-feeds, I moved from the newsboat-w3m combo to elfeed and eww. I have configured eww to be like a text mode browser, so the standard font, no colors, and no images. This is quite fast, and eww has a great reader-mode that I use all the time (if the visited website allows for it, f.e., it doesn't work on theregister.com, but it does on bbc.co.uk).

I use Elpher to visit Gemini and Gopher instances.

I do more and more editing in Emacs (although I still use ed and vi),

take notes in Emacs, and so on.

I started learning Elisp, but have a long way to go there.

The learning never stops

Vim and Emacs are tools that have so much to offer that a user is never done learning and exploring the possibilities.

In my 20-plus years using Vim I have picked up a lot on the way, and for Emacs I am just at the beginning.

Using Vim and Emacs

Against my expectations, it is really possible to use both Vim and Emacs. Over time, the use of vi and Vim build the muscle memory really deep, and because I still use this occasionally, I don't feel like it is moving away.

And at first, I believed I would never be able to learn to use vanilla Emacs, I am now also building up muscle memory for the Emacs key bindings.

In my experience it is actual possible to be both an Emacs user as well as a Vim user. Of course, I don't know how this will play out on the long term. I have to wait and see.

What is your experience?

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$Date: 2022/06/18 07:50:52 $

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