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docs(web/blog): Light editing on the unpublished Emacs post

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Vincent Ambo 2020-02-22 01:58:33 +00:00
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49
web/blog/posts/emacs-is-underrated.md
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@ -5,10 +5,10 @@ possibility that it might contain valuable things. I don't know if I'm
on track in the right direction, and your input will help me figure it
out. Thanks!
TODO(tazjin): Rewrite the last section to highlight that the primary
UX paradigm of Emacs is *interactive text* (from which fluidity is
derived). This ties together stuff like muscle memory being universal
across programs.
TODO(tazjin): Restructure sections: Intro -> Introspectability (and
story) -> text-based UIs (which lead to fluidity, muscle memory across
programs and "translatability" of workflows) -> Outro. It needs more
flow!
TODO(tazjin): Highlight more that it's not about editing: People can
derive useful things from Emacs by just using magit/org/notmuch/etc.!
@ -36,15 +36,13 @@ follow me along on a little thought experiment:
----------
Imagine you have a computer running a standard, proprietary operating
system.
Lets say you use a proprietary spreadsheet program. You find that
there are features in it that *almost, but not quite* do what you
want.
On it, you use a proprietary spreadsheet program. You find that there
are features in it that *almost, but not quite* do what you want.
What can you do about this? You can file a feature request to the
company that makes it and hope they listen, but for the likes of Apple
and Microsoft chances are they won't and there is nothing you can do.
What can you do? You can file a feature request to the company that
makes it and hope they listen, but for the likes of Apple and
Microsoft chances are they won't and there is nothing you can do.
Let's say you are also running an open-source program for image
manipulation. You again find that some of its features are subtly
@ -72,15 +70,13 @@ What if it didn't have to be this way?
One of the core properties of Emacs is that it is *introspective* and
*self-documenting*.
For a simple example: A few years ago, I had just switched over to
using [EXWM][], the Emacs X Window Manager. To launch applications I
was using a program called Helm, which is similar in spirit to dmenu,
that let me select installed programs interactively and press
<kbd>RET</kbd> to execute them.
For example: A few years ago, I had just switched over to using
[EXWM][], the Emacs X Window Manager. To launch applications I was
using an Emacs program called Helm that let me select installed
programs interactively and press <kbd>RET</kbd> to execute them.
Helm was very useful - until I discovered that if I tried to open a
second terminal emulator while one was already running, it would
display an error:
This was very useful - until I discovered that if I tried to open a
second terminal window, it would display an error:
Error: urxvt is already running
@ -123,8 +119,11 @@ Emacs program, and I did the following things:
The whole process took maybe a minute, and the problem was now gone.
For those to whom this means something: Emacs is the closest we can
get to the experience of Lisp machines on modern hardware.
Emacs isn't just "open-source", it actively encourages the user to
modify it, discover what to modify and experiment while it is running.
In some sense it is like the experience of the old Lisp machines, a
paradigm that we have completely forgotten.
---------------
@ -152,8 +151,10 @@ Outside of the core distribution there is a myriad of available
programs for Emacs: [magit][] (the famous git porcelain), text-based
[HTTP clients][], even interactive [Kubernetes frontends][k8s].
What all of these tools have in common is that they can be
introspected and composed like everything else in Emacs.
What all of these tools have in common is that they use text-based
user interfaces (UI elements like images are used only sparingly in
Emacs), and that they can be introspected and composed like everything
else in Emacs.
If magit does not expose a git flag I need, it's trivial to add. If I
want a keybinding to jump from a buffer showing me a Kubernetes pod to