Re: emacs vs vs.net

[Jason Earl]

kgold@watson.ibm.com (kgold) writes:

> There are two questions - using emacs for email
> and comparing it to Notepad.
>
> For email, I will admit that, if all you want to
> do is read email, there are probably better
> choices than emacs.  But, if you want to write
> as well, most email clients have very primitive
> Notepad type editors.

Actually, if you read a *lot* of email, then Emacs
probably would be helpful as well.  Gnus has all
sorts of tools for plowing through huge piles of
email, and the fact that you never have to take
your hands off of the keyboard to get everything
done makes a big difference.

> Now compared to Notepad, both have simple copy,
> cut and paste.  I prefer emacs, where you can do
> the entire operation using the mouse, to
> Notepad's "mark with the mouse, copy with the
> keyboard, move with the mouse, paste with the
> keyboard."  If you like continuously switching
> between the keyboard and mouse, you'll like
> Notepad.

Once you get used to how Emacs cuts and pastes you
will begin to wonder why Microsoft never stole
that particular idea.

> Beyond cut and paste, Notepad flops.  In emacs
> you can move the cursor by word, sentence,
> paragraph, etc.  You can transpose letters or
> words, capitalize, uppercase or lowercase a
> word, define and run macros, split the screen,
> run a spell checker, do language translation,
> enter accented characters, and infinite undo.

Not to mention the fact that Emacs will
intelligently reflow pargraphs (including ones
with multiple layers of quotes).

     1. And it always seems to "do the right thing
        when creating paragraphs or lists

     2. See, creating neat lists in plain text is
        easy with emacs.

Plus there are all sorts of nifty toys like boxquote

,----[ Look at me ]
| This is a test
`----

or zippy...

"DARK SHADOWS" is on!!  Hey, I think the VAMPIRE
forgot his UMBRELLA!!

> emacs really shines when you go beyond email, as
> it understands various programming languages, so
> it eases program entry and compilation.  It
> hooks easily to debuggers and source control
> servers.

Exactly.  All of the Emacs tips and tricks that you
learn writing email or posting to newsgroups are
also available to you when you are hacking or
writing a document (in LaTeX, of course).

> Finally, it runs on Windows, Mac, and Unix, so
> it's learn once - use everywhere.

Another excellent point.

> And it's free.
> 
> And you get free support.

What's more, Emacs is fun.

Jason