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Questions tagged [emacs]

Emacs is a free, extensible text editor, with custom support for many programming languages, text formats and often recurring tasks.

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Must a programmer learn text editors like Emacs and Vim? How important are they?

I have been writing code so far in conventional text editors that come with the OS so far or use an IDE in some cases. I know there are some advanced text editors like Emacs and Vim available solely for the purpose of coders. How important are they…
user22662
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Time to drop Emacs and vi?

Every time you are looking for a text editor, no matter what language you are using, vi and Emacs are hall-of-famers. However they are ancient, and we have better alternatives (at least I hope we do). Why are developers stuck on these two editors?…
Chiron
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I use an IDE (Eclipse) to develop software. Why should I switch to vim or emacs?

My day job is java/web developer. I have been using eclipse for ~5years. I think its excellent and I also use Webstorm for javascript and html/jsp. I do on occasion need to ssh into server and mess around with config files; for this I use vi and…
NimChimpsky
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What are the 'must know' Emacs commands?

I'm a fairly new convert to Emacs and I really love it as an editor, primarily because I keep finding new and super-useful commands. Are there any other programmer 'must known' commands missing from my list? M-x replace-string - Find and replace…
Chris Smith
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Emacs-as-OS: obsolete?

In an attempt to reach at least beginner status with such a legendary editor, I have been coding in Emacs for the last two months. I try to keep an open heart, but I find myself continally disagreeing with one core design choice: that Emacs allow…
AlcubierreDrive
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What are some ways to be more productive with Emacs?

I've used Emacs quite a bit, and I'm comfortable with the most basic commands/shortcuts, but I know Emacs has a lot more to offer than what I'm using. What are some of the lesser known features of emacs that can help me become a more productive…
GSto
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Are Vim or Emacs practical for languages like .Net or Java?

So, I am primarily a .Net developer who does some stuff in Java, Python and a few others from time to time. I have heard a lot of people praise Vim and Emacs for greatly increasing efficiency once the basics are nailed down. I can definitely see how…
Morgan Herlocker
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Emacs and "self-reinforcing performance"

In short, my question for you hardcore Emacs users is this: have you achieved this "self-reinforcing performance" Steve Yegge talks about? Emacs is self-hosting: writing things in it makes the environment itself more powerful. It's a feedback…
dorserg
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Optimal Data Structure for our own API

I'm in the early stages of writing an Emacs major mode for the Stack Exchange network; if you use Emacs regularly, this will benefit you in the end. In order to minimize the number of calls made to Stack Exchange's API (capped at 10000 per IP per…
Sean Allred
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What are the advantages and disadvantages of the various git modes available for emacs?

I just started using git, and because I tend to live in emacs, I want to use one of the emacs integration packages. Looking at this list, I see that there are a lot of packages available, but the blurbs for each of them don't explain very much…
Dan
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emacs - project explorer and auto complete features - is it available?

I know that Emacs is a very powerful editor out there. I try to use it occasionally and want to learn it better. But to learn it better i have to use it more frequently than I am using now. But one big obstacle is that I could not find the basic…
LostMohican
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Why are functions in Emacs so large?

I am a beginner in ELisp, but have programmed in C++ and a number of other programming languages before. My rule of thumb (and I think it is a common one) that a function should fit on the screen. However, it should preferably be even smaller (20…
AlwaysLearning
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what's the most efficient emacs workflow for compilation and interactive execution cycles (C++/makefile)

I try not to cross-post, but the only response I got at stack-exchange was to post here... What's the preferred practice for a compile-run cycle in emacs? Previously, I used alt-x compile (mapped to F12) with make as my compile command. Within the…
daj
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Programming with emacs instead of a debugger-integrated IDE

There's a question that might be deemed a duplicate of this one (I use an IDE (Eclipse) to develop software. Why should I switch to vim or emacs?) but I don't think answers my question. I usually program in C++ (not exactly to create GUIs so rather…
user129506
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Emacs/Vim/Vi - do they have a place in modern software development ecosystem?

Watching all those screencasts (and listening all those podcasts) with more-or-less famous hackers/programmers I hear that many of those use emacs/vi(m) for their daily work. Now, I myself tried using both emacs and vim, and I honestly cannot…
Anton Gogolev
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