Using Emacs

Using Emacs

[Graham Smith]

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I have just discovered Emacs and I now understand why people talk about
living in Emacs. To help me get a feel for how much of my work I might be
able to move into Emacs, I wondered if people might be willing to share how
much of their work is done in Emacs.

I am using  Windows (for the time being at least), and I am not a
programmer, but I will use Emacs as a front end for R. I am therefore
interested in Emacs as a writing, information/time management tool etc. I
have installed Org.mode and I am very impressed with this.

As it is going to need a little bit of thought on how to structure my new
Emacs world, I would appreciate any examples of how you use Emacs and hints
on "best practice" with Emacs.

So any comments would be gratefully received.

Many thanks,

Graham

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Re: Using Emacs

[Andreas Roehler]

Graham Smith schrieb:
> I have just discovered Emacs and I now understand why people talk 
> about living in Emacs. To help me get a feel for how much of my work I 
> might be able to move into Emacs, I wondered if people might be 
> willing to share how much of their work is done in Emacs.
>
> I am using  Windows (for the time being at least), and I am not a 
> programmer, but I will use Emacs as a front end for R. I am therefore 
> interested in Emacs as a writing, information/time management tool 
> etc. I have installed Org.mode and I am very impressed with this.
>
> As it is going to need a little bit of thought on how to structure my 
> new Emacs world, I would appreciate any examples of how you use Emacs 
> and hints on "best practice" with Emacs.
>
> So any comments would be gratefully received.
>
> Many thanks,
>
> Graham

As there are thousands of things worthwhile to tell
here just one:

With a setting of variable `dired-listing-switches' to
"lart", last edited files are always at sight, i.e. at
the bottom of the dired-buffer.

M-x costumize-variable...

That var may also changed on the fly every time you use
`dired,' while sending the universal argument C-u
before. In that case you will be prompted for the value.

There are other ways to come back to last edited files,
`recent-files mode`, a mode called "desktop" and
probably much more. I prefer the method above, because
its half-automatic, still let you select by hand at the
right place.

BTW: With some Emacs-Lisp knowlegde the fun starts

C-h i, m, Emacs Lisp Intro

Have a nice day

__
Andreas Roehler

RE: Using Emacs

[Drew Adams]

> M-x costumize-variable...

Love it! Looking forward to Mardi Gras.
Is a variable costume something like an alias?

Re: Using Emacs

[Andreas Roehler]

Drew Adams schrieb:
>> M-x costumize-variable...
>>     
>
> Love it! Looking forward to Mardi Gras.
> Is a variable costume something like an alias?
>
>
>   
Yeah. Isn't bad, isn't it?

Had already a bad night, because I wrote the mail out of my head without
checking `dired-listing-switches', a term which may be hairy for 
non-nativ english
speakers - so far I was lucky with...

Andreas

Re: Using Emacs

[Andreas Roehler]

...
>  but I will use Emacs as a front end for R.

Probably you know this already:

,----
|    ESS is a GNU Emacs and XEmacs mode for interactive statistical
| programming and data analysis.  Languages supported: the S family (S
| 3/4, S-PLUS 3/4/5/6/7, and R), SAS, XLispStat, Stata and BUGS.
`----

,----
| The latest released version of ESS is always available on the web at:
| ESS web page (http://ess.r-project.org) or StatLib
| (http://lib.stat.cmu.edu/general/ESS/)
`----

__
Andreas Roehler

Re: Using Emacs

[Tim X]

"Graham Smith" <myotisone@gmail.com> writes:

> I have just discovered Emacs and I now understand why people talk about living in
> Emacs. To help me get a feel for how much of my work I might be able to move into
> Emacs, I wondered if people might be willing to share how much of their work is
> done in Emacs.
>
> I am using  Windows (for the time being at least), and I am not a programmer, but I
> will use Emacs as a front end for R. I am therefore interested in Emacs as a
> writing, information/time management tool etc. I have installed Org.mode and I am
> very impressed with this.
>
> As it is going to need a little bit of thought on how to structure my new Emacs
> world, I would appreciate any examples of how you use Emacs and hints on "best
> practice" with Emacs.
>

I use emacs for 90% of what I have to do (mainly programming and writing
documents). I've not used R, so can't speak to how the emacs mode for R is. I
do make extensive use of auctex, planner mode (for tracking time spent on
projects, notes and personal information management). I also use VM for mail
and GNUS for reading newsgroups. 

My advice would be not to worry too much about how to structure things to begin
with. The best thing to do is just start using it and tweaking the config as
you learn more about emacs and the modes you use most often. Avoid getting into
customizing with elisp too soon and when you do, make sure you use the emacs
help system extensively as the customization you want is probably already in
there somewhere. 

The emacs wiki provides some good information and I'd recommend spending some
time browsing its contents. It will alert you to many features, provide
guidance on customizing the system and provide some useful ideas. Make sure you
do the emacs built-in tutorial as well and browse the emacs info pages. 

Good luck. After a few months, you will likely wonder how you did anything
before moving to emacs - I decided to try it out about 10 years ago - it took
me a couple of tries, but once I got there, I've never looked back.

Tim

-- 
tcross (at) rapttech dot com dot au