Re: Failing to see the allure of Emacs

[pjb@informatimago.com (Pascal J. Bourguignon)]

Daniel <unagimiyagi@gmail.com> writes:

> So much of daily computing for anyone consists of:
- pdfs

M-! xpdf file.pdf & RET


- word

Just say no.  (Ask for a pdf!)

- excel

Just say no.  (Ask for a csv!)


- documents

What kind?


- gmail

M-x rmail
M-x vm
M-x mew
M-x gnus


- itunes

M-x emms

- file browsing

M-x dired

> So I still have to switch to the gui to do these things.  If I've
> still got to leave the emacs environment to do general computing
> tasks, what is the productivity gain here?  

Indeed.


> There are plugins, I know,
> but I haven't explored those.

Sure, in 48 hours, we don't expect you're Superman.  It takes ten years
to start to master emacs.


> I've always been someone who reads the shortcuts built into something
> like BBEdit or TextWrangler, Notepad ++, or Eclipse, so I am not sure
> how much more productive I'll be.


The most productivity gains you get in emacs is when you start
programming it, to automate _your_ tasks.


> Also, I'm a bit confused with regards to using dired to navigate files
> vs just the bash shell, which I'm more familiar with.

Well, it's the same difference as using the Finder vs. the shell, or
using whatever they use on MS-Windows vs. the shell.

I use the shell too, inside emacs.

M-x shell


> But again, did I expect too much out of emacs?  So far I find it to be
> about as good as BBEdit . It's a text editor but no more.  I expected
> emacs to be the one program that ruled them all.

Again, the "rule them all" comes from the transmogrifying feature of
emacs, that is, when you start to program your own emacs functions.  

But don't be in a hurry, it will take time to learn all the existing
features, and to learn programming in emacs lisp to be able to write
your own.

-- 
__Pascal Bourguignon__