Learning GNU Emacs

What Hacker News says

1. throwaway_pdp09Oct 2020
   That's a lovely reply! The problem with emacs is there is just too much, and the chaff obscures the wheat. It frustrates me too, as there's some really good stuff there that I don't know about.

   Suggest grabbing the emacs book https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/learning-gnu-emacs/0596... and/or the emacs manual from https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/ (free pdf) and go through them. They will repay the time!

   Good luck and remember any pro emacs user will trip themselves up to help newbies learn!

   Show morethread
2. beshrkayaliApr 2020
   Learning GNU Emacs, 3rd Edition http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9780596006488.do

   I've been using Emacs for ~5 years now, and I switched from Sublime Text. I used Vim here and there but I wasn't a huge fan, and I always heard that Emacs is _the editor_ that can solve anything. Org mode is what got me really interested so I read through that book and switched to Emacs fully after a couple of weeks of light usage and reading.

   Now I only use Emacs, and I've never been happier programming. It's truly a remarkable piece of software.

   Edit: just want to say that you should use vanilla emacs and try not to install any plugins at first. Resist the temptation to go willy-nilly on some awesome-xyz list.

   Show morethread
3. sayemmMay 2011
   I learned Emacs last year from the O'Reilly book, "Learning GNU Emacs" - http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Emacs-Third-Debra-Cameron/dp/...

   It's an excellent reference and introduction. I also blindly followed Steve Yegge's advice here too, which turned out to be great: http://sites.google.com/site/steveyegge2/effective-emacs

   thread
4. kirubakaranSep 2008
   This is a good starting point: Learning GNU Emacs http://oreilly.com/catalog/9781565921528/

   This might ease some pains: http://steve.yegge.googlepages.com/effective-emacs

   thread
5. mechanical_fishJun 2008
   My editor of choice right now is gedit, and it's not meeting my needs

   Well, there's your answer.

   I'm an emacs user so I recommend emacs. I know of many smart vi users so I recommend vi. I'm a Mac user so I recommend Textmate, but only if you really prefer it over emacs or vi (which are open source and ubiquitous -- you'll probably never need to learn another text editor ever again).

   Learn one of those. Whichever one you like best. O'Reilly's Learning GNU Emacs was a very good book for me when I was a beginner; there's probably a similar book for vi.

   Show morethread
6. mechanical_fishJun 2008
   I learned emacs from an O'Reilly book: Learning GNU Emacs

   http://books.google.com/books?id=a_lea3-w-1kC&printsec=f...

   If that and/or the tutorial doesn't do it for you, google "emacswiki" and see what else you can find. Also, "steve yegge emacs" (but maybe not on your first day, unless you need further inspiration).

   thread