Vim is the greatest tool ever made for manipulating text as text. Emacs is easier to modify (I <3 Lisp) and is better at handling the semantics of the text it’s working with.
Also, Emacs has evil-mode now, so the only reason to still prefer Vim is 1. A strange love of vimscript, or 2. A lack of permissions to install Emacs.
Absolutely! I can’t believe when I stumbled across it in 2020 that it was as old as it is. And folks think it’s too old and decrepit to use, it’s inanely powerful.
I found it really funny when the “second brain / knowledge base” apps (like Obidian, Joplin, Logseq) started to explode semi-recently. “Organize your thoughts! Tag everything! Elegance through simplicity! Only use markdown!”
Yeah, I get it, orgmode is a really good idea. No need to re-invent it half a dozen more times to celebrate it’s 20th birthday…
I’ve been hoping that some good replacement comes along but they are all lacking significantly. Emacs is the best I’ve found but it’s annoying in many ways that have been fixed by newer alternatives.
Large files, terrible defaults, and elisp come to mind.
Emacs. Still the best way to edit any kind of text in any context.
I came to say vim…Is the debate still a thing?
No.
There is no debate because vim is the superior editor, period.
Vim is the greatest tool ever made for manipulating text as text. Emacs is easier to modify (I <3 Lisp) and is better at handling the semantics of the text it’s working with.
Also, Emacs has evil-mode now, so the only reason to still prefer Vim is 1. A strange love of vimscript, or 2. A lack of permissions to install Emacs.
I used to be on the vim side in the debates, but now that I’ve also used Emacs - Porque no los dos?
I’ve been using vim for years. Because I can’t figure out how to exit it
:wq! to save and quit or :q! to just quit
zz will also quit it. Zz when vim is sleepy
Every time I see those videos I think to myself. “Man I’m still working on this shitty first brain and now I have to make a 2nd one?”
Or x, which does the same thing, with the same number of keystrokes. But the ZZ keys are closer together
Absolutely! I can’t believe when I stumbled across it in 2020 that it was as old as it is. And folks think it’s too old and decrepit to use, it’s inanely powerful.
“inanely powerful” I’m dying
Hmmm nah. I’m not editing. I’ll stand by it.
I found it really funny when the “second brain / knowledge base” apps (like Obidian, Joplin, Logseq) started to explode semi-recently. “Organize your thoughts! Tag everything! Elegance through simplicity! Only use markdown!”
Yeah, I get it, orgmode is a really good idea. No need to re-invent it half a dozen more times to celebrate it’s 20th birthday…
And one of these days, someone will rediscover the magic of having a uniform editing environment for manipulating text in multiple different contexts.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=urcL86UpqZc
I’ve been hoping that some good replacement comes along but they are all lacking significantly. Emacs is the best I’ve found but it’s annoying in many ways that have been fixed by newer alternatives.
Large files, terrible defaults, and elisp come to mind.