I am still learning as I stumbled across a bunch of youtube content of tech creators trying out emacs, and when I saw demos of people using emacs in their daily lives - it just clicked for me - I can gush on what is attractive about it, but that is a side point for the moment, and for a different thread in the future. Here is what I am doing so far to learn and adopt emacs into my daily computing life:

  • Reading through both Mastering Emacs by Mickey Petersen and Emacs Field Guide by Harley Hahn - on a tablet besides my computer running emacs and applying what I am learning and taking notes in it.

  • Working it little by little into my daily life - currently learning ORG mode to learn how I cam write my prose outlines and technical docs-for-newbies while in production. I am using default keybindings, and transitioning gradually from using arrow keys, mouse, etc - and each new keybinding I learn, i am finding to be better and more efficient. Next step is to remap my capslock and control keys so that my ctrl key is at capslock, and capslock is my compose key where my ctrl key is.

  • Writing my emacs config files from scratch - but have links to starter config files to read through like Prot’s stuff, bedrock, and minimal emacs and see what if any i would like to incorporate.

  • Participating in the emacs carnival - this month’s theme - The Quest for Knowledge had my ears burning, so decided it was a good tie into my endeavor.

So, I would like to hear from others either learning, and from those who who currently live and breathe emacs… What has helped you in adopting emacs into your daily computing life?

  • vfscanf()@discuss.tchncs.de
    2·
    12 days ago

    What helped me was to ignore all the customization and shortcuts and focus on the basics. It is pretty easy to get overwhelmed, so I just did the built in tutorial, which is pretty good to get started, and just use it. I also have a little cheat sheet, where I write down all the lesser used commands, that I only need occasionaly.