!rant

Emacs vs Vim? Why not both!
I found a gem of an editor called Spacemacs which combines the power of Emacs and the editing capabilities of Vim! Already replaced intelliJ with spacemacs for my scala and Java projects :)

Java? is it possible to code easily Java using spacemacs?
packages?

I gotta try this!

I wouldn't give up my ultimate intellij version for spacemacs ^^

@robindotnet yep! you'll get all the goodness of an ide without the cruft. Stuff like auto compete, jump to definition, run corresponding test etc can be done via the editor

@SirWindfield it's much faster than intelliJ though... and open source, which makes it a viable replacement

@mostlyharmle ye but auto completion ^^. If I get to work with a new api I like it to be able to command click into the documentation so I can check out what the method does. Getting auto completion really helps (at least me) out there.

Not sure tho. But isn't intellij open source too (maybe just 80%)? Would like to take a peak into it ^^

It's just that I never used vim nor nano. I just can't get used to it. I always used a "normal" IDE since day one.

@SirWindfield Spacemacs has you covered with autocompletion and viewing source of APIs ... all without having to use the mouse! I'd really recommend you give Vim a fair shot as it makes you more productive as a programmer. IntelliJ has a decent plugin for Vim do is fairly low risk for your to try it!

pardon the typos... if only mobile devices had Vim ;)

@mostlyharmless as far as I understood vim is an editor inside the terminal right? What makes it superior to other IDEs? I don't know if it can do things like auto equals and hash (which comes often handy for me, 2 clicks and done).

I would give it a try and I did once but I was lost and just continued with idea.

@SirWindfield it is yeah... but people liked it enough that they created an IntelliJ plugin for it. It basically makes the editor window of IntelliJ "like Vim" ... Vim allows you to make changes to your code very easily. instead of using arrow keys and mouse to navigate around your code, you basically type commands. For example, if you need to change the text inside a parenthesis you can just type just type "ci)" and Vim will clear everything inside!

I'll try to find a resource for you that explains what you can do with Vim

I've never used Emacs before (love Vim though!)

Could somebody explain to me what the hype is (or was) about Emacs and the main functional differences between it and any other editor or is that asking way too much? 😂

What makes it stand out? Is it similar to Vim? Is it a total rebel? I've just never cared enough to dive into it myself.

But the point is that you don't have to say goodbye to IntelliJ to start using Vim... IntelliJ has a Vim mode (via plugin) that gives you the same editing capabilities as the terminal editor...

@mostlyharmless you sir (or woman, no sexism here) are awesome!

@omer the problem with Vim is that while it has great editing capabilities, it isn't very powerful. Everything runs in a single thread so the editor hangs. if you have any plugins that say look for complie errors after saving the file, depending on the length of the file it can take a while for you to get the results. Also, configuring Vim to have the same refactoring , auto completion , jump to definition etc capabilities as an ide is an exercise in futility. Emacs solves all of these problems. It is written in lisp and had a massive community around it except the editing style is very alien to someone coming from Vim. that's why Spacemacs is so awesome. It really brings the best of both worlds

@SirWindfield haha no problem... give me a while (guy here btw)

@omer Emacs is a programmable editor that was put together by programmers to make programming easy.

In the old days the joke was that Emacs stood for "Eight Megs and Constantly Swapping". Nowadays it needs very few resources on a modern machine.

Then vi users joked that Emacs was a great Operating System, it just needed a decent editor. And so Emacs users just shrugged an added an Extensible vi layer for Emacs, or "Evil".

Emacs can handle files that vi just chokes on. But ultimately you just have try it seriously yourself.

@Wildgoose If you like evil mode I actually recommend that you try out spacemacs :)

This is why I love the devrant community. Thanks for the responses guys :) Even though I am comfortable with my current environment, I may just go try out spacemacs. It looks really cool!

Isn't spacemacs just emacs with a bunch of default plugins installed?

@ElectricCoffee What? Weren't you paying any attention? It's emacs for astronauts.