Lamentations for a [lack of a] modern emacs
Back in the day (that was the mid 90′s for me) GNU Emacs was THE programmers IDE, but it was so much more. It could do everything you typically needed a computer for. Coding – nothing could beat it. As a matter of fact, my introductory engineering course taught Emacs for the first week or so. E-mail – for Project Vincent (our computer system at ISU) it was the standard e-mail composer. Telnet – Why leave Emacs just to hop onto another host? Word processing – I didn’t even know how to use lpr until my second or third semester and I hadn’t heard of Word perfect of MS Word at that time. Literally everything that you needed to do could be done in Emacs.

Now most people will be quick to point out that Emacs had a steep learning curve. However for me, emacs was not optional so I just got by and figured it out.

In today’s computer world though, the emacs user interface leaves a lot to be desired. On my computers Eclipse has replaced Emacs and I use VIM when confined to a terminal. Despite their advanced functionality, they just don’t do EVERYTHING that I need a computer to do. I still have to open extra web-browser windows, I still use several external instant messenger programs, I don’t use either to play my music and I still have to open SSH prompts through other means.

There was a time when emacs was my shell. When I logged in, emacs opened and when I closed emacs, I was automatically logged out. However, I don’t think there will be a day when a single program will be able to do everything I need in a typical computing session. Our expectations have grown too great for a single app to excel at everthing.

So why suddenly lament? I’m tired of Alt + Tabbing. So many of the programs I use are massive and every time I switch programs I have to wait 20 seconds or so. Maybe I need a second monitor, or a faster computer (currenlty using 1.6 GHz) but that won’t happen for a while. For now you just have to hear me whine. Maybe you should create a blog article lamenting the emacs lamenter.