[emacs-wiki-discuss] Re: Complexity of computing w/ Emacs

[Zak B. Elep]

Allen Halsey <address@hidden> writes:

> But extrapolating from my progress these last 6 weeks, I feel I have a 
> two years to go before I achieve effectiveness in computing in a Emacs + 
> Planner + Gnus environment. And even that timeline I'm not so sure of.

Heh, you can do it in 6 months to 1 year tops ;)

> I think I'll eventually get the hang of elisp. That is not my main
> worry.

Same here :)  I'd like to learn Elisp soon so I can get started hacking
on an Emacs client for MusicPD[1], but right now that's not in the #A
tasklist :D

> My main worry is whether the efficiency of emacs UI can ever rise to
> that of a suite of dedicated GUI applications.

Maybe not with Emacs alone, but perhaps with Emacs and a UI that is
designed with Emacs in mind, like Ratpoison or Ion.

> Consider, for example, switching between applications.
>
> In a GUI world, I have a buttons on my task bar for the applications I 
> am currently running:


>   - Thunderbird Mail Client,
    M-x gnus
>   - A Java IDE
    M-x java-mode; hell, even cc-mode is useful
>   - Mozilla Sunbird Calendar Application
    M-x calendar
>   - A couple of terminals
    M-x ansi-term, M-x eshell
>   - An IRC client
    M-x erc-select
>   - A text editor with multiple tabs for keeping notes and TODO lists.
    No direct analog in Emacs, but you can have several Emacs frames
    open and work as a *single* window in PWM.

> Emacs can subsume the functionality of all these apps in a single
> instance. That's one button on task bar. But I hesitate to embark on
> this approach because I am absolutely terrified that I'll click that
> one button and drown in a sea of buffers.

Iswitchb is very helpful in avoiding that: (iswitchb-mode 1)

Why move the mouse when you can move your fingers?

(global-set-key "\C-xm" 'gnus-other-frame)  Lets me call Gnus in another
frame so it doesn't clutter up whatever I'm doing ;)  It should be as
easy to do in other Emacs apps...

> I think maybe I just haven't learned the right tricks yet. Should I
> run each major app in separate frames? In separate instances? Is using
> an alernate Window Manager like RatPoison the answer?

I usually do my stuff all in one frame divided into 2 or 3 windows,
depending on the level of multitasking I'm on, say, when I'm doing a
report while chatting over YM while checking Slashdot.  As hinted above,
I read my mail and RSS in another frame.

As for terminals, I actually use screen under Ion, and that runs tail,
ncmpc, and a free bash, so I can control anything from anywhere on my
desktop.

Footnotes: 
[1]  http://musicpd.org

-- 
ZAK B. ELEP     <address@hidden>        --      <http://zakame.spunge.org>
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