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Emacs is freaking amazing!

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  Emacs is freaking amazing! Devin Prater <r.d.t.prater@gmail.com> - 2026-04-14 07:44 -0500
    Re: Emacs is freaking amazing! Jonathan Lamothe <jonathan@jlamothe.net> - 2026-04-14 09:45 -0400
      Re: Emacs is freaking amazing! Don_from_AZ <djatechNOSPAM@comcast.net.invalid> - 2026-04-14 09:24 -0700
        Re: Emacs is freaking amazing! Jonathan Lamothe <jonathan@jlamothe.net> - 2026-04-14 13:31 -0400
          Re: Emacs is freaking amazing! yeti <yeti@tilde.institute> - 2026-04-14 18:41 +0042
            Re: Emacs is freaking amazing! Jonathan Lamothe <jonathan@jlamothe.net> - 2026-04-14 15:50 -0400
              Re: Emacs is freaking amazing! yeti <yeti@tilde.institute> - 2026-04-14 20:45 +0042
                Re: Emacs is freaking amazing! yeti <yeti@tilde.institute> - 2026-04-14 20:49 +0042
                Re: Emacs is freaking amazing! Jonathan Lamothe <jonathan@jlamothe.net> - 2026-04-14 16:35 -0400
            Re: Emacs is freaking amazing! Devin Prater <r.d.t.prater@gmail.com> - 2026-04-15 12:47 -0500
          Re: Emacs is freaking amazing! Daniel <me@sc1f1dan.com> - 2026-04-19 02:20 -0700
            Re: Emacs is freaking amazing! Jonathan Lamothe <jonathan@jlamothe.net> - 2026-04-19 12:30 -0400
              Re: Emacs is freaking amazing! Daniel <me@sc1f1dan.com> - 2026-04-19 20:11 -0700
              EMACS!!! (ws: Emacs is freaking amazing!) yeti <yeti@tilde.institute> - 2026-04-20 12:59 +0042
              EMACS!!! (was: Emacs is freaking amazing!) yeti <yeti@tilde.institute> - 2026-04-20 12:59 +0042
        Re: Emacs is freaking amazing! Lars Brinkhoff <lars.spam@nocrew.org> - 2026-04-14 20:06 +0000
      Re: Emacs is freaking amazing! Devin Prater <r.d.t.prater@gmail.com> - 2026-04-15 12:45 -0500
        Re: Emacs is freaking amazing! Mekeor Melire <mekeor@posteo.de> - 2026-04-15 21:23 +0200
    Re: Emacs is freaking amazing! Daniel <me@sc1f1dan.com> - 2026-04-19 02:19 -0700
    Re: Emacs is freaking amazing! Daniel Cerqueira <dan.list@lispclub.com> - 2026-04-21 16:41 +0100
    Re: Emacs is freaking amazing! Andros Fenollosa <hi@andros.dev> - 2026-04-23 08:33 +0200
      Re: Emacs is freaking amazing! John Bokma <contact@johnbokma.com> - 2026-04-23 15:00 +0200

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#2536 — Emacs is freaking amazing!

So I've been using Emacs off and on for the past 10 years. I'm a blind
person, and was introduced to Emacs on an old "note taker (PDA)" device
in the mid 2000's. It was called the Braille Plus, and was a Linux
machine with "apps" on top. It also gave access to the Linux console,
using the Speakup screen reader, and had a few programs you could
download for the console. I believe it ran Alpine.

First of all, the tutorial made sense. Emacs made sense. Emacs was new,
vibrant, and interesting. But then I found Emacspeak.

Emacspeak, at https://www.github.com/tvraman/emacspeak, is an "audio
desktop" for Emacspeak. Basically, a screen reader with a few facilities
for reading books, playing media, and plenty of advise hooks to make
other packages talk better. Emacs not only reads buffers, it gives me
syntax highlighting, sounds for events like file saved, action complete,
Company completion available, all that. And I love it. I love using it.
I love learning more about it.

And now I have it on my phone! I have Termux, the base Linux-like
system, Emacs, with Emacspeak on top. I had AI make C-e x b give me the
actual battery status of my phone, with estimated time remaining, using
termux-battery. I can copy something to the kill ring, then use Eshell
to termux-clipboard-set and boom, it's on my phone's clipboard! And with
Org-mode, I can write, with great cursor tracking and editing commands,
anywhere, with my Bluetooth keyboard. I can read epub books with nov.el,
do lite web browsing with eww, and read email and newsgroups with Gnus!

Basically, some programmers say Ruby makes them happy. Well, Emacs makes
me happy. And now I have it everywhere!

[toc] | [next] | [standalone]

#2537

Devin Prater <r.d.t.prater@gmail.com> writes:

> So I've been using Emacs off and on for the past 10 years. I'm a blind
> person, and was introduced to Emacs on an old "note taker (PDA)" device
> in the mid 2000's. It was called the Braille Plus, and was a Linux
> machine with "apps" on top. It also gave access to the Linux console,
> using the Speakup screen reader, and had a few programs you could
> download for the console. I believe it ran Alpine.
>
> First of all, the tutorial made sense. Emacs made sense. Emacs was new,
> vibrant, and interesting. But then I found Emacspeak.
>
> Emacspeak, at https://www.github.com/tvraman/emacspeak, is an "audio
> desktop" for Emacspeak. Basically, a screen reader with a few facilities
> for reading books, playing media, and plenty of advise hooks to make
> other packages talk better. Emacs not only reads buffers, it gives me
> syntax highlighting, sounds for events like file saved, action complete,
> Company completion available, all that. And I love it. I love using it.
> I love learning more about it.
>
> And now I have it on my phone! I have Termux, the base Linux-like
> system, Emacs, with Emacspeak on top. I had AI make C-e x b give me the
> actual battery status of my phone, with estimated time remaining, using
> termux-battery. I can copy something to the kill ring, then use Eshell
> to termux-clipboard-set and boom, it's on my phone's clipboard! And with
> Org-mode, I can write, with great cursor tracking and editing commands,
> anywhere, with my Bluetooth keyboard. I can read epub books with nov.el,
> do lite web browsing with eww, and read email and newsgroups with Gnus!
>
> Basically, some programmers say Ruby makes them happy. Well, Emacs makes
> me happy. And now I have it everywhere!

I've been an emacs user for years, but mostly as little more than a text
editor.  More recently, I've started incorporating more and more of my
workflow into it—I read your message and am composing my reply with
emacs—and I have to say, I love how nicely everything integrates with
everything else.

That said, I was unaware that emacs had the accessibility features it
does.  I suppose I shouldn't be surprised by that, since it has just
about everything else, but that's good to know.

-- 
Regards,
Jonathan Lamothe
https://jlamothe.net

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#2538

Jonathan Lamothe <jonathan@jlamothe.net> writes:

> Devin Prater <r.d.t.prater@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> So I've been using Emacs off and on for the past 10 years. I'm a blind
>> person, and was introduced to Emacs on an old "note taker (PDA)" device
>> in the mid 2000's. It was called the Braille Plus, and was a Linux
>> machine with "apps" on top. It also gave access to the Linux console,
>> using the Speakup screen reader, and had a few programs you could
>> download for the console. I believe it ran Alpine.
>>
>> First of all, the tutorial made sense. Emacs made sense. Emacs was new,
>> vibrant, and interesting. But then I found Emacspeak.
>>
>> Emacspeak, at https://www.github.com/tvraman/emacspeak, is an "audio
>> desktop" for Emacspeak. Basically, a screen reader with a few facilities
>> for reading books, playing media, and plenty of advise hooks to make
>> other packages talk better. Emacs not only reads buffers, it gives me
>> syntax highlighting, sounds for events like file saved, action complete,
>> Company completion available, all that. And I love it. I love using it.
>> I love learning more about it.
>>
>> And now I have it on my phone! I have Termux, the base Linux-like
>> system, Emacs, with Emacspeak on top. I had AI make C-e x b give me the
>> actual battery status of my phone, with estimated time remaining, using
>> termux-battery. I can copy something to the kill ring, then use Eshell
>> to termux-clipboard-set and boom, it's on my phone's clipboard! And with
>> Org-mode, I can write, with great cursor tracking and editing commands,
>> anywhere, with my Bluetooth keyboard. I can read epub books with nov.el,
>> do lite web browsing with eww, and read email and newsgroups with Gnus!
>>
>> Basically, some programmers say Ruby makes them happy. Well, Emacs makes
>> me happy. And now I have it everywhere!
>
> I've been an emacs user for years, but mostly as little more than a text
> editor.  More recently, I've started incorporating more and more of my
> workflow into it—I read your message and am composing my reply with
> emacs—and I have to say, I love how nicely everything integrates with
> everything else.
>
> That said, I was unaware that emacs had the accessibility features it
> does.  I suppose I shouldn't be surprised by that, since it has just
> about everything else, but that's good to know.
I started to use Emacs, on Multics, in about 1980 or so. Like Jonathon,
mostly as a text editor, but I also use "org-mode" to keep track of
things I have to do, and I am writing this response using "gnus" as my
newsreader. 
-- 
-Don_from_AZ-

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#2539

Don_from_AZ <djatechNOSPAM@comcast.net.invalid> writes:

<snip>

> I started to use Emacs, on Multics, in about 1980 or so. Like Jonathon,
> mostly as a text editor, but I also use "org-mode" to keep track of
> things I have to do, and I am writing this response using "gnus" as my
> newsreader. 

Yup, org-mode was my gateway drug too.

-- 
Regards,
Jonathan Lamothe
https://jlamothe.net

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#2540

Jonathan Lamothe <jonathan@jlamothe.net> wrote:

> Don_from_AZ <djatechNOSPAM@comcast.net.invalid> writes:
>
> <snip>
>
>> I started to use Emacs, on Multics, in about 1980 or so. Like Jonathon,
>> mostly as a text editor, but I also use "org-mode" to keep track of
>> things I have to do, and I am writing this response using "gnus" as my
>> newsreader. 
>
> Yup, org-mode was my gateway drug too.

Life is too short for not using orgmode.  Sure orgmode doesn't make you
live longer, but it boosts your efficiency.

org-babel probably is the most important part I'd miss if Emacs would
disappear.

-- 
RESIST AND UNSUBSCRIBE
<https://www.resistandunsubscribe.com/>

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#2541

yeti <yeti@tilde.institute> writes:

> Jonathan Lamothe <jonathan@jlamothe.net> wrote:
>
>> Don_from_AZ <djatechNOSPAM@comcast.net.invalid> writes:
>>
>> <snip>
>>
>>> I started to use Emacs, on Multics, in about 1980 or so. Like Jonathon,
>>> mostly as a text editor, but I also use "org-mode" to keep track of
>>> things I have to do, and I am writing this response using "gnus" as my
>>> newsreader. 
>>
>> Yup, org-mode was my gateway drug too.
>
> Life is too short for not using orgmode.  Sure orgmode doesn't make you
> live longer, but it boosts your efficiency.
>
> org-babel probably is the most important part I'd miss if Emacs would
> disappear.

I've yet to look into that one properly.  It's for citations, correct?

-- 
Regards,
Jonathan Lamothe
https://jlamothe.net

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#2542

Jonathan Lamothe <jonathan@jlamothe.net> wrote:

> yeti <yeti@tilde.institute> writes:

>> org-babel probably is the most important part I'd miss if Emacs would
>> disappear.

> I've yet to look into that one properly.  It's for citations, correct?

It is a mix literate programming and jupyter notebook style programming
with export possibilities of the document to many document formats.

-- 
KNORKATOR
Wir werden alle sterben (OFFICIAL VIDEO)
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuxF07wRpOw>

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#2544

yeti <yeti@tilde.institute> wrote:

> Jonathan Lamothe <jonathan@jlamothe.net> wrote:
>
>> yeti <yeti@tilde.institute> writes:
>
>>> org-babel probably is the most important part I'd miss if Emacs would
>>> disappear.
>
>> I've yet to look into that one properly.  It's for citations, correct?
>
> It is a mix literate programming and jupyter notebook style programming
> with export possibilities of the document to many document formats.

That means you can keep discussion of the code, the code itself and test
runs in the same place.

-- 
Tennessee Brando
Hope They Enjoy CHEAPER EGGS
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWu0v8ktUxg>

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#2545

yeti <yeti@tilde.institute> writes:

> Jonathan Lamothe <jonathan@jlamothe.net> wrote:
>
>> yeti <yeti@tilde.institute> writes:
>
>>> org-babel probably is the most important part I'd miss if Emacs would
>>> disappear.
>
>> I've yet to look into that one properly.  It's for citations, correct?
>
> It is a mix literate programming and jupyter notebook style programming
> with export possibilities of the document to many document formats.

Oh, that *does* sound interesting!

-- 
Regards,
Jonathan Lamothe
https://jlamothe.net

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#2547

yeti <yeti@tilde.institute> writes:

> Jonathan Lamothe <jonathan@jlamothe.net> wrote:

>> Don_from_AZ <djatechNOSPAM@comcast.net.invalid> writes:

>> <snip>

>>> I started to use Emacs, on Multics, in about 1980 or so. Like
>>> Jonathon,
>>> mostly as a text editor, but I also use "org-mode" to keep track of
>>> things I have to do, and I am writing this response using "gnus" as
>>> my
>>> newsreader. 

>> Yup, org-mode was my gateway drug too.

> Life is too short for not using orgmode. Sure orgmode doesn't make you
> live longer, but it boosts your efficiency.

> org-babel probably is the most important part I'd miss if Emacs would
> disappear.
I've not gotten into Org-babel yet. What's so good about it?

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#2552

Jonathan Lamothe <jonathan@jlamothe.net> writes:

> Don_from_AZ <djatechNOSPAM@comcast.net.invalid> writes:
>
> <snip>
>
>> I started to use Emacs, on Multics, in about 1980 or so. Like Jonathon,
>> mostly as a text editor, but I also use "org-mode" to keep track of
>> things I have to do, and I am writing this response using "gnus" as my
>> newsreader. 
>
> Yup, org-mode was my gateway drug too.

One thing I haven't dug into yet. No idea what it is honestly.

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#2553

Daniel <me@sc1f1dan.com> writes:

> Jonathan Lamothe <jonathan@jlamothe.net> writes:
>
>> Don_from_AZ <djatechNOSPAM@comcast.net.invalid> writes:
>>
>> <snip>
>>
>>> I started to use Emacs, on Multics, in about 1980 or so. Like Jonathon,
>>> mostly as a text editor, but I also use "org-mode" to keep track of
>>> things I have to do, and I am writing this response using "gnus" as my
>>> newsreader. 
>>
>> Yup, org-mode was my gateway drug too.
>
> One thing I haven't dug into yet. No idea what it is honestly.

I highly recommend it.  I held out on it for some time because I thought
it was just "spicy markdown", but the tools org-mode offers are actually
pretty incredible.  I have ADHD and use an org-mode git repository to
keep my whole damn life organized.

I wrote a blog post about it, actually:
https://jlamothe.net/blog/2024-11-15

-- 
Regards,
Jonathan Lamothe
https://jlamothe.net

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#2554

Jonathan Lamothe <jonathan@jlamothe.net> writes:

> Daniel <me@sc1f1dan.com> writes:
>
>> Jonathan Lamothe <jonathan@jlamothe.net> writes:
>>
>>> Don_from_AZ <djatechNOSPAM@comcast.net.invalid> writes:
>>>
>>> <snip>
>>>
>>>> I started to use Emacs, on Multics, in about 1980 or so. Like Jonathon,
>>>> mostly as a text editor, but I also use "org-mode" to keep track of
>>>> things I have to do, and I am writing this response using "gnus" as my
>>>> newsreader. 
>>>
>>> Yup, org-mode was my gateway drug too.
>>
>> One thing I haven't dug into yet. No idea what it is honestly.
>
> I highly recommend it.  I held out on it for some time because I thought
> it was just "spicy markdown", but the tools org-mode offers are actually
> pretty incredible.  I have ADHD and use an org-mode git repository to
> keep my whole damn life organized.
>
> I wrote a blog post about it, actually:
> https://jlamothe.net/blog/2024-11-15

I'll read your blog post now. Got lynx fired up.

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#2555 — EMACS!!! (ws: Emacs is freaking amazing!)

Jonathan Lamothe <jonathan@jlamothe.net> wrote:

> I wrote a blog post about it, actually:
> https://jlamothe.net/blog/2024-11-15

I just thought about far too infrequently using EWW and already started
to chisel a question like "(E)WW or (O)S default browser?" to hook into
the selection which browser to start and then noticed that this already
is far easier via prefix and the definition of the secondary browser.

\o/   E M A C S ! ! !   \o/

;-D

-- 
There is no emacs locked in syndrome!  I'm open to try every editor that
gives me eshell, gnus, orgmode and tramp!             20251125T0744/yeti

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#2556 — EMACS!!! (was: Emacs is freaking amazing!)

Jonathan Lamothe <jonathan@jlamothe.net> wrote:

> I wrote a blog post about it, actually:
> https://jlamothe.net/blog/2024-11-15

I just thought about far too infrequently using EWW and already started
to chisel a question like "(E)WW or (O)S default browser?" to hook into
the selection which browser to start and then noticed that this already
is far easier via prefix and the definition of the secondary browser.

\o/   E M A C S ! ! !   \o/

;-D

-- 
There is no emacs locked in syndrome!  I'm open to try every editor that
gives me eshell, gnus, orgmode and tramp!             20251125T0744/yeti

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#2543

Don wrote:
> I started to use Emacs, on Multics, in about 1980 or so.

Respect.  I started with GNU Emacs 18 and 19 in 1993.  But the past few
years I have been using the original EMACS that was first developed on
the ITS operating system, and I can attest to it being quite nice there
too.  I rarely have to think about any differences in the key bindings.

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#2546

Jonathan Lamothe <jonathan@jlamothe.net> writes:

> That said, I was unaware that emacs had the accessibility features it
> does. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised by that, since it has just
> about everything else, but that's good to know.
It's not built in, but it definitely exists.

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#2548

On 2026-04-15 at 12:45, <r.d.t.prater@gmail.com> wrote:

> Jonathan Lamothe <jonathan@jlamothe.net> writes:
>
>> That said, I was unaware that emacs had the accessibility features it
>> does. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised by that, since it has just
>> about everything else, but that's good to know.
>
> It's not built in, but it definitely exists.

I tried out Emacspeak (as an abled (i.e. non-disabled) person) and
found it usable. But not quite great. In the ongoing hype of “AI”,
there are much better text-to-speech and speech-to-text systems
than what Emacspeak seems to use.

I have been amazed by the prototype that Abhinav Tushar
a.k.a. “lepisma” demonstrated in this blog post from 2024 titled
“Dictation Mode for Emacs”:

	https://lepisma.xyz/2024/09/12/emacs-dictation-mode/

Their dictation mode allows to dictate “write one two three four
as words”, or “... with digits” etc., or give commands like “go
back a word” etc.

Emacs could have an extremely powerful a11y framework! It would
also be useful for abled people.

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#2551

Devin Prater <r.d.t.prater@gmail.com> writes:

> So I've been using Emacs off and on for the past 10 years. I'm a blind
> person, and was introduced to Emacs on an old "note taker (PDA)" device
> in the mid 2000's. It was called the Braille Plus, and was a Linux
> machine with "apps" on top. It also gave access to the Linux console,
> using the Speakup screen reader, and had a few programs you could
> download for the console. I believe it ran Alpine.
>
> First of all, the tutorial made sense. Emacs made sense. Emacs was new,
> vibrant, and interesting. But then I found Emacspeak.
>
> Emacspeak, at https://www.github.com/tvraman/emacspeak, is an "audio
> desktop" for Emacspeak. Basically, a screen reader with a few facilities
> for reading books, playing media, and plenty of advise hooks to make
> other packages talk better. Emacs not only reads buffers, it gives me
> syntax highlighting, sounds for events like file saved, action complete,
> Company completion available, all that. And I love it. I love using it.
> I love learning more about it.
>
> And now I have it on my phone! I have Termux, the base Linux-like
> system, Emacs, with Emacspeak on top. I had AI make C-e x b give me the
> actual battery status of my phone, with estimated time remaining, using
> termux-battery. I can copy something to the kill ring, then use Eshell
> to termux-clipboard-set and boom, it's on my phone's clipboard! And with
> Org-mode, I can write, with great cursor tracking and editing commands,
> anywhere, with my Bluetooth keyboard. I can read epub books with nov.el,
> do lite web browsing with eww, and read email and newsgroups with Gnus!
>
> Basically, some programmers say Ruby makes them happy. Well, Emacs makes
> me happy. And now I have it everywhere!

Amazing post man!

I use emacs daily. It's not my daily driver from most of my static
writing but, for emails and usenet it is my go-to.

I have transitioned 99% of my daily computing tasks to the linux
commandline and emacs is a permanent fixture on one of my tmux
panels. Though, I know most features will never be used by me - I'm cool
with that.

got to say Im' really amazed by your post.

Have a good day

--
Daniel
sysop  | air & wave bbs
finger | calcmandan@bbs.erb.pw

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#2557

[Multipart message — attachments visible in raw view] — view raw

Devin Prater <r.d.t.prater@gmail.com> writes:

> So I've been using Emacs off and on for the past 10 years. I'm a blind
> person, and was introduced to Emacs on an old "note taker (PDA)" device
> in the mid 2000's. It was called the Braille Plus, and was a Linux
> machine with "apps" on top. It also gave access to the Linux console,
> using the Speakup screen reader, and had a few programs you could
> download for the console. I believe it ran Alpine.
>
> First of all, the tutorial made sense. Emacs made sense. Emacs was new,
> vibrant, and interesting. But then I found Emacspeak.
>
> Emacspeak, at https://www.github.com/tvraman/emacspeak, is an "audio
> desktop" for Emacspeak. Basically, a screen reader with a few facilities
> for reading books, playing media, and plenty of advise hooks to make
> other packages talk better. Emacs not only reads buffers, it gives me
> syntax highlighting, sounds for events like file saved, action complete,
> Company completion available, all that. And I love it. I love using it.
> I love learning more about it.
>
> And now I have it on my phone! I have Termux, the base Linux-like
> system, Emacs, with Emacspeak on top. I had AI make C-e x b give me the
> actual battery status of my phone, with estimated time remaining, using
> termux-battery. I can copy something to the kill ring, then use Eshell
> to termux-clipboard-set and boom, it's on my phone's clipboard! And with
> Org-mode, I can write, with great cursor tracking and editing commands,
> anywhere, with my Bluetooth keyboard. I can read epub books with nov.el,
> do lite web browsing with eww, and read email and newsgroups with Gnus!
>
> Basically, some programmers say Ruby makes them happy. Well, Emacs makes
> me happy. And now I have it everywhere!

Thank you for introducing me to the existence of nov EPUB reader package
:-) .  Cheers!

-- 
The pioneers of a warless world are the youth that
refuse military service. ~ Albert Einstein

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