I hope my question makes sense.

I am using Doom Emacs for a while now and have become fairly proficient. But I feel like whenever I am browsing emacs content online there are still many topics for me to discover. So I was wondering if there is anything that I might be “missing” yet which might help with my productivity or improve my development skills.

Sofar I what have learned, on top from my head:

  • Org/Org Agenda (refile etc.)
  • Magit
  • Vterm
  • LSP Commands
  • Multiple Cursors
  • Literal Config
  • Navigating Emacs itself (which key, debugging, reading Emacs-Lisp (abit))
  • Using Language specific commands, i.e. send buffer to repl
  • Using Undo with Vundo

Only thing I know that I still need to learn is beeing more proficient with vim keybindings, but with that I know where to start.

I know the question is quite broad, but maybe there some “killer features” worth to explore which I am not aware of yet.

I’d appreciate any input.

  • ideasman_42@alien.topBEnglish
    0·
    10 months ago

    I’d suggest not to attempt to become proficient at Emacs for the sake of it, instead.

    • Use Emacs for whatever you need an editor for.
    • Ensure your workflow is good.
    • If you see some room for improvement, investigate packages/configuration.
    • If you need to scratch an itch, write your own commands/packages.

    Once in a while you might like to play & explore areas you didn’t dig into before but you don’t have to. Have a nice workflow, get your work done - and leave it at that :)

    For some context, packages I’ve developed: https://codeberg.org/ideasman42

    • albcorp@alien.topBEnglish
      0·
      10 months ago

      I completely agree with this summary. Find something in your existing workflow that could do with improvement, and seek out a solution. For example: you want to jump quickly between windows, look up Ace Window; or, you want to jump quickly across the text visible on the screen, look up Avy; or, you want to jump quickly between files and text in your repository, look up Counsel.

      Invest in a few well made frameworks, but only one at a time, and allow yourself to internalize their concepts and key bindings. It is helpful to write out the keybindings that you intend to memorize. A framework or package will often have dozens, but you will probably only ever commit to a handful. Review the list after a month or two, and you will likely find the ones that stick with you.

      I have used Emacs exclusively since the early nineties, so I’ve seen whole frameworks come and go. I’ve also wasted a lot of time on some of them, e.g., Org Mode is something I swore off almost a decade ago. What I appreciate most about Emacs is that learning it has truly been an investment, since it has had incredible staying power and there’s enough in the vanilla install that I can install the package on a new Linux box and immediately be productively editing files

      • cljnewbie2019@alien.topBEnglish
        0·
        10 months ago

        e.g., Org Mode is something I swore off almost a decade ago.

        I’m curious (not arguing) why you swore off Org-Mode? This is why I came to emacs from more of a vim background and keeping notes in markdown.