Being an Emacs user for many years, I feel Don Box's pain.
Patrick Logan makes some additional points about Emacs vs. IDEs.
I have problems using IDEs. First of all, too many panels get in the way. Too many toolbars, tabs, and status bars are stacked horizontally. I want work space for my editor, and I feel cramped. When I used to write programs on a terminal with 80 columns and 24 rows of text, I used to print source code frequently in order to study it. That all stopped when I was able to view 40 or 50 lines of code simultaneously on the screen. Lots of visual workspace is a major productivity enhancement.
I like using keystrokes for all but the most rarely used tools. The stress caused to the muscles surely must be worse for mouse clicking than for pressing keys on the keyboard. The action is different. Pressing a mouse button does not involve the wrist at all, causing more stress to the muscles of the finger. (Try it!) Typing on a keyboard allows the whole arm and wrist to be used. (Talk to a piano teacher about good keyboard technique and then apply that to typing on a computer keyboard. I myself am a pianist.) So, I believe I am at less risk for repetitive stress injury by using a keyboard for most editing activities.
I also like the fact that Emacs is everywhere I need it: on my primary desktop box, on my laptop, on several other develpment boxes.
For all Emacs advantages, I give up very little. Emacs has many advanced features that I use, many of which are probably unknown to non-Emacs users. Ediff alone is a good reason to have emacs around.
Posted by Doug Sauder at December 20, 2003 11:08 AM