You Must Use Emacs or Vi

Back in 2012, I wrote a blog post recounting my observation that the best developers tended to use either Emacs or Vim (and back then, possibly TextMate on OS X). I speculated that that might be because excellent developers choose the best tools available and invest in learning to master them.

Now, Sébastien Le Gall writes that developers in 2016 must learn Emacs or Vi. His post fleshes out my arguments for why great developers and those that want to be one take the time to master Emacs or Vi. He looks at two features in particular:

  1. Emacs and Vi encourage mouseless operation and this saves considerable time.
  2. Emacs—particularly with packages like Projectile—make choosing and opening a file quick and easy.

Some of you will doubtless disagree as you did with my analysis but Sébastien’s post is interesting and might encourage non-users to give Emacs or Vi a try.

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