Category Archives: General

Even Google Employees Are Trying to Escape

Posted on 2020-02-26 by jcs

As regular Irreal readers know to their sorrow, one of my favorite hobby horses is the need to keep control of your data. Broadly that means keeping it in open formats and on computers that you manage. If you’re committing … Continue reading →

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Who Cares About Emacs?

Posted on 2020-02-25 by jcs

Over at Opensource.com, Seth Kenlon has an article that asks the question, “Who cares about Emacs?” After all, the editor is ancient. Its GNU incarnation has been around since 1983 and there are plenty of glittery new editors to choose … Continue reading →

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Refcards

Posted on 2020-02-24 by jcs

Emacs has many subsystems that are complicated enough that they have their own reference cards: Dired, Org Mode, and Calc are prime examples but there are others. If I find myself using a refcard frequently, I bookmark in my browser … Continue reading →

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Zamansky 67: Emacs vs. Vi(m)

Posted on 2020-02-23 by jcs

As promised, Mike Zamansky has published his thoughts on the Emacs vs. Vi controversy in a another video in his Using Emacs Series. Unlike Zamansky, I was a long time user of Vi/Vim before I moved to Emacs so I’m … Continue reading →

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A Comparison of Vim and Emacs

Posted on 2020-02-22 by jcs

Over at the YouTube DistroTube Channel, Derek Taylor has an even handed video that explores the question Vim Versus Emacs. Which Is Better? Taylor is a n00b with both editors but has come to the same conclusion that I have: … Continue reading →

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An Org Mode Workflow for Spacemacs

Posted on 2020-02-21 by jcs

Over at OutOfCheeseError there’s a useful discussion of an Org-mode workflow for Spacemacs. If you’re a member of the Spacemacs sect, you should take a look. Interestingly, the post is part of his .spacemacs file so it’s pretty much always … Continue reading →

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Regular Expressions in 30 Lines of C

Posted on 2020-02-17 by jcs

I recently saw a pointer to a nice article by Brian Kernighan that describes some beautiful code written by Rob Pike for their book The Practice of Programming. As an example of the power of notation, they wanted to show … Continue reading →

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Dark-Mode vs. Light-Mode Again

Posted on 2020-02-16 by jcs

You’d think this would be dead horse by now but we always have fun with it when I post on the issue so here’s another episode. Via Kontra we have an article by Raluca Budiu on whether light-mode or dark-mode … Continue reading →

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Emacs Variables

Posted on 2020-02-15 by jcs

Emacs variables are at once both easier and more difficult than in other languages. On the one hand, Emacs variables are typeless so you can put whatever you like in them and even use the same variable to hold different … Continue reading →

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When Will They Ever Learn?

Posted on 2020-02-14 by jcs

Jacob Eisenstein is wondering at the madness that has overtaken the academic world. He wonders why in the world they are depending on someone else’s computer and SaaS to do one of their most important jobs: writing and publishing papers. … Continue reading →

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