Monthly Archives: February 2020

Revolt of the Librarians

Posted on 2020-02-29 by jcs

Ars Technica has an interesting article about the on-going open access wars. University libraries, like everyone else, have to operate on a budget and fee increases from journal publishers is putting the squeeze on those budgets. Librarians are starting to … Continue reading →

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Using Org Capture Globally

Posted on 2020-02-28 by jcs

After my recent disaster with my old MacBook Pro, one of the functionalities that I still haven’t restored is the ability to call Org capture from outside Emacs. I used to have a bit of Apple Script that I could … Continue reading →

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Tom Tromey on the Future of Emacs

Posted on 2020-02-27 by jcs

During FOSDEM ’20 Tom Tromey gave a very interesting talk on what he believes the future of Emacs will be. Others, such as Perry Metzger, have also addressed this question. Almost always, one of the suggestions that come out of … Continue reading →

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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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Progress Report

Posted on 2020-02-20 by jcs

I’ve almost completely recovered from the debacle with my old computer. At least recovered enough to resume posting to Irreal. I now have a brand new 13“ MacBook Pro complete with touch strip and bad keyboard. My old machine was … Continue reading →

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