Jeremy Friesen has a bit more to say on why he uses Emacs. Last time we stopped by his blog, he explained how he molds Emacs to enhance his blogging workflow. This time he’s answering a question on the Emacs/reddit as to whether there’s any reason to prefer Emacs to a “modern looking” IDE such as VS Code. I generally stop reading when I see terms like “modern looking” but Friesen is more patient than I and posted a thoughtful response that explained why he thought there was.
Friesen’s reasons boil down to synergy. He says he uses Emacs for 3 main purposes:
- Coding
- Blogging
- Note Taking
and observes that when he implements something—a new function or key binding, say—to improve one area, he automatically gets gains in the other areas as well.
He expands on his reply a bit in his blog post. Using Emacs means fewer context switches and the opportunity to master Emacs. He’s found that the lessons he’s learned extend beyond Emacs. He sums it up by saying that Emacs helps him get better at dealing with digital information.
I don’t know for sure but I’d guess that most people who have taken the time to really learn Emacs have experienced that. I know that Emacs has made me really good at wrangling text and therefore with dealing with digital data in general.