Emacs, also a way of life

If you’ve programmed or been a sysadmin on UNIX or Linux, you’ve undoubtedly already taken sides in emacs versus vi. You won’t be convinced to switch to the other text editor. It’s like trying to persuade someone to flip allegiance between the Red Sox and the Yankees.

If you haven’t, be aware that GNU Emacs is a very powerful text editor that probably runs on any computer you’ve ever edited a file on or ever will. Although calling it a text editor is a profound understatement. It could as easily be considered a software development environment (IDE), an office suite, or a personal information manager (PIM).

Learning GNU Emacs, 3rd Edition is an excellent way to get started. Yes, the book was last revised in 2004. But even the 1991 first edition is still useful—one of the strengths of Emacs is that the basics are stable. Continue reading