emacs

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#modernhw, and in particular digital electronics design implies, for the most of it, writing #plaintext files. Creating code, scripts, configurations, documentation, emails, taking notes, handling bibliographic references, etc., all of these tasks involve writing in plain text files. Whether these files are created or modified, editing plain text is a must. An, when it comes to editing text, it is really worth investing some time on learning a bit more than the basics of a good text editor.
At that point, once one decides to opt for a good tool, it takes the best of them all. In my case, I decided to start a long journey towards mastering emacs, even if GNU #emacs is much more than a text editor: it is a full customizable environment, and is #freesoftware. Emacs has been around longer than me, and benefits from the accumulated experience of all those having used it well before I discovered its existence. Inside of it one will have access to a plethora of existing applications, make use of killer tools as #magit and #orgroam, handle email with #mu4e, browse the web with #eww, manipulate windows with #exwm, run terminals, compile, develop non-existing utilities, modify emacs’s default behavior, change options, default bindings, etc. It is closer to a customizable working environmetn (a full OS some claim !) that you’ll take the time to build, than just a text editor.
Orgmode deserves a special chapter in here: #orgmode brings plain text editing to next level of productivity. Check the quickstart if you’re not familiar with it. Don’t feel overwhelmed by the its large list of features: links, tables, markup, attachments, agenda, tags, export, publishing ... the list is endless. If you ever feel like tempted to use it, proceed step by step. As with emacs, just pick some appealing feature you think you’ need, and start making use of it. The more you practice, the more you’ll feel more comfortable with it.
You’ll manage, with time and some experience, to build a working environment suited to your particular and special needs, to a point you never imagined it was possible. And most important: you’ll be able to make it evolve with your own needs. It takes time, a lot of it, and the learning curve is quite step, so this is probably not the best choice for everyone. However, once you really learn how to use it (and get used to forget about your mouse !), the benefits in productivity are really impressive. You’ll never look backwards.
If you ever opt to follow the same path as I did, start by the tutorial, and read the documentation. Then, just use it, little by little, no hurries. You’ll be learning something new about emacs everyday during the next 20 years anyway.