I figure I would share this one more time. The thing is so handy I put it on my desktop but the original is blinding white and 1.5:1 aspect ratio. This is a quick recolor and resize to 16:9. There is a 90px margin on top that is sized for the GNOME header so that the content remains visible. Sorry if this post seems redundant. For me, having this reminder to keep trying to use Emacs is just the motivation I need to open a file in Emacs instead of just using gedit quickly.
bonus tip!
On Fedora 40, if you have darkmode set to the default in GNOME, GNU Emacs does not follow the darkmode styling directive for the menu bar. I spent forever trying to make this work in darkmode. If the app is launched using $ GTK_THEME=Adwaita:dark emacs it will start with the menu bar set to dark mode.
However there is a script that actually launches Emacs in /user/bin/emacs-desktop. If you open that file and modify it by adding export GTK_THEME=Adwaita:dark emacs just before the last line, it will launch with darkmode enabled. This is the entire contents of that file:
#!/usr/bin/sh
# The pure GTK build of emacs is not supported on X11, so try to avoid
# using if there is an alternative.
if [ "$XDG_SESSION_TYPE" = 'x11' ]; then
case "$(readlink -f /usr/bin/emacs)" in
*/emacs-*.*-pgtk)
if type emacs-gtk+x11 >/dev/null; then
exec emacs-gtk+x11 "$@"
elif type emacs-lucid >/dev/null; then
exec emacs-lucid "$@"
fi
;;
esac
fi
export GTK_THEME=Adwaita:dark emacs
exec emacs "$@"
I’m not claiming it is the right way. It just worked when I tried it.
Thus far, Emacs feels like advanced next level bash. I’m looking at all the integrated workflows and ootions. You can hook in RSS, Firefox, email, programming languages, Arduino, serial, SSH, and LLM’s, all within Emacs. It isn’t a text editor, it is everything.
I think Derek Taylor (Distro Tube on YT) put it best when talking about the way people compare text editors, ‘it isn’t a relevant comparison; like apples to oranges.’ Emacs is not a text editor; Emacs can do text editing. If all you’re doing is text editing, you might be better off with the simple tool. If you are connecting workflows, Emacs is like a glue that can patch everything into one tool. Like you can run Emacs as a server and access files on the remote system through Emacs. Emacs appears to be a language more than anything, but a language between something like Bash and Python in simplicity and flexible scope.
Today I will be continuing my quest to integrate two large language models in parallel within Emacs. I want to use Emacs to make an agent that includes one of my largest models I can run on my hardware and a code completion specific model.
Additionally, everyone that appears to actually use Emacs seems to lean heavily into the org-mode stuff. That is one of my biggest curiosities at the moment. Go look at Sasha Chua’s website. Most of that is rendered from org-mode. Org-mode seems to be a super powerful way of organizing your life, taking notes, and presenting information in useful ways.
I wondered why I don’t hear about people using Emacs like I hear about other tools albeit leet or corpo standard. I think it is because Emacs is extremely intimate. It seems to be so tailored to the individual that it can’t be shared. AI has turned into something like that for me too. The ways I find it to be useful are simply too nuanced to be relatable. I think Emacs is like this too. The ways it becomes useful are so integrated into the periphery and layering of workflows that it is not feasible to extract some small detail to share with another person outside of Emacs users at a similar point along the learning curve.
Thank you for your thoughts, tips and references ! Didn’t knew all that, I really thought it was just an advanced text editor !
Maybe in a few years when I really see/feel and learned more about emacs I will have an other point of view that will actually find any fit in my workflow.
Still I really like emacs way of editing. Shortcuts feel intuitive.
Thanks again :)
Edi: I watched 2 video’s from Derek Taylor, my god this is some crazy stuff. However I think it’s a bit overkill right now. But I gave my editing workflow a step-up ! On my mac iTerm2+micro feels more like “that” something I was looking for.
