convore.json/groups/emacs/whats-the-best-way-for-newbie-to-learn-emacs/messages.json

[{"user_id": 3952, "stars": [], "topic_id": 3032, "date_created": 1297301641.360903, "message": "not necessarily what do they need to know, but how can I learn emacs (easily), other than just using it daily?", "group_id": 83, "id": 62382}, {"user_id": 4428, "stars": [], "topic_id": 3032, "date_created": 1297309066.1927669, "message": "Years ago I read the OReilly book \"Learning Emacs\". Still a fine idea. Buy a cheap Safari Books sub for a month.", "group_id": 83, "id": 64279}, {"user_id": 3946, "stars": [{"date_created": 1297310722.4768889, "user_id": 4093}, {"date_created": 1297313571.310945, "user_id": 34}, {"date_created": 1297315383.1758101, "user_id": 3952}, {"date_created": 1297340413.930784, "user_id": 5388}, {"date_created": 1297691193.7998569, "user_id": 10205}, {"date_created": 1299447058.9667139, "user_id": 1874}], "topic_id": 3032, "date_created": 1297310695.83079, "message": "+1 http://emacswiki.org/", "group_id": 83, "id": 64563}, {"user_id": 34, "stars": [], "topic_id": 3032, "date_created": 1297309346.50015, "message": "I did that for a few weeks until I could do pretty much everything I needed to do", "group_id": 83, "id": 64332}, {"user_id": 3952, "stars": [], "topic_id": 3032, "date_created": 1297309883.508961, "message": "thanks @mechanical_fish - I'll definitely check out the book. @joe - did that teach you to change between different modes and how to do some stuff with .emacs too?", "group_id": 83, "id": 64418}, {"user_id": 34, "stars": [], "topic_id": 3032, "date_created": 1297309232.70117, "message": "You should use post-it notes and write down a few common keyboard commands", "group_id": 83, "id": 64313}, {"user_id": 34, "stars": [], "topic_id": 3032, "date_created": 1297309323.3996871, "message": "Like \"C-x 3 = new buffer\" and \"C-x C-s = save\"", "group_id": 83, "id": 64326}, {"user_id": 4428, "stars": [], "topic_id": 3032, "date_created": 1297310658.6391909, "message": "Hm, I've been using emacs for a decade and yet that starter kit has things to teach me. Look through the libs in there and look up stuff that looks interesting in emacswiki.", "group_id": 83, "id": 64559}, {"user_id": 34, "stars": [], "topic_id": 3032, "date_created": 1297309333.9055121, "message": "And then once you learn those, take them down and make more", "group_id": 83, "id": 64330}, {"user_id": 34, "stars": [{"date_created": 1297310039.8017631, "user_id": 4093}, {"date_created": 1297959328.613965, "user_id": 8138}], "topic_id": 3032, "date_created": 1297309387.253907, "message": "Also - checkout the emacs starter kit https://github.com/technomancy/emacs-starter-kit it has some sane defaults that'll get you into a state where you can just work", "group_id": 83, "id": 64345}, {"user_id": 4093, "stars": [], "topic_id": 3032, "date_created": 1297310015.1040161, "message": "I learned a TON just by looking through people's .emacs files", "group_id": 83, "id": 64452}, {"user_id": 4093, "stars": [], "topic_id": 3032, "date_created": 1297310020.5617571, "message": "a lot of those hosted on github", "group_id": 83, "id": 64454}, {"user_id": 3946, "stars": [{"date_created": 1297959370.9604371, "user_id": 8138}, {"date_created": 1299515027.4808049, "user_id": 4151}], "topic_id": 3032, "date_created": 1297313554.8162229, "message": "Scratch every itch, one at a time, forever. Your experience will asymptotically approach perfect.", "group_id": 83, "id": 64981}, {"user_id": 218, "stars": [], "topic_id": 3032, "date_created": 1297313473.3128049, "message": "You never will.", "group_id": 83, "id": 64967}, {"user_id": 218, "stars": [{"date_created": 1297313570.8530519, "user_id": 34}], "topic_id": 3032, "date_created": 1297313471.266628, "message": "imo, don't try to learn all of emacs.", "group_id": 83, "id": 64966}, {"user_id": 218, "stars": [], "topic_id": 3032, "date_created": 1297313493.554163, "message": "Just figure out how you can live for the moment in it. *THEN* incrementally improve the environment.", "group_id": 83, "id": 64970}, {"user_id": 34, "stars": [{"date_created": 1297340443.4453399, "user_id": 4428}], "topic_id": 3032, "date_created": 1297313554.888407, "message": "@davidwparker a big part of emacs is navigating it well. Just learning basic navigation, and basic functions like copy/paste (yank ring), working with buffers, moving from buffer-to-buffer, jumping around files, searching, etc...", "group_id": 83, "id": 64982}, {"user_id": 4937, "stars": [], "topic_id": 3032, "date_created": 1297326838.1436141, "message": "\"C-h t\" and go through the inbuilt tutorial!", "group_id": 83, "id": 67355}, {"user_id": 218, "stars": [], "topic_id": 3032, "date_created": 1297355210.7475021, "message": "I think the tutorial, while okay, can lead you to trying to memorize everything. To be quite honest, you can use emacs just fine by mouse clicking in each buffer you want, using the arrow keys for navigation, etc.", "group_id": 83, "id": 71023}, {"user_id": 2903, "stars": [], "topic_id": 3032, "date_created": 1297355719.2460461, "message": "One of my resolutions for 2011 is to learn Emacs, so I've been trying to use it as much as possible for editing tasks. I'll second the recommendations for using @technomancy's Emacs starter kit and the built-in tutorial. I have unfortunately not gotten as much value out of the Emacs Wiki as I would have hoped; it's a real jumble of information at times.", "group_id": 83, "id": 71068}, {"user_id": 218, "stars": [{"date_created": 1303197060.572098, "user_id": 20667}], "topic_id": 3032, "date_created": 1297355253.0023689, "message": "I think if I were to suggest it to someone, I would tell them to use it like a Notepad++ clone. Then, if you ever think \"I wish emacs...\" the answer is \"it already does that. Here's how.\"", "group_id": 83, "id": 71027}, {"user_id": 3996, "stars": [], "topic_id": 3032, "date_created": 1297958681.329457, "message": "I am also completely new to emacs. I did check out the starter kit on github and may download this screencast tonight: http://peepcode.com/products/meet-emacs", "group_id": 83, "id": 132638}, {"user_id": 218, "stars": [], "topic_id": 3032, "date_created": 1297960347.9433191, "message": "writing an emacs file from scratch is a big pain, especially if you're picky.", "group_id": 83, "id": 132874}, {"user_id": 218, "stars": [], "topic_id": 3032, "date_created": 1297960442.1214571, "message": "If you want to change indentation, there's usually a mode specific flag. Which language in particular? (js-indent-level 2) will make 2 space indents for javascript. (c-basic-offset 2) will make 2 space indents for c modes (and its derivatives like java)", "group_id": 83, "id": 132889}, {"user_id": 218, "stars": [], "topic_id": 3032, "date_created": 1297960384.029707, "message": "@kurige you can change your theme. If you're on emacs23, you should look for color-theme.el http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/ColorTheme", "group_id": 83, "id": 132880}, {"user_id": 8138, "stars": [], "topic_id": 3032, "date_created": 1297959595.2251949, "message": "@sshirokov good advice. that's exactly how I'm going about it now. I start with the starter kit @joe mentioned, then I experiment. Can I change the color-theme? How do I change the indentation? How do I navigate projects?Initially I tried to immediately write my own \"perfect\" .emacs file. Before I knew it three days had passed, I was behind on work and I ended up scrapping it.", "group_id": 83, "id": 132702}, {"user_id": 218, "stars": [], "topic_id": 3032, "date_created": 1297960466.761137, "message": "navigating projects is as simple as opening files in them. Did you have something in particular in mind?", "group_id": 83, "id": 132897}, {"user_id": 3150, "stars": [{"date_created": 1299400278.292906, "user_id": 2617}], "topic_id": 3032, "date_created": 1297966133.547683, "message": "Everyone can learn Emacs. You just need some willpower ;)", "group_id": 83, "id": 133739}, {"user_id": 218, "stars": [], "topic_id": 3032, "date_created": 1297969763.389822, "message": "s/willpower/pain tolerance/", "group_id": 83, "id": 134296}, {"user_id": 3150, "stars": [], "topic_id": 3032, "date_created": 1297970697.006206, "message": "haha o/", "group_id": 83, "id": 134502}, {"user_id": 12577, "stars": [], "topic_id": 3032, "date_created": 1297976765.2396259, "message": "or pick a programming language and use emacs for just that (shell script maybe?)", "group_id": 83, "id": 135895}, {"user_id": 12577, "stars": [], "topic_id": 3032, "date_created": 1297976803.354856, "message": "the one thing will be enough to introduce you to emacs and get you going and then you can try other things with it.", "group_id": 83, "id": 135906}, {"user_id": 12577, "stars": [{"date_created": 1299626473.1450551, "user_id": 13912}], "topic_id": 3032, "date_created": 1297976745.6257441, "message": "the best advice I've heard is to pick one thing, and do just that with emacs. emacs has org-mode which is a really good organizer", "group_id": 83, "id": 135890}, {"user_id": 8138, "stars": [], "topic_id": 3032, "date_created": 1298049525.3367929, "message": "@justinlilly haha, those were examples of things that I have figured out. Currently using zenburn color theme. Also, default curly bracket placement for emacs is really, really bad. So, you have to do some pretty heavy customization to make emacs bearable for C/C++.", "group_id": 83, "id": 144479}, {"user_id": 8138, "stars": [], "topic_id": 3032, "date_created": 1298049546.8654399, "message": "Ah, also, flyspell integration into comments of arbitrary programming langauges. That was a challenging one. :p", "group_id": 83, "id": 144481}, {"user_id": 242, "stars": [], "topic_id": 3032, "date_created": 1298050047.469516, "message": "Pair program with someone who uses emacs. Just make sure they don't use Dvorak or one of those crazy kinesis keyboards too.", "group_id": 83, "id": 144616}, {"user_id": 12577, "stars": [], "topic_id": 3032, "date_created": 1298052921.1381209, "message": "@kurige there are many different indentation styles which can be selected very simply, I seriously doubt you have to do heavy customization to get what you want. The default style when I last used it was GNU C style (naturally) but K&R, BSD, Stroustrup and many others are available.", "group_id": 83, "id": 145051}, {"user_id": 12577, "stars": [], "topic_id": 3032, "date_created": 1298058783.279434, "message": "selects the indentation style. in case you didn't know.", "group_id": 83, "id": 145873}, {"user_id": 12577, "stars": [], "topic_id": 3032, "date_created": 1298058770.9946101, "message": "ctrl-c .", "group_id": 83, "id": 145872}, {"user_id": 3952, "stars": [], "topic_id": 3032, "date_created": 1298066918.995429, "message": "@dreid I use Dvorak, so if I could pair with someone who used emacs and Dvorak, I'd be in great shape :)", "group_id": 83, "id": 146804}, {"user_id": 8138, "stars": [], "topic_id": 3032, "date_created": 1298278387.020437, "message": "@nicferrier, didn't have to do much, just (setq c-default-style \"linux\" c-basic-offset 4). It's close enough to what I'm used to.", "group_id": 83, "id": 157240}, {"user_id": 12577, "stars": [], "topic_id": 3032, "date_created": 1298288616.1693981, "message": "M-x customize-variable", "group_id": 83, "id": 158050}, {"user_id": 12577, "stars": [], "topic_id": 3032, "date_created": 1298288584.4486959, "message": "it's probably a mistake to use bits of elisp in a startup file like that, use customization instead. Of course, that's aside from \"whatever works for you is good\" - but if you were going to use emacs a lot it would be advisible to use customization for things like that.", "group_id": 83, "id": 158049}, {"user_id": 218, "stars": [], "topic_id": 3032, "date_created": 1298431364.3361421, "message": "@nicferrier there is no benefit to using the customize menu over just writing the elisp by hand.", "group_id": 83, "id": 185619}, {"user_id": 218, "stars": [], "topic_id": 3032, "date_created": 1298431424.9324141, "message": "if you use emacs, you'll likely be writing elisp before long anyhow. will only cause pain long-term if you try to avoid it.", "group_id": 83, "id": 185626}, {"user_id": 12577, "stars": [], "topic_id": 3032, "date_created": 1298455677.1195371, "message": "I disagree, customizations are much more portable. There is value in writing elisp of course though, you are right.", "group_id": 83, "id": 186514}, {"user_id": 15233, "stars": [], "topic_id": 3032, "date_created": 1298895893.5799401, "message": "Start by doing the builtin tutorial. Learn how to use the help system. Enable ido mode, and its flex selection. Enable windmove mode. Take a look at http://sites.google.com/site/steveyegge2/effective-emacs", "group_id": 83, "id": 225127}, {"user_id": 2617, "stars": [], "topic_id": 3032, "date_created": 1299400590.039613, "message": "@ustun Cool, keep going!", "group_id": 83, "id": 279139}, {"user_id": 18774, "stars": [], "topic_id": 3032, "date_created": 1299480203.594146, "message": "Just start using it!", "group_id": 83, "id": 285932}]