Using Emacs on Ubuntu

Peter B

I was reading about code editors for Ubuntu and was recommended Emacs.

Does anyone else use this? I read somewhere if you wanted to understand programming and internet far better you should aim to use Emacs for everything possible - or at least the terminal.

Can anyone recommend me for or against this and if I should go down this route where would I be able to get the documentation on the terminal and emacs?

Cheers

dlofnep

I like bluefish.

ravydavygravy

EMACS? GTFO!

Vi is the shell based editor of choice. Some documentation here: http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/mugs/7bbe/

General Unix (and shell) info: http://cb.vu/unixtoolbox.xhtml

larryone

*nix terminal is very useful for getting a better understanding of computers.
Using it, you are alot closer to the nuts and bolts of the computer.

The issue of whether emacs or vi is the better one to go for has been the subject of many flame wars.
When learning to use vi/vim, I found vimtutor came in handy.
Just type in `vimtutor` on an ubuntu command line and follow the instructions.

One very practical reason to go with vi is that you are *guatanteed* to find it on every unix/linux system out there. You wont be so lucky with emacs, and if you find yourself on a machine where you dont have it and cant install it you are snookered unless you learnt to use vi aswell...

Skrynesaver

While vim is my editor of choice (and has been pointed out vi is present on every Unix system) I have on occasion used Emacs.

It even contains an editor it's primarily intended as a programmers editor rather than a standard file editor. The gdb debugger, version control and other development tools are available from the editor. It can also be extended to provide just about any functionality you could require into it and those who use it regularly seem to be very comfortable with it.

Try the following and then go through the Fundamental editing commands section.

info emacs

There is also a very useful O'Reilly book on the subject, Learning GNU Emacs.

For the shell, take a look at the shell script sticky thread and see how people use commands, if you don't understand what one of the commands does

man $COMMAND

Bash itself is a programming language which makes it easy to automate administration tasks

Peter B

Very interesting posts here. I will have a look at vi then. I do like the way it can be used on any Linux / Unix system and does not have to be installed. I'd also like to be able to complete more of my computer work on command line so I get to understand the nuts and bolts of the system.

I was looking into courses on Linux, did a bit in college but not enough.

ravydavygravy

Linux courses can be quite expensive, as they are typically aimed at professionals unfortunatly. Luckily, you'll find a lot of stuff online.

Have fun, search in this forum for any questions you have, and ask anything you need to know - someone will have the answer.

Also, I find it helps if you set some goals, rather than aimless learning. For example, try doing the following things from the shell only:

• Install apache and set it up to serve a basic web page.
• Write a shell script that grabs the PDF of todays simplex crossword from http://www.irishtimes.com/ and emails it to your address
• Download and build from source any simple piece of software (Easy Example)

They might seem difficult, and you'll have to learn multiple things to do each one, but you'll learn a lot while you do so.

Good luck,

Dave

sound_wave

ravydavygravy wrote: »

Linux courses can be quite expensive, as they are typically aimed at professionals unfortunatly. Luckily, you'll find a lot of stuff online.

Have fun, search in this forum for any questions you have, and ask anything you need to know - someone will have the answer.

Also, I find it helps if you set some goals, rather than aimless learning. For example, try doing the following things from the shell only:

• Install apache and set it up to serve a basic web page.
• Write a shell script that grabs the PDF of todays simplex crossword from http://www.irishtimes.com/ and emails it to your address
• Download and build from source any simple piece of software (Easy Example)

They might seem difficult, and you'll have to learn multiple things to do each one, but you'll learn a lot while you do so.

Good luck,

Dave

Class ideas! Im going to try the second one straight away tonight

Skrynesaver

Hint: man wget

Naikon

VI/VIM/<your_vi_clone_here> or death!
Bluefish is a nice one though.

PhantomBeaker

I do love vi myself, especially vim. My only problem is, I'm now very much addicted. Anything that has a vi mode, I turn it on. That goes for bash/ksh, python, mysql client...

I've sorted it for any readline-dependant programs. I've put this in my ~/.inputrc

et editing-mode vi
set keymap vi

and EDITOR=vi I may have gone overboard. (That said, I tried a vi plugin for firefox, and did not like it at all)

However, when we're talking about it being on every system (because it's part of the POSIX standard), I have to say when I installed Gentoo, I found it wasn't on there by default. That was a pity because I was trying to configure network support at the time, and had to use nano. I hated having to delete the 'k's, 'h's, 'j's, 'l's, 'b's and 'w's that turned up in my config files. (At least nano didn't do anything stupid like try to quit when I hit escape)

Anyway, yes, vimtutor, I heartily recommend that. It'll show you some of the interesting stuff. The rest you kinda learn by doing, or thrashing at the keyboard like a monkey until it does something interesting.

Aoife

PhantomBeaker

I do love vi myself, especially vim. My only problem is, I'm now very much addicted. Anything that has a vi mode, I turn it on. That goes for bash/ksh, python, mysql client...

I've sorted it for any readline-dependant programs. I've put this in my ~/.inputrc

et editing-mode vi
set keymap vi

and EDITOR=vi I may have gone overboard. (That said, I tried a vi plugin for firefox, and did not like it at all)

However, when we're talking about it being on every system (because it's part of the POSIX standard), I have to say when I installed Gentoo, I found it wasn't on there by default. That was a pity because I was trying to configure network support at the time, and had to use nano. I hated having to delete the 'k's, 'h's, 'j's, 'l's, 'b's and 'w's that turned up in my config files. (At least nano didn't do anything stupid like try to quit when I hit escape)

Anyway, yes, vimtutor, I heartily recommend that. It'll show you some of the interesting stuff. The rest you kinda learn by doing, or thrashing at the keyboard like a monkey until it does something interesting.

Aoife

Hotblack Desiato

dueyfinster

+1 for Vim! I have been meaning to give Emacs a good go, but everything I write is in Eclipse these days...

Vim is essential for writing or reading files...