Emacs 26.1 Released With New Features (lwn.net) 116
There's a new version of the 42-year-old libre text editor with over 2,000 built-in commands, reports LWN.net:
Highlights include a built-in Lisp threading mechanism that provides some concurrency, double buffering when running under X, a redesigned flymake mode, 24-bit color support in text mode, and a systemd [user] unit file.
The Free Software Foundation has released a 10,653-word description of all the new features in Emacs 26.1. Here's a couple more:
The Free Software Foundation has released a 10,653-word description of all the new features in Emacs 26.1. Here's a couple more:
- The Emacs server now has socket-launching support. This allows socket based activation, where an external process like systemd can invoke the Emacs server process upon a socket connection event and hand the socket over to Emacs... This new functionality can be disabled with the configure option '--disable-libsystemd'.
- The new function 'call-shell-region' executes a command in an inferior shell with the buffer region as input.
- Intercepting hotkeys on Windows 7 and later now works better.
- The new user variable 'electric-quote-chars' provides a list of curved quotes for 'electric-quote-mode', allowing user to choose the types of quotes to be used.
Skynet option now on by default (Score:5, Funny)
hit ctrl-x SK option-N to toggle it off.
it's just like in the movie, except it talks with a LISP.
Re: Skynet option now on by default (Score:2)
As long as it does not stutter like in the old days with TTY terminals itâ(TM)s Ok
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The new user variable âelectric-quote-charsâ(TM) provides a list of curved quotes for âelectric-quote-modeâ(TM), allowing user to choose the types of quotes to be used.
Re: Spy Professor Stefan Halper (Score:3)
Unlike 99% of the people here I have actually seen Stallman speaking live and he is totally a Jesus-like cult figure. I never understood the pull of religion but after seeing Richard Stallman performing in the living flesh I totally get how Jesus )and probably Mohammed and the average guru) operated.
It was a very interesting experience.
Re: Spy Professor Stefan Halper (Score:2)
I guarantee you he is not a libtard. At all.
inetd (Score:5, Insightful)
Then one day, someone realized that inetd was a security risk. Not that it was inherently insecure, but that it was in fact harder than you would expect to write an inetd service that was secure, so there were a lot of security holes. As the knowledge of this spread, service after service got removed from inetd, and now on most Unix systems, it's not running at all.
There's a George Santayana quote in here somewhere. But what is it?
Re:inetd (Score:4, Insightful)
Now, with the socket based activation and handoff, you can implement the service in emacs.
I like emacs, I used it today. I just don't trust to be that secure as a server for the world. It wasn't the design spec.
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> I just don't trust to be that secure as a server for the world. It wasn't the design spec.
I wouldn't either. That's also what the authors think: that's why, by default, it only listens on an Unix domain socket (i.e. local to the machine). You can enable it to listen on a TCP socket. In that case, the client has to provide a key (by default randomly generated by the server).
It's all in the docs.
The Emacs devels do know what they are doing. They are not known to sacrifice security for "shiny", mind you.
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What's wrong with vi?
Not enough features to be useful (Score:5, Funny)
I'm afraid I can't be bothered to switch to Emacs until it has a hypervisor, 3d rendering engine, distributed filesystem, and GPU-powered machine learning framework. Guess I'll stick with nano for a while longer...
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sounds like you may be in the market for systemd.
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The old joke is: "Emacs is a good operating system, but what it lacks is a decent text editor."
Re: Not enough features to be useful (Score:2)
You forgot 5d quantum audio support and the mine-bitcoin command
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"Do one thing, and do it well"
But it's OK for emacs to be the exception to that principle - at least, the first part.
Is there a cheatsheet for the 2000+ commands? (Score:1)
There is probably a drinking game to be invited here. For every 50 unique emacs command you call out before a foe they need to take a shot
Re: Is there a cheatsheet for the 2000+ commands? (Score:2)
Yeah but if you want to print it on a sheet you need a 0.1 pt font. And a sheet as large as your house.
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But you'd be allowed to invent new ones on the fly. No one who knows the syntax for "defun" would ever lose.
Finally, a Highlander sequel I want to watch! (Score:5, Funny)
... external process like systemd can invoke the Emacs server process ...
Let Emacs and SystemD duke it out for a while -- There can only be ONE [wikipedia.org]!
[ We're all rooting for -- and counting on -- you Emacs to vanquish The Kurgan. ]
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Between that pair I'd choose EMACS.
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I'm a bit of an Emacs fan. (Score:5, Insightful)
I find it amazing to have a piece of software that is 42 years old and still in active development. And usage. Think of it: Emacs invented the clipboard. And even though it recently has been beaten by other free editors in performance for larger files I do expect Emacs to take the crown again in upcoming versions.
I always use Emacs in CLI mode which is where it belongs IMHO.
Here's to another great 42 years!
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I tried to use it. But when you have a project to do and then have to learn a very complicated piece of software with its own language on top of that, it's overwhelming. I needed to figure out how to get my project done, not learn all the commands to do things that are just a mouse click on other development environments.
And now they added 20 pages of descriptions for new features.
Not for me.
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not learn all the commands to do things that are just a mouse click on other development environments.
This is a troll, but in case anyone else is wondering, all the basic commands are available in a regular menu in modern emacs. You can learn the basic hot keys as you go, just like any environment. And if you want to, you can learn the more advanced commands. But you don't have to.
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Well, it's been awhile since I tried to use EMACS, but at the time I quit before learning it well because the three finger key commands were actively painful. Since then my hands have become a bit less flexible, and now even things like control commands cause me to need to use both hands. (The shift key is typically much more favorably placed.) So I think EMACS is not an option.
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I actually needed up with medical treatment from EMACS . . . I was using a full-sized CKIE keyboard[1], meaning my (large) left hand had to rotate to reach the control key.
After a few days of all-day, heavy editing, I strained the muscle in my let pinkie . . .
hawk, who for some reason now usually sticks to vi . . .
[1] Control Key In Exile, as opposed to next to the A where God Meant it to be . . .
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I replace capslock with control. which is how God intended the keyboard to be laid out. It's very simple to use control sequences that way, as long as you have a pinky finger.
Re:I'm a MICRO-emacs fan (Score:3, Interesting)
I was first exposed to emacs at my job back in the 1980s, running on some kind of Vax, and it slowed the damn machine down, so I used vi instead, like everybody else. Then I got an Atari 520 ST. It had a minimal word processor, but no good text editor. So I downloaded micro-emacs off usenet from one of the alt-binary newsgroups. It was encoded into an ascii format using uuencode and you got the binary back using uudecode. (That's how things were done in the 80s). Anyway, it worked great! I use emacs n
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Same here, I have work to do, and every IDE I've tried except the first(*) slowed me down either by design, or silly ergonomics, or bugs.
(*) UCSD Pascal was an IDE before the PC was introduced.
Re: I'm a bit of an Emacs fan. (Score:2)
Hurd needs to run first
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at work, we use a lot of python and for some reason, the editor 'pycharm' has a large following. personally, I don't get it - I'm an emacs user from the 1980's onward. I don't need an IDE to get work done, but the young guys in my group all seem to insist on it.
problem is, it keeps crashing on various linux distros and the project is somewhat closed source. the x-server crashes when people use pycharm. while x11 should pretty much *never* crash these days, I wonder what this app is doing to aggrivate it
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Emacs is an IDE, so what exactly is your point?
If Emacs had by default sane key bindings more people would use it. But as it is a mainly unix utility, potential users go with the mantra: don't change key bindings, because if you have to log on on a "foreign" system the bindings will be different. Hence the pros stick to "editors" that are simpler, guarantied to be installed by default, and have memorizable key bindings.
I'm 50, and I don't use Emacs, tried it when I was 21, switched to vi(m), never looked ba
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And never adopted any new cliches, either.
angel-o-sphere is anti-emacs: what other endorsement do you need?
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I'm not anti emacs, it is just not worth _my_ time to learn the shortcuts :D ...
I never suggested an particular editor to anyone
My point is: as a system admin, you need to learn a subset of vi anyway, as I pointed out, you might need to log on to a system that has no Emacs installed.
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I don't need an IDE to get work done, but the young guys in my group all seem to insist on it.
One of the hardcore programmers I know used vi/m for a long time, but eventually had to move to a graphical IDE for Java development because of the inline API + arguments completion/documentation. I suspect he was working with a lot of APIs over multiple projects and didn't have them all memorized.
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Emacs stil has best clipboard & macro system (Score:3)
Think of it: Emacs invented the clipboard
I wish other editors (any other editors) would take the trouble to copy the aspects of Emacs that are still vastly better all these many years later, so much so to the point where I still leave any IDE from time to time to do editing in Emacs...
For clipboards, I can copy fragments into named buffers and take them out again super easily, so I can have several different text fragments stored away for easy recall later.
That turns out to be super handy in combination wit
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TFS is clueless. GNUmacs was released 33 years ago, not 42.
Before then we had the original TECO/PDP-10 EMACS, Gosling's EMACS (first on Unix), Unipress EMACS (I still use keybindings from gosmacs/unipress), microemacs / mg, JOVE, Epsilon, even MINCE which hopefully none of you suffered with.
Did they add a useable editor? (Score:2)
Yes I know, Vi has been in emacs for decades...
baby steps (Score:4, Funny)
emacs is "a great operating system, lacking only a decent editor"
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I heard people run it under this other operating system called "systemd", and that only has one issue of having a shitty init system
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M-x viper-mode
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emacs is "a great operating system, lacking only a decent editor"
And they still haven't patched the Spectre v3a exploits. I'll stick with Linux until they can keep up to date.
Recently... (Score:2)
As you may know, a year ago, scientists discovered an incredible event, a miracle really; the very first ever observed gravity waves! Produced by the incredible force of two neutron stars colliding, the collision is theorized to have produced a black hole, sucking everything nearby them into a deep spiraling abyss of mind bending complexity that has yet to be understood by any human.
Well ladies and gentleman, I am here to tell you that report was in error. Scientists have now confirmed it was merely the co
I am not sure what is the correct analogy (Score:2)
Will systemd extinguish emacs when an editor is implemented or will emacs kill systemd by adding an init feature? Which one will evolve into an operating system first?
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Another test for General Relativity (Score:3)
When two heavyweight objects like Emacs and systemd merge in this manner, we should be able to detect the resulting gravitational waves. Expecting to see results soon from LIGO.
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When the systemd/emacs merge took place the detector spat out a really weird stream of text none of us gray-beards could decipher. We figured line-noise was the culprit. Then in hobbled a white beard. He took one look and screamed " Nooooooooo not Teco"
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Editor? (Score:2)
Have they added a text editing function? I could really use a new editor.
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Hillary WILL vim in 2020
FTFY?
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It means it's a sub-shell running in an Emacs window.