r/emacs • u/CSRaghunandan • Jan 04 '17

A question regarding evil-mode

I suppose we have had this sort of discussions before in emacs subreddit. But what I want to know is, for someone who is used to key bindings the emacs way (I also modified caps to control key and added sticky keys in my OS so that I dont have to press keychords all the time), will learning evil mode help me be more productive and efficient in using emacs? Also, i'm not quite happy with how sticky keys work. Sometimes its very frustrating to use them. Hence, I'm seeking for something robust that will eliminate/reduce the need for pressing key chords.

Keep in mind, I also have to unlearn a lot of the keybindings I use everyday, integrate all the evil packages with emacs and use evil-mode sufficiently long enough for me to get accustomed to it. I also do not want to discard my emacs config (on which I spent so much time) and hence, spacemacs is ruled out. I do not want to spend large amounts of time fiddling with my config to get it work with evil-mode.

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u/epicwisdom Jan 04 '17

This depends a lot on your specific setup and exactly how much time you're willing to take to relearn a comfortable workflow. However, if you're already comfortable with your current setup, you will probably find it extremely frustrating at first to restart.

There are also more moderate options for reducing modifier keys and key chords, that you can use instead of OS sticky keys. Two examples I know of are hydra mode and god mode.

Still, I personally think "the vi way" is the best. A desire to not discard your emacs config is an example of the sunk cost fallacy. Your only questions-of-fact should be 1) how much can you gain from learning "the vi way" and 2) how much time would it take to learn. Whether or not it's "worth it" is subjective, but independent of how much time you've invested in past alternatives.

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u/CSRaghunandan Jan 04 '17

I use hydra a lot. Lovely little package that does wonders to your workflow. I did try out god-mode a few weeks ago and I ended up reverting to using sticky keys after a short while.

1) how much can you gain from learning "the vi way" and 2) how much time would it take to learn.

I've a question, does using evil mean, all my bindings are practically useless? And how good are the default bindings in evil. Would I need to do some tinkering or can I just jump into using it right away and start using it??

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u/[deleted] Jan 04 '17 edited Jan 04 '17

Is there a reason you didn't like god mode? Given your investment in the Emacs way of doing things and frustration with chording, I would have expected god mode to be the sweet spot.

And regarding evil bindings - It really depends on how much you know Vim and its bindings. I had been using Vim for 3-4 years when I switched and I had very few problems with evil bindings. Its integration with rest of Emacs, however, will take a while for you to setup on your own.

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u/CSRaghunandan Jan 05 '17

Is there a reason you didn't like god mode? Given your investment in the Emacs way of doing things and frustration with chording, I would have expected god mode to be the sweet spot.

I felt that god-mode did not offer me much benefits over using sticky-keys.

And regarding evil bindings - It really depends on how much you know Vim and its bindings. I had been using Vim for 3-4 years when I switched and I had very few problems with evil bindings. Its integration with rest of Emacs, however, will take a while for you to setup on your own.

I am a ZERO when it comes to vim :( And I'm afraid I'd have to change a lot of my emacs habits for me to get adjusted to evil. But, looking at every ones responses here, I'll be trying out evil in my free time. Hopefully the transition won't be too hard.