Are there any reasons why a C# developer should learn Emacs/Vim?

Question

I work as a c# developer in a purely Microsoft shop.

I recently started teaching myself assembly using gas and Linux in my free time away from work. I like messing a

Answer 1

I used Vim and Emacs but its probably 5% slower. I once measured the amount of time developers actually typed code and (I'm not talking about scrolling around) and its probably about 5% of your day. We are arguing about 5% of 5% ...

What it boils down to is Emacs and Vim users have used it for so long they cant be bothered changing. Most of them can only drive VS through a mouse and don't know most of the hot keys.

Answer 2

take a look at JP Boodhoo and what he's doing www.jpboodhoo.com. He and Kyle Bailey have been blogging recently about using VIM as part of their development experience with VS2008.

Answer 3

People who keep referring to vim "short cut keys" should really learn it in a bit more depth. A lot of vim's keyboard commands work on a really structured "language" of text navigation and manipulation (i.e., ranges, counts, actions, movements, text objects, etc) that is far beyond just "short-cuts" that you have to memorize like in most text editors. That's one of the major reasons for vim's apeal and its lauded boost in productivity.

Answer 4

Speed of coding is very much dependent on editor choice, so its one of the most important deceisions you will take.

Answer 5

I use (and love) Emacs, but I can understand the vi folks out there (I'm always torn between minimalism and kitchen-sink-ism). What keeps me using Emacs day in and day out, and what makes me eventually leave every IDE I've ever used, is that I can write functions. And when I say functions I mean functions; I can really program the editor itself. I add a new function, eval it, and bam now it's in my editor. If I use that function a bunch, then it gets a keybinding.

I've noticed that with IDEs, they're great at a particular language (Eclipse is amazing for doing Java). I don't think Emacs is as good at any one language (Except maybe as a Lisp IDE, but I won't try and extol the virtues of that here...) as a dedicated IDE but it is better at language N, where "N" is practically any programming language that has or will be invented. It is nice, if I'm learning a new programming language (or even just hopping between any of C, PowerShell, Haskell, Lisp, Java... etc.) that my environment is comfortable and quite able. My answer then, is "yes" because Emacs (or vi, I would assume) gives you portability in your toolset. You may be doing C# today, but down the line, who knows maybe you'll be hacking on Monad#++, and if you are, you can bet there's going to be an Emacs mode for it.

Answer 6

I used to use VIM almost exclusively, and after moving to a nearly 100% MS shop, have found no problems switching back and forth.

VIM and EMACS are great if you're willing to learn the keyboard shortcuts. I find that I don't really have issues when I go back and forward - I think it helps that they are such a completely different environment than VS that it's easy to make the mental switch.

You can always start slow - use them, and see how it goes. You'll have some learning curve, but it's very much up to you.

If Scite is working for you, and you're just "playing around" as a hobby, it may not be worth the effort. For me, the effort of learning new and different ways of working/thinking is part of the fun, though.