Ask HN: Where to begin with "modern" Emacs?

Posted by weakfish 11/1/2025

Hi all,

I’m a longtime Neovim user who’s been EMacs-curious. The hold up for me has been that I’ve been unable to find a source of truth for what’s top-of-the-line as far as plugins are. With Neovim, it’s a safe bet to look at what folks like Folke are doing, but I have struggled to find a similar figure in the Emacs community who gives insight into what’s-what. I know Doom exists, but I want to fully “own” my config and not over complicate it.

Thanks!

228 points | 121 commentspage 6

unit149 11/1/2025|

[dead]

roman_soldier 11/1/2025||

[flagged]

baobun 11/1/2025|

> > What frame should I get for my fixie bicycle?

> Just buy my brand of electric bike instead, it comes preassembled and you won't gst grease on your hands

roman_soldier 11/1/2025|||

Emacs is not modern, to achieve the functionality of a modern editor/ide, with all the lessons/research done since the 70/80's it's going to take a huge amount of configuring. It's logical that using a modern editor like VS Code would be much more efficient.

jibal 11/1/2025|||

Perhaps you should read the OP again ... your comments are off topic (Edit: obviously--the topic is not editors in general, and I'm obviously not guilty of what the response accuses me of).

Also examine https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

roman_soldier 11/1/2025||

How is my comment off topic? VS Code is an editor as is emacs. There is nothing in the guidelines link that would constitute my post being wrong, however it does say

'Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something.'

and

'Please don't complain that a submission is inappropriate. If a story is spam or off-topic, flag it. Don't feed egregious comments by replying; flag them instead. If you flag, please don't also comment that you did.'

Maybe it would help if you reread the guidelines yourself.

flimflamboi 11/2/2025|||

[dead]

noosphr 11/1/2025|||

I'd say push tricycle.

After all chains are too complicated an you hardly need them in the kids playground.

dehrmann 11/1/2025|

[flagged]

mackeye 11/1/2025|

ime, the benefit of vscode over a text editor (i prefer kakoune, which has present, but low, community support vs. n?vim/emacs) was relatively seamless debug sessions. almost any other element is exceeded in an editor, to me --- the git integration of vscode is subpar, most vscode plugins i'd need have standalone counterparts (tinymist is the best example), etc. in emacs, these are exacerbated, as git integration is emacs is excellent (as i hear), and many integrations for emacs are well-maintained. what do you see as the benefit of vscode over an editor?

i haven't used cursor, and i've used clion only minimally. visual studio is quite a standup ide experience, and i'd use it were i on windows. but vscode doesn't seem particularly above the competition in terms of sheer capabilities.

sexyman48 11/1/2025||

[flagged]

tomhow 11/4/2025|||

We've banned this account.

mackeye 11/1/2025|||

did you have an issue with the parentheses or the capitalization :)

jibal 11/1/2025||

Your comment was fine.