Subject: Re: bug#74488: Why not modernize Emacs

From: Eli Zaretskii <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 23 Nov 2024 08:59:09 +0200

severity 74488 wishlist
thanks

> Date: Fri, 22 Nov 2024 23:27:09 +0000 (UTC)
> From:  Raj Divecha via "Bug reports for GNU Emacs,
>  the Swiss army knife of text editors" <[email-masked]>
> 
> Hi, I am an occasional Emacs user. I know that Emacs is a very capable editor. In fact, most modern editors provide similar features, just that the learning curve for them is close to nothing. They simply work out of the box. Thus, I am wondering, why not Emacs? How difficult would it be to provide a different interface, a simpler one yet fully capable? For example, while I can use Emacs for simple text editing, I still can't use it as my developer IDE. I want some feature that will help me easily install a project explorer like extension. The project explorer could help create workspaces, project, help me navigate them with ease etc. Think MS's VS Code. On the same lines, I would like a LaTeX window with its own extensions. Emacs already supports all this but the learning curve is so steep that I don't feel like opening it anymore! Thus wondering why can't Emacs come out with a simpler interface (and allow one to switch to an advance interface when needed) and throw the learning curve out the window? -OR- Am I missing something? Thanks, Raj

The simple answer to your questions is "because no one has yet
proposed code changes to implement those features."

Emacs is developed by a loosely-coupled group of volunteers, each one
of whom contributes changes in the areas that are of interest to
him/her and match their domains of expertise.  We acknowledge the need
and the advantages of having the advanced IDE-related features work
out of the box, but have no way of assigning someone to the job of
actually doing that non-trivial job.  It is non-trivial because
different users of Emacs have different interests and needs (e.g.,
develop in vastly different programming languages), and setting up the
tools we have to fit the needs of a particular user is a complex task.
In addition, unlike VS Code, we don't want to promote non-free servers
and services, so it is much more difficult for us to provide OOTB
configuration for features that rely on external programs and servers.

But if and when someone comes with code that does one of these jobs,
we embrace that very quickly.  Examples include Tree-Sitter based
major modes, LSP support via Eglot, etc.  Thus, volunteers are welcome
to contribute additional features that will make Emacs a better IDE,
and ease the learning curve for newcomers.

Thank you for your interest in Emacs.