it's probably not as obvious when you are just out of jail(which is a shame, being locked up should be exactly the time when you can educate yourself, but not in real life probably)
But using linux terminal as devbox doesnt mean you dont have access to modern auto-complete syntax lookups formating etc, there are vim/neovim/emacs with any kind of configurations for all of it, and it can be preconfigured by others with projects like https://github.com/AstroNvim/AstroNvim or https://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs
So if you know anyone in the same kind of situation, you can advise them to use that.
In deVStudio – Runs VS Code on Androidsyl20bnr
spacemacs
Emacs Lisp2014–2023
syl20bnr / spacemacs
spacemacs
A community-driven Emacs distribution - The best editor is neither Emacs nor Vim, it's Emacs *and* Vim!
79Distinct people
93Mentions
2Explicit recommenders
24.6KGitHub stars
What to know before exploring
What it is
A community-driven Emacs distribution - The best editor is neither Emacs nor Vim, it's Emacs *and* Vim!
GitHub
Where it is used
No documented product use was verified in the last source check.
What people are saying
I've been using Emacs for everything since highschool and through University and my career. The best way to get used to it is to bootstrap with tutorials and then just keep…
dpbriggs used a recommendation phrase. 2 indexed comments match. This is a phrase match, not a verdict.
No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.
Also in these discussions
- doomemacs/core · linked in 5 of the same discussions
- bbatsov/prelude · linked in 4 of the same discussions
- braydie/howtobeaprogrammer · linked in 2 of the same discussions
Mentioned in the same Hacker News threads. That is not proof they are substitutes.
This week on Hacker News
Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 5:04:57 PM UTC.
No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.
Mentions over time
HN mentions by year93 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2014-11-17 03:40:37 UTC to 2023-09-07 09:08:04 UTC.
Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.
View mention counts and date ranges
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 2014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 11 | 2 | 9 |
| 2015 | 2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 32 | 4 | 28 |
| 2016 | 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 19 | 2 | 17 |
| 2017 | 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 8 | 1 | 7 |
| 2018 | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 5 | 0 | 5 |
| 2019 | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 5 | 0 | 5 |
| 2020 | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| 2021 | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 2022 | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| 2023 | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 3 | 0 | 3 |
From the project README
An excerpt from the repository, fetched Nov 13, 2026.
Read the project’s introduction
philosophy
|
for whom?
|
screenshots
|
documentation
|
contribute
|
achievements
|
FAQ
Quick Start
If you don't have an existing Emacs setup and want to run Spacemacs as your
configuration, and if you have all prerequisites installed,
you can install Spacemacs with one line:
shell:
git clone https://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs "${HOME}/.emacs.d"
Windows PowerShell:
git clone https://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs "${HOME}/.emacs.d"
If HOME is not set in environment or in registry:
git clone https://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs "${env:APPDATA}/.emacs.d"
If you do have an existing Emacs configuration, look at the full installation
instructions for other options.
Introduction
Spacemacs is a new way of experiencing Emacs -- it's a sophisticated and
polished set-up, focused on ergonomics, mnemonics and consistency.
Just clone and launch it, then press the space bar to explore the interactive
list of carefully-chosen key bindings. You can also press the home buffer's
[?] button for some great first key bindings to try.
Spacemacs can be used naturally by both Emacs and Vim users -- you can even mix
the two editing styles. Being able to quickly switch between input styles, makes
Spacemacs a great tool for pair-programming.
Spacemacs is currently in beta, and any contributions are very welcome.
Features
Great documentation: access the Spacemacs documentation with
SPC h SPC.
Beautiful GUI: you'll love the distraction free UI and its functional
mode-line.
Excellent ergonomics: all the key bindings are accessible by pressing the
SPC or Alt-m.
Mnemonic key bindings: commands have mnemonic prefixes like
SPC b for all the buffer commands or SPC p for the project
commands.
Batteries included: discover hundreds of ready-to-use packages nicely
organized in configuration layers following a set of conventions
.
Documentation
Comprehensive documentation is available for each layer by pressing SPC h
SPC.
You can also check the general documentation,
quick start guide and the FAQ.
Getting Help
If you need help, ask your questions in the Gitter Chat and a member of the
community will help you out.
If you prefer IRC, connect to the Gitter Chat IRC server and join the
#syl20bnr/spacemacs channel.
Last but not least there are a lot of high class tutorials available on YouTube:
Jack of Some's Spacemacs tutorial videos.
GDQuest's Game Design oriented tutorials to Spacemacs.
Practicalli's Clojure tutorials based on Spacemacs.
Eivind Fonn's classic Spacemacs ABC.
Prerequisites
A package manager if the OS doesn't have one already.
Spacemacs is an extension of a popular text editor called Emacs.
So you'll need Emacs installed first.
Spacemacs requires Emacs 28.2 or above. The development version of Emacs is
not officially supported, but it should nevertheless be expected to work.
git is required to download and update Spacemacs.
Tar, in particular GNU Tar, is required to install and update Emacs
packages used by Spacemacs.
(Optional) The default font used by Spacemacs is Source Code Pro. You
may customize your own font settings and choose another font. If you want to
use this default font, it must be installed.
Spacemacs also uses fallback fonts to ensure certain Unicode symbols it uses
symbols appear correctly. The fonts used are determined by the OS:
Linux: Nanum Gothic
macOS: Arial Unicode MS
Windows: MS Gothic and Lucida Sans Unicode
If the mode-line doesn't look similar to the picture at the top of this
page, make sure you have the correct fallback font installed.
(Optional) Various commands in Spacemacs needs one of the following line
searching program:
ripgrep (rg)
The silver searcher (ag)
ack
GNU Grep or BSD Grep
Grep is very slow but it's widely available on most systems and is used as an
fallback option.
We strongly recommend ripgrep over other line searching programs, for its
blazing fast speed. The following subsections helps you to install it.
Linux
Most Linux distribution ships a package manager already and if this is the
case you are all set for this step.
If it doesn't, you may need to build the software mentioned below from their
sources.
In most distributions, Emacs is installed via an emacs package from the
package manager.
N.B. DO not install XEmacs because it's not supported by Spacemacs.
XEmacs is an old fork of Emacs with various subtle
differences.
N.B. Some Linux distributions support only Emacs versions older than
28.2. In this case you should
build it from source instead.
Very likely Git is already installed on your system. Otherwise, you should
be able to install git from your system's package manager.
Very likely Tar is already installed on your system. Otherwise, you should
be able to install tar from your system's package manager.
(Optional) If Nerd Fonts and Nanum Gothic are available from your
distribution's package manager, you should install it there.
Otherwise, the generic way to install it is:
Download the latest pre-built TTF font from
https://github.com/adobe-fonts/source-code-pro/releases/latest and
https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Nanum+Gothic.
Extract the archive and move the font files to ~/.fonts.
Refresh font cache with:
fc-cache -fv
(Optional) If your distribution is listed
here, follow the instructions to install
ripgrep (rg). Otherwise, you can download its pre-built binary or
build it from source.
macOS
The most popular package manager on macOS is Homebrew, to install it:
/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"
Several options exist for installing Emacs on macOS:
Emacs Plus features additional functionalities
over base Emacs.
brew tap d12frosted/emacs-plus
# install latest stable release, with Spacemacs icon and native compilation
brew install emacs-plus --with-spacemacs-icon --with-native-comp
You will require the latest version of Xcode Command Line tools, which can be
downloaded from the Apple Developer Portal
or by running the following comm
Read the full README on GitHubWhat Hacker News says
93 sources> I highlight this because it's not an unsolvable problem for emacs. It requires making a recommended default configuration that will be more correct for the 95% use case and advocating that configuration on the install channels for the tool.
For people interested in this, I know about Doom Emacs [1] and Spacemacs [2].
[1] https://github.com/doomemacs/doomemacs
[2] https://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs
In Emacs 29.1There is Built with Spacemacs tho : https://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs#supporting-spacemacs
I'm +1 to add a made with Doom Emacs button to my site :D
In Emacs Web ButtonsThey did not stop, it's just rolling release for some years now and everything is happening in develop-branch. See the last release-note at master:
https://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs/blob/master/core/info/...
In Emacs User Survey – 2022 ResultsUnsure if anything changed, but even the first time I ever used Spacemacs, they recommended the development branch. Some projects are allergic to cutting releases for some reason (pfetch hasn't had one in years).
edit: Here is a relevant issue with some discussion
https://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs/issues/11191
In Emacs User Survey – 2022 ResultsYes. There are two major "flavors" I know of: 1. doom-emacs and 2. spacemacs I've only tried spacemacs and after a brief stint with it I was able to roll my own init.el by use-package'ing the things I liked and tinkering with it. glhf
1 https://github.com/hlissner/doom-emacs
2 https://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs
In Building an Intelligent EmacsEmacs Prelude [1] is an excellent starting point for creating your own emacs experience, without being too heavy-weight or opinionated (as in does not deviate too much from the emacs way of doing things).
If you are a fan of vim style modal editing, Spacemacs [2] and Doom [3] are two popular emacs "distributions".
[1] https://github.com/bbatsov/prelude
[2] https://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs
[3] https://github.com/hlissner/doom-emacs
In Why Emacs: ReduxReally hope to see Emacs get more attention after `native-comp` branch merged to master.
Recently, I have switched to Emacs full-time (first spacemacs[0], now doom[1]). So far, it has been a great experience. Spacemacs is a bit slow but with doom and `native-comp`, I rarely encounter any performance issues.
[0]: https://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs
[1]: https://github.com/hlissner/doom-emacs
In Bringing GNU Emacs to Native Code (2020)I would suggest a step further: start with Spacemacs/Doom, but if you decide to stick around, try to build your own Emacs configuration based on the part of Spacemacs/Doom that you like.
Thanks to the amazing use-package[1] macro (which Spacemacs/Doom also uses) most configurations are self-contained to a certain extent. Searching for use-package in GitHub[2] will yields plenty of results which can be mostly be taken as a reference for your own liking. It should be relatively easy to port part of Spacemacs/Doom to vanilla use-package, e.g. starting with this (which sets up use-package alongside with evil):
(require 'package)
(setq package-enable-at-startup nil)
(add-to-list 'package-archives '("melpa" . "https://melpa.org/packages/"))
(package-initialize)
(unless (package-installed-p 'use-package)
(package-refre
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sh-contents)
(package-install 'use-package))
(eval-when-compile
(require 'use-package))
(use-package evil
:ensure t
:config
(evil-mode t)
(use-package evil-leader
:after evil
:ensure t
:config
(evil-leader/set-leader "<SPC>")
(global-evil-leader-mode t))
To add Magit, one could take a look at Spacemacs's git/packages.el[2], search documentation on what each package does, and proceed on porting configuration, only the part that you actually uses, e.g.:
(use-package evil-magit
:ensure t
:after (magit evil))
(use-package magit
:ensure t
:config
(evil-leader/set-key ("gs" #'magit-status))
Since most configurations based on use-package are self-contained, when stuck I also like to use GitHub search to look on how other people configure a certain package[3]. In most cases the configuration should be reusable as-is.
Finally, use-package is highly extensible. There is straight.el[4] which adds extension to use-package to fetch from Git and pin a version in a lockfile, which adds reproducibility to Emacs configuration. There's also el-patch[5] from the same author that allows patching package on the fly without the need to maintain separate forks.
[1]: https://github.com/jwiegley/use-package
[2]: https://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs/blob/d46eacd83842815b2...
[3]: https://github.com/search?l=Emacs+Lisp&p=4&q=use-package&typ...
[4]: https://github.com/raxod502/straight.el
[5]: https://github.com/raxod502/el-patch
This seems like a nice extension to Emacs for folks that want to use it but are stymied by the steep learning curve.
Personally I think the learning curve is worth it... especially with an aid like Spacemacs. It gives you the context and quick access without requiring a mouse and thus results in faster and more efficient interaction in the long run.
https://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs
In Mousemacs – A mouse-driven EmacsI've been using Emacs for everything since highschool and through University and my career. The best way to get used to it is to bootstrap with tutorials and then just keep using it.
I learned a lot about it from doing basic projects and then homework assignments, and then at work.
I started out by following basic tutorials, like this one [0], and working my way up. You may want to find a guide to get themes setup, and some rough edges ironed out.
Alternatively, you could dive into distributions. I highly recommend Spacemacs, and have written an article about it [1]. It is a lot of learning especially if you're familiar with vim. The github page is also a great introduction [2]. I would recommend using the develop branch over master, as master tends to be very stale.
I have also heard good things about Doom emacs, another vim style distr
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As others have said, the tutorial is the best place to start (C-h t). After that for any other thing you need to learn in emacs the info will probably have it (C-h i or M-x info). Emacs users usually spend much time configuring their “operating system” till they’re satisfied, by modifying the init.el, but you can get a popular config already made [0][1]. My biggest recommendation after understanding how emacs works, if you use/prefer vi binds, is install evil-mode [2]. It’s essentially a vi layer on top of emacs, and is very functional.
edit: If you use MacOS, Yamamoto Mitsuharu‘s emacs-mac [3] is my recommendation, as for linux the version from your distros package manager should be apt. ;)
[0] https://github.com/hlissner/doom-emacs
[1] https://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs
[2] https://github.com/emacs-evil/evil
[3] https://bitbucket.org
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Looks like a clusterfuck composed for you by other people is still a clusterfuck.
I gave it a couple hours and ran into a bunch of issues just by using spacemacs master and enabling a few layers.
For example, semantic seems to be pretty broken and unmaintained, and only googling around is how you find out. Yet other layers' documentation kinda (not so) subtly nudge you towards installing broken crap like this, without telling you that it's broken. https://www.reddit.com/r/emacs/comments/5yxxrl/what_is_that_...
Enabling version-control layer breaks a bunch of magit functionality, including basics such as commit. Don't enable that broken layer, I guess? Funny, apparently fixed in develop and still broken in master 9 months later.. https://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs/issues/12056
git blame is broken: https://github.com/magit/magit/issu
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es/3883
Does anyone actually use this stuff?!
And I still haven't found a way out of silly autoindentation so I'm forced to waste time trying to configure features that I did not want in the first place :(
Stuff like ^N and ^P aren't quite working like in vim either..
This kind of stuff is pretty much exactly what pushed me away from emacs the second time I tried to use it for real. A tangled mess of a bazillion packages that interfere with each other and come in various degrees of unmaintained, broken, or obviously broken is not a good foundation for building good software.
For python just use Elpy [1] or anaconda-mode. Microsoft Language Server is nice but use it for things you can not find a package in elpa or melpa.
Obviously you can use emacs-prelude [2] or spacemacs [3] in the beginning and as you get familiar write your own init.el or packages to make it work the way you want.
I have yet to see anything like tramp allowing seemless work on file over ssh, org-mode, ledger-mode, ERC in any other editor except may be some in vi.
Indeed magit is better than any tool you will find for managing git repository. I can go on and on. You have to give it a try to see it for yourself, it pays for its learning curve over the time you use it.
Initially those parentheses looks awkward, but once you get around it with understanding lisp, you will not want to go back.
[1] https://github.com/jorgenschaefer/elpy
[2] http
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