Do I need to know Lisp to use Emacs?
No, it’s not strictly necessary. You will probably write elisp, but mostly just set variables and insert the necessary snippets for any mode or package you want to use ( setq , require etc). Most of that is done by copying and pasting, so no real knowledge of elisp is required.
Which one is better Emacs or vi?
vi is a smaller and faster program, but with less capacity for customization. vim has evolved from vi to provide significantly more functionality and customization than vi, making it comparable to Emacs. vi start-up time is near instantaneous for small text files, while vim is almost as fast. Emacs uses metakey chords.
Why do people prefer Emacs over Vim?
Emacs tends to be relatively straightforward, similar to commonly used text editors like Notepad. Vim is known to have a much steeper learning curve than Emacs. However, it’s been said that putting in the extra effort is worth it because you will ultimately be able to work much faster and more comfortably in Vim.
Why does Emacs use Lisp?
It supports imperative and functional programming methods. Richard Stallman chose Lisp as the extension language for his rewrite of Emacs (the original used Text Editor and Corrector (TECO) as its extension language) because of its powerful features, including the ability to treat functions as data.
What type of programming language is Lisp?
Common Lisp is a general-purpose programming language and thus has a large language standard including many built-in data types, functions, macros and other language elements, and an object system (Common Lisp Object System).
Do more people use Vim or Emacs?
With over 50 billion commands collected across the Cmd user base, we were able to deep dive into the stats and figure out if Vim is actually the preferred text editor compared to Emacs. In our findings, we found 93\% of the users on all our clients’ projects use Vi/Vim as their primary file editor.
Is Vim more popular than Emacs?
Programmers continue to argue over the best text editor: vi or Emacs. Today, Stack Overflow released its 2018 Developer Survey Results. Vim, the improved version of vi, scored 25.8\% in popularity, while Emacs scored a paltry 4.1\%. That is a staggering difference.