Emacs for Goodness' Sake

A Gentle Journey into the Operating System Disguised as a Text Editor

Welcome to a different kind of Emacs book—one that acknowledges the learning curve while celebrating the view from the top. This book is for anyone who's heard that Emacs can do everything but doesn't know where to start, especially those coming from modern IDEs like VS Code, IntelliJ, or Sublime Text.

📚 What's Inside

This book takes you on a journey from basic text editing to using Emacs as your IDE, email client, task manager, and more. Each chapter builds on the previous one, but they're also designed to be relatively standalone.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction - Why Emacs? Why now? Why this book?
2. Chapter 1: First Steps - Opening, editing, and saving files without having a breakdown
3. Chapter 2: The Emacs Philosophy - Understanding buffers, windows, and frames
4. Chapter 3: Movement and Key Bindings - Making your fingers dance across the keyboard
5. Chapter 4: Configuration Basics - Making Emacs yours with init.el
6. Chapter 5: Package Management - Standing on the shoulders of giants with MELPA
7. Chapter 6: Org-mode - Your life in plain text
8. Chapter 7: Emacs as an IDE - LSP, debugging, and modern development
9. Chapter 8: Communication Hub - Email, IRC, RSS, and never leaving Emacs
10. Chapter 9: Just Enough Elisp - Programming your editor
11. Chapter 10: Dired - File management as text editing
12. Chapter 11: Macros and Registers - Automation for humans
13. Appendix: Survival Guide for IDE Refugees - Making the transition smooth

🎯 Who This Book Is For

• IDE Users curious about Emacs but intimidated by its reputation
• Developers who want a more powerful, customizable editor
• Writers interested in Org-mode and plain text productivity
• Anyone who's tried Emacs before and bounced off the learning curve
• Experienced Emacs users who enjoy a fresh perspective (and bad jokes)

🚀 Getting Started

1. Install Emacs (version 28 or later recommended):

   # macOS
   brew install emacs
   
   # Linux (Debian/Ubuntu)
   sudo apt-get install emacs
   
   # Windows
   winget install GNU.Emacs
   # Or download from https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/download.html
   

2. Start with Chapter 1 if you're new to Emacs

3. Jump to the Appendix if you're coming from VS Code or another IDE

4. Dive into Chapter 6 if you're here for Org-mode

📖 How to Read This Book

For Complete Beginners

Start at Chapter 1 and work through sequentially. Don't skip Chapter 2 (Philosophy)—understanding why Emacs works the way it does makes everything else easier.

For IDE Refugees

Read the Appendix first, then Chapter 2 (Philosophy), then jump around based on your needs.

For Vim Users

You might want to start with the Evil mode section in the Appendix, then read Chapter 2 to understand the Emacs way.

🎮 Special Features

Throughout the book, you'll find:

• 🚸 IDE Refugee Notes: Special guidance for those coming from modern development environments
• 🎯 Pro Tips: Advanced techniques you can come back to later
• 🤔 Why Though?: Explanations of Emacs's seemingly bizarre design decisions
• 🎮 Try This: Hands-on exercises to build muscle memory

💡 Philosophy

This book believes that:

• Emacs's learning curve is real, but the payoff is worth it
• Humor makes learning easier
• Understanding "why" is as important as knowing "how"
• Your editor should grow with you, not constrain you
• Plain text is powerful, portable, and permanent

🤝 Contributing

Found a typo? Have a better explanation? Want to add a chapter on your favorite Emacs feature? Contributions are welcome!

1. Fork this repository
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b improve-chapter-x)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Improve explanation of macros')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin improve-chapter-x)
5. Create a Pull Request

📝 License

This book is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0). You're free to:

• Share — copy and redistribute the material
• Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material

As long as you provide attribution and share under the same license.

🙏 Acknowledgments

• The Emacs community for decades of packages, documentation, and support
• Richard Stallman for creating this magnificent beast
• Every Emacs user who shared their config online
• You, for being curious enough to learn Emacs in 2025

📬 Contact

Questions? Suggestions? Emacs war stories? Open an issue on GitHub or reach out to the community:

• r/emacs on Reddit
• #emacs on Libera.Chat IRC
• Emacs Stack Exchange

🚦 Status

This book is complete but will continue to evolve. Emacs never stops growing, and neither should this guide.

Version History

• v1.0.0 (2025-01-19) - Initial release with comprehensive technical review
  • Fixed deprecated package references
  • Updated keybindings and commands for accuracy
  • Enhanced security configurations (TLS for IRC)
  • Improved cross-platform compatibility
  • Modernized Elisp code examples

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"Emacs is the only software that I've used for 30 years and am still discovering new features."

Start reading with the Introduction →

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Remember: Every Emacs expert was once where you are now. The journey is worth it.

(message "Happy Hacking! 🎉")