Re: What are Emacs best uses?

[Pascal J. Bourguignon]

Jorge <1gato0a@gmail.com> writes:

> Hi.  What are the best uses of Emacs?  I currently use it to compose emails,
> manage files, to edit LaTeX, and to edit source code and configuration files.
> But Emacs seems to be mediocre at viewing PDFs.  Evince has better search.
>
>   What is Emacs really good for?  Is it a good personal information manager?
> Can you manage your information (todo, grocery list, etc.) and sync with a
> smartphone?  If you can't sync with a smartphone, how do you manage the
> grocery list?
>
>   Is it a good calendar?  Can you easily collaborate with colleagues who use
> Google Calendar?
>
>   Is it a good email reader?  Does it work with gmail?
>
>   Is Emacs adapting well to the changing computing landscape?
>
>   Thank you for your attention.

Well, I would say that emacs is bad at everything, BUT a single thing:

      it is good at being modified.

So if there's something bad in it that you don't like, you can easily
modify it by writting a few emacs lisp functions, and make it acceptable
for you, for that task.

Of course, this now implies a dynamic process where emacs has been and
is continuously improved, and therefore where it becomes good at some
things.  But it's difficult to characterize them, since it has evolved
and continues to evolve purely in accordance to the needs of its users,
since its users are also its programmers (at least potentially).


Ok, so let's see what other programs beside emacs I use, perhaps that'll
give us a hint at what emacs is bad:

- mplayer
- firefox
- xterm+screen
- acroread


Ok, so emacs is bad at playing videos.  Actually, it's still rather bad
at displaying dynamic 2D pictures, never mind animated 2D pictures.

Ok, so emacs is bad at interpreting javascript and css to display web
pages (even for pure text web browsing, most people use w3m, and
external browser, rather than w3 an emacs lisp browser).

Ok, so emacs is bad at running a terminal emulator.  
M-x term RET /usr/bin/screen RET is no good. 
That said, you can use emacs as a dumb terminal, and even open several
such dumb terminals, so you don't really need screen.

Ok, so emacs is bad at displaying PDF.  Again, the rendering is actually
done by xpdf or ghostscript, and emacs just displays (badly) the image.


Now, it's quite natural that emacs fails in this domain, since it's a
TEXT editor from the start, not an IMAGE editor.

But this gives a strong hint that emacs capabilities could be vastly
extended, by just providing an OpenGL (modern graphics) API accessible
from emacs lisp.


    (create-graphic-buffer "This Evening Movie"
      (movie-play "/movies/scifi/starwars-4.avi"))
   
                            

-- 
__Pascal Bourguignon__
http://www.informatimago.com/