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You can consider these points:

- Tabs are not present in Emacs, but C-x C-b will list all open buffers

+ Fuzzy file search : you can take a look at the popular Ido-mode

+ eshell is pretty powerful, if you think about it, you have all the emacs search functionality etc. available in a shell inside the editor itself.

I am not trying to popularise emacs, but "inflexible" is not something that you associate with emacs. If anything, it is the bewildering array of choices that is one drawback. Plus, you should really try:

+ org mode : what is the standout feature now a days. You can even do literate programming in the org mode, so can be viewed as an alternative to Jupyter, for example.

The real gripe for me about emacs is that it is single threaded. So a long grep launched off will freeze the entire editor.




> The real gripe for me about emacs is that it is single threaded. So a long grep launched off will freeze the entire editor.

Are you running grep with `shell-command` (M-!)? Using M-x grep, `async-shell-command` (M-&), and invoking grep directly in shell, eshell, term and ansi-term all leave emacs as responsive as normal for me. shell-command is the only one that seems to hang.

I'll also add ivy[1] and helm[2] as alternatives to Ido which are very popular completion systems with integrations that span the package ecosystem.

[1]: https://github.com/abo-abo/swiper

[2]: https://github.com/emacs-helm/helm


Thanks! I did not know about async-shell-command!


> - Tabs are not present in Emacs, but C-x C-b will list all open buffers

I want a passive, not an active interface. I want to be able to visually scan the tabs. I want to be able to click them when I'm not in the mood for keyboarding. I want the tabs and the tab bar to not be ugly as sin :) Etc, etc. Heck, if Vim has them built-in (and Vim also has the same concept of buffers as Emacs), surely Emacs could (should?) have them.

> Fuzzy file search : you can take a look at the popular Ido-mode

I know there's modes for that, but open up a folder in VS Code. It's seamless, I don't need to configure it, it just works, they bundle ripgrep for me, etc. The UI/UX are also slick.

> The real gripe for me about emacs is that it is single threaded. So a long grep launched off will freeze the entire editor.

Yeah, Vim is kind of like that, even though it's recently gotten async.


You do not need to see what "tabs" are open at all times. You only need it when you want to switch. It's also incredibly limiting. At this moment I have 127 buffers open in emacs. How would you deal with that?


> You do not need

I find it interesting that you can decide for me what I "need" or "do not need" :)


You can't tell me why you need it.


I can. I just did, in my original comment.

People's brains work in different ways.


But your eyes don't. You do not need it to be there at all times. But you'll refuse to try anything else and see that I'm right.

Emacs can do whatever you want but almost every single user switches off the permanent tabs, buttons, scroll bars etc. as soon as they realise they can because it is unnecessary.


I have the feeling that most emacs users will have hundreds or even thousands of buffers open at any time. A tab bar is not going to be very useful.

Ido or its siblings are very powerful for fast buffer switching.


>I want a passive, not an active interface. I want to be able to visually scan the tabs. I want to be able to click them when I'm not in the mood for keyboarding

Ibuffer is included in the gnu Emacs distro and does all of this.


It looks nothing like a CUA tabbed interface...




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