Show of hands II: slimv vs slime for vim noob?

[Kenneth Tilton]

We have a Lisp noob here who uses vim for other programming. He actually has a hefty first task to get done this week so there is not a lot of time for learning curve.

Is slimv a worthy alternative to slime, such that it is better for him to use vim/slimv than learn emacs/slime?

btw, if slimv is better than slime the answer is yes. :)

-kt

[ccc31807]

On Wednesday, September 4, 2013 2:12:35 PM UTC-4, Kenneth Tilton wrote:
> Is slimv a worthy alternative to slime, such that it is better for him to use vim/slimv than learn emacs/slime?

I've been using vi/Vim for about 14 years, and consider myself proficient if not edging into the expert category. I use it for virtually all programming, data munging, writing, notes, etc. Bottom line: you don't need emacs to bash out Lisp, Schmem, Perl, Python, C, or any other technology -- use the command line tools that God gave you in the beginning.

I've tried to learn emacs/slime for a good while, I suppose since about 2008. I have put a good amount of effort into it. For some reason it just doesn't click with me. I have given up emacs as a lost cause and have totally abandoned all further attempts.

I'm not going to take the position that one is better than the other in an absolute sense. I do believe however that in terms of sheer speed and efficiency, Vim is far superior to emacs. Yes, I know that speed is not the only consideration, and maybe not even the main consideration, but it's one area that I don't think that anyone disagrees on.

I've been writing LaTeX heavily recently, and Vim does just as well as that as it does with Lisp, Perl, C, R, and the other tools I use. It's been a while since I wrote Java, but when I wwrote Java (what little bit I wrote), I used Vim with javac and it met my needs.

Just my two cents. I don't have an axe t grind -- just trying to give the benefit of my experience.

CC

[Dimitri Fontaine]

ccc31807 <cart...@gmail.com> writes:
> I'm not going to take the position that one is better than the other in an
> absolute sense. I do believe however that in terms of sheer speed and
> efficiency, Vim is far superior to emacs. Yes, I know that speed is not the

We all know that C is faster than Common Lisp too, right?

Use the tool you know, are proficient with, and able to adapt to *your*
workflow. Emacs is great for me because I can change it to suit the say
I want to work rather than have to adapt to the tool. I know of no other
software that flexible into reaching my needs.

--
dim

[ccc31807]

On Thursday, September 5, 2013 3:10:53 AM UTC-4, Dimitri Fontaine wrote:

> ccc31807 <cart...@gmail.com> writes:
> I want to work rather than have to adapt to the tool. I know of no other
> software that flexible into reaching my needs.

I'm very familiar with Vim and pretty familiar with emacs. If you think that emacs is more flexible than vi from a configuration standpoint, you need to educate yourself on vi configuration.

I'm not making a judgement on which is more configurable. I'm just saying that vi is highly configurable. No, you really can't program it in the same way that you can program emacs, but there are multiple ways to skin the cat and for most (if not all) configuration needs, all you need is just the parameters you can adjust out of the box.

C.

[Dimitri Fontaine]

ccc31807 <cart...@gmail.com> writes:
> I'm not making a judgement on which is more configurable. I'm just saying
> that vi is highly configurable. No, you really can't program it in the same
> way that you can program emacs, but there are multiple ways to skin the cat
> and for most (if not all) configuration needs, all you need is just the
> parameters you can adjust out of the box.

Well I'm talking about coding major modes and tweaking exiting behaviors
thanks to hooks and defadvice, so I'm not sure how much of your point
applies. I hate it when the only things I can change in a setup are the
one the main author though I would need to, because invariably comes a
point where that doesn't hold. This problem just doesn't exists with
Emacs, if you include monkey patching (I do that too).

--
dim

[a.daniel...@gmail.com]

What you really need is the interactive interface with the Lisp system, so you get the syntax prompting, code target jumping, online debugging, interpreter window, etc.

I haven't used SLIMV, but if it doesn't give those things, it wouldn't be a contendah, so I give it benefit of the doubt.

I grew up on VI and its spawn, and only 10 years ago switched to EMACS to get SLIME. (PS - I'm not that young, so that gives me about 25 years of VI..)

Try a go for SLIMV. You said the guy's loaded with work, EMACS (much as I love it now) is a real uphill climb if you are accustomed to VI, and the keystrokes in VI are far more efficient for the touch-typist anyway.