Hi,
I'm a strong believer in XEmacs. I prefer X over GNU simply because it is highly configured by now (mostly due to traditional reasons: some mode was better preconfigured when I started coding, and I stuck with XEmacs ;-)

THE major features that I don't know from other editors are:

• dabbrev
  Usually bound to M-/ but for me it sits on Shift Space. This takes the chars of the word you have typed so far and searches from the current cursorposition in the whole buffer if it finds a match, then expands. If the current buffer yields no result all buffers are searched. I consider this _extremely_ usefull!
• speedbar
  The speedbar is the major navigation tool with a little problem. The problem is that it usually recognizes files only from ther suffix (which gives a problem when your perl script doesn't have a name that ends in .pl). Anyway if you got speedbar-get-focus on an easy to reach keystroke (for me: C-c C-s) you hit that, get a new frame (whose dimensions are -of curse- customizable). Then you can open a list of functions, global vars, whatever (depends on the programming language you're in) that you can choose (Cursor on it and return or middle mouse button) and jump right to that position.
  This noavigation is waaay cool! (BTW: I wrote a little defun that toggles the open/close-state of a file in speedbar, so you can use space to open or close a function list with one key instead of using + and -. Look at my lisp defuns; site in german, code documented in english...)
• I can write my own extensions (and can profit from those written by others ;-). If I really need this or that feature, well, I write it. I am no lisp-coder but the little I know is enough for most of the things I want to do.
• Emacsen are very well documented! And you can live inside Emacs for hours and hours, reading the description of variables and functions, browsing info docs and so on...
• CVS support is built in but I never used it til now
• and don't forget the desktop package: in every directory you can have a session file which contains the names of all open files. If you start a new (x)emacs in that directory it can be set up so that if automatically restores your old session

SyntaxHiliting and indention are very important, but that's what most of the editors offer (and sometimes Emacs is a bit confused. admitted! ;-). But the navigation of sources (esp. when there is more than one file involved) and extensability (word correct?) are major to many of the editors of the world (at least as far as I know, and I know no other editor thoroughly *grin*)

OK, that's enough for the start, isn't it?

Regards...

Stefan

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