in reply to Getting into Emacs?

will Emacs answer my needs for HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, MySQL, Perl, and Python coding?

Just what exactly are your needs? No editor, be as good or as complicated as it can be can code for you. It won't suggest the right algorithm, nor will it correct your data-structures. If you can specify what do you look for in an editor, perhaps a better suggestion will be available.

This been said, try this EMACS page it seems to know what it's doing.

UPDATE: But then again, it might not, see following remarks. This is what happens when you recommend things without checking them up first.

Also, two side notes, EMACS is fully programmable, meaning you can create an elisp file that will alter its behavior in a way that will support whatever you want to do (and most chances are that someone already did it). So the answer to any EMACS q is usually "yes", but it may need to be added, or created.
Two, a steep learning curve means that you can get on top of things (the y grid) very fast (the x grid). What you mean is a very gradual, or flat, learning curve (takes lots of time to learn how to do something)

Software speaks in tongues of man.
Stop saying 'script'. Stop saying 'line-noise'.
We have nothing to lose but our metaphors.

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re^2: Getting into Emacs?
by tmallen (Novice) on Apr 11, 2008 at 16:19 UTC
    Seeing that I learned the basics in SimpleText on OS8, I definitely don't need my editor to code for me :^) Here are my needs, but of course I'm forgetting some:
    Syntax highlighting
    Most editors have this. I need it to highlight CSS in the head of a document, HTML in a PHP file, JavaScript in HTML, etc. Not so much for inline style="" or onclick="" attributes but when separated explicitly with style and script tags.
    Indentation
    Good, automatic, context-sensitive indentation
    Code completion
    Index my functions, classes, even variables so I don't have to repeat so much typing. Library function completion is nice too...
    Project management
    I need to be able to access my filesystem to some degree from the editor. It's very nice to be able to see a list of files in a project too, and to be able to launch projects by name. Finally, in TextMate I use Control+T which has a great project file quicksearch, so "Ctrl+T: head" will bring up a list of all files with these letters, regardless of their directory.
    Access to shell, maybe a debugger
    Access to the shell would be great, and I'm sure Emacs does this. I honestly don't know what a debugger is, and I always manually debug my code. Being able to run scripts while in Emacs would be great. Dropping to a shell and using "python ./some_script.py" works, but not as elegantly.

    I know Emacs has plugins to do snippets like TextMate, so that's not a concern. And I'm willing to learn rudimentary ELisp to maximize customization.

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      Emacs can do all of this, though real thorough code completion is really dependent on the support of and mode for the language you're using. There are a whole bunch of generic completion minor modes too, so you'll never be completely without it if you don't want to.

      For perl, I don't really use the debugger much at all. You may also be interested in Sepia, which runs an "inferor perl" more or less like Slime for Lisp, which means it can catch/debug exceptions when they occor, do completions based on whatever is currently defined in your running perl process etc. This is a pretty different way of developing than the usual save/compile/run methods, and suits some kinds of programs better than others.

      "What should it profit a man, if he should win a flame war, yet lose his cool?"
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Re^2: Getting into Emacs?
by doom (Deacon) on Apr 11, 2008 at 21:03 UTC

    "This been said, try this EMACS page it seems to know what it's doing." Ah, yes "Xah's Emacs Tutorial"

    Xah certainly knows his way around emacs, but he's a bit of a windows weenie... he gets a bit snarky that a lot of us have trouble caring about things like this:

    "Turn on CUA Mode" ... "The CUA mode will make emacs behave more like modern applications"

    Of course, if you're also coming from a windows background, it could be his advice is just what you need.

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      OTOH, Xah is a well-known USENET troll and should be avoided at all costs, IMHO.

      I haven't read what he's got to say about Emacs. It may be very good, I just assume it's as worthless as all his posts to comp.lang.perl.misc and elsewhere.

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        OTOH, Xah is a well-known USENET troll and should be avoided at all costs, IMHO.

        Well... I was trying to be nice about it, but yeah, he has a habit of starting inflammatory threads on comp.emacs about how emacs needs to be "modernized" (i.e. work by default exactly the way he thinks it should).

        But you know, just because you don't like his manners doesn't mean he doesn't know something about what he's talking about (myself, I'm not about to throw away every book I own that says "Christiansen" on the spine).

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Re^2: Getting into Emacs?
by jrockway (Acolyte) on Apr 13, 2008 at 06:13 UTC

    First off, the emacs community widely agrees that xah is insane. I recommend not linking newbies to his site.

    Secondly, I disagree about Emacs' learning curve. You can immediately open a file, start typing (with syntax highlighting, etc.), save it, etc. all without ever needing to know anything about emacs. Just use the menubar or toolbar like in any GUI application.

    Once you decide Emacs is decent, then you can invest in learning the key bindings and the advanced features. Emacs comes with very good documentation, and it's self-documenting. So if you accidentally press a key and like what it does, you can can C-h k <that key command again> and get detailed information on that command.

    And of course, elisp makes it very easy to extend emacs. Emacs makes programming in elisp quite enjoyable, even though elisp is definitely Not Perl.

    YMMV, but vi will never have the level of documentation and extension ability that emacs does.

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