evil-collection VS magit

It looks like that package has an issue tracker here, if you wanted to raise one: https://github.com/emacs-evil/evil-collection/issues

Honestly, I've yet to find a plugin that I use that isn't covered by https://github.com/emacs-evil/evil-collection. I love emacs, but I can't stand the chords.

Evil and Evil Collection is the nuclear option.

I still have phases where I experiment with modal editing, but I haven't messed with Evil-mode in a long time. I prefer Meow, in part because it doesn't invest everything on a single command layout. And the sample Dvorak layout meshes really well with Emacs bindings for special modes (like Dired and Ibuffer). So you don't have to install and configure something like Evil-collection just to use the same bindings everywhere.

The problem I have with evil in Emacs is that it is another layer on top of vinalla Emacs. Not many packages are designed with evil key bindings in mind. You need packages like https://github.com/emacs-evil/evil-collection and and https://github.com/emacs-evil/evil-magit and https://github.com/emacs-evil/evil-ediff to make Emacs feel more "evil". Distros like Doom and Spacemacs integrate these packages for you, but then you're even farther away from the default Emacs experience. I also find online help worse for evil bindings. To figure stuff out you often have to resort to looking at vim or neovim documentation. "Vanilla" Emacs is famously "self documenting" but last I checked evil couldn't provide useful help, within Emacs, in the same way.

Evil does interfere with bindings in some modes, but https://github.com/emacs-evil/evil-collection fixes a lot of these issues, both for built-in modes and a lot of popular third-party ones.

Oh, and stick this in your use-package for general: ;; We want SPC as a leader key, probably. So do this. It just affects what ;; keybinds are overridden by the `override' keymap functionality that ;; `general' provides. ;; ;; https://github.com/emacs-evil/evil-collection#making-spc-work-similarly-to-spacemacs ;; ;; NOTE: `evil-collection' binds over SPC in many packages. To use SPC as a ;; leader key with `general', first set these override states: (setq general-override-states '(insert emacs hybrid normal visual motion operator replace))

You might want to look into the evil-collection package.

Evil mode is incredible, but it has real disadvantages in the Emacs context. It is another layer above Emacs, which makes Emacs different from its default self. E.g. most packages don't come with evil-mode key bindings. The popular Emacs packages are handled by https://github.com/emacs-evil/evil-collection but, there is always going to be a layer of translation between how upstream describes its key bindings and how Evil binds them.

Then the slowness that you're seeing is probably Windows-specific, and that's why everyone else is telling you that Magit is actually fast.

WSL might make things faster.[1] IIUC, the problem is that starting new processes is much slower on Windows than on Linux/Unix and Magit relies heavily on that. This seems to have plagued Git tooling more generally but maybe this got fixed since then.[2]

[1] https://emacs.stackexchange.com/a/58444

[2] https://github.com/magit/magit/issues/2395#issuecomment-1710...

You'll want to invest the time in learning Magit, which will change your life once you get the hang of it (and I was a heavy user of Fugitive in Vim previously!), and it's unlikely you'll find a better integration with GDB anywhere else on the planet than with Emacs, though I can't say that empirically. You just need to take the plunge and start learning it, then cut over and take the hit in productivity one day when you're feeling adventurous. You'll ultimately become far more powerful than you've ever been. Especially if you delve into elisp over time. I use Spacemacs, which is bloated and has bugs, but it has so many features that I haven't undertaken the massive endeavor to replace it from scratch yet.

> Even in this article just a few sentences after stating we should start from first principles he then jumps into the assumption of the "desktop".

Agree. Although I can see how the idea of "first principles" can be a very difficult starting point. A blank sheet of paper is a scary monster.

There's a huge breadth and depth of non-"desktop" GUIs out there, some (like smartphones) are even wildly successful. It's good to explore them for inspiration. Some of my favourites:

- Arcan (https://arcan-fe.com/about/) - I won't attempt to summarize, just dive in!

- SailfishOS (https://sailfishos.org/) - mobile UI focused on interaction through gestures / swipes; I've used it as my daily driver for a couple years.

- Speaking of mobiles, classic Nokia UIs allowed you to navigate to a specific item in the menu by pressing the corresponding digit on the dial pad. Once you learned where a particular item is, accessing e.g. your SMS inbox was extremely quick.

- Apple Watch / WatchOS (https://www.apple.com/watchos/) - I've always loved the idea of a device where one of the primary interaction methods was a wheel/dial of some sort. The watch even gives you context-sensitive tactile feedback.

- ZUIs in general (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zooming_user_interface) and the work of Jef Raskin in particular: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archy_(software) - this is the guy who helped design the Macintosh, but his other work took a radically different route.

- Magit (https://magit.vc/). Many common git operations are reduced to a couple of keystrokes; the obscure features are more discoverable, and the cumbersome procedures (such as rebasing, or staging individual hunks) become simple and intuitive. Also check out transient (https://github.com/magit/transient), which is the "UI toolkit" that powers Magit.

This can be done most comfortably with org-mode in emacs. It offers a lot of features, and they all operate on plain text. There are also nice integrations for git and languagetool, but I guess those are less exclusive.

How does this differ from https://magit.vc/ ?

I would rather see innovative tools that lessen our dependency on 50+ year old tech. This is still a glorified teletype. It uses AI to autosuggest git commands? Contrast with Magit[1], which (while it has a tiny bit of a learning curve, but also nowhere near 23M in funding) actually makes interacting with git a pleasure.

[1]: https://magit.vc

Also was using Emacs (org-mode)[https://orgmode.org] for years with (Magit)[https://magit.vc] package for git. I feel org-mod is a precursor to Roam Research, Obsidian, et al. Hit the spot for years but I wanted editing on mobile so that’s why I’m here. :)