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Comment on Ask HN: Why do you love your text editor?parent

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It bears repeating that emacs grows with you. You don't have to learn and customize a new editor when you take on a new type of task.

From the time I wrote my first Linux config file, to when I started coding in C (and through the next dozen languages I learned), from using RCS to CVS to SVN to git and hg, when I was a security geek, a nuts-and-bolts coder, a web developer, and a typesetter... I stuck with emacs.

I know folks who learned only a fraction of that breadth of computing tasks, yet passed through six or seven editing environments, revision control front-ends, and so on doing it. There was this extra thing they had to do -- audition appropriate IDEs and customize on to their liking -- every time they learned something new. I'm confident I can pick up whatever language I like without that overhead.

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