7/30/2026 at 11:22:18 PM
Quite impressed with a sales page basically telling me to stick with Emacs for now: https://rune.build/coming-from/emacsby bryanlarsen
7/31/2026 at 8:47:32 AM
Lots of IDEs claim to offer Vim/Emacs emulation. Vim users seem often quite happy with the vim emulation they get (I'm only an occasional Vim user so don't have an opinion).The issue with emulating Emacs is that the editor key bindings are not the feature. The feature of Emacs is basically an IDE totally tuned to how you want it, plus the fact that then you apply the same ecosystem to a great number of text-adjacent applications - Org, E-mail, code, markdown, etc.
Someone saying to me "hey, you can copy with M-w!" just really doesn't appeal.
Vim seems more about an out-of-the-box "language" for typing, so I can see how you can emulate this more sanely.
by rich_sasha
7/31/2026 at 9:02:40 AM
> Vim users seem often quite happy with the vim emulation they getIts better than nothing, but usually only lets you use vim bindings for text editing itself. Compared to neovim, where the entire editor and the plugin ecosystem is fully based on the same keyboard-driven workflow, it's quite lacking. For example, I remember that when using VSCode with its Vim mode plugin, it took quite a bit of configuration to be able to switch to the file tree and navigate it with the keyboard, and it still didn't work that well due to inherent limitations of the software.
Another huge example is Neogit. If you're an Emacs user, you probably use Magit, which Neogit is heavily inspired by, so you'll understand. Having it integrated into your editor and working with the same shortcuts is very nice and can't be replaced by vim emulation mode.
by flexagoon
7/31/2026 at 12:46:46 PM
> Vim users seem often quite happy with the vim emulation they getNot at all. Never seen any vi-emulation, which wasn't totally broken.
by dim13
7/31/2026 at 3:13:15 PM
IntelliJ actually does (did) have quite solid vim emulation, at least from my experience of using it before going full into neovim (now on Emacs, btw)by xprnio
7/31/2026 at 4:22:58 PM
Except when you go to any pane/window without code it stops using vim bindingsby para_parolu
8/2/2026 at 9:59:56 PM
Yeah, that seems to be the general pattern across vi-emulation. However, back when I was on IntellJ stuff (pre vi-emulation), I was already quite deep into the plethora of keyboard shortcuts within IntelliJ, so although you couldn’t do everything with just vi-emulation, you could still do essentially almost everything without leaving the keyboard. Not the same as full blown vim, but it was a solid workflow in my eyes.The main reason I switched was because of finances and hardware limitations, as I’m now rocking an 8GB M1 MBP
by xprnio
7/31/2026 at 11:12:08 AM
Fair. It’s mostly to transfer muscle memory over anyway. I’m a vim user so having all input surfaces in the IDE be modal and obey HJKL is priceless.by ernestrc
8/2/2026 at 9:10:06 PM
And often, that Emacs keybinding emulation is incredibly incomplete. For example, Matlab's Emacs emulation doesn't have M-w bound and I believe C-k doesn't copy, it only kills. And the emulation is the default setting on Linux.by Pay08
7/30/2026 at 11:29:21 PM
> Org mode, Magit, TRAMP, or another deep Emacs-native package is your center of gravityThis is me.
> rewriting the editor live in Elisp is the whole point for you
Funnily enough, this is not me. I just grab Doom Emacs and do very minor adjustments. I just really like all the packages and the ecosystem.
by OhSoHumble
7/31/2026 at 1:23:14 AM
I had to chuckle at this pro> Built-in Emacs editor
The built in editor is a one of my least favorite parts of Emacs. I'm in it for the customizability.
by wmedrano
7/31/2026 at 8:13:08 AM
You spelled Neovim wrong :-)by warpspin