One thing that feels very old-fashioned about Emacs: the cursor acts like a hardware cursor on an old hardware terminal, even in the GUI version. Every modern GUI text editor lets you scroll away from the cursor without moving it. This is convenient if you want to quickly check something else in the file. Emacs will move the cursor so it's always on screen. It has no concept of scrolling without cursor movement.
The explanation for that behavior is that instead of a cursor, emacs has a mark and a point. If you want to view something else without losing your place, you can leave the mark behind and then jump back.
The main benefit of this is that you get to find the "something else" quickly using the full suite of normal search and movement commands. It's also nice that you can jump through the stack of past marks, not just one.
Instead of a mark and point, it could have a mark and modern cursor. This wouldn't lose any of that functionality and it would be less annoying for people used to modern software.
Re:Emacs 25.1 RC1
by erlehmann_ on Monday July 25, 2016 @09:10AM
(#12158394)
> It'd be wonderful if Firefox gave me the full set of emacs keybindings (not just a few) and a decent language to extend it.
I suggest to try the conkeror web browser: http://conkeror.org/
Conkeror is configured entirely in JavaScript, though, not LISP.
The UI feels pretty modern to me; it's when I use every other app that I feel crippled. That's not hyperbole, but fact.
It'd be wonderful if Firefox gave me the full set of emacs keybindings (not just a few) and a decent language to extend it.
It'd be wonderful if desktop environments let me converse with the computer via my keyboard, rather than pointing and grunting like an infant.