The functionality provided by magit and a couple clever hotkeys to find code and run tests have proven in my own experience to be excellent foundations for developer productivity in any medium-to-large sized codebase.
This is actually a bit of a problem. Even with many things available out there, some things are more useable than others, and it takes quite a bit of digging to figure out which packages you want to install.
I think people who write up their experiences in emacs and give suggestions about which packages are genuinely useful, and which alternatives aren't, are being really helpful.
Thanks. I didn't know MELPA had download counts, now I do. But there is nothing in `list-packages' that hints at this, really, it's just a list of packages.
It's kinda hard to miss it.
The person who wrote the article managed this easily enough. Emacs packages also interact with each other (e.g., completion minor modes and language major modes, things like flycheck). I still think there's a fair amount of uncertainty about what packages one should install, and that projects like https://github.com/bbatsov/prelude are really helpful in this regard.
This is superficially true but fundamentally incorrect. There is one Git mode that everyone uses: Magit. Magit is incredible; it is one of a couple Emacs integrations that make the tool it integrates with better, in a significant and meaningful way.
I'm not a "use Emacs as my shell", "read my email in Emacs" kind of person. And I am nowhere nearly as effective in Git on the commandline as I am with Magit.
Use Magit.