When I started using Linux, in the late 90s, I was looking for a familiar editing experience—something resembling the IDEs I was used to: QBasic, Turbo Pascal, etc. Just by looking at it, I thought that Emacs fit the bill. But it took me a minute of actually using it to understand how wrong I was.

So I turned to the bi-modal vi camp and learned it well. As I became more familiar with the Unix philosophy, I also learned ed. I still use both whenever I need to edit something quickly.

The Bell-Labs-esque establishment frowns at Emacs even more than at vi, and I never ever again came close to it.

But now, as a 44-year-old practicing various Lisps, I’ve developed some FOMO, and bought a second-hand copy of Learning GNU Emacs: A Guide to the World’s Most Extensible Customizable Editor (2005).

My favorite way of procrastinating is buying new stuff: “I’m not incompetent: it’s the tools I have, they’re just not up to my virtuosity.” I could have gotten used to the finger gymnastics that my Magic Keyboard was demanding from me. Instead, it’s my girlfriend who will have to get used to the noises of my new HHKB Professional Classic.

IMG_4988 (1).

I chose the cabled version because I couldn’t tolerate the bulge of the wireless variants. And I picked the Classic because its looks bring me fond memories of the 90s, when life was easy because I didn’t need to spend my very own money to buy overpriced toys.