Likelihood to Recommend Emacs is best utilized on a Unix system where it can be easily installed and accessed. It allows for quick editing of files on a system whether you are accessing it locally through the console or remotely via an ssh connection. Once users familiarize themselves with the Emacs shortcuts, it becomes a pretty efficient text manipulation program. On a standard Windows computer, it is less likely to use Emacs for code editing, especially if you have a local repository on your host machine.
Read full review My CMS has a small window in which I can edit custom HTML/CSS. It can be expanded some, but not as much as I would like. It also displays all code as dark text on a white background. On a page where I am doing extensive custom coding, it is helpful to see it in a larger window and in a color-coded display so that I don't have to strain my eyes as hard. Especially when I'm trying to scan for specific elements and target issues and so that I don't have to scroll endlessly in a tiny window.
Read full review Pros GNU Emacs is a text editor that can do almost anything that you want to do with it. It is fairly easy to extend the functionality using Emacs Lisp with a large library available. It can be easily customized using themes as well as custom code to change the look and feel as well as how everything works. Read full review It is very light and boots up instantaneously. It has tons of plugins that will help you to customize sublime entirely according to your needs and thereby is not bloated Package control is really easy to work with and most plugins can be installed in 2 just clicks. Free version has nearly all the features of the paid version. Its User Interface is simple and makes it easy to located many features. It gives you a ton of control over your ide setting through User-settings where you can customize almost everything. Read full review Cons Emacs is old, so it's a little crufty and not too easy to pick up and start using. There is a community package called Spacemacs that simplifies a lot of things that you do with Emacs. It is probably better suited to beginners. Sometimes, the choices that were made to integrate certain functionality change the basic models for that functionality. This is seen primarily in the version control system support, where multiple version control systems are supported and "unified" to a standard Emacs-y way of doing things. This can be confusing to the new user not familiar with the Emacs way. Emacs has, as its foundation, a lisp interpreter. This means that the extension language for Emacs is emacs-lisp. Some people find lisp hard to understand and have difficulties writing Emacs extension code, or understanding existing code. Read full review Plugins are easier to use and less complicated but transferring your license to a new computer isn't as simple as it sounds. Sublime has an automatic file comparison feature, but it's challenging to use and should be improved. Adding the ability to mark or highlight the text with different colors would be an excellent application. Read full review Likelihood to Renew I love this application. It has helped to improve my work. Also, I became so used to the shortcuts that It's hard for me to change to another editor.
Read full review Usability This is a programmers tool. As such a lot of the features and benefits are lost on a non-technical user. To get the most out of the tool you need to have a basic crash course in how it works and what it can do. The documentation and community are good, but it takes a bit of time to get up to speed.
Read full review Performance It has many handy hacks and shortcuts which enhances its performace.
Read full review Support Rating Everything that you need to know about Emacs can be found on the internet. There are many Emacs "cheat sheets" that list out all of the shortcuts for Emacs. There are videos on how to use Emacs. Emacs is easily installed using the standard Linux package managers and can also be easily updated through them as well. There are tutorials on how to customize Emacs to your liking.
Read full review Never had to use their customer support before. There is ample documentation online so it's straightforward to find a solution to any problem you might encounter. For example, I needed to convert a string of HTML code to a properly formatted HTML file to "modify." Easy to do when there are so many users of the product who have needed to do that same thing before.
Read full review Alternatives Considered Of course, Vim is a good contender for comparison as well, so I'll include it. I find Emacs much easier to learn, which will help speed up productivity for newer users. It seems much faster than VIM and VSCode, especially under load. It's highly highly customizable, in ways other editors don't stack up against. Its lack of bloat also is a nice addition to a great product.
Read full review We've used both Notepad++ and
Atom ; both are great but nothing really beats the Sublime Text UI; super intuitive and friendly and does everything you need without overwhelming you with stuff you don't. Other options are free, but for our organization, it was well worth the small license cost for the persistent use of a great product.
Read full review Return on Investment Emacs is free software, there is no cost at all. It has helped tremendously in situations where many, or large, log files need to be searched. Read full review Sublime Text has helped me to focus on specific tasks, cutting out the clutter that many other IDEs have. As such, it has helped me be a more productive employee because I don't get dazed by hundreds of buttons. I can focus on just the code. Sublime Text is so affordable that it's a no-brainer to have an extra tool in your toolset. The Search features of Sublime Text are so useful that it has saved me a great amount of time compared to using Find & Replace menus in Xcode, Android Studio, or Eclipse. Read full review ScreenShots