[[!sidebar content=""]] [[!meta title="Fanfare for the Common Emacs User"]] [[!meta copyright="Copyright © 2022 John Cummings"]] [[!inline pages="internal(2022/info/fanfare-nav)" raw="yes"]] # Fanfare for the Common Emacs User John Cummings (IRC: jrootabega, ) [[!inline pages="internal(2022/info/fanfare-before)" raw="yes"]] # Table of Contents Emacs enables Emacs developers to produce some very impressive and useful things. It can also inspire examination and discussion of profound ideals. But what about the everyday user who may not always feel that they live up to these examples? What about the "dark matter" of the Emacs universe? There's a lot of us out there, and we have an important effect, but it may be hard to see it. What about life after the EmacsConf inspiration has started to fade, and we find ourselves working much the same way as we always have? In this not-very-technical short reflection (perhaps just a personal projection pep talk), I want to recognize and celebrate the experience of these users. Colored by my personal unremarkable usage of Emacs, I'll describe some of the practices and "imperfections" that everyday Emacs users might experience – trying to create and remember keybindings, writing many quick hacky functions to solve miscellaneous problems, trying to learn more than we forget, half-implemented ideas, messy organic .emacs, etc. I'll frame these positively, as a great way to use Emacs for our own personal mundane needs, and a sign of our own dedication and pragmatism. I'll opine on how Emacs is, conversely, a perfect platform for this kind of usage in addition to highly-organized packages and modes. [[!inline pages="internal(2022/info/fanfare-after)" raw="yes"]] [[!inline pages="internal(2022/info/fanfare-nav)" raw="yes"]]