The Absolute Beginner's Guide to Emacs

emacs intro videos like this, willing to reach down to people who don't know much command-line/linux, willing to take time to explain emacs parlance, is really rare. I am a scientist without programming background trying to establish org-mode as my note system, and I want the author to know that your video is immensely helpful

Ok. I am 70 years old and a retired software developer. I have never used Emacs. I used vi and various IDEs. I never even THOUGHT of using Emacs, because it was “too hard and complex”. After being retired for the past 6 years and playing guitar in bars and restaurants, I got bored and started studying programming again. I eventually got interested in LISP and began looking for an IDE to use. Surprise! The one I heard the most about was EMACS. So, I’ve been trying to read the several books out there on EMACS and they were a confused jumble. I stumbled across your Channel and saw this Absolute Beginners guide. Your explaination of EMACS (so far) has been FANTASTIC. It is very clear and (once I get my Linux partition set up on my Mac) I will review this and other videos you have published on YouTube. I feel that in reality, EMACS is actually easy, now. Thank you a million. I’m gonna REALLY have some fun!!! I really love development and your videos have gotten me excited about it again.

Thank you! Definitely the first video anyone should watch. Made things clear. Looking forward to starting your Emacs from scratch!

Fantastic! I learned the very basics of Emacs around 5 years ago as I was teaching myself C and wanted an oldschool editor. I tend to move between projects and hobbies so it kinda got put to the side and I was exploring other editors, such as VS Code which is really good... but I found I really missed Emacs so I've come back, but suddenly realised I'd forgotten all the bindings lol! So I came to youtube for help and you didn't disappoint, fantastic tutorial, over an hour but it flew by!

Your channel is a godsend. Thank you very much for all the effort you put into this!

Without a doubt the best 'intro to Emacs Video'. Was looking for a similar video for a long time. Thanks a ton!

Really appreciated for all your great job teaching Emacs!! Kudos david!!

Thank you so much for making a great video for users of all levels. The emacs concepts are well explained.

Time to learn it again the 'right way'. Thanks for this!

I can already tell this is one of those videos I will have to watch a few times. Thanks for the great Emacs content!

Thanks again, David, for publishing such a beginner level video. You have explained the basics very well. I guess I have now finally understood the relationships between buffer, window, and frame. Thumbs up!

The only video that makes me want to give emacs a try. Well explained, now I understand that emacs is not a text editor in the first place. It's just like Graphical version of Terminal. The evolution of the Terminal.

This is the best video out there. I need to look at starting from zero as a refresher course. Thank You.

I used emacs on and off for years, but it has been a decade since I touched it. Your series on emacs is helping me come back up to speed.

dude, you are the hero for someone unfamiliar with english. really save my time to read the mannual.

Fantastic video. I thought about doing a similar thing for my students, but now I'm just having them watch this. Really digging your style. Thank you!!!!!

This is a detailed explanation of emacs to beginners. Thank you for simplifying.

Bless you for making this video, I have been thinking of making my own EMACS instead of using DOOM EMACS and I am being blessed with this video.

Like always a high quality content. Thanks!

Thanks so much for the tutorial. I am learning SICP with scheme in Drracket, but wanted more powerful Linux based code editor that I could customize. Emacs looked like the perfect candidate, and so far it is great.