Lots of IDEs claim to offer Vim/Emacs emulation. Vim users seem often quite happy with the vim emulation they get (I'm only an occasional Vim user so don't have an opinion).
The issue with emulating Emacs is that the editor key bindings are not the feature. The feature of Emacs is basically an IDE totally tuned to how you want it, plus the fact that then you apply the same ecosystem to a great number of text-adjacent applications - Org, E-mail, code, markdown, etc.
Someone saying to me "hey, you can copy with M-w!" just really doesn't appeal.
Vim seems more about an out-of-the-box "language" for typing, so I can see how you can emulate this more sanely.
flexagoon 7 hours ago [-]
> Vim users seem often quite happy with the vim emulation they get
Its better than nothing, but usually only lets you use vim bindings for text editing itself. Compared to neovim, where the entire editor and the plugin ecosystem is fully based on the same keyboard-driven workflow, it's quite lacking. For example, I remember that when using VSCode with its Vim mode plugin, it took quite a bit of configuration to be able to switch to the file tree and navigate it with the keyboard, and it still didn't work that well due to inherent limitations of the software.
Another huge example is Neogit. If you're an Emacs user, you probably use Magit, which Neogit is heavily inspired by, so you'll understand. Having it integrated into your editor and working with the same shortcuts is very nice and can't be replaced by vim emulation mode.
dim13 3 hours ago [-]
> Vim users seem often quite happy with the vim emulation they get
Not at all. Never seen any vi-emulation, which wasn't totally broken.
xprnio 45 minutes ago [-]
IntelliJ actually does (did) have quite solid vim emulation, at least from my experience of using it before going full into neovim (now on Emacs, btw)
ernestrc 5 hours ago [-]
Fair. It’s mostly to transfer muscle memory over anyway. I’m a vim user so having all input surfaces in the IDE be modal and obey HJKL is priceless.
OhSoHumble 16 hours ago [-]
> Org mode, Magit, TRAMP, or another deep Emacs-native package is your center of gravity
This is me.
> rewriting the editor live in Elisp is the whole point for you
Funnily enough, this is not me. I just grab Doom Emacs and do very minor adjustments. I just really like all the packages and the ecosystem.
wmedrano 15 hours ago [-]
I had to chuckle at this pro
> Built-in Emacs editor
The built in editor is a one of my least favorite parts of Emacs. I'm in it for the customizability.
warpspin 8 hours ago [-]
You spelled Neovim wrong :-)
ernestrc 18 hours ago [-]
Author here. We pushed 1.1 today. It was scheduled for release two weeks ago, but it was quite hard to balance adding so many new features with the influx of bug reports that followed our launch a month ago. Obviously, adding Python is a big one, but I'm most excited about the new symbol index, which reduces 10-second workspace-wide queries to under 100 ms. The agent also uses this index, so the benefits compound over long agentic sessions as well. FWIW I'm not quite sure about the black-and-white dimming feature. If it's not useful, we might remove it in a future release so please let us know!
esafak 17 hours ago [-]
Is there a short video walkthrough for newcomers?
ernestrc 17 hours ago [-]
Not a walkthrough video, no. The first steps section of the getting started guide is the best place to start (https://docs.rune.build/#your-first-steps). There are also a few short clips on the home, Go and Python pages.
Fair ask though! a short walkthrough is on the list.
fishgoesblub 14 hours ago [-]
I'm not seeing any mention of this being FOSS, is this closed-sourced? If so, that should be mentioned in every single comparison page between editors.
edit: It is mentioned in the Neovim, and Emacs pages. Not the VSCode, or Zed pages.
ernestrc 5 hours ago [-]
You’re right about this. I’ll add it to those pages as well.
edit: done
fooqux 16 hours ago [-]
I may check this out as I'm between editors currently. Liked zed for a bit, until a blog post showed me how they were installing npm and who knows what else on my PC without me knowing. Used Code for a bit after until suddenly they started requiring AI dependencies just to run the IDE.
So hey, why not try something new.
3836293648 14 hours ago [-]
There's a zed minus the iffy bits fork called gram. Haven't used it though, I'm still stuck in Emacs trying to figure out how to get out.
fooqux 3 hours ago [-]
I've looked at gram, but unfortunately it, being a fork of zed, still has some dependencies I'd rather not deal with. Given the recent hacks (especially those a few weeks ago with lots of compromised AUR packages in Arch) I'd rather not have npm or nodejs installed. I don't develop in it, I don't need it, and having it installed is just an huge unnecessary attack vector for me.
I do love what the gram developer is doing though.
avhception 10 hours ago [-]
Haha, I'm trying to figure out how to get in!
flexagoon 7 hours ago [-]
Doom Emacs is the answer
efficax 15 hours ago [-]
pricing page does not at all make clear what isn't included in the free version. you have to pay a monthly subscription for "language support"? does that mean it doesn't "support" languages in the free version? and what does "language support" mean?
ernestrc 10 hours ago [-]
Fair. I’ll change the wording so it’s obvious. To answer your question, there’s no difference other than the licensing terms allowing you to use it for commercial work.
ubercore 6 hours ago [-]
Might want to think about installation. Suspicious of black box shell installations like that, and I'm on a laptop with restrictions. Looks like installation failed trying to write to places it shouldn't, but it's just pulling a dmg to copy on MacOS?
EDIT: also not helping trust that it's not letting me quit?
dminvs 23 minutes ago [-]
also curious as to why libresolv.so.2 is packaged in the Linux tarball
ernestrc 5 hours ago [-]
I’ll look into these. We do some special handling of cmd+q so resources are released gracefully. I’m guessing you didn’t select a preset yet. Is that accurate?
ubercore 4 hours ago [-]
I selected vim. No quit available in application menu, I tried `!forcequit` from the command menu and nothing happened either.
ernestrc 4 hours ago [-]
are you on apple silicon or intel?
edit: nvm I found the issue. cmd+q or forcequit! doesn't work while the onboarding tutorial is running.
No connection. Naming things, sigh. It’s hard to find an unused name these days.
mercnz 11 hours ago [-]
i was so confused at first, why did they name themselves the same as the rune scripting language? https://rune-rs.github.io/
ernestrc 3 hours ago [-]
I didn't know about rune, the programming language tbh. I guess we'll have to support it next
facepalmz 16 hours ago [-]
I have no idea what it is
mpawelski 7 hours ago [-]
Same. Is it completely new editor with "emacs mode"? an actual emacs configuration. Who knows? Why should I care if the author didn't care to explain it?
_visgean 6 hours ago [-]
I tried it and its definetely not mature enough for me. Too cumbersome to use. But the project speaks to me.
ernestrc 5 hours ago [-]
I’d love to hear more about your opinion. Can you shoot us an email hi@unstable.build?
loremm 12 hours ago [-]
Anyone know of something like spacemacs which does the chording well? I've gotten used to it but it's starting to feel like it's not being updated, but I have all the muscle memory
devinprater 13 hours ago [-]
OMG the live region announcements are really annoying on the web page: "RUNE rune.buildmain+0-0248 lines2026-07-30 21:54:38 unstablebuild "
be5invis 13 hours ago [-]
Are there any plan in forseeable future (10 years) to port Rune to other platforms (win, mobile/tablet, ..)?
ernestrc 10 hours ago [-]
No plans yet but if there’s enough demand we’ll port it to Windows.
callistocodes 17 hours ago [-]
Page crashes with “a problem repeatedly occurred on $page” on iOS Safari, just fyi
ernestrc 17 hours ago [-]
Thanks, looking into it.
edit: I think it's from all the videos playing at once, even when not visible. It should be fixed now.
callistocodes 11 hours ago [-]
That fixed it :)
barrenko 9 hours ago [-]
Is this electron?
ernestrc 8 hours ago [-]
No. It's written in Go.
amne 15 minutes ago [-]
can't say "I wrote it in Go" anymore
16 hours ago [-]
ilc 13 hours ago [-]
As soon as it said "non-commercial" I noped.
That is so vague with some of what I do, that it isn't worth even looking further.
The issue with emulating Emacs is that the editor key bindings are not the feature. The feature of Emacs is basically an IDE totally tuned to how you want it, plus the fact that then you apply the same ecosystem to a great number of text-adjacent applications - Org, E-mail, code, markdown, etc.
Someone saying to me "hey, you can copy with M-w!" just really doesn't appeal.
Vim seems more about an out-of-the-box "language" for typing, so I can see how you can emulate this more sanely.
Its better than nothing, but usually only lets you use vim bindings for text editing itself. Compared to neovim, where the entire editor and the plugin ecosystem is fully based on the same keyboard-driven workflow, it's quite lacking. For example, I remember that when using VSCode with its Vim mode plugin, it took quite a bit of configuration to be able to switch to the file tree and navigate it with the keyboard, and it still didn't work that well due to inherent limitations of the software.
Another huge example is Neogit. If you're an Emacs user, you probably use Magit, which Neogit is heavily inspired by, so you'll understand. Having it integrated into your editor and working with the same shortcuts is very nice and can't be replaced by vim emulation mode.
Not at all. Never seen any vi-emulation, which wasn't totally broken.
This is me.
> rewriting the editor live in Elisp is the whole point for you
Funnily enough, this is not me. I just grab Doom Emacs and do very minor adjustments. I just really like all the packages and the ecosystem.
> Built-in Emacs editor
The built in editor is a one of my least favorite parts of Emacs. I'm in it for the customizability.
edit: It is mentioned in the Neovim, and Emacs pages. Not the VSCode, or Zed pages.
edit: done
So hey, why not try something new.
I do love what the gram developer is doing though.
EDIT: also not helping trust that it's not letting me quit?
edit: nvm I found the issue. cmd+q or forcequit! doesn't work while the onboarding tutorial is running.
edit: I think it's from all the videos playing at once, even when not visible. It should be fixed now.
That is so vague with some of what I do, that it isn't worth even looking further.