> [Emacs is] a Lisp Machine with several compatible user interface modalities. Which is just amazingly helpful to [blind] people like me […] who are typically forgotten about these days. […] Emacs is a shining beacon in a dark age of canvases and decorative user interface design.
This. Even with my fairly correctable visual impairments, the way Emacs' text-driven interfaces and amazing search capabilities spare me from having to do any visual scanning is a blessing. I can always bring everything I need to see right in front of me, the whole interface scales perfectly, and I can easily ensure high contrast on everything I need to read, even with limited color vision.
The way that buffers can just live in the background and projects can simply be inferred from version control directories similarly free me from the entire spatial metaphor for open files, windows, projects, etc. No matter what window I'm in, I have the option to just list some open buffers, fuzzy filter as I type, and bring them directly into view. I run Emacs as a daemon so I can super easily pull up old buffers, complete with their contexts and undo histories and everything even if I close the Emacs frame (the application window) entirely.
I never have to scan or squint or interpret some tiny, inscrutable hieroglyph with Emacs. Every damn thing is searchable and filterable. And when I need documentation on some function or keybinding, it's the same story. I don't have to switch to another app and mouse around or toggle a browser extension to fix some dumbass website's choice of gray-on-gray text. It's just right there in my editor, clean and searchable and resizable/reflowable in the exact same way as my own code, in the fonts that I've chosen because I find them readable and pretty.
Emacs spares me from so much navigation effort while I'm editing, even without using any truly fancy features.
It's also a comfort knowing that if I should go blind before I reach old age, as is common in my family, I will still have access to that power and convenience through Emacspeak. I'd better start practicing!
This. Even with my fairly correctable visual impairments, the way Emacs' text-driven interfaces and amazing search capabilities spare me from having to do any visual scanning is a blessing. I can always bring everything I need to see right in front of me, the whole interface scales perfectly, and I can easily ensure high contrast on everything I need to read, even with limited color vision.
The way that buffers can just live in the background and projects can simply be inferred from version control directories similarly free me from the entire spatial metaphor for open files, windows, projects, etc. No matter what window I'm in, I have the option to just list some open buffers, fuzzy filter as I type, and bring them directly into view. I run Emacs as a daemon so I can super easily pull up old buffers, complete with their contexts and undo histories and everything even if I close the Emacs frame (the application window) entirely.
I never have to scan or squint or interpret some tiny, inscrutable hieroglyph with Emacs. Every damn thing is searchable and filterable. And when I need documentation on some function or keybinding, it's the same story. I don't have to switch to another app and mouse around or toggle a browser extension to fix some dumbass website's choice of gray-on-gray text. It's just right there in my editor, clean and searchable and resizable/reflowable in the exact same way as my own code, in the fonts that I've chosen because I find them readable and pretty.
Emacs spares me from so much navigation effort while I'm editing, even without using any truly fancy features.
It's also a comfort knowing that if I should go blind before I reach old age, as is common in my family, I will still have access to that power and convenience through Emacspeak. I'd better start practicing!