Emacs as your authoring program ?

[Demian]

Hey, guys 

I was wondering does anyone use emacs for writing and if so, what is your setup?

[midnightblack]

Hey!

I know this isn't answering a question with a question, but maybe you could tell me what makes emacs worthwhile? I looked through it in the past but found it too overwhelming. I just use a barebones gedit for typesetting and compile everything I do there in latex (work related stuff, everyday stuff, stories etc.).

Just yesterday I found out by accident that there's a latex plug-in for gedit which may offer some interesting features, but I've yet to look into it.

[Demian]

hey :)

Yes, emacs can be pretty overwhelming at the start. I have not used emacs with latex yet, but from what I'm told there is notable support.
I also have not used gedit so I cannot compare for you. However, from my experience, emacs is all about speed and organizing (using org-mode).

To get a better idea I would suggest that you look into emacs "org mode" tutorials. Org mode is the important part here.
Through Org-mode you can basically do almost anything you can do with an office suite. What I like about this is is that everything is done through shortcuts which very easy to remember after a while resulting in amazing speed. You can also create links (internal and external) and export to html or latex and do lots of other stuff.

If you like what you see and you are willing to give it a try, I believe the easier way to master it is by starting with the embedded tutorial (you can find this from the emacs menu). Once you master the tutorial then proceed with learning Org-mode.

I'm sure I missed lots of stuff but I'm also in the learning phase =)

Maybe we get lucky and someone who knows better replies

[stormwyrm]

Emacs is first and foremost a programmer's editor, and I use it as such just about every day, mostly to write C, Ruby, and Perl. It integrates well with version control systems like Git (which really should be used far more widely than just by programmers). I used to use it as my go-to editor for LaTeX back when I used to regularly write papers with a lot of mathematical typesetting, mostly back when I was still in college and graduate school, not so much now in my line of work though. The heavy use of control key combinations, and in non-standard combinations (mostly because Emacs long predates those standards) may make the learning curve a little high, but in time you'll be doing Control-Meta-Shift-Cokebottle without needing to think about it like the best of us. And perhaps you might even learn Emacs Lisp!