Ask HN: Why is it so difficult to use Emacs for Web Development?
I'm a Web developer. I have been using a variety of editors and ide-s for web development(php, javascript,html,css).6 Months before i decided to learn a true editor and started using emacs. learned all the basics, used the starter kit,practiced using buffer, windows etc..
I got a grip in 2 months. Recently a month ago i started learning about vim and i found a lot of plugins to achieve the things i want.I'm finding to achieve the same effect in emacs you have to do a lot(for php/js/css/html editing).
Here are the list of things I'm finding hard. Note: These things are related when i'm editing php/html/css/js.
syntax hightlighting(php/smarty). -- the php major mode is too old and it always highlights html/smarty inside the php code incorrectly.
-- I love ido-mode but i couldn't find how to define a project and fuzzy match files inside the predefined directory
--- I can setup nerdtree plugin to get a quick overview pane on the left with the files i'm working on with vim. But configuring speedbar and source code browser in emacs is bit difficult.
--- Context aware completion I really don't know how to do that. I have seen something like that in clojure mode where it shows the definition of a method in the messages area.
Tags-generation: The tags generated with excrebant-ctags doesnot always work with php.In vim it is easy i can open a file containing the definition right under the cursor.
---Manual lookup I want to lookup the manual for a particular word under the cursor without opening the browser.(in the messages area(mini-buffer))
------------------------------------------- I love ido mode and switching b/w files in tramp,buffers,local files using ido-mode.
does anyone point me in the right direction? do you use emacs for same kind of editing i do? What is your work flow?.
Thanks Instead of nerdtree, I use ECB http://www.xemacs.org/Documentation/packages/html/ecb_2.html This screencast showed me alot of new things I've been using emacs for a few years for php/js/css/html. I think it's great as-is without any extra addons. I don't like context completion or tag generation though. Just not my thing.