[HN Gopher] How to type "blimpy" in Emacs [video]
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How to type "blimpy" in Emacs [video]
Author : progfolio
Score : 293 points
Date : 2023-09-02 23:25 UTC (23 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.youtube.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.youtube.com)
| ivolimmen wrote:
| It is just as weird as typing in vim. _ducks_
| [deleted]
| layer8 wrote:
| Duck typing?
| roenxi wrote:
| More than anything else I'm confused by the positive response
| this is getting.
|
| * Very few people use Emacs
|
| * Anyone who nevertheless is using Emacs should be willing to
| read documentation. The only way to learn Emacs is through
| reading the docs.
|
| * As illustrated, copy-pasting a use-package clause is an easy
| way to get started with something. The pain point is the
| alternative ways to set a package up that are distracting.
|
| * This doesn't hit the traditional Emacs stereotypes of crazy
| keyboard chords, insane customisability or digs at lisp syntax.
|
| Can anyone articulate why there is a group of people who seem to
| really like this video?
| tempodox wrote:
| Didn't you see that sharky blimp in the GitHub repo? Or is it a
| blimpy shark? I find that funny. Also, as transpires elsewhere
| in this thread, "blimpy" seems to be an alternative spelling of
| "bloated". Could be emacs users not taking themselves too
| seriously for a change. Refreshing!
|
| And the comments here, how everyone's imagination goes off with
| associations and interpretations? I'm not even sure there is a
| single consistent explanation for all of this and how it's
| funny. Maybe it cannot really be explained. Forget reason for a
| minute, if you can, and just enjoy :)
| [deleted]
| progfolio wrote:
| > Can anyone articulate why there is a group of people who seem
| to really like this video?
|
| blimpy
| globular-toast wrote:
| I'm with you, I don't get it. Is this an example of the
| emperor's new clothes where nobody gets it (because it doesn't
| make sense) but pretends to find it funny because they assume
| it must be funny if only they understood emacs?
| tmtvl wrote:
| It's Neodada.
| meepmorp wrote:
| it's blimpy, actually
| progfolio wrote:
| > blimpy blimpy blimpy, blimpy blimp'y limpy b. blimpy blimpy
| blimpy limpy b blimp'y blimpy blimpy blimpy blimpy blimpy
| (limpy b blimp'y blimpy blimpy) blimpy blimpy limpy b blimpy
| blimpy blimpy blimpy limpy b blimpy blimpy blimpy limpy b
| limpy b?
|
| Agreed
| actionfromafar wrote:
| How is that situation _not_ funny? GNU is Not Unix...
| shadowgovt wrote:
| As a long time emacs user, I've definitely felt this sinking my
| teeth into a novel package and I imagine lots of people have
| felt the same.
|
| The fact that emacs even has a coherent package story is a
| testament to people's dedication to making it work. On the
| surface, it should be impossible; the editor is so configurable
| that there was no particular guarantee that a coherent family
| of behaviors would emerge. But the fact that packages and
| package management not only exist but interoperate with each
| other speaks volumes to the dedication of the software
| engineers who made that happen.
|
| > Anyone who nevertheless is using Emacs should be willing to
| read documentation. The only way to learn Emacs is through
| reading the docs.
|
| Ah, assuming that's how people learn things these days is our
| first mistake. ;) Emaxs does have excellent built-in
| documentation... But in the StackOverflow era, I think a lot of
| people learn their software by hopping from solution to
| solution instead of digesting all of the documentation.
| nvy wrote:
| one time I was in Kyrgyzstan staring down a band of armed
| marauders with AKs, me holding nothing but my pre-Lenovo
| Thinkpad. The battery had long since died (it only lasts about
| 38 minutes) and of course the WiFi doesn't work due to
| proprietary drivers but I was able to plug in the six-pound AC
| adapter to the back of a Unimog and after waiting for the 10
| minute boot process to complete I quickly typed "C-c b" which
| is my personal keybind for blimpy. The marauders were so
| impressed that they gave me a camel and sent me on my way.
|
| So I guess you could say that blimpy saves lives.
| pjot wrote:
| I've never seen a Unimog reference in the wild before!
|
| What an amazing machine.
| praptak wrote:
| Maybe it's not very lightweight but pretty customizable,
| just like Emacs.
| joeman1000 wrote:
| [flagged]
| phist_mcgee wrote:
| Can you articulate why this isn't funny?
| roenxi wrote:
| Well... one of the things groups do to bond is they develop
| memes and in-jokes that are objectively nothing and exist
| only to show who is in- and out- of the group. One of the
| signs people are doing that is one word responses like
| "blimpy". That sort of activity is purposefully low-content
| because it is supposed to signal group membership and nothing
| more. Which is what I think this is. That turns up in every
| group although it can be a bit subtle at times.
|
| But this is a bit weird because this isn't what Emacs users
| have traditionally bonded over. The traditional stuff is
| things like https://xkcd.com/378/ leaning on "Emacs does
| everything and has long key combinations". This is more
| saying the package manager is bad or something? Which isn't a
| traditional joke. So either this is a new group of Emacs
| users I'm not familiar with or there is a good joke here that
| I've missed.
|
| And I optimistically asked for an explanation of the joke in
| case it is the latter. Based on the comments in response I
| think this is a wave of Emacs users I'm not familiar with
| doing group bonding. Which, fair enough. They do their thing.
| Although even then the number of people involved seems high
| and it'd be interesting to know where they are coming from.
| actionfromafar wrote:
| I use Emacs casually, but oh dear it can get absurdly
| complicated for very little payoff. Yak shaving if there
| ever was. This blimpy plugin/module points it out in a
| deadpan way. It also reflects on a lot of tech in general.
| Who hasn't spent a lot of time messing about with a system
| for no apparent benefit?
|
| It has little twists too like indirectly bringing vi into
| it by supporting evil mode, furthering the futility of
| adding options and configurability to ostensibly "simplify"
| something. The video points out so many absurdities of IT
| life through the lens of an editor and its ecosystem.
| dwb wrote:
| The joke is that it's overly complicated to do a simple
| thing in Emacs, and you have to rely on blindly running
| shakily-trustworthy third-party code to do that thing for
| you. (I like Emacs very much, I use it every day, but there
| is a kernel of truth to this and I laughed.)
| umanwizard wrote:
| What's a (real) example of a simple thing that's hard to
| do in emacs?
| dwb wrote:
| I mean I think if you compare to, say, VSCode, writing
| any amount of [Emacs] Lisp to customise anything at all
| is "hard". I like it! It means I can customise more or
| less whatever I like, but it's a different universe.
| globular-toast wrote:
| I mean, surely such a thing is harder in VS Code
| considering you can't really do it.
| roenxi wrote:
| Definitely a younger crowd. Back in my day if you blindly
| copied code without reading the documentation thoroughly
| there is _no way_ that Emacs would be doing anything
| remotely useful. That was the sort of thing Emacs was
| mocked for, in fact - you really needed to get in amongst
| Elisp to customise it and nobody goes out of their way to
| learn Elisp.
|
| Being able to blindly copy use-package statements has
| been one of the best parts of the Emacs modernisation
| effort.
| dwb wrote:
| Oh for sure, I agree, and I've blindly imported reams of
| elisp dependencies myself!
| Scarblac wrote:
| It's also allowed to think up new jokes.
| umanwizard wrote:
| [dead]
| fourthark wrote:
| Looking for better ways to type blimpy in my document.
| noelwelsh wrote:
| To me it's just absurdist humour, like Monty Python.
|
| I use Emacs and this video doesn't reflect my experience at
| all. (I use Doom Emacs, and stuff Just Works.)
| aulin wrote:
| I believe it was mocking a redditor that has been spamming
| /r/emacs with short how to videos with somewhat complicated
| ways to do super trivial things.
| pserwylo wrote:
| Those who enjoyed this should also have a laugh at:
|
| "Vim Exit% Speedrun [WR - 2.50:13]"
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLbfqZBL8t8
| snicker7 wrote:
| "Unwashed masses" == vim converts.
| 38 wrote:
| I wouldn't mind switching away from Vim, but I would never,
| EVER switch to Emacs. this video only scratches the surface of
| how bloated Emacs is.
| [deleted]
| progfolio wrote:
| > bloated
|
| "blimpy"
| Exuma wrote:
| what dont you like about vim that would make you switch away
| from it? There's no universe where I can imagine doing that
| 38 wrote:
| honestly Vim is pretty slow, and it utterly sucks with long
| lines. you can do "g" motion, but I cant seem to get my
| muscle memory to remember that. to me "down" should always
| use whats visible on the screen, not just dumbly move to
| the next line.
| xk_id wrote:
| you're supposed to learn the mechanics of vim and then
| configure it in a way which you find intuitive. i find
| that much more natural than software which tries to
| anticipate (and indirectly reinforce) some arbitrary
| "common sense". nnoremap <silent> k gk
| nnoremap <silent> j gj nnoremap <silent> 0 g0
| nnoremap <silent> $ g$
| Exuma wrote:
| Ok I got you mane.. you have 2 solutions. By the way,
| there is a sort of "common" set of configurations that
| probably 90% of people have in their vim config, like
| turning off the bell and stuff. Obviously there are
| exceptions because those people know what they're doing,
| but my point is that don't give up on it until you at
| least try a common config to remove a lot of the basic
| annoyances.
|
| Solution 1: Add this to your vimrc. This will make it so
| when going up and down, wrapped lines are properly
| interpreted and not skipped
|
| ``` " better up and down map j gj map k gk ```
|
| Solution 2: If you want to make it where the cursor
| literally goes ANYWHERE in the document, including in
| space that doesn't even exist, do this below. I used this
| mode for a very long time and it's amazing. I only
| switched recently just to try something new to see if I
| like it more, and right now I'm just 50/50 on if its
| better or not
|
| ``` " allow cursor to go anywhere set virtualedit=all ```
|
| Lastly, try using `vimtutor` from terminal and practice
| commands right there in your terminal.
|
| And, if by "slow" you are talking about literal
| performance, try Neovim. Neovim is basically a fork of
| nvim that gets rid of vimscript (but still allows it if
| you want to use it) and instead implements Lua, which is
| an extremely (the fastest, actually) scripting language.
| (The other comment you asked about was a Neovim lua
| configuration which does the same thing as the vimscript
| version).
|
| Part of the Neovim idea is that they also set a lot more
| "sane" default config thats more modern.
|
| The best part about Neovim is that it supports LSP's in a
| much better way, so you can complete VS-Code like IDE
| experience, rather than relying on a complex array of
| plugins. If you decide to do that, check out lsp-zero for
| the easiest setup possible.
|
| If you decide to give neovim a shot, I would 100%
| recommend using this: https://github.com/nvim-
| lua/kickstart.nvim
|
| I recently transferred 10+ year vim config to lua and
| neovim, and I saw people recommending this over and over.
| Because I wasnt familiar with it I thought "I dont need
| that, i want to start fresh". Well after doing that for
| nearly a month, I realized how good kickstart is, it
| REALLY is quite good, and does lots and lots that you
| would want without doing too much. I didnt use it, but i
| took tons of inspiration from it for setting up LSPs.
|
| Let me know if you have any questions I'd love to not
| lose vim friend over something stupid like moving on long
| lines.
| ntrz wrote:
| > you can do "g" motion, but I cant seem to get my muscle
| memory to remember that. to me "down" should always use
| whats visible on the screen, not just dumbly move to the
| next line.
|
| You could always add key mappings to your .vimrc file so
| it works this way.
| umanwizard wrote:
| From a colleague; I haven't tested it:
| --Remap for dealing with word wrap
| vim.keymap.set({ 'n', 'v' }, 'k', "v:count == 0 ? 'gk' :
| 'k'", { noremap = true, expr = true, silent = true })
| vim.keymap.set({ 'n', 'v' }, 'j', "v:count == 0 ? 'gj' :
| 'j'", { noremap = true, expr = true, silent = true })
| 38 wrote:
| what is this? I dont recognize that language
| jasonjmcghee wrote:
| vimscript
| 38 wrote:
| No, it's not.
| jasonjmcghee wrote:
| mea culpa
| auscompgeek wrote:
| It's Lua. Presumably they're using Neovim.
| umanwizard wrote:
| Ah, my bad. Not a heavy vim user so I didn't realize this
| was neovim-specific.
| xg15 wrote:
| It's actually very easy to type blimpy in ed, the standard text
| editor.
| rwmj wrote:
| $ ed blimpy ? exit ? quit ?
| stop ? go away ? ^C ?
| elteto wrote:
| _pulls power cable_
|
| Ah, so that's how you do it!
| tempodox wrote:
| For the uninitiated:
|
| https://www.gnu.org/fun/jokes/ed-msg.html
|
| There are good reasons that ed is _the_ standard text editor.
| b0afc375b5 wrote:
| Hackernews during the weekends is something else.
| [deleted]
| progfolio wrote:
| blimpy?
| PappGaborSandor wrote:
| [dead]
| cscurmudgeon wrote:
| Not funny. Double flagged by click on flag button twice.
|
| If Stallman ever figures out how to watch YouTube in Emacs,
| someone is going to be in big trouble.
| progfolio wrote:
| limpy b :(
| senkora wrote:
| This is fairly accurate.
|
| Of course, you should really be using the Doom module or
| Spacemacs layer to add another level of abstraction that will
| definitively fix any issues you might have run into.
| progfolio wrote:
| blimpy.
| Waterluvian wrote:
| I know this is a joke, but people should really give Emacs a try.
|
| Check out this interview about Emacs if you're not convinced:
|
| https://youtu.be/urcL86UpqZc?si=3ew2h0iI0FIT5Zmd
| heyoni wrote:
| You recommend using a framework like doom or building up your
| own config?
| Waterluvian wrote:
| Bruh. Emacs!
| globular-toast wrote:
| I'd recommend starting from scratch. The whole point of emacs
| is it's super easy to hack and make your own. So you'd just
| end up "undoing" everything in a starter kit anyway. But you
| should definitely look at those starter kits to see what you
| can do.
| heyoni wrote:
| I feel like doing that with doom emacs. I'm not sure what
| is a feature or a package and it feels like a bunch of
| things are overlapping in terms of functionality.
| sobkas wrote:
| If you start with framework you might not learn enough to
| solve problems later, but using it later to simplify your
| config should be ok. For example ergoemacs
| http://ergoemacs.github.io/ is a nice way to make Emacs more
| ergonomic and easier to use(if having problems with default
| configuration).
| progfolio wrote:
| A lot of people don't know how.
| jt2190 wrote:
| https://github.com/progfolio/blimpy/
| Tao3300 wrote:
| I opened vim and tried to type "blimpy" and nothing happened. I
| also can't quit.
| [deleted]
| layer8 wrote:
| Why would you want to quit?
| d-lisp wrote:
| Best answer
| [deleted]
| [deleted]
| Scarblac wrote:
| Quitting hasn't changed in forever, just open a second terminal
| and killall vim.
| thepostman0 wrote:
| Unless you're on sunos...
| benj111 wrote:
| How does one do it in sunOS?
| sp332 wrote:
| On SunOS, killall actually kills everything.
| DonHopkins wrote:
| L1-A
|
| Then you can program in FORTH, which has full Emacs key
| binding support!
|
| https://github.com/MitchBradley/openfirmware/blob/master/
| for...
| benj111 wrote:
| So do you program the keybindings in Forth or lisp? Is
| the lisp implemented in forth? Or the forth in lisp?
|
| Are parentheses forth words??
|
| This hurts my brain. (And/or makes me want to implement a
| forth in lisp in forth, as a quine)
| actionfromafar wrote:
| Just pull the power cord
| DonHopkins wrote:
| Or load Deldo into Emacs and insert the plug!
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1sXuHnf_lo
| d-lisp wrote:
| (I see that the name of the channel is called poor life
| choices)
| ufodktztd wrote:
| [dead]
| aidenn0 wrote:
| Really? You should end up with "mpy" in your buffer. Maybe your
| configuration is messed up. Try deleting your .vimrc and try
| again.
| progfolio wrote:
| :blimpy!
| tempodox wrote:
| E492: Not an editor command: blimpy!
| alexvitkov wrote:
| you can use the following script to quit vim, it kills random
| processes until vim dies: while pgrep vim; do
| ps axuw | awk '{print $2}' | grep -v PID | shuf -n 1 | sudo
| kill -9 done
| wincy wrote:
| Due to some disagreements in the vim community about typing
| blimpy not being a priority, I believe you have to download
| blimpyvim to get this working.
| DonHopkins wrote:
| Just run a vimulator in emacs.
| qingcharles wrote:
| [dead]
| JamesLeonis wrote:
| Or set the compiler flag +blimpy if you're building it from
| source. I would still recommend tpope's vim-pagliacci plugin
| for the RECL.
|
| EDIT: Read-Eval-Clown-Loop
| tomjakubowski wrote:
| In Emacs the editor is the operating system. To type "blimpy"
| you download a software package and install it.
|
| In Vim the editor is one part of a larger operating system,
| called Unix. To type blimpy in Vim, combine several Unix tools
| and read the output. Type this: :read ! cat
| /dev/urandom | LC_CTYPE=C tr -cd 'blimpy' | head -c 1000000 |
| fold -w 1 | sort | uniq | tr -d '\n'<RET>
|
| (<RET> means "hit the RETURN key". don't type it!)
|
| That gives us something just a little bit off but we can fix
| that with only three keystrokes. Just type:
| lxp
|
| Now you have blimpy!
| lacrimacida wrote:
| Is this supposed to be funny and Im not getting it? Can anyone
| kindly explain what am I missing out?
| progfolio wrote:
| limpy b
| d-lisp wrote:
| It is supposed to be funny, the author of the video is
| obviously faking seriousness while presenting a joke package
| for emacs. That's a kind of a sketch comedy with a computer.
| SonOfLilit wrote:
| Am I the only (former) emacs user in this thread very confused by
| the "--INSERT---" line at the bottom of the screen in this video?
| That's clearly a vi-ism?
| ravi-delia wrote:
| They're using evil mode! It briefly interfered with blimpy mode
| Tao3300 wrote:
| Evil mode, I guess
| worik wrote:
| I am not sure I approve of the inner mysteries being so paraded
| in public.
| tempodox wrote:
| Don't worry, people who don't have the emacs gene will be lost
| nevertheless.
| p1mrx wrote:
| Blimpy? Chicken chicken chicken!
|
| chicken: https://isotropic.org/papers/chicken.pdf
| tempodox wrote:
| I heard Chicken Scheme is especially efficient with that:
| http://www.call-cc.org
|
| And Schemers do use emacs.
| cyclotron3k wrote:
| Couldn't have found this video at a better time - I have an
| assignment on blimpy due tomorrow.
| progfolio wrote:
| blimpy-mode forgave my student loan debt
| shadowgovt wrote:
| Oh, you had `helm` installed, I see.
| CmdrKrool wrote:
| In conjunction with the power of Magit this is going to make
| cranking out those pesky commit messages so much easier.
| progfolio wrote:
| --force-blimpy
| z500 wrote:
| Why would I use blimpy-mode when you can access blimpytyper.net
| from any machine anyway?
| mbakke wrote:
| Only if you have internet access. blimpy-mode is a lifesaver
| when travelling.
| NotYourLawyer wrote:
| I run blimpytyperd locally and it's pretty slick.
| LordShredda wrote:
| Actually funny video, shows how absurd emacs can get. Although
| you don't know, someone might earn a living typing blimpy or a
| similar thing
| progfolio wrote:
| blimpy?
| nobody9999 wrote:
| I had to look it up myself and I'm guessing it's this
| blimpy[0].
|
| But I haven't watched to video to confirm. YMMV.
|
| [0] https://pypi.org/project/blimpy/
| chucksmash wrote:
| It's this:
|
| https://github.com/progfolio/blimpy
| Exuma wrote:
| I dont get it... does blimpy equate to some emacs
| commands or something where you cant type it in emacs'
| equivalent of insert mode?
| progfolio wrote:
| Please see https://github.com/progfolio/blimpy#usage
| Exuma wrote:
| this answers nothing
| nobody9999 wrote:
| >this answers nothing
|
| Then listen to the music, not the song.
| qingcharles wrote:
| That's exactly what a vim user would say.
| jolux wrote:
| There's nothing to answer.
| tempodox wrote:
| You valiantly strove for the unattainable. Take solace in
| the fact that nobody took it from you, it just wasn't
| there to begin with.
| nemo wrote:
| limpy b
| shadowgovt wrote:
| No, I think the word was just chosen because it sounds
| kind of funny. The crux of the video is making fun of how
| simultaneously annoyingly fidgety and powerful emacs
| packages can be.
| actionfromafar wrote:
| The warnings never mean anything
| phist_mcgee wrote:
| >B(000000)B
|
| That's a blimpy sailing right over your head.
| Tao3300 wrote:
| The rogue blimpy optimizing AI will one day enslave us all into
| typing blimpy. If you know how to do it the Correct Way in
| Emacs, you'll get to live a little longer before your matter is
| harvested for the blimpy typing nanobots.
| progfolio wrote:
| limpy b limpy b limpy b
| C-x_C-f wrote:
| The C-u C-u trick at 2:03 is such a neat hack. Goes to show how
| with Emacs you don't have to compromise between customization and
| productivity: a true hacker can have both.
| tempodox wrote:
| Thank Stallman there's a package for that! Saved my butt
| countless times.
|
| https://github.com/progfolio/blimpy/
| Scarbutt wrote:
| username checks out
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(page generated 2023-09-03 23:02 UTC)