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Evil VS Doom Emacs

Compare Evil VS Doom Emacs and see what are their differences

Evil logo Evil

The extensible vi layer for Emacs.

Doom Emacs logo Doom Emacs

Emacs configuration similar to Spacemacs but faster and lighter.
  • Evil Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-04
  • Doom Emacs Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-21

Evil features and specs

  • Vim Emulation
    Evil provides a near-complete emulation of Vimโ€™s features within Emacs, allowing users who are familiar with Vim to transition without losing their preferred keybindings and workflow.
  • Customizability
    Evil allows users to customize their configurations extensively, combining the powerful text-editing capabilities of Vim with the customizability of Emacs.
  • Community Support
    Evil has a large and active community, providing a wealth of plugins and resources to enhance the text editing experience.
  • Mode Integration
    Evil integrates smoothly with various Emacs major and minor modes, allowing users to leverage the full functionality of Emacs alongside Vim's modal editing.

Possible disadvantages of Evil

  • Learning Curve
    For users unfamiliar with Vim, the modal editing approach can introduce a significant learning curve, particularly for those accustomed to traditional text editors.
  • Complex Configuration
    Configuring Evil to fully integrate with existing Emacs setups can be complex and time-consuming, especially when customizing keybindings and behaviors.
  • Performance
    In some cases, using Evil with certain Emacs configurations or plugins may lead to performance issues, such as lag or delayed responses.
  • Inconsistencies
    There might be inconsistencies between Evilโ€™s implementation of Vim features and the original, which could affect workflows for power users who rely on specific Vim functionalities.

Doom Emacs features and specs

  • Optimized Performance
    Doom Emacs is engineered to be fast and responsive, minimizing the lag that can be present in a heavily customized Emacs setup.
  • Modular Configuration
    It uses a modular configuration system that allows users to enable or disable individual modules easily, helping tailor Emacs to specific workflows without much hassle.
  • Community Support
    Doom Emacs has an active and helpful community, providing ample support, tutorials, and extensions.
  • Modern Defaults
    It comes with sensible defaults and polished aesthetics out of the box, reducing the need for extensive user configuration.
  • Extensive Documentation
    Doom Emacs provides thorough documentation that helps new and old users understand the configuration options and customization procedures.
  • Evil Mode
    For Vim users, Doom Emacs comes with Evil Mode pre-configured, enabling Vim-like keybindings and making the transition smoother.

Possible disadvantages of Doom Emacs

  • Learning Curve
    Although easier than vanilla Emacs, Doom Emacs still has a learning curve that may be steep for users unfamiliar with Emacs or Vim.
  • Opinionated Setup
    Its opinionated defaults may not suit everyone's preferences, requiring users to spend time customizing it to fit their specific needs.
  • Emacs Dependency
    It relies on the original Emacs distribution, which means you still need to understand and maintain Emacs, adding complexity.
  • Heavy on Resources
    Even though optimized, Doom Emacs is still more resource-intensive compared to lighter editors, potentially impacting performance on older systems.
  • Complexity in Customization
    While modular, the customization can become complex and intimidating, especially for users who need to diverge significantly from the provided defaults.
  • Frequent Updates
    While updates are generally positive, the high frequency of updates can sometimes lead to breaking changes, requiring users to adapt frequently.

Analysis of Doom Emacs

Overall verdict

  • Yes, Doom Emacs is generally considered a good configuration framework for Emacs.

Why this product is good

  • Doom Emacs is praised for its speed and modern aesthetic, offering a streamlined and feature-rich setup out-of-the-box. It provides a clean interface, optimized performance, and a modular structure that makes customization more manageable for users. Additionally, Doom Emacs comes with a comprehensive set of packages and sensible default settings, making it a great starting point for both new and experienced Emacs users.

Recommended for

  • Users looking for a modern, fast, and efficient Emacs configuration
  • Emacs users who prefer a more minimalistic and modular approach
  • People transitioning from other modern editors and IDEs who want a feature-rich Emacs setup
  • Individuals who appreciate organized configurations with extensive documentation
  • Programmers who require a highly customizable editor tailored to their specific workflows

Evil videos

Evil - Season 1 Review [No Spoilers]

More videos:

  • Review - Evil Season 2 Finale Review! (Episode 13)
  • Review - Evil (CBS): Finale/Season 1 - TV Review

Doom Emacs videos

Doom Emacs - Getting Started

More videos:

  • Review - Doom Emacs For Noobs

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Evil and Doom Emacs)
Text Editors
29 29%
71% 71
IDE
30 30%
70% 70
Software Development
26 26%
74% 74
Task Management
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Doom Emacs should be more popular than Evil. It has been mentiond 158 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Evil mentions (60)

  • Creating an Emacs major mode - because why not?
    For multiple reasons, one of them just being curiosity, I started using Emacs. And before anyone wants to start waging the holy war of editors1, I'll put myself out there and pronounce that the one and only correct answer is: Emacs with EVIL (GitHub) mode. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • Helix-gpui: helix gpui front end
    Emacs is whatever you want it to be, and it has wonderful modal editing packages such as evil-mode[1] - which surpasses the editing system from vi that it is based on - and Meow[2] 1. https://github.com/emacs-evil/evil. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Packages that you would like to be in emacs core ?
    Since we already have vyper-mode, why not add Evil to the stack? Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Ask HN: Does anyone Lisp without Emacs?
    2 stripe blue belt here! I used to use Vim for everything other than Java development and have now adopted Emacs in the same way. I am using it for Clojure and Common Lisp development along with org mode, irc, rss, git and file management I started with Evil mode and then moved to Xah fly keys before sticking to the emacs bindings. Having the caps lock key bound to CTRL helped me a lot. I don't know if it makes... - Source: Hacker News / almost 2 years ago
  • Emacs Is My New Window Manager
    If you already know Vim, you should probably not use Emacs without Evil: https://github.com/emacs-evil/evil It gives you comprehensive Vim bindings so what you need to learn to be comfortable in Emacs is very little. As a bonus, it also keeps your RSI risk unchanged. - Source: Hacker News / about 2 years ago
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Doom Emacs mentions (158)

  • Kaomel: a snappy kaomoji picker for Emacs
    I'm traditionally a shell person when developing anything, and I like keeping that solid shell alternative in Emacs development too. No surprise I'm a Doom Emacs admirer: there's something deeply satisfying about typing ./doom doctor and watching it methodically check your entire configuration, so I initially adopted that approach for kaomel. - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • Take Two: Eshell
    Doom Emacs (https://github.com/doomemacs/doomemacs) essentially serves this purpose with its curated, modular configuration and excellent documentation that focuses on the most useful parts while hiding complexity. - Source: Hacker News / 3 months ago
  • I just got an ad in VS Code
    Leave? I started with vanilla Emacs a couple of years ago, ran C-h t, did that for an hour or two, and began editing joyfully and it hasn't stopped. Picked up new stuff when the need arose. However, if you want everything looking sexy and modern from the start and you're a cool kid, give this 30 minutes and see what you think: - Source: Hacker News / 6 months ago
  • Helix-gpui: helix gpui front end
    Having used evil-mode as my main driver for years, I can confirm that it truly works as expected. Requires some setup though. I used https://github.com/doomemacs/doomemacs to do the heavy lifting though. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • M-X Reloaded: The Second Golden Age of Emacs โ€“ (Think)
    Yes, you need to install Emacs. It is probably available from whatever package manager your system uses. I prefer Doom (https://github.com/doomemacs/doomemacs) to Spacemacs. However I haven't looked at Spacemacs for many years; perhaps it's now on par with Doom. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Evil and Doom Emacs, you can also consider the following products

Org mode - Org: an Emacs Mode for Notes, Planning, and Authoring

WhiteHat Jr - WhiteHat Jr is a live online coding class service that is aimed at kids who want to learn coding in an easy and practical way.

Spacemacs with Python layer - A community-driven Emacs distribution - The best editor is neither Emacs nor Vim, it's Emacs *and* Vim! - syl20bnr/spacemacs

Brackets - A modern, open source text editor that understands web design

Neovim - Vim's rebirth for the 21st century

beorg - Org-mode companion for iPhone and iPad