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GNU Emacs VS ESLint

Compare GNU Emacs VS ESLint and see what are their differences

GNU Emacs logo GNU Emacs

GNU Emacs is an extensible, customizable text editor—and more.

ESLint logo ESLint

The fully pluggable JavaScript code quality tool
  • GNU Emacs Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-01-19
  • ESLint Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-09-14

GNU Emacs features and specs

  • Highly Extensible
    GNU Emacs is highly customizable, allowing users to configure nearly every aspect using Emacs Lisp. This makes it remarkably adaptable for various workflows.
  • Rich Plugin Ecosystem
    There is a wide array of plugins available for Emacs, extending its functionality for programming, text editing, project management, and more.
  • Versatile
    Aside from text editing, Emacs can function as an email client, web browser, terminal emulator, and more, making it a powerful multi-purpose tool.
  • Free and Open Source
    GNU Emacs is free to use and modify, with source code available under the GNU General Public License, encouraging collaborative improvement and transparency.
  • Cross-Platform Support
    Emacs runs on many different operating systems, including Windows, macOS, and various Unix-like systems, ensuring a wide reach and consistent experience across platforms.

Possible disadvantages of GNU Emacs

  • Steep Learning Curve
    Due to its vast array of features and unique keybindings, new users often find Emacs difficult to learn initially.
  • Performance
    Emacs can be slower compared to more lightweight text editors, especially when heavily customized or handling large files.
  • Keyboard-Centric Interface
    Emacs relies heavily on keyboard shortcuts, which can be overwhelming and complex, leading to potential finger strain from extensive use.
  • Complex Configuration
    While its customizability is a strength, configuring Emacs to fit personal needs can be time-consuming and complex, requiring knowledge of Emacs Lisp.

ESLint features and specs

  • Customization
    ESLint is highly customizable through configuration files, allowing developers to tailor the linting process to fit their specific coding standards and project requirements.
  • Extensibility
    With a wide range of plugins and the ability to write custom rules, ESLint can be extended to accommodate unique project needs or additional languages and frameworks.
  • Community Support
    ESLint has a large and active community, ensuring continuous improvement, frequent updates, and a wealth of shared knowledge and resources.
  • Integrations
    ESLint integrates seamlessly with most development environments, build tools, and version control systems, making it easy to incorporate into existing workflows.
  • Error Prevention
    By statically analyzing code to catch potential errors and bad practices before runtime, ESLint helps improve code quality and reduce bugs.
  • Consistency
    Applying ESLint across a project ensures coding standards are maintained consistently, which is particularly beneficial for teams with multiple developers.

Possible disadvantages of ESLint

  • Initial Setup
    Configuring ESLint for the first time can be daunting, especially for those who are new to the tool or have complex project requirements.
  • Performance
    On large codebases, ESLint can sometimes slow down builds or editor performance due to the extensive analysis it performs.
  • Learning Curve
    There is a learning curve associated with understanding and configuring ESLint rules, which can be challenging for beginners.
  • Strictness
    Depending on the configuration, ESLint can be very strict, leading to a large number of warnings or errors that may initially overwhelm developers not accustomed to such rigorous linting.
  • Opinionated Rules
    Some ESLint default rules may not align with every developer's or team's coding style preferences, necessitating further customization and adjustment.
  • Maintenance
    Keeping ESLint configurations and plugins up to date requires ongoing maintenance, especially as projects evolve and dependencies change.

Analysis of GNU Emacs

Overall verdict

  • GNU Emacs is widely considered to be a powerful and versatile text editor, especially among programmers and developers.

Why this product is good

  • Highly Customizable: Emacs can be extensively customized with Emacs Lisp, enabling users to tailor the editor to fit their specific workflow.
  • Rich Ecosystem: There is a large variety of plug-ins and extensions available, which can transform it into much more than just a text editor.
  • Built-in Tools: Emacs includes numerous built-in tools such as a debugger, calendar, email client, and file manager, making it a comprehensive development environment.
  • Cross-Platform: Emacs runs on multiple platforms, which makes it accessible to a broad audience.

Recommended for

  • Programmers and developers who appreciate a customizable and extensible tool.
  • Users who want to integrate various development tools into a single environment.
  • Individuals comfortable with learning Emacs Lisp to create and understand custom scripts and configurations.
  • People interested in a text editor that has a strong and supportive community.

GNU Emacs videos

Switching to GNU Emacs

ESLint videos

ESLint Quickstart - find errors automatically

More videos:

  • Review - ESLint + Prettier + VS Code — The Perfect Setup
  • Review - Linting and Formatting JavaScript with ESLint in Visual Studio Code

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to GNU Emacs and ESLint)
Text Editors
100 100%
0% 0
Code Coverage
0 0%
100% 100
IDE
100 100%
0% 0
Code Analysis
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare GNU Emacs and ESLint

GNU Emacs Reviews

14 BEST LaTeX Editor for Mac & Windows in 2022
Emacs is a Unix based text editor tool which is used by programmers, engineers, students, and system administrators. It is one of the best LaTeX editor for Mac that allows you to add, modify, delete, insert, words, letters, lines, and other units of text.
Source: www.guru99.com
The Top 7 Notepad++ Alternatives for You
Emacs has been around in its various forms since 1976 and is another very worthy Notepad++ alternative. When I first started using Emacs I have to admit that I didn’t find it the easiest to use. But once I got used to it I realized just how powerful Emacs is for the programming community.
10 Best Notepad++ Alternatives in 2020
Emacs is a Unix based text editor tool which is used by programmers, engineers, students, and system administrators. It allows you to add, modify, delete, insert, words, letters, lines, and other units of text.
Source: www.guru99.com
7 open source alternatives to Dreamweaver
Vim or Emacs. Without participating in the holy war between these two traditional text editors, I can safely say that there are a number of enhancements for web editing available for both. So if you're already a terminal junkie, take your pick. Or, if those don't satisfy, try one of these Emacs/Vim alternatives.
Source: opensource.com
10 Best Sublime Text Alternatives in 2019
Emacs is a Unix based text editor tool which is used by programmers, engineers, students, and system administrators. It allows you to add, modify, delete, insert, words, letters, lines, and other units of text.
Source: www.guru99.com

ESLint Reviews

8 Best Static Code Analysis Tools For 2024
You can use ESLint through a supported IDE such as VS Code, Eclipse, and IntelliJ IDEA or integrate it with your CI pipelines. Moreover, you can install it locally using a package manager like npm, yarn, npx, etc.
Source: www.qodo.ai

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, ESLint seems to be a lot more popular than GNU Emacs. While we know about 267 links to ESLint, we've tracked only 6 mentions of GNU Emacs. 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.

GNU Emacs mentions (6)

  • Emacs daemon as sytemd service in debian 12 (gnome)
    Cat .config/systemd/user/default.target.wants/emacs.service [Unit] Description=Emacs text editor Documentation=info:emacs man:emacs(1) https://gnu.org/software/emacs/ [Service] Type=notify ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/emacs --fg-daemon # Emacs will exit with status 15 after having received SIGTERM, which # is the default "KillSignal" value systemd uses to stop services. SuccessExitStatus=15 # The location of the... Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Why does emacs exec path variable not just copy the users path variable?
    ## If your Emacs is installed in a non-standard location, you may need ## to copy this file to a standard directory, eg ~/.config/systemd/user/ . ## If you install this file by hand, change the "Exec" lines below ## to use absolute file names for the executables. [Unit] Description=Emacs text editor Documentation=info:emacs man:emacs(1)... Source: over 2 years ago
  • Hi DM's, what medium do you use to organise your campaign?
    For gathering notes, writing and organizing, Org-Roam which implies Org and Emacs. Source: over 2 years ago
  • This Guy is getting out of control at this point.
    I was heading to gnu.org/software/emacs to prove my point and it said:. Source: over 3 years ago
  • opam doesn't see emacs?
    <><> Version-specific details <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> 🐫 Version 1 Repository default Homepage: "http://gnu.org/software/emacs" Bug-reports: "https://github.com/ocaml/opam-repository/issues" Authors: "anil@recoil.org" Maintainer: "anil@recoil.org" License: "GPL-1.0-or-later" Flags: conf Synopsis Virtual package to install the Emacs editor Description This... Source: over 3 years ago
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ESLint mentions (267)

  • Never lose valuable error context in JavaScript
    While ESLint is the go-to tool for code quality in JavaScript, it doesn’t provide any built-in rule for this. - Source: dev.to / 20 days ago
  • Shopify: Getting to grips with GraphQL
    This linting is designed to work with eslint, which is very commonly used in the JavaScript world. - Source: dev.to / 28 days ago
  • Most Effective Approaches for Debugging Applications
    Static code analysis tools scan code for potential issues before execution, catching bugs like null pointer dereferences or race conditions early. Daniel Vasilevski, Director and Owner of Bright Force Electrical, shares, “Utilizing static code analysis tools gives us a clear look at what’s going wrong before anything ever runs.” During a scheduling system rebuild, SonarQube flagged a concurrency flaw, preventing... - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • Static Code Analysis: Ensuring Code Quality Before Execution
    ESLint – Widely used for JavaScript/TypeScript projects to catch style and logic errors. - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
  • 🚀 Biome Has Entered the Chat: A New Tool to Replace ESLint and Prettier
    If you’ve ever set up a JavaScript or TypeScript project, chances are you've spent way too much time configuring ESLint, Prettier, and their dozens of plugins. We’ve all been there — fiddling with .eslintrc, fighting with formatting conflicts, and installing what feels like half the npm registry just to get decent code quality tooling. - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing GNU Emacs and ESLint, you can also consider the following products

VS Code - Build and debug modern web and cloud applications, by Microsoft

Prettier - An opinionated code formatter

Sublime Text - Sublime Text is a sophisticated text editor for code, html and prose - any kind of text file. You'll love the slick user interface and extraordinary features. Fully customizable with macros, and syntax highlighting for most major languages.

SonarQube - SonarQube, a core component of the Sonar solution, is an open source, self-managed tool that systematically helps developers and organizations deliver Clean Code.

Vim - Highly configurable text editor built to enable efficient text editing

CodeClimate - Code Climate provides automated code review for your apps, letting you fix quality and security issues before they hit production. We check every commit, branch and pull request for changes in quality and potential vulnerabilities.