Migrating from VSCode

My workspace is very suited to vscode and all the extensions and themes I have set up, etc. I am comfortable with it and I know the advantages of vim and Emacs so no need to literally spam them in the comments. I know vim but not that comfortable with it. Which Emacs distro or vanilla emac should I use?

Doom Emacs. Vanilla Emacs will leave you frustrated unless you're willing to spend countless hours learning how to configure it to your liking. Doom Emacs is fast, has active development and a growing community, is easy to keep updated, and has replicated the good ergonomics and mnemonic system from Spacemacs.

If you're comfortable with VS Code why change?

> My workspace is very suited to vscode and all the extensions and themes I have set up, etc. Why do you want to switch to Emacs?

The power of the keyboard

Hmmm

The power of the keyboard

While I do agree with the sentiment here, the countless hours for vanilla is not accurate. Integrated over long time use, sure, but to get going and have a good experience, no

You can still use emacs keybindings from VsCode. https://github.com/whitphx/vscode-emacs-mcx I recommend you to start with vanilla emacs unless you need an IDE right now. Discovering what can emacs do is part of the fun but it takes time to be confortable with it.

Regardless of why you want to switch or anything like that (you do what you want). IMO go with plain vanilla Emacs. Start typing, start using it. It will be rough at the start but to me it was worth it. You'll start wanting things, completion, IDE features etc. etc. Fortunately there are libraries out there for most things, and slowly but surely you'll build up a nice environment for yourself. The power in Emacs is not in any one thing but the power to form it as my own computing environment, suited for my needs.

First of all: Congrats to the notion of wanting to switch from vscode to emacs. IMO: Go with Doom emacs. I would advice not to try to recreate your complete vscode experience. While you can come pretty close. Some things will not reach 100% feature parity with vscode while there are plenty of strengths emacs has that vscode doesn't come close. Use the vscode-like features that doom emacs brings ootb (like language server integration) and try to explore and learn some of the unique feats of emacs (like embark or avy or keyboard macros) to fill potential gaps. You will still need time to get into doom and freshen up on your evil (vim) keybinds, but you will find yourself with power at your fingertips quite fast. Eventually you might tap into the wide spectrum of alternatives or the power of elisp, but you also might not and thats perfectly fine as well.

You can make VSCode very keyboard centric. Maybe you could be interested in the neovim - vscode bridge, for instance (there’s probably more things but I’m not too knowledgable about vscode)

Doom emacs. It is already set up very good, it is very easy to configure with presets you just to uncomment and if you want you can use vim Keybindings

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What's your "patience" level? I switched from Atom to Emacs and opted for no packages. I went through the tutorial. Then started coding. And when I hit a "Hmm…there must be something for this?" I went and found it. (First, I added straight.el then started installing individual packages). This way I added stuff as I needed it. Granted, I had time to explore. This may or may not be a reasonable approach.

I pretty strongly disagree with the "start with vanilla emacs" idea. What I wound up doing was using spacemacs (which was the cool starter kit at the time), then eventually blowing it all away and remaking the bits and pieces of it I like with my own config. Sometimes I'll just go look at Spacemacs or Doom for feature ideas. I like this approach because it means I have a config I understand, but looking at the starter kits helps me find out about cool things that I wouldn't have even known to look for.

If that is the main reason, I would suggest to simply install the plugins in VSCode for vim or emacs keys. However getting to know emacs is a good idea, if alone for its fascinating design and interactivity. At work I use both VSCode and emacs: Doom emacs with vim-keybindings for Notekeeping, Timetracking, soon again git interface. VSCode with vim-keybindings as main IDE for refactoring etc.

How good is VSCode plugin for emacs keys?

For emacs keys idk, the vim plugin is great tho