---
title: "EmacsConf 2019"
date: 2019-11-03T15:40:09+05:30
-lastmod: 2019-11-03T15:40:09+05:30
+lastmod: 2019-11-04T15:40:09+05:30
tags : [ "free-software", "emacs" ]
categories : [ "conferences" ]
layout: post
highlight: false
---
-![EmacsConf logo](https://emacsconf.org/s/emacsconf-logo1-256.png)
+![EmacsConf logo](/blog/emacsconf-logo.png)
I attended the [EmacsConf 2019](https://emacsconf.org/2019/ "EmacsConf 2019") on
2nd November. It was offered as a video stream that anyone can watch over the
Just like the Quake-inspired terminals Guake and Yakuake, there's one called
[Equake](https://gitlab.com/emacsomancer/equake) that launches a drop-down eshell.
-You can also use the racket shell called Rash, which is crazy powerful. This has
-very good integration with StumpWM.
+You can also use the Racket shell called Rash, which is crazy powerful. Equake has
+good integration with StumpWM.
+
+I was aware of the existence of Yasnippet, but never really used it much. I am
+more motivated to use this important productivity tool after watching the talk
+"Don’t wait! Write your own (yas)snippet" by Tony Aldon.
### Accessibility
The hard reality is that text processing using macros or Elisp is very slow as
compared to using a Python or Perl script.
+### Language Server Protocol
+
+I've always imagined non-IDE editors like Emacs to be ideal for programming in
+scripting languages. I tried using Emacs for Scala or Java earlier, but always
+end up switching back to IntelliJ. I think the new LSP implementation for Java
+is a game-changer. Though I am not a big fan of Java, it is the open-source
+language that competes with Microsoft C# and has a lot of Apache projects
+written in it. Being able to use Emacs for Java programming with all the
+features of an IDE is definitely a big win for free software. Kotlin doesn't
+have LSP support yet. Maybe it's a conflict of interest for JetBrains.
+
+The conference had an excellent live-coding demonstration of LSP by Torstein
+Krause Johansen in his presentation titled "How Emacs became my awesome Java
+editing environment".
+
+### Evil mode
+
+I was kinda disappointed that only one user used EViL mode. I expected that
+there were at least one talk on Evil mode itself. There was one talk by Zaiste
+about Doom Emacs but the title was too click-baity and showed no code. Maybe I
+should do a talk focussed on evil-mode in the next EmacsConf.
+
+
+## Diversity
+
+The conference seemed to have a good racial mix of speakers. There was a blind
+speaker too. I am happy to see some representation from non-programmers among
+the speakers. The conference can do better in terms of gender diversity.
+
+## Conclusion
+
+The conference was totally worth losing a night's sleep over. I had to stay up
+till 5 am due to timezone differences. I am now more motivated to write some
+Elisp myself and customize Emacs to my specific needs.