5

Currently, I am using TeXStudio. Now, I am considering to switch to Emacs because I heard that is has its advantages when it comes to R and knitR. But what are the specific advantages? Yet, I am still struggling if switching is worth compared to the steep learning courve. (Yes, I am aware of the general TeX editor comparation thread.)

Improve this question
6
  • 1
    To put it simply, the switch is worth it. Inline evaluation of R code is a big one. I've heard Emacs Speaks Statistics (ESS) is really good. See r and ess on Emacs.SE.
    – Sean Allred
    Mar 8, 2015 at 16:28
  • 4
    I can't answer about R and knitR since I've never really used them. (I once tried to use R to make a wordcloud, but had to give up because I had other things which actually needed doing.) But emacs doesn't have a steep learning curve (for LaTeX) so much as an infinitely long one. Remember: at the end of the day, your .tex file is just plain text, so you can just type it in. That said, five years down the road with emacs and you'll still be learning things that you subsequently won't want to live without.
    – jon
    Mar 8, 2015 at 16:50
  • 1
    I switched to Emacs three years ago and I never looked back. I use it mostly for R with ESS, which works really well and the very occasional bit of TeX. Emacs wasn't as horrible as I had been led to believe and it really is infinitely expandible. Packages like ace-jump and Keychord are great.
    – SlowLearner
    Mar 8, 2015 at 17:01
  • 1
    As someone who's been using emacs for about five years (coincidentally), I can confirm that this is true. You can amass a lot of tools to help you out over the years.
    – Sean Allred
    Mar 8, 2015 at 17:01
  • 1
    Jens, try Vincent Goulet's distribution of the latest Emacs (for Windows) complete with ESS and AucTeX, which can be found here. This is how I started with Emacs.
    – SlowLearner
    Mar 8, 2015 at 20:15

0

Reset to default

Browse other questions tagged .