Lots of IDEs claim to offer Vim/Emacs emulation. Vim users seem often quite happy with the vim emulation they get (I'm only an occasional Vim user so don't have an opinion).
The issue with emulating Emacs is that the editor key bindings are not the feature. The feature of Emacs is basically an IDE totally tuned to how you want it, plus the fact that then you apply the same ecosystem to a great number of text-adjacent applications - Org, E-mail, code, markdown, etc.
Someone saying to me "hey, you can copy with M-w!" just really doesn't appeal.
Vim seems more about an out-of-the-box "language" for typing, so I can see how you can emulate this more sanely.
> Vim users seem often quite happy with the vim emulation they get
Its better than nothing, but usually only lets you use vim bindings for text editing itself. Compared to neovim, where the entire editor and the plugin ecosystem is fully based on the same keyboard-driven workflow, it's quite lacking. For example, I remember that when using VSCode with its Vim mode plugin, it took quite a bit of configuration to be able to switch to the file tree and navigate it with the keyboard, and it still didn't work that well due to inherent limitations of the software.
Another huge example is Neogit. If you're an Emacs user, you probably use Magit, which Neogit is heavily inspired by, so you'll understand. Having it integrated into your editor and working with the same shortcuts is very nice and can't be replaced by vim emulation mode.
Yeah, that seems to be the general pattern across vi-emulation. However, back when I was on IntellJ stuff (pre vi-emulation), I was already quite deep into the plethora of keyboard shortcuts within IntelliJ, so although you couldn’t do everything with just vi-emulation, you could still do essentially almost everything without leaving the keyboard. Not the same as full blown vim, but it was a solid workflow in my eyes.
The main reason I switched was because of finances and hardware limitations, as I’m now rocking an 8GB M1 MBP
And often, that Emacs keybinding emulation is incredibly incomplete. For example, Matlab's Emacs emulation doesn't have M-w bound and I believe C-k doesn't copy, it only kills. And the emulation is the default setting on Linux.
Author here. We pushed 1.1 today. It was scheduled for release two weeks ago, but it was quite hard to balance adding so many new features with the influx of bug reports that followed our launch a month ago. Obviously, adding Python is a big one, but I'm most excited about the new symbol index, which reduces 10-second workspace-wide queries to under 100 ms. The agent also uses this index, so the benefits compound over long agentic sessions as well. FWIW I'm not quite sure about the black-and-white dimming feature. If it's not useful, we might remove it in a future release so please let us know!
Not a walkthrough video, no. The first steps section of the getting started guide is the best place to start (https://docs.rune.build/#your-first-steps). There are also a few short clips on the home, Go and Python pages.
Fair ask though! a short walkthrough is on the list.
I'm not seeing any mention of this being FOSS, is this closed-sourced? If so, that should be mentioned in every single comparison page between editors.
edit: It is mentioned in the Neovim, and Emacs pages. Not the VSCode, or Zed pages.
I may check this out as I'm between editors currently. Liked zed for a bit, until a blog post showed me how they were installing npm and who knows what else on my PC without me knowing. Used Code for a bit after until suddenly they started requiring AI dependencies just to run the IDE.
I've looked at gram, but unfortunately it, being a fork of zed, still has some dependencies I'd rather not deal with. Given the recent hacks (especially those a few weeks ago with lots of compromised AUR packages in Arch) I'd rather not have npm or nodejs installed. I don't develop in it, I don't need it, and having it installed is just an huge unnecessary attack vector for me.
I do love what the gram developer is doing though.
pricing page does not at all make clear what isn't included in the free version. you have to pay a monthly subscription for "language support"? does that mean it doesn't "support" languages in the free version? and what does "language support" mean?
Fair. I’ll change the wording so it’s obvious. To answer your question, there’s no difference other than the licensing terms allowing you to use it for commercial work.
Same. Is it completely new editor with "emacs mode"? an actual emacs configuration. Who knows? Why should I care if the author didn't care to explain it?
Might want to think about installation. Suspicious of black box shell installations like that, and I'm on a laptop with restrictions. Looks like installation failed trying to write to places it shouldn't, but it's just pulling a dmg to copy on MacOS?
EDIT: also not helping trust that it's not letting me quit?
I’ll look into these. We do some special handling of cmd+q so resources are released gracefully. I’m guessing you didn’t select a preset yet. Is that accurate?
Anyone know of something like spacemacs which does the chording well? I've gotten used to it but it's starting to feel like it's not being updated, but I have all the muscle memory
Sorry, I just don't understand the premise behind Rune. The whole neovim / emacs / blah blah cult is based around configuring the infinitely configurable ecosystem. It's not better, or more productive, it's a hobby. So if you try to package that you've missed the point.
Quite impressed with a sales page basically telling me to stick with Emacs for now: https://rune.build/coming-from/emacs
Lots of IDEs claim to offer Vim/Emacs emulation. Vim users seem often quite happy with the vim emulation they get (I'm only an occasional Vim user so don't have an opinion).
The issue with emulating Emacs is that the editor key bindings are not the feature. The feature of Emacs is basically an IDE totally tuned to how you want it, plus the fact that then you apply the same ecosystem to a great number of text-adjacent applications - Org, E-mail, code, markdown, etc.
Someone saying to me "hey, you can copy with M-w!" just really doesn't appeal.
Vim seems more about an out-of-the-box "language" for typing, so I can see how you can emulate this more sanely.
> Vim users seem often quite happy with the vim emulation they get
Its better than nothing, but usually only lets you use vim bindings for text editing itself. Compared to neovim, where the entire editor and the plugin ecosystem is fully based on the same keyboard-driven workflow, it's quite lacking. For example, I remember that when using VSCode with its Vim mode plugin, it took quite a bit of configuration to be able to switch to the file tree and navigate it with the keyboard, and it still didn't work that well due to inherent limitations of the software.
Another huge example is Neogit. If you're an Emacs user, you probably use Magit, which Neogit is heavily inspired by, so you'll understand. Having it integrated into your editor and working with the same shortcuts is very nice and can't be replaced by vim emulation mode.
> Vim users seem often quite happy with the vim emulation they get
Not at all. Never seen any vi-emulation, which wasn't totally broken.
IntelliJ actually does (did) have quite solid vim emulation, at least from my experience of using it before going full into neovim (now on Emacs, btw)
Except when you go to any pane/window without code it stops using vim bindings
Yeah, that seems to be the general pattern across vi-emulation. However, back when I was on IntellJ stuff (pre vi-emulation), I was already quite deep into the plethora of keyboard shortcuts within IntelliJ, so although you couldn’t do everything with just vi-emulation, you could still do essentially almost everything without leaving the keyboard. Not the same as full blown vim, but it was a solid workflow in my eyes.
The main reason I switched was because of finances and hardware limitations, as I’m now rocking an 8GB M1 MBP
And often, that Emacs keybinding emulation is incredibly incomplete. For example, Matlab's Emacs emulation doesn't have M-w bound and I believe C-k doesn't copy, it only kills. And the emulation is the default setting on Linux.
Fair. It’s mostly to transfer muscle memory over anyway. I’m a vim user so having all input surfaces in the IDE be modal and obey HJKL is priceless.
> Org mode, Magit, TRAMP, or another deep Emacs-native package is your center of gravity
This is me.
> rewriting the editor live in Elisp is the whole point for you
Funnily enough, this is not me. I just grab Doom Emacs and do very minor adjustments. I just really like all the packages and the ecosystem.
I had to chuckle at this pro
> Built-in Emacs editor
The built in editor is a one of my least favorite parts of Emacs. I'm in it for the customizability.
You spelled Neovim wrong :-)
Author here. We pushed 1.1 today. It was scheduled for release two weeks ago, but it was quite hard to balance adding so many new features with the influx of bug reports that followed our launch a month ago. Obviously, adding Python is a big one, but I'm most excited about the new symbol index, which reduces 10-second workspace-wide queries to under 100 ms. The agent also uses this index, so the benefits compound over long agentic sessions as well. FWIW I'm not quite sure about the black-and-white dimming feature. If it's not useful, we might remove it in a future release so please let us know!
Is there a short video walkthrough for newcomers?
Not a walkthrough video, no. The first steps section of the getting started guide is the best place to start (https://docs.rune.build/#your-first-steps). There are also a few short clips on the home, Go and Python pages. Fair ask though! a short walkthrough is on the list.
I'm not seeing any mention of this being FOSS, is this closed-sourced? If so, that should be mentioned in every single comparison page between editors.
edit: It is mentioned in the Neovim, and Emacs pages. Not the VSCode, or Zed pages.
You’re right about this. I’ll add it to those pages as well.
edit: done
I may check this out as I'm between editors currently. Liked zed for a bit, until a blog post showed me how they were installing npm and who knows what else on my PC without me knowing. Used Code for a bit after until suddenly they started requiring AI dependencies just to run the IDE.
So hey, why not try something new.
There's a zed minus the iffy bits fork called gram. Haven't used it though, I'm still stuck in Emacs trying to figure out how to get out.
I've looked at gram, but unfortunately it, being a fork of zed, still has some dependencies I'd rather not deal with. Given the recent hacks (especially those a few weeks ago with lots of compromised AUR packages in Arch) I'd rather not have npm or nodejs installed. I don't develop in it, I don't need it, and having it installed is just an huge unnecessary attack vector for me.
I do love what the gram developer is doing though.
Haha, I'm trying to figure out how to get in!
Doom Emacs is the answer
pricing page does not at all make clear what isn't included in the free version. you have to pay a monthly subscription for "language support"? does that mean it doesn't "support" languages in the free version? and what does "language support" mean?
Fair. I’ll change the wording so it’s obvious. To answer your question, there’s no difference other than the licensing terms allowing you to use it for commercial work.
Any connection to https://github.com/CeleritasCelery/rune ?
No connection. Naming things, sigh. It’s hard to find an unused name these days.
i was so confused at first, why did they name themselves the same as the rune scripting language? https://rune-rs.github.io/
I didn't know about rune, the programming language tbh. I guess we'll have to support it next
I have no idea what it is
Same. Is it completely new editor with "emacs mode"? an actual emacs configuration. Who knows? Why should I care if the author didn't care to explain it?
Might want to think about installation. Suspicious of black box shell installations like that, and I'm on a laptop with restrictions. Looks like installation failed trying to write to places it shouldn't, but it's just pulling a dmg to copy on MacOS?
EDIT: also not helping trust that it's not letting me quit?
I’ll look into these. We do some special handling of cmd+q so resources are released gracefully. I’m guessing you didn’t select a preset yet. Is that accurate?
I selected vim. No quit available in application menu, I tried `!forcequit` from the command menu and nothing happened either.
are you on apple silicon or intel?
edit: nvm I found the issue. cmd+q or forcequit! doesn't work while the onboarding tutorial is running.
also curious as to why libresolv.so.2 is packaged in the Linux tarball
[dead]
Anyone know of something like spacemacs which does the chording well? I've gotten used to it but it's starting to feel like it's not being updated, but I have all the muscle memory
OMG the live region announcements are really annoying on the web page: "RUNE rune.buildmain+0-0248 lines2026-07-30 21:54:38 unstablebuild "
I tried it and its definetely not mature enough for me. Too cumbersome to use. But the project speaks to me.
I’d love to hear more about your opinion. Can you shoot us an email hi@unstable.build?
Are there any plan in forseeable future (10 years) to port Rune to other platforms (win, mobile/tablet, ..)?
No plans yet but if there’s enough demand we’ll port it to Windows.
Page crashes with “a problem repeatedly occurred on $page” on iOS Safari, just fyi
Thanks, looking into it.
edit: I think it's from all the videos playing at once, even when not visible. It should be fixed now.
Hey, I don't see anywhere in the docs how one can remap the `meta` key to something else? Project looks cool as hell tho
Thanks! :) https://docs.rune.build/learn/key-mapping
That fixed it :)
Sorry, I just don't understand the premise behind Rune. The whole neovim / emacs / blah blah cult is based around configuring the infinitely configurable ecosystem. It's not better, or more productive, it's a hobby. So if you try to package that you've missed the point.
Is this electron?
No. It's written in Go.
can't say "I wrote it in Go" anymore
As soon as it said "non-commercial" I noped.
That is so vague with some of what I do, that it isn't worth even looking further.