I've been thinking about using a simpler browser for reading simple documents. The motivation is to have a sort of "minimalism", as in using simpler programs to do simple things, and not get easily distracted by all the bells and whistles in a more complex application (like for example Firefox). This, I think, would be aided by using a simpler browser that could for example be run in a virtual terminal for reading things like documentation, in the context of developing where I will need a terminal (and maybe also a graphical text editor), anyway. So then there is less context-switching, presumably.
I am not someone who tries to do everything within Emacs[0] (yet?), but this seems like something that might be able to fit nicely with this kind of style, since I can restrict myself to only using Emacs and terminals for developing and reading online documentation. Does anyone enjoy working/developing like this?
[0] Yes, I see the slight contradiction in wanting to do things in simpler software, and then suggesting doing those simpler things within Emacs. :P
The Eww browser is fully compatible with terminal if you run Emacs non-window mode (-nw option). It supports both HTML and CSS, and render quite nicely. Much better than any terminal web browser I used.
The browser is for looking up online documentation not available in your local machine. For example, sometime a man page is not available in my local machine. I can invoke a google query right inside Emacs and open it immediately without involving heavy weight browsers.
It is really nice to read online book like Practical Common Lisp: http://www.gigamonkeys.com/book/, and directly copy the code and paste to your REPL without ever leaving Emacs.
I am not someone who tries to do everything within Emacs[0] (yet?), but this seems like something that might be able to fit nicely with this kind of style, since I can restrict myself to only using Emacs and terminals for developing and reading online documentation. Does anyone enjoy working/developing like this?
[0] Yes, I see the slight contradiction in wanting to do things in simpler software, and then suggesting doing those simpler things within Emacs. :P