Best version of Emacs

Question

I'd like to enter the mysteries of Emacs - but gently! Excuse the lack of machismo, but is there a Emacs-clone for Windows which supports mouse-and-menu usage to get me started -- so I can delay learning ALT-META_CTRL-C-C for a while.

Answer 1

Download the latest version of GNU Emacs for Windows. By default, it comes with a menu, which looks like any other Windows menu. You can first do things using the menu, and since it displays what the shortcuts are, you'll quickly learn.

Answer 2

After using XEmacs on both Windows and Unix for a long time due to the better GUI integration, I've switched back to GNU Emacs for all the platforms I use (Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Solaris).

For Windows, I tend to use EmacsW32 - like GNU Emacs, it has the menu and toolbar activated by default (it is after all, a GNU Emacs with some extra code) , plus it comes with some additional code to provide better Windows integration.

As mentioned by several other posters, you're probably better off learning the basic keystrokes sooner rather than later. One important aspect of using something like GNU Emacs is that you tend to be more productive when you're "in the zone" simply because you never have to take your hands of the keyboard. If constantly jump between mouse and keyboard, you lose this advantage.

Something that you might want to look at with a view to postpone the inevitable knot in your fingers :) is CuaMode.