April 25, 2026
Emacs vs IDE: choose your fighter
Mine, an IDE for Coalton and Common Lisp
New coding app drops and the coding world erupts: Emacs diehards vs IDE quitters vs curious newbies
TLDR: Mine is a new coding app for Coalton and Common Lisp with a built-in console, debugger, and an easy download. The launch sparked a clash: Emacs purists scoff, one veteran says they’ve ditched IDEs entirely, and others ask why not use Emacs tools—yet many welcome an easier way to try Coalton.
A shiny new coding app called Mine just landed for Coalton and Common Lisp, and the comments are hotter than fresh silicon. It ships two ways: a simple one‑click app that “It Just Works,” and a hacker mode where you bring your own terminal. One early sleuth cheered that Mine is actually written in Coalton itself, the language it’s meant to help you write—meta much? You can download it here.
Then the brawl began. Emacs loyalists thundered in with the classic battle cry: learn Emacs or regret it—nothing else compares. Another veteran tossed a grenade, bragging they’ve quit IDEs and even text editors entirely, calling IDEs “legacy” with a wry smile. Meanwhile, the curious crowd asked the obvious: why build a whole editor instead of plugging into SLIME (a popular Emacs tool for Lisp)? Style points flew too—someone praised the Iosevka font like it was a designer sneaker drop, and another dunked on rival editor Lem as “messy.”
Amid the shade, pragmatists saw Mine as a clean on‑ramp to Coalton: a built‑in command window (REPL) to try code instantly, one‑click code sending, a pop‑up debugger, warnings right in the editor, smart type hints, and even five‑minute lessons to master structural editing. No virtual machines—just fast, native builds. Verdict: come for the drama, stay for the “it works out of the box” vibe.
Key Points
- •“mine” is an IDE for Coalton and Common Lisp available on Windows, macOS, and Linux.
- •Two variants are offered: mine-app (packaged, no dependencies) and mine-core (terminal-based, requires Kitty keyboard protocol support).
- •The IDE includes an integrated REPL with code beaming for immediate interaction.
- •An interactive debugger and inline diagnostics provide errors, warnings, and optimization hints within the editor.
- •Coalton-specific tooling includes instant type hints and auto-complete; structural editing lessons are provided, and all code compiles to native binaries.