Yes, emacs (and/or vim) pay off over time imo. If mastered and properly configured, both can increase productivity by a lot, because you can do pretty much whatever you want with just a couple of keys, and also write almost everything using those, so you can use one workflow for Java, Python, webdev, mails, etc. And because of the big and experiences userbases, support is excellent. I'd say, learning an advanced text editor starts to pay off maybe somewhere around the 2 month mark, depending on how much you use them.

Not to start a Holy War...but you could try learning VIM. In my opinion it has a less steep learning curve, but still provides a lot of utility and efficiency that these text based editors offer.

Eclipse is bad and is dead, especially for Android. Use IntelliJ. You can use IntelliJ for javascript, html, etc. too.

Long time Emacs user here. I switched to IntelliJ years ago. Emacs is, once you learn it, much better for text editing but not so good for any other aspect of program development (e.g. navigation, integration with other tools). So while you might enter text faster with Emacs, your productivity will be faster with a good IDE (i.e. IntelliJ).

I settled on an editor for the past couple of years but I recommend that you look for functionality first. That is, figure out what you want your tools to do for you then find the tool that does it. If you want to create the functionality or tailor it to your workflow you should find an editor that can be extended in the way you are most comfortable.

I learned Vim first and switched to Emacs recently for SLIME, and I can say once you learn just the very basics of either you'll be editing as fast or faster than with Notepad++.

While emacs is really expandable and customizable, it's a bit old and bloated. If you want a nice, clean, not-so-bloated graphical editor which is still extensible and customizable, try out Atom.

EDIT: Atom is like the emacs of the 21st century.

Fact: Vim's modal editing paradigm is significantly more efficient than Emacs and is less likely to strain your fingers.

Fact: Emacs is a lot more powerful than Vim

Fact: You can get the best of both worlds: https://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs

I code in clojure and found emacs to be amazing. You just have to learn lots of key bindings thats all. However, who really cares, keep trying out IDE's till you find one which enjoy. Right tool right job :)

I think the biggest reason is so that you can proudly say that you are an EMACS user and emacs users won't be able to talk shit. I use vim for a similar reason, although I know that's funny for emacs users. At least some old-timey linux/unix geezers respect vim.

The other reason to learn old-timey emacs or vim is so you can just use ssh on a headless server for development if you want. Or because there is almost always syntax highlighting for any language.

Only if you're a sadist. Emacs key bindings are so fucked. Go modern with atom or sublime text imo.

I was seduced into emacs by org-mode. Once you figure out navigating and configuring the thing, you start feeling like you may as well use it for every text based thing you do, since you are already deep in the hole anyway. It doesnt help that there are modules and addons and blog posts about everything you could imagine doing in it. I'd say org mode alone makes emacs worth it. It has this cult-like way of sucking you in. That said, I enjoy working in it and find it a pleasure to use. I find that I can recycle a lot of prior learning into whatever new mode or language I feel like trying, so in the long run it has probably saved me a little time.

If you do note taking, todo lists, calendars etc in org mode it will change you life, I have mine synced up to my phone and laptop and work computer to keep track of friggin everything.