emacs can be run within a terminal or with a graphical interface for xserver. colors and font-rendering may look different, the graphical version of course does not start inside a current terminal, and i prefer emacs on the terminal because it seems simpler and i would not have to set up xserver forwarding through ssh sessions for example

start emacs with "emacs --daemon" and open files with "emacsclient -tc" ("t" uses the terminal, "c" creates a new frame). this way emacs is not started anew when you open a file for editing

#!/bin/sh

emacsclient -tc

e readme.md

#!/bin/sh

for file in $@
do
  emacsclient -e '(find-file "'$file'")'
done

ea readme.md main.c

• adaptive-wrap long lines start on the next line with indent

• auto-complete word autocompletion

• smartparens structural editing of bracket expressions. alternative to paredit

• sph-scheme-mode simple scheme mode

• web-mode handles syntax-highlighting for files with mixed languages like html templates

• corral quickly surround words with characters in emacs

• highlight-symbol highlight and rename the current word throughout the buffer

• yasnippet templates

modes i had issues with

• paredit: syntax recognition, integrated auto-format, overriding keybindings, does not work so well with non-s-expression based languages, commands seem more clear and ordered in smartparens-mode
• org-mode: i think it does too much and is therefore too complicated. i find #(link-c-one ("itpn" "syntax" "note")) to be a better note taking format than org-modes asterisk syntax