#+STARTUP: overview #+PROPERTY: header-args:emacs-lisp :lexical t * A New Start To welcome in Emacs 28 I intend to re-aquaint myself with the application and its ecosystem. I've been perusing the packages available through the default ELPA and non-gnu ELPA repos and trying to put together the various things that I've grown accustomed to. However, with a beginner's mind, I've been trying to avoid going down the same old idiosyncratic paths. Courting a bit of discomfort in order to learn what newcomers might experience coming to Emacs in this current version. ** Overview This document is a journal, manual, and a program at once. I'm no expert at writing a document like this. If you happen to be reading it, the journal nature may be confusing. Over time, the journal will be incorporated into the bits that are a manual, solidified knowledge gained through the experience. The program bits will be tangled into [[file:shoshin-config.el]]. As a program, it requires a certain structure from top to bottom. Here, the snippets may be scattered around. I'll attempt to have a system to keep them organized, but this is all an experiment. The following code block is the "table of contents" that determines what is tangled into the resulting elisp file: #+begin_src emacs-lisp :tangle yes :noweb yes ;;; shoshimacs.el --- Beginner's Mind Config -*- lexical-binding:t -*- ;;; Package Management <> ;;; Major Keybinding <> ;;; Completion <> ;;; Editing <> ;;; Programming <> ;;; Projects <> ;;; External Services <> ;;; User Interface <> #+end_src * Package Management :PROPERTIES: :header-args:emacs-lisp+: :noweb-ref package-management :noweb-sep "\n\n" :results silent :END: I've been using [[https://github.com/radian-software/straight.el#start-of-content][straight.el]] as my package manager since 2019 when I moved away from Spacemacs as my main configuration for day-to-day work. While I definitely recommend it as a flexible yet minimal package manager, it is certainly more useful to experienced Emacs users. This configuration will stick to packages available through the built-in ~package.el~ system. As of Emacs 28, this is everything in the ELPA and non-gnu ELPA package repositories. ** ELPA and Non-GNU ELPA ELPA packages have their copyright assigned to the FSF, which is a requirement for any code to be included into Emacs itself. ELPA packages are thus the most likely to be merged into Emacs as a new feature. Some, like EMMS, are likely to continue as "add-on" optional features only some users may choose. Non-gnu ELPA is relatively new, and does not require copyright assignment to the FSF. Packages are added to both repositories through the emacs-devel mailing list and the maintainers there. It intends to extend the packages available to the base Emacs installation while providing a bridge to inclusion in ELPA or Emacs proper at some time in the future. *** Add non-gnu ELPA to Emacs < 28 Emacs 28 is the first version to include non-gnu ELPA by default. Some distributions may not yet have it as an available package. #+name: add-nongnu-elpa #+begin_src emacs-lisp (when (< emacs-major-version 28) (package-initialize) (add-to-list 'package-archives '("nongnu" . "https://elpa.nongnu.org/nongnu/")) (package-refresh-contents)) #+end_src ** Installing Packages ~package.el~ provides the [[help:package-install][package-install]] command which can be used interactively or from Lisp code like this configuration. If a package is already installed, it won't try to install it again. When you install a package this way, Emacs will add its name to [[help:package-selected-packages][package-selected-packages]]. You can also use ~list-packages~ to browse, install and upgrade packages as well. ** Packages not in the default repos Any elisp package that is in Emacs's [[help:load-path][load-path]] can be ~require~'d and used. ~(add-to-list 'load-path (expand-file-name "some-package/" user-emacs-directory))~ is an example of putting the directory ~some-package/~ into the load path. *** COMMENT xah-fly-keys muscle memory has bound me to xah-fly-keys, and so i've decided to just manually install it by cloning the repo and adding it to the #+begin_src shell :var dir=(expand-file-name "xah-fly-keys" user-emacs-directory) :tangle no git clone https://github.com/xahlee/xah-fly-keys $dir #+end_src #+begin_src emacs-lisp (add-to-list 'load-path (expand-file-name "xah-fly-keys/" user-emacs-directory)) (require 'xah-fly-keys) (xah-fly-keys-set-layout "qwerty") (xah-fly-keys t) #+end_src however, it is now in non-gnu elpa! so i don't need this anymore. ** Emacs 28 native compilation [[info:elisp#Native Compilation][elisp#Native Compilation]] This is a new feature in Emacs 28 that will compile all of the Elisp as native machine code, rather than byte-code, which can result in major performance boosts. Compilation will happen in the background and is logged to the =*Async-native-compile-log*= buffer if you are curious. Mostly you shouldn't have to worry about it, though you may see some compilation warnings at times. #+begin_src emacs-lisp (when (and (functionp #'native-comp-available-p) (native-comp-available-p)) (setq native-comp-always-compile t package-native-compile t)) #+end_src * Keybinding Keybindings are the key to playing Emacs like an instrument. no matter what you choose, keep in mind that you can always bind keys to your most commonly used commands to make things convienient. I highly recommend creating a personal key map bound to a "leader key". You initiate it with the leader, and then bind following key sequences to commands you use. creating your own will make it easier to remember and keep organized. ** xah-fly-keys This is what I adopted to combat RSI. my muscle memory is tied into it tightly right now. you may have other opinions about keybindings #+name: keybinding #+begin_src emacs-lisp (package-install 'xah-fly-keys) (require 'xah-fly-keys) (xah-fly-keys-set-layout "qwerty") (setq xah-fly-use-control-key nil xah-fly-use-meta-key nil) (xah-fly-keys t) #+end_src i'm setting it up early in the config so that its keymaps are available to modify / integrate with other packages. * Completion :PROPERTIES: :header-args:emacs-lisp: :noweb-ref completion :noweb-sep "\n\n" :results silent :END: Completion is a huge part of my experience using Emacs. I have been on an evolving journey of from the basic type of terminal tab completion to spaceship level UI implemented as almost a sub-application in Emacs. This configuration is aiming at using a new crop of completion enhancements that tie into Emacs's native completion API. This is a more modular approach that allows a sort of composition of extensions to completion behavior and its appearance in the user interface. ** Two kinds of completion I want to point out that there are two distinct but similar features both grouped under the concept of "completion". The first is *Minibuffer* completion. Any time you use the minibuffer to enter commands or arguments, there is a completion system available to help you enter text there. The second is *Buffer* completion, offering candidates for text you are typing in any buffer. Code completion provided by a language server is one example. In vanilla Emacs, you get [[info:emacs#Symbol Completion][Symbol Completion]] for free, since Emacs itself is a running Lisp process with knowledge of all the defined symbols in the system. I've been confused by this in the past, because the features are so similar. However, completing text in an arbitrary buffer really depends on context, and it is much more complex than completing commands and arguments that are appropriate to a specific situation. ** Emacs completion styles Emacs has a quite sophisticated way of selecting candidates for completion. You can read about them here: [[info:emacs#Completion Styles][emacs#Completion Styles]] I've grown used to the =flex= style of completion where typing =pr/s/sho.o= at the find file prompt expands to =projects/shoshimacs/shoshin-config.org=. There are other alternatives and you can even write your own. The ~completion-styles~ is a list of all the styles you'd like to use. It starts at the front, and if no matches are found, moves to the next style of completion. In this config, I just added =flex= to the front of the default completion styles. #+begin_src emacs-lisp (setq completion-styles '(flex basic partial-completion emacs22) completion-cycle-threshold 3 tab-always-indent 'complete) #+end_src ~completion-cycle-threshold~ defines when you want to just cycle through alternatives on each (or whatever key you use) rather than presenting options. Setting it to 3 means if my options are "FOO, FOP, FOR" or less, hitting complete will change FOO->FOP, FOP->FOR, FOR->FOO. ~tab-always-indent~ changes the behavior of the TAB key: #+begin_quote If ‘complete’, TAB first tries to indent the current line, and if the line was already indented, then try to complete the thing at point. #+end_quote ** [[info:consult#Top][consult]] - Consulting [[info:elisp#Minibuffer Completion][completing-read]] consult offers enhanced completion similar to ivy and helm, but with the built in completing read functionality of the minibuffer. #+begin_src emacs-lisp (package-install 'consult) #+end_src main entry point would be ~consult-buffer~. however, there are many consult commands that can enhance any completing read function. *** "Virtual Buffers" it introduces this concept of "Virtual Buffers", but i'm not certain what it means. consult "supports ... narrowing to the virtual buffer types". perhaps a Virtual Buffer is a "grouping" of actual Emacs buffers or "things" that can be materialized in a buffer. For example, I can ~consult-buffer~ and press ~m SPC~ to narrow the "buffer list" to any bookmarks. *** consult keybindings #+begin_src emacs-lisp (global-set-key (kbd "C-x b") #'consult-buffer) (define-key xah-fly-leader-key-map (kbd "f") #'consult-buffer) (define-key xah-fly-command-map (kbd "n") #'consult-line) #+end_src *** note about ~consult-themes~ i had a bit of a mess with it at first, because i'd implemented my own solution to a quirk of theme loading. enabling themes is additive, and can cause unexpected results. so i added [[info:elisp#Advising Functions][advice]] to ~load-theme~ to automatically disable the old one before enabling the new. it seems like consult does this as well as switching themes /as you narrow your selection/. *** TODO consult-project-buffer how do project buffers get filtered? i'm seeing buffers assigned to a project that in my mind, shouldn't be. ** embark #+begin_src emacs-lisp (package-install 'embark) #+end_src ** marginalia #+begin_src emacs-lisp (package-install 'marginalia) (marginalia-mode) #+end_src ** vertico #+begin_src emacs-lisp (package-install 'vertico) (setq minibuffer-prompt-properties '(read-only t cursor-intangible t face minibuffer-prompt)) (add-hook 'minibuffer-setup-hook #'cursor-intangible-mode) (setq read-extended-command-predicate #'command-completion-default-include-p) (setq enable-recursive-minibuffers t) (vertico-mode) #+end_src *** vertico-directory i'd like to emulate the behavior in ~find-file~ that i'm used to from Ivy. basically, when i press DEL it should act normally until i hit a directory boundary, then it should jump up a dir with the following press. this is implemented with the ~vertico-directory~ extension. #+begin_src emacs-lisp (require 'vertico-directory) (define-key vertico-map (kbd "RET") #'vertico-directory-enter) (define-key vertico-map (kbd "DEL") #'vertico-directory-delete-char) (define-key vertico-map (kbd "M-DEL") #'vertico-directory-delete-word) (define-key vertico-map (kbd "M-j") #'vertico-quick-insert) #+end_src ** corfu #+begin_src emacs-lisp (package-install 'corfu) (setq corfu-auto t corfu-cycle t corfu-quit-no-match t) (global-corfu-mode t) #+end_src *** corfu-terminal enables in terminal interface #+begin_src emacs-lisp (package-install 'corfu-terminal) (unless (display-graphic-p) (corfu-terminal-mode +1)) #+end_src ** which-key #+begin_src emacs-lisp (package-install 'which-key) (which-key-mode) #+end_src * Editing :PROPERTIES: :header-args:emacs-lisp: :noweb-ref editing :noweb-sep "\n\n" :results silent :END: ** [[info:emacs#Matching][electric pair mode]] I've been using smartparens -> (bookmark-jump "smartparens package") in my main config. electric pair mode does some of what smartparens does out of the box. what i'm missing is the generalized ~sp-hybrid-slurp~ or whatever it was called. but using the built in is good for now. further config might get what i want with vanilla built ins. #+begin_src emacs-lisp (electric-pair-mode) #+end_src ** markdown mode #+begin_src emacs-lisp (package-install 'markdown-mode) #+end_src ** org mode *** exporting **** htmilze this seems to be required to fontify source blocks #+begin_src emacs-lisp (package-install 'htmlize) #+end_src ** recentf-mode this tracks recently operated on files (by default) and enables quick selection from them in various Emacs menus. [[*\[\[info:consult#Top\]\[consult\]\] - Consulting \[\[info:elisp#Minibuffer Completion\]\[completing-read\]\]][consult]] hooks into it as well. #+begin_src emacs-lisp (recentf-mode) #+end_src * Programming :PROPERTIES: :header-args:emacs-lisp: :noweb-ref programming :noweb-sep "\n\n" :results silent :END: ** Languages *** Javascript #+begin_src emacs-lisp (package-install 'json-mode) #+end_src *** Ruby ** Dev Docs #+begin_src emacs-lisp (package-install 'devdocs) #+end_src * Projects :PROPERTIES: :header-args:emacs-lisp: :noweb-ref projects :noweb-sep "\n\n" :results silent :END: ** project.el ** version control *** magit its the best! 🪄 #+begin_src emacs-lisp (package-install 'magit) #+end_src * External Services :PROPERTIES: :header-args:emacs-lisp: :noweb-ref external-services :noweb-sep "\n\n" :results silent :END: Packages that enable communication via HTTP or connect with external APIs or other resources outside of Emacs and/or the local machine. ** plz - http library this is an http library that intends to solve some of the "pain points" of url.el. i ran into some of them trying to download and install the Victor Mono font used by my configuration. the downside of ~plz~ is that it is dependent on ~curl~, rather than being pure elisp. however, this is a non-issue for me, especially since my use case had devolved into using ~make-process~ to call ~wget~ and then implement a "callback" with a process sentinel. kinda neat, but maybe too much. #+begin_src emacs-lisp (package-install 'plz) #+end_src the sourcehut package in this config also depends on ~plz~ ** sourcehut there's a new package in GNU ELPA for some basic interaction with the sr.ht http api. i'm interested to try it out since i still pay for the account, plus the forge is free software and could be self-hosted if it comes to it. it also depends on ~plz~ which is another new package providing a nicer API for HTTP requests I was going #+begin_src emacs-lisp (package-install 'srht) (setq srht-username "shoshin") #+end_src an API token is stored in my ~.authinfo~ file. * UI :PROPERTIES: :header-args:emacs-lisp: :noweb-ref user-interface :noweb-sep "\n\n" :results silent :END: ** basic Emacs UI tweaks #+begin_src emacs-lisp (when (display-graphic-p) (scroll-bar-mode -1) (fringe-mode '(8 . 0))) (tab-bar-mode t) (display-battery-mode t) #+end_src ** [[file:elpa/darkroom-0.3/darkroom.el::;;; Commentary:][darkroom]] - distraction free writing the notes suggest using ~darkroom-tentative-mode~ which auto switches depending on the window layout currently in use. #+begin_src emacs-lisp (package-install 'darkroom) #+end_src ** Fonts For code, I've grown fond of Victor Mono. #+begin_src emacs-lisp (set-frame-font "Victor Mono") #+end_src *** COMMENT Attempt to install the font via Emacs, url.el and ~make-process~ in the end, this "works" but isn't very useful. the font cache needs to be updated before Emacs runs for the font to register anyway. This will instead be implemented as a shell script that can be run as a pre-req before initializing emacs. however, i did learn a bit about [[info:elisp#Sentinels][Sentinels]] they are kinda neat. #+begin_src emacs-lisp ;; this actually doesn't work right, because the process unzipping starts ;; before the file is completely written i think. (url-retrieve "https://rubjo.github.io/victor-mono/VictorMonoAll.zip" #'victor-mono-download-callback) (make-process :name "getting victor mono" :buffer "*Download Victor Mono*" :command '("wget" "--output-document=/home/shoshin/.fonts/VictorMonoAll.zip" "https://rubjo.github.io/victor-mono/VictorMonoAll.zip") :sentinel #'victor-mono-download-callback) (defun victor-mono-download-callback (process event) (if (string-equal "finished\n" event) (let ((default-directory "~/.fonts/VictorMono")) (unless (file-directory-p default-directory) (make-directory default-directory)) (make-process :name "unzipping victor mono" :buffer "*Unzip Victor Mono*" :command `("unzip" ,(expand-file-name "~/.fonts/VictorMonoAll.zip")) :sentinel #'victor-mono-sentinel)))) (defun victor-mono-sentinel (process event) (print event) (if (string-equal "finished\n" event) (progn (message "works!") (make-process :name "run fc-cache" :command '("fc-cache"))))) #+end_src ** Highlights *** [[help:global-hl-line-mode][global-hl-mode]] i enjoy having the current line highighted as a visual cue. #+begin_src emacs-lisp (global-hl-line-mode t) #+end_src can be toggled with l 2 *** COMMENT lin-global-mode Make `hl-line-mode' more suitable for selection UIs add other hooks to ~lin-mode-hooks~ #+begin_src emacs-lisp (setq my-lin-mode-hooks '()) #+end_src #+begin_src emacs-lisp (package-install 'lin) (require 'lin) (setq lin-face 'lin-blue) (mapc (lambda (e) (cl-pushnew e lin-mode-hooks)) my-lin-mode-hooks) (lin-global-mode) #+end_src ** Themes #+begin_src emacs-lisp (setq my-chosen-themes '(cyberpunk-theme dracula-theme)) (mapc #'package-install my-chosen-themes) #+end_src ** windresize #+begin_src emacs-lisp (package-install 'windresize) #+end_src