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Show HN: Emacs Configuration Generator

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Re: Show HN: Emacs Configuration Generator

#51

Post by bachmeier »

cyberbanjo wrote: post #39
bachmeier wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Interesting, but you know what might even be better? If it could be done directly from emacs. First, Emacs should have sensible defaults like Ctrl-c for copying and Ctrl-v for pasting. Second, there should be a menu item to choose among particular setups. A new user shouldn't have to go through the less-than-fun process of installing a bunch of stuff to get a common sense setup.

cua-mode exists and it's been argued that it should be default.

I'm aware. But it's not the default.

Re: Show HN: Emacs Configuration Generator

#52

Post by daptaq »

bachmeier wrote: post #51
cyberbanjo wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

cua-mode exists and it's been argued that it should be default.

I'm aware. But it's not the default.

This seems very unlikely, since CUA mode doesn't work perfectly, and the chance of the C-c prefix being given up for a single command is next to zero.

Re: Show HN: Emacs Configuration Generator

#53

Post by lvass »

Neat tool. I tried generating a config similar to mine, and it was surprisingly close, although it looks quite different without use-package. Did you not add use-package because it's not in the repositories you're using, or something else? Great choice adding Modus themes! I feel like making something similar just for hydras. A few mostly minor things I think could improve:

* undo-tree.

* y-or-n-p. Typing yes or no is annoying.

* Smooth scroll.

* Emacs server or daemon support.

* Magit keybind seems redundant as the package itself adds them, and it's swapped.

* Some comments are misplaced. "Enable LSP support" is followed by (vertico-mode t) in my case.

* I think eglot enables flymake itself.

* I think evil isn't being enabled.

* Selecting auto-save and backup-dir.

Re: Show HN: Emacs Configuration Generator

#56

Post by WhatIsDukkha »

This looks interesting but would be much better if it just went with use-package across the board.

You also have not enabled many of the modes that you install which will be a not fun experience for the newbies you are targeting.

Use-package could actually help a lot in your backend generation code I think (ie because consistent data model).

evil-collection would be a good add as well as quite a few evil quality of life items.

Re: Show HN: Emacs Configuration Generator

#58

Post by larusso »

asciimov wrote: post #31
larusso wrote: post #14

I like it. I installed Doom Emacs a few weeks back but had to give it up. I personally don’t like to bring in a huge config set in the beginning. I like this idea and will try to give it a spin.

The worst thing about emacs is there is no good newbie init.el that has no more than 10 packages to fix the very common starter pain points. I don't recommend first time emacs users start with Doom. Everybody should get their feet wet with plain vanilla emacs, with evil mode turned on if they are coming from vim. Then after a while, they should try Doom. Just to get a sense of what it can do.

Yes and I would say that is the same for any bigger editor or configurable piece of software. I just tried doom cause the last time I tried emacs it didn’t klick either so I tried it from the other side. I will give it another go because I have issues with VSCode which I use for semi big projects at the moment.

Re: Show HN: Emacs Configuration Generator

#59

Post by daptaq »

cbsmith wrote: post #49
daptaq wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The intended audience are people who haven't yet got into Emacs, and are therefore not familiar with Elisp, the packages and the options. Of course if you have a basic understanding of Emacs and an overview of the package space (and perhaps the time + motivation), you don't need anything like this.

Isn't that Customize's intended audience as well?

I wouldn't say so, customize is a useful interface to get an overview of all the options a package or feature might provide, but without any order or structure beyond the group hierarchy.

Re: Show HN: Emacs Configuration Generator

#60

Post by wtetzner »

bachmeier wrote: post #38
dmortin wrote: post #4

Interesting, but you know what might even be better? If it could be done directly from emacs. E.g. if you start with a brand new emacs then you could paste a line into scratch, eval it, and then these question would come up, you give answers and then an emacs file is generated, written, evalled and you get your configured emacs instantly. But of course a web interface also has its advantages, it's prettier than bareb…

> Interesting, but you know what might even be better? If it could be done directly from emacs. First, Emacs should have sensible defaults like Ctrl-c for copying and Ctrl-v for pasting. Second, there should be a menu item to choose among particular setups. A new user shouldn't have to go through the less-than-fun process of installing a bunch of stuff to get a common sense setup.

> First, Emacs should have sensible defaults like Ctrl-c for copying and Ctrl-v for pasting.

Except that would break a ton of existing commands, since ctrl-c is use as a prefix for a bunch of stuff already.

You'd be making it hard for someone who already knows Emacs to use it. It shouldn't be a problem on personal machines, since you can override the defaults. But if you ssh into a server and need to use emacs, it would be problematic.

Also, on macOS, cmd+c and cmd+v work be default.

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