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Show HN: Emacs Configuration Generator

emacs.amodernist.com

61–70 of 103 posts

Re: Show HN: Emacs Configuration Generator

#61
Cool tool! Would be interesting to integrate it straight to Emacs itself. But I think it is cool to be able to copy and paste it to one's own init.el

https://github.com/SystemCrafters/rational-emacs is also a great starting point for new (and why not old) Emacs users who would like to start with at least somewhat preconfigured setup but thinks that doom emacs or spacemacs is a little too much.

Re: Show HN: Emacs Configuration Generator

#62
post #53

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 i…

Thanks for noticing the issues, I will fix the issues and add the other features.

> Did you not add use-package because it's not in the repositories you're using, or something else?

Mainly that, but also I am not too fond of use-package. If I add support, it would be with my own package (setup) as an alternative.

> Great choice adding Modus themes!

Well they are bundled in by default.

> * undo-tree. Not sure about this, I have heard people having issues with undo-tree due to the way it is implemented. Vundo seems to be an interesting alternative, but that is Emacs 28+ only.

> * Magit keybind seems redundant as the package itself adds them, and it's swapped. True, but it binds to the C-x prefix which I think is a mistake (especially because it is one automatically).

Re: Show HN: Emacs Configuration Generator

#63

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 l…

> 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. That is unintentional, I will review the packages I have missed.

> Use-package could actually help a lot in your backend generation code I think (ie because consistent data model). Theoretically yes, but that would require some restructuring in the backend. It is a goal though, at least as an option next to no configuration macro and Setup.

> evil-collection would be a good add as well as quite a few evil quality of life items. Will look into this, I don't use Evil so it is hard for me to judge.

Re: Show HN: Emacs Configuration Generator

#64

What are the opinions eglot vs. lsp-mode? Which one has a better backend-communication approach, is communicationg eg. async?

I cannot comment on the differences, all I can say that I chose Eglot because it is more in line with my understanding of an ideomatic Emacs package, and it is available via GNU ELPA.

Re: Show HN: Emacs Configuration Generator

#65
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What advantages to find yourself having by using Org compared to say outline-minor-mode?

Org provides a lot more features than an outline mode. Org-babel lets you mix code with prose, and execute (for many languages) the code in the code blocks. It works cleanly with the agenda/diary system. You can schedule items, marking both due and start dates and times. Tag items and query based on tags, it's a very handy thing.

I recognize the advantage of tags, but everything else seems superfluous for a personal configuration. For beginners it just one more thing that can go wrong. I have read dozens of supposedly literate configurations on the web, and most of them are just header, begin_src, code, end_src, repeat. There are rare exceptions, but these cannot be generated automatically.

Re: Show HN: Emacs Configuration Generator

#66

this is definitely a useful tool, thank you for putting the work into it! from the evil camp, it works be really useful if it also included an option to generate doom/spacemacs style mnemonic keybindings, as those are a central facet of why those like us start using them. i’d be interested in switching but for the enormous amount of effort it would take to add those! and if i were coming in as a newer user of emacs,…

I have no experience with Evil or that entire space. I would be interested to look into how the situation can be improved, but then again, I do believe that evil-mode is fundamentally just an emulation layer, and shouldn't be regarded as an equal to the regular keybindings.

Re: Show HN: Emacs Configuration Generator

#67
Exciting! One typo, I think:

> Org Mode can be used for anything from managing apartments, writing manuals, literate programs or executing code like a programming notebook.

Is that "apartments" or "appointments"? I suppose some people manage their apartments with org-mode, maybe via TODO lists and calc spreadsheets.

Re: Show HN: Emacs Configuration Generator

#68
post #35

Very neat tool. Ive been getting more and more into using emacs. I like the options you provide like disabling the tool bar, line numbers etc. these are quality of life changes that probably everybody goes through. The most difficult part for me was setting up a LSP with golang. I would say it was difficult because I was trying to rush through by copying random bits from everywhere to make it work. I did eventually g…

I strongly recommend storing your config in an org file and using Babel to load the init. I find it the only way to preserve my sanity as my config grows.

I actually switched back to a plain elisp config file instead of having an org file loaded by babel. After spending about a year with an org-mode powered config file I felt like the surrounding "prose" just distracted me. The very few lines of config that required some explanation were easily documented with one or two lines of comments in elisp.

After using it myself and viewing plenty of org-mode powered config files, I feel it's mostly good for people who publish their config files for others to read / learn. But for my own use it felt like just too much verbosity.

Re: Show HN: Emacs Configuration Generator

#69
post #67

Exciting! One typo, I think: > Org Mode can be used for anything from managing apartments, writing manuals, literate programs or executing code like a programming notebook. Is that "apartments" or "appointments"? I suppose some people manage their apartments with org-mode, maybe via TODO lists and calc spreadsheets.

Sadly, you are right. Fixed it here: https://git.sr.ht/~pkal/ecg/commit/c3522dfe01e0479d01869bf4e...

Re: Show HN: Emacs Configuration Generator

#70
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Org provides a lot more features than an outline mode. Org-babel lets you mix code with prose, and execute (for many languages) the code in the code blocks. It works cleanly with the agenda/diary system. You can schedule items, marking both due and start dates and times. Tag items and query based on tags, it's a very handy thing.

I recognize the advantage of tags, but everything else seems superfluous for a personal configuration. For beginners it just one more thing that can go wrong. I have read dozens of supposedly literate configurations on the web, and most of them are just header, begin_src, code, end_src, repeat. There are rare exceptions, but these cannot be generated automatically.

> but everything else seems superfluous for a personal configuration.

I've not used outline minor mode, but reading up on it, it seems it's merely for presentation vs editing. As an example, can I move a heading and its subtree to another part of the document? Doing so makes managing configs much easier.

> I have read dozens of supposedly literate configurations on the web, and most of them are just header, begin_src, code, end_src, repeat.

Most code I've read is crap. That doesn't mean one can't write code well. My own literate configuration is probably 80+% as you describe, but it's the remaining 10-20% where I do write some prose, with links, etc that make it worthwhile.

I agree that it is yet another level of complexity for beginners. My own personal experience, though, was it would be much harder to debug plain init.el files than the org ones.

In any case, I have no objection to using outline-minor-mode instead. I just think that many users are going to learn org mode sooner or later, and it's less cognitive load to just jump into org mode. I'm pretty sure most people who put their config in outline mode will eventually migrate it to org anyway :-) And I don't see any actual advantage to outline minor mode in general.

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