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Show HN: Emacs Configuration Generator

emacs.amodernist.com

71–80 of 103 posts

Re: Show HN: Emacs Configuration Generator

#71
post #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.

> I do believe that evil-mode is fundamentally just an emulation layer, and shouldn't be regarded as an equal to the regular keybindings.

With all due respect, that's rather condescending and an example of the kind of myopia that religious adherents of both emacs and vi get accused of. fundamentally both emacs' native keybindings and vi keybindings are methods of connecting keyboard events to elisp functions. That's the boring truth, and there's nothing inherently better about one versus the other. Pretending otherwise is just an attempt at gatekeeping.

Re: Show HN: Emacs Configuration Generator

#72
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Is org file/babel something limited to org mode? I havent come across these yet. ill look into it

Yes. The idea is you store your init as code blocks in an org file, and you can organize your config into common headings (e.g. all C++ related config goes into the C++ heading, which itself goes under the Programming heading). The other benefit is that you can write prose around the code blocks describing what you're trying to do here (you can do that with comments, but org markup is much richer).

I'm not saying you should do this now. My recommendation is you learn the basics of org mode, and then look up how to do this.

Re: Show HN: Emacs Configuration Generator

#73
post #5

This looks like it solves a very real pain point for anyone getting started with Emacs, and likely many people who have been using Emacs for a long time sub-optimally. Could save hours or days of learning about how to configure Emacs. Reminds me of a Spring Initializr, as a way to quickly get started with a new tech tool.

For me, configuration a tool or system is actually a likeable experience. It's almost a hobby to keep tinkering with my various configs. Of course, that doesn't mean every tool should require massive amounts of time invested in configuring sensible defaults. Not everyone wants to do this.

I think people will eventually do this. But giving them a sane, simple starting point is probably a good idea. (Though I awhile ago threw all mine out and went with basic Doom setup, but everyone's journey will be different)

Re: Show HN: Emacs Configuration Generator

#74
Vim Emulation

    The child of the beast, Vim, another popular editor is 
    often mistakenly used instead of Emacs. Some have sadly 
    gotten used to the sinful ways, and prefer the modal 
    approach to Emacs default bindings. If you too are affected 
    by this curse, this package might help.

Re: Show HN: Emacs Configuration Generator

#75

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.

Nor should it be, in my opinion.

Emacs has a loyal user base, and changing to having cua-mode as the default would likely anger most, if not all of them. I highly doubt that the number of long-term users gained by the change would be even remotely significant.

Re: Show HN: Emacs Configuration Generator

#76
I’m a VSCode user interested in exploring eMacs as a Python IDE: does anyone have any recommendations for things I would need beyond a basic config? I am a frequent user of the debugger over remote connections so the more seamlessly I can use eMacs in a similar way the more likely I can use it instead of VSCode.

Re: Show HN: Emacs Configuration Generator

#77
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.

> I suppose some people manage their apartments with org-mode

I thought I heard someone say "that sounds like a challenge!", but that was probably just my imagination.

Re: Show HN: Emacs Configuration Generator

#79
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 fil…

It may depend on the size of your config. When exported to .el, mine is about 2200 lines long.

Re: Show HN: Emacs Configuration Generator

#80
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is org file/babel something limited to org mode? I havent come across these yet. ill look into it

Yes. The idea is you store your init as code blocks in an org file, and you can organize your config into common headings (e.g. all C++ related config goes into the C++ heading, which itself goes under the Programming heading). The other benefit is that you can write prose around the code blocks describing what you're trying to do here (you can do that with comments, but org markup is much richer). I'm not saying you…

I can see how handy that can be. Ive been trying to do the same in my init file but with a lot of comments instead.

Seems like majority of the time Ill be spending in emacs is configuring rather coding! :’)

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