> Maintaining an emacs config has always been quite annoying
I dunno, I feel it stopped being like that for me long ago. Perhaps I'm just a "tinkerer" and maybe I never even minded improving my setup. But like I said, at some point, my workflow has become purely "goal-oriented" - whenever I see a problem, I either:
- Make a todo list item and forget about it until next time
- Or start writing some Elisp (if the problem is simple enough)
Let me share some practical examples of each.
One day I got annoyed that it was taking me more than a minute to search for my own comment on HN, around some interesting conversations. I made a todo list item. Then at some point I wrote a function, then later I published a package. I can't even tell you how effing nice it feels now - takes me seconds to find relevant stuff.
The other day I was reading a pdf, while taking notes. pdf-tools has this nice feature called pdf-view-themed-minor-mode - it adjusts the colors of the document to the colors of your theme, nicely blending the pdf into your editor. I use it all the time. I also use a package called circadian.el - using Emacs' built-in solar calendar, it adjusts the color theme based on the time of day. So, my color theme changes automatically, but it doesn't get automatically reflected in pdf documents I previously had opened. Not a biggie, I still can do it manually, yet it took me a few minutes to concoct an advising function that runs after (load-theme) and sets the colors in every pdf. Of course, why do something manually that the computer is supposed to figure out without your assistance?
Now, neither pdf-tools maintainers, nor the author of circadian.el know about my customizations. If any of them make some changes that break my beautiful zen fidgets, why would I even get mad about it? I'll try to fix it, and if it takes me longer than three minutes, I'll just remove it altogether and go back to toggling it manually - not a biggie, never was.
That has become my philosophy that probably extends beyond Emacs - my terminal, my browser, my WM, etc. The world is never meant to be perfect for everyone. But you can make it perfect just for you. I learned that it's better to apply ideas that enable you to build your perfect world, than someone else's perception of what _your_ ideal world should be. That's why for an individual programmer, choosing FOSS tools almost always yields better results in the long run. In a team setting that may be a bit difficult, but if you get inventive enough, you can always find workarounds. This is what Emacs taught me that no other tool ever did - the instinct to never settle for the status quo. Whenever something bothers me, I either discover workarounds on the spot or make it a todo item.