127 lines
4.7 KiB
Markdown
127 lines
4.7 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: lowkey emacs setup
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date: 2022-11-18
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tags:
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- emacs
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draft: false
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---
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About a month ago I was a little bored and thought I'd give emacs a go. There's something fun about trying out these mythical pieces of software that have been around forever; kind of like watching The Godfather for the first time. Like many extensible, super configurable programs, emacs seems kind of impenetrable at first glance. I tried doing the tutorial but kind of glazed over after a while with the endless stream of C-a C-b C-c. There's also the quite jarring default theme which wasn't vibing with the lovely screenshots I had seen on the internet. Anyway, after quite a bit of fiddling I've landed on a simple little setup that I've been quite enjoying. Here are a few little pointers to hopefully ease you in.
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### AESTHETIC NICETIES
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First things first, assuming you're on linux emacs is configured with a file at `~/.emacs.d/init.el`. As a terrible aesthete, the first thing I was worried about was changing the theme. This can be achieved with `M-x load-theme`; if you want the setting to persist though you can add this to you init.el:
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```lisp
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(load-theme 'misterioso t)
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```
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There are a few themes out of the box but if you're looking for some more I would recomment the doom-themes package. Speaking of packages, emacs has a built in package-manager that installs packages from the Emacs Lisp Package Archive (GNU ELPA); I unfortunately know very little about this as I've been using nix to manage my emacs packages.
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Anyway we've got a theme, how about a custom startup message for our initial buffer:
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```lisp
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(setq inhibit-startup-message t
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inhibit-startup-echo-area-message t
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initial-scratch-message
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";;oh how i adore to edit text with emacs!")
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```
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Maybe you dont want those big old cumbersome toolbars cluttering up your screen:
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```lisp
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(scroll-bar-mode -1)
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(tool-bar-mode -1)
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(menu-bar-mode -1)
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```
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Perhaps some line highlighting and numbering:
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```lisp
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;;line numbering
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(global-display-line-numbers-mode)
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(setq display-line-numbers-type 'relative)
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;;line higlight
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(global-hl-line-mode t)
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```
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Custom font?
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```lisp
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(setq default-frame-alist '((font . "agave Nerd Font 14")))
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```
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### CUSTOM KEYBINDINGS AND EVIL
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I don't know if it's just sunk cost fallacy or what but having gone to the trouble of learning to some extent how vim works, I kind of feel incomplete without vim keybindings now. Fortunately, emacs has evil mode which effectively emulates vim modal editing in emacs. To configure evil in our init.el we'll use use-package. This is a macro which - to my understanding - talks to your package manager allowing you to configure installed packages in a nice neat efficient manner. To enable it, add this to your init.el:
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```lisp
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(eval-when-compile
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(require 'use-package))
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```
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These are the keybindings that I currently have going; nothing too crazy just a few simple things:
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```lisp
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(use-package evil
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:config
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(evil-mode 1)
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(evil-select-search-module 'evil-search-module 'evil-search)
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;;manage panes
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(define-key evil-normal-state-map (kbd "M-s") 'evil-window-split)
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(define-key evil-normal-state-map (kbd "M-v") 'evil-window-vsplit)
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(define-key evil-normal-state-map (kbd "M-h") 'evil-window-left)
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(define-key evil-normal-state-map (kbd "M-j") 'evil-window-down)
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(define-key evil-normal-state-map (kbd "M-k") 'evil-window-up)
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(define-key evil-normal-state-map (kbd "M-l") 'evil-window-right)
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;;get files open quick
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(define-key evil-normal-state-map (kbd "M-f") 'find-file)
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(define-key evil-normal-state-map (kbd "M-b") 'dired-jump)
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;;terminal
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(define-key evil-normal-state-map (kbd "M-t") 'ansi-term)
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;;nav buffers
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(define-key evil-normal-state-map (kbd "M-,") (kbd "C-x <left>"))
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(define-key evil-normal-state-map (kbd "M-.") (kbd "C-x <right>"))
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)
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```
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### SOME FRIEDNLY IDE FEATURES YOU MAY LIKE
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I don't know about you but having used vscode here and there I've become accustomed to a lot of these little IDE crutches (completion, autopair and the like) and now when I don't have thme I feel a little sad. Emacs has it covered though as long as you're happy with installing some additional stuff. Auto-completion? Try company:
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```lisp
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;; enable company in all buffers
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(add-hook 'after-init-hook 'global-company-mode)
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(use-package company
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:commands company-tng-configure-default
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:custom
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;; delay to start completion
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(company-idle-delay 0)
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;; nb of chars before triggering completion
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(company-minimum-prefix-length 1)
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```
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You want the nice little autopair brackets?
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```lisp
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(use-package flex-autopair
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:config
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(flex-autopair-mode 1))
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```
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Clever commenting?
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```lisp
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(use-package smart-comment
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:bind ("M-c" . smart-comment))
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```
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Here's a little pic of the current setup :)
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