emacs.d

My unreasonable Emacs config

Not so long ago I forked Steve Purcell's emacs config. You can find the original config here: https://github.com/purcell/emacs.d

My emacs config is still structured like Steve Purcell's. All of my code for my init.el is in my lisp/ folder. This config uses evil-mode with friendly dvorak keybindings. If you like the qwerty keyboard layout and the default non-modal behavior of emacs, then you probably should not use this config. One last important note: I am an amateur programmer lacking Mr. Purcell's elisp experience. His emacs config has been known to work on windows and mac. I do not try to support those OSes, and my config is no where near as stable as his. Your computer won't crash if you use my config, but emacs might crash occasionally.

Emacs itself comes with support for many programming languages. This config targets web programmers using php, javascript, html, and css. It offers no other major benefits to any other programming languages. Though I am customizing org mode more as time goes on.

Here are some cool modes that my config offers:

• Javascript (via js2-mode, which highlights syntax errors as you type)!
• PHP (web-mode.el). In my experience, there's nothing better.
• evil-mode (vim like keybindings).
• Some personal customizations that make dvorak and evil play nicely.
• helm (because ido is not nearly as cool).
• projectile (which I'm still trying to learn how to use it, and it is currently broken).
• dumb-jump, which is a lot less cooler version of ggtags, but I could never get ggtags to work properly.
• EMMS. Play and stream music via emacs, which is pretty awesome. Though currently the sound quality, at least for me, is lacking.
• emmet mode, which lets you write html blazingly fast.
• auto-complete, which gives you suggestions to complete your current unfinished word.
• yasnippet, which lets you expand abbreviations into predefined snippets.
• gnus, which is emacs' own email reader, which I occasionally use.
• powerline, which is an pretty looking mode line tool.
• Flycheck is used to immediately highlight syntax errors in Javascript.

Requirements

• A crap ton of patience and debugging. You cannot currently use my config as your default .emacs.d. This .emacs.d is very specific for my needs. If you want to try to clone it, you'll have to wade your way through all of the issues that pop up. My config assumes a lot of specific files are in certain places, when emacs can't find those files, Emacs will freak out. So only a seasoned Emacs lisp programmer can probably use my config.
• I use the latest stable version of Emacs, and you should too. I've removed most of Purcell's hacks to support older versions of emacs.
• To make the most of the programming language-specific support in this config, further programs will likely be required, particularly those that flycheck uses to provide on-the-fly syntax checking. I also use yuicompressor and a google specific javascript minimizer.
• To use the silver searcher, one will have to install the silver searcher, aka ag.
• To use many of the packages that I use, will require manual configuration. For example to stream music, you will have to edit provide your own configuration. To use gnus, you'll have to create the init-gnus-secret.org config file. This is the case for a few other packages.

Installation

To install, clone this repo to ~/.emacs.d, i.e. ensure that the init.el contained in this repo ends up at ~/.emacs.d/init.el:

git clone https://github.com/jbranso/.emacs.d.git

But when running emacs fails for you, go ahead and try using purcell's .emacs.d:

git clone https://github.com/purcell/emacs.d.git ~/.emacs.d

Upon starting up Emacs for the first time, further third-party packages will be automatically downloaded and installed. At least that is what is supposed to happen. Currently this functionality is broken. You can clone my config just fine, but when you try to start emacs, emacs'll will call say things like where is package X,Y, and Z? I'm working on fixing these issues. Like right now. Sept. 19, 2015.

To get these things fixed, these need to be addressed.

• projectile doesn't work. It keeps on trying to empty its cache and never can.
• My init-org.el required invoice.org, which is a small useful package for creating invoices, but it is not on melpa.

Important note about helm

I use helm-mode instead of ido, and you should too. Helm mode is an incremental completion framework that is superior to ido-mode. Helm-swoop alone is super amazing (although swiper.el, is nice too). This config uses "C-c h" as the default helm keybinding, "C-c C-h" call the traditional help package. Yeah, helm is better than emacs 'help. Check out what you can do with helm here: https://tuhdo.github.io/helm-intro.html

Important note about projectile

I also use projectile, which is a way to quickly navigate your way through lots of source code files. Type "C-c p" to see a list of options. I really like "C-c p h", which uses helm to navigate projectile's sources! Currently projectile is broken.

Updates

Update the config with git pull. You'll probably also want/need to update the third-party packages regularly too:

M-x package-list-packages, then U followed by x.

Default C-c bindings

All of these key bindings can be found in lisp/init-editing-utilities.el

Keybinding	Description
Mod a	highlight the whole buffer
Mod d	downcase word at point
Mod g	magit status
Mod s	save all open buffers
C-c TAB	indent the entire buffer according to the major mode
C-c \	delete the spaces between two words
C-c SPC	delete the excess space between two words
C-c a	org-agenda
C-c b	eval the whole buffer. ie: if it's lisp code, evaluate the code (eval-buffer)
C-c B	use helm to browse the kill ring
C-c c	org-capture
C-c d	open dired in the current directory (dired-jump)
C-c D	(dumb-jump-go), which finds the definition of thing at point.
C-c e	use helm to select an emacs command (helm-M-x)
C-c E	open eshell (eshell)
C-c f	do a regexp search forward (isearch-forward-regexp)
C-c F	do a regular search backward (isearch-forward)
C-c g	open gnus (gnus)
C-c h	this is helm's command prefix and does nada
C-c i	prompts for an info manual name then opens it
C-c l	evaluate the last elisp express ie (dired-jump)
C-c L	org store link
C-c m	opens up helm-mini, which is a nice way to open up recently visited files (helm-mini)
C-c M p	emms play previous song (that's right. I'm using emacs to stream and play music)
C-c M n	emms play next song
C-c M P	emms pause
C-c p	print the working directory in the minibuffer
C-c R	find name dired. This is the emacs find and replace for multiple buffers command.
C-c q	fill the current paragraph
C-c s	use the silver searcher to rapidly search for a string. You have to install the silver search to do this.
C-c t	transpose chars
C-c T	transpose words
C-c x	align via regexp
j	join the lower line to the end of this line, when in evil normal mode
J	join the current line the end of the previous line, when in evil normal mode
m KEY	mark the current spot in the buffer with KEY, when in evil normal mode
' KEY	go to the marked KEY in the buffer, when in evil normal mode
;	comment-dwin. This is an emacs command that either adds a comment to the current line, or if the line is highlighted, then it comments out the line, when in evil normal mode
q	save and quit the current buffer. This is the same as (save-buffer) (kill-buffer), when in evil normal mode
C-w [h | t | n | s]	move to the up, down, left, or right window. The syntax [ h | t | n | s ] means that you have to pick either h, t, n, s. So the only valid commands are C-w h, C-w t, C-w n, C-w s
C-c r	This begins to define an evil macro. In emacs state the binding for this in C-x (
C-h	insert a new line below point and switch to insert state
C-t	insert a new line above point and switch to insert state. The reader should not that this conflicts with the emacs binding of (transpose-chars), which I have rebound to (global-set-key (kbd "C-c t") 'transpose-chars)
spacebar	inserts a space, when in evil normal mode
>	move point to the beginning of the buffer, when in evil normal mode
<	move point to the end of the buffer, when in evil normal mode

Adding your own customization

To add your own customization, use M-x customize and/or create a file ~/.emacs.d/lisp/init-local.el which looks like this:

... your code here ...

(provide 'init-local)

If you need initialisation code which executes earlier in the startup process, you can also create an ~/.emacs.d/lisp/init-preload-local.el file.

If you plan to customize things more extensively, you should probably just fork the repo and hack away at the config to make it your own!

Similar configs

You might also want to check out emacs-starter-kit and prelude.

Support / issues

If you hit any problems, please first ensure that you are using the latest version of this code, and that you have updated your packages to the most recent available versions (see "Updates" above). If you still experience problems, go ahead and file an issue on the github project.

-Joshua Branson

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jbranso