{"id":7346,"date":"2018-07-17T12:23:58","date_gmt":"2018-07-17T16:23:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/irreal.org\/blog\/?p=7346"},"modified":"2018-07-17T12:23:58","modified_gmt":"2018-07-17T16:23:58","slug":"building-an-initial-emacs-configuration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/irreal.org\/blog\/?p=7346","title":{"rendered":"Building an Initial Emacs Configuration"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> One of the problems\u2014perhaps the major problem\u2014that a new Emacs user faces is building an initial configuration. One would think that a vanilla install would be a good starting point for a new user but we all know that that initial install is not going to deliver a very good experience. Mostly that&rsquo;s because even if you&rsquo;re interested in Emacs strictly as an editor, it&rsquo;s most usefully thought of as an editor construction kit. Even at the start, you need to do a bit of customization. <\/p>\n<p> Huy Tran has a post that can help the n00b out. His post, <a href=\"https:\/\/huytd.github.io\/emacs-from-scratch.html\">Emacs from scratch<\/a>, outlines a minimal configuration to get the new user going. It&rsquo;s oriented towards a <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/syl20bnr\/spacemacs\">Spacemacs<\/a>-like setup but even a relative new user should be able to include or exclude those parts as desired. <\/p>\n<p> The major parts of the configuration are: <\/p>\n<ul class=\"org-ul\">\n<li>Getting rid of the menu bar, tool bar, scroll bar, and tool tips.<\/li>\n<li>Setting up the package manager including making sure that the <code>use-package<\/code> macro is loaded.<\/li>\n<li>Enabling evil mode and other basic Vim comfort settings.<\/li>\n<li>Installing a theme.<\/li>\n<li>Installing Helm.<\/li>\n<li>Installing <code>which-key<\/code>.<\/li>\n<li>Setting custom key settings.<\/li>\n<li>Installing and configuring <code>projectile<\/code>.<\/li>\n<li>Installing <code>neotree<\/code> and icons.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p> He also configures a bit of macOS specific data that a new user probably shouldn&rsquo;t worry about. <\/p>\n<p> I disagree with the Helm installation, not because there&rsquo;s anything wrong with Helm (although I prefer Ivy) but because it&rsquo;s not something a n00b should be worrying about initially. I also don&rsquo;t care for <code>neotree<\/code> but perhaps it&rsquo;s helpful for n00bs and it probably doesn&rsquo;t hurt to install it. <\/p>\n<p> If you know someone who&rsquo;s new to Emacs and looking for an initial configuration to get started, this is a good resource. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the problems\u2014perhaps the major problem\u2014that a new Emacs user faces is building an initial configuration. One would think that a vanilla install would be a good starting point for a new user but we all know that that &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/irreal.org\/blog\/?p=7346\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[18],"class_list":["post-7346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-emacs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/irreal.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/irreal.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/irreal.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irreal.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irreal.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7346"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/irreal.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7346\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7347,"href":"https:\/\/irreal.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7346\/revisions\/7347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/irreal.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irreal.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irreal.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}