2016-11-03 15:02:17 +00:00
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layout: post
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title: "How I started with Emacs"
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date: 2016-11-03 09:58:41
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tags: [emacs]
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published: true
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authon:
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name: Gergely Polonkai
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email: gergely@polonkai.eu
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---
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Sacha Chua has a nice
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[Emacs chat intro](http://sachachua.com/blog/2013/04/emacs-chat-intro/) article
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back from 2013. I write this post half because she asks there about my
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(OK, anyone’s) first Emacs moments, and half because I plan to do it
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for months now.
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I wanted to start using Emacs 6(ish) years ago, and I was like
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“<kbd>C-x</kbd> what”? (Note that back around 1998, I was among the
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people who exited `vi` by killing it from another terminal after a
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bunch of tries & fails like
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[these](http://osxdaily.com/2014/06/12/how-to-quit-vim/).)
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I tried to come back to Emacs a lot of times. And I mean a *lot*,
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about every two months. I suddenly learned what these cryptic key
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chord descriptions mean (`C` is for <kbd>Control</kbd> and `M` is for
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<kbd>Meta</kbd>, which is actually <kbd>Alt</kbd>), but somehow it
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didn’t *click*. I remained a ViM power user with a huge pile of
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3<sup>rd</sup> party plugins.
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Then [I found Nyan-macs]({% post_url 2014-09-17-nyanmacs %}),
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which converted me to Emacs, and it is final now. Many of my friends
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thought I’m just kidding this being the cause, but I’m not. I’m a huge
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fan of Nyan cat (did you know there is even a site
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called [nyan.cat](http://nyan.cat/)?) and since then I have it in my
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mode line:
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2019-10-25 12:37:37 +00:00
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2016-11-03 15:02:17 +00:00
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…in my `eshell` prompt:
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2019-10-25 12:37:37 +00:00
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2016-11-03 15:02:17 +00:00
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…and I also [zone out](https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/ZoneMode) with
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Nyan cat:
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2019-10-25 12:37:37 +00:00
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2016-11-03 15:02:17 +00:00
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Now on to more serious stuff. After browsing through all the packages
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provided by [ELPA](http://elpa.gnu.org/), I found tons of useful (and
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sometimes, less useful) packages,
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like
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[Helm](https://github.com/emacs-helm/helm/wiki),
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[company](http://company-mode.github.io/),
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[gtags](https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/GnuGlobal) (which introduced
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me to GNU Global, removing Exuberant ctags from my
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life),
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[magit](https://magit.vc/),
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[Projectile](http://batsov.com/projectile/),
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and [Org](http://orgmode.org/) (OK, it’s actually part of Emacs for a
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while, but still). I still use these few, but in a month or two, I
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started
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to [version control](https://github.com/gergelypolonkai/my-emacs-d) my
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`.emacs.d` directory, so I can easily transfer it between my home and
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work machine (and for a few weeks now, even to my phone: I’m using
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Termux on Android). Then, over these two years I wrote some packages
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like [GobGen](https://github.com/gergelypolonkai/gobgen.el), and a
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small addon for Calendar
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providing
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[Hungarian holidays](https://github.com/gergelypolonkai/hungarian-holidays),
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and I found a lot more (in no particular
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order):
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[git-gutter](https://github.com/syohex/emacs-git-gutter),
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[multiple-cursors](https://github.com/magnars/multiple-cursors.el),
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[origami](https://github.com/gregsexton/origami.el),
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[ace-window](https://github.com/abo-abo/ace-window),
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[avy](https://github.com/abo-abo/avy),
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[beacon](https://github.com/Malabarba/beacon), and a lot more.
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What is more important (to me) is that I started using
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the [use-package](https://github.com/jwiegley/use-package) package,
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which can automatically download packages that are not installed on my
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current local system. Together
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with
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[auto-package-update](https://github.com/rranelli/auto-package-update.el),
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it is *very* practical.
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In addition, I started to follow the blogs of a bunch of Emacs
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users/gurus. I’ve already
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mentioned [Sacha Chua](http://sachachua.com/). She’s a charming,
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cheerful person, writing a lot about Emacs and project management
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(among other things). Another one
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is [Bozhidar Batsov](http://batsov.com/), who, among other things, had
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an initiate to lay down the foundation of
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a
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[common Elisp coding style](https://github.com/bbatsov/emacs-lisp-style-guide). Another
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favourite of mine
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is [Endless Parentheses](http://endlessparentheses.com/), whence I got
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a lot of ideas.
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