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4.2 KiB
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77 lines
4.2 KiB
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How I started with Emacs
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########################
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:date: 2016-11-03T09:58:41Z
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:category: blog
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:tags: emacs
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:url: 2016/11/03/how-i-started-with-emacs/
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:save_as: 2016/11/03/how-i-started-with-emacs/index.html
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:status: published
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:author: Gergely Polonkai
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Sacha Chua has a nice `Emacs chat intro <http://sachachua.com/blog/2013/04/emacs-chat-intro/>`_
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article back from 2013. I write this post half because she asks there about my (OK, anyone’s)
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first Emacs moments, and half because I plan to do it for months now.
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I wanted to start using Emacs 6(ish) years ago, and I was like “:kbd:`C-x` what”? (Note that back
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around 1998, I was among the people who exited ``vi`` by killing it from another terminal after a
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bunch of tries & fails like `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*, about every two months. I
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suddenly learned what these cryptic key chord descriptions mean (``C`` is for :kbd:`Control` and
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``M`` is for :kbd:`Meta`, which is actually :kbd:`Alt`), but somehow it didn’t *click*. I
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remained a ViM power user with a huge pile of 3:sup:`rd` party plugins. Then `I found Nyan-macs
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<{filename}2014-09-17-nyanmacs.rst>`_), which converted me to Emacs, and it is final now. Many of
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my friends thought I’m just kidding this being the cause, but I’m not. I’m a huge fan of Nyan cat
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(did you know there is even a site called `nyan.cat <http://nyan.cat/>`_?) and since then I have
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it in my mode line:
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.. image:: {static}../images/nyan-modeline.png
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:alt: Nyan modeline
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…in my ``eshell`` prompt:
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.. image:: {static}../images/nyan-eshell.png
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:alt: eshell prompt with a Nyan cat
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…and I also `zone out <https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/ZoneMode>`_ with Nyan cat:
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.. image:: {static}../images/nyan-zone.png
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:alt: a text-based animation with Nyan cat
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Now on to more serious stuff. After browsing through all the packages provided by `ELPA
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<http://elpa.gnu.org/>`_, I found tons of useful (and sometimes, less useful) packages, like `Helm
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<https://github.com/emacs-helm/helm/wiki>`_, `company <http://company-mode.github.io/>`_, `gtags
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<https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/GnuGlobal>`_ (which introduced me to GNU Global, removing
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Exuberant ctags from my life), `magit <https://magit.vc/>`_, `Projectile
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<http://batsov.com/projectile/>`_, and `Org <http://orgmode.org/>`_ (OK, it’s actually part of
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Emacs for a while, but still). I still use these few, but in a month or two, I started to
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`version control <https://github.com/gergelypolonkai/my-emacs-d>`_ my ``.emacs.d`` directory, so I
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can easily transfer it between my home and work machine (and for a few weeks now, even to my
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phone: I’m using Termux on Android). Then, over these two years I wrote some packages like
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`GobGen <https://github.com/gergelypolonkai/gobgen.el>`_, and a small addon for Calendar providing
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`Hungarian holidays <https://github.com/gergelypolonkai/hungarian-holidays>`_, and I found a lot
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more (in no particular 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>`_
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…and a lot more.
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What is more important (to me) is that I started using the `use-package
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<https://github.com/jwiegley/use-package>`_ package, which can automatically download packages
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that are not installed on my current local system. Together with `auto-package-update
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<https://github.com/rranelli/auto-package-update.el>`_, it is *very* practical.
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In addition, I started to follow the blogs of a bunch of Emacs users/gurus. I’ve already
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mentioned `Sacha Chua <http://sachachua.com/>`_. She’s a charming, cheerful person, writing a lot
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about Emacs and project management (among other things). Another one is `Bozhidar Batsov
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<http://batsov.com/>`_, who, among other things, had an initiate to lay down the foundation of 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 is `Endless Parentheses <http://endlessparentheses.com/>`_, whence I got a lot
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of ideas.
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