A new beginning- Emacs

Why Emacs

An STM suggested to me that if I am looking for something over the long term (20 years or more) I should check out EMACS. This video showed how emacs could be used by writers, people who are not programmers, people who would like their writing to be not clumsy AF, people who would like to free their mind of the all the things that could be hindering thier progress.

You want to be at your creative best and not be bogged down by things like formatting and the like (for example writing in word and bleeding from your eyes as you struggle hard to format). Plus the things that org-mode can do are really fancy as mentioned in the same video linked above, they give us better control over what we are writing with simple key strokes.

In summary,

• you don’t have to move your hands to the right (dark) side of your keyboard.
  • emacs has keybindings (shortcuts) for basic movement, without moving to the right side of your keyboard
• we write in plain text and plain text only.¹
• org-mode allows to see just the headlines, minus the text with simple keybindings
• You can split the screen which ever way you want (all with hot keys) and screens can be mirrored with one side showing outline of the doc and the other showing everything else.
• Writers, programmers, academicians all praise this software and claim to have switched from other editors because EMACS is that good.

Yes, my friends, it is true. After more than fifteen years using Vim, teaching Vim, proselytizing about Vim, all the while scoffing in the general direction of Emacs, I’ve seen the light. The light of Lisp… Or something. - Aaron bieber

• I have started using emacs for the past few days. I have only scratched the tip of the iceberg I suspect. I should be able to do much much more with it.

There is a whole community out there. Some special metions with creation of decent documentation and some interesting modes would be

Ian Barton and Carsten Doiminik.

Getting started

Installation basics

Installing from the ubuntu software centre is possible, but for some reason it didn’t install the latest version. I followed the installation procedure here. I am replecating the information here for convinience.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kelleyk/emacs
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install emacs25

In case you already installed an older version of emacs use the following to remove the current running version:

$ sudo apt-get remove --auto-remove emacs

I ran into this error whence I had the old installation (from software centre). Many packages including Helm and Markdown-mode didn’t install. So, I installed the latest version of emacs as above.

Things to know

One of the ideas behind emacs is to allow you to write efficiently without having to do silly key strokes to move around, that would involve moving your entire arm to another location. Emacs, offers a different solution to moving through a document. Bear with the initial discomfort, and it will pay off.

We are not going to use the up, down, left, right, delete, home, end page up buttons when we are in emacs.

I would imagine it best to go through the emacs tutorial (the tutorial you can find as soon as you open emacs) first to get the basics of emacs, but if you don’t have 4-5 hrs maybe try this document.

Basic navigation

In this document as well as in every other documentation in the world on emacs C-x stands for Hold Ctrl and type x. Similarly keybindings (or shortcuts) with the Alt key/Meta key is denoted as M-x for example, where M stands for the Meta/Alt key.

Using M instead of C for the last 4 commands shows a different but similar usage of the command. Check it out!

Terminology

buffer: Every space where we type or help is displayed is called a buffer. A file opens into a buffer.

Frame: the whole graphical screen with all the different buffers if any is called the frame.

Mode line: This is the line you see at the bottom with the file name, percentage scrolled in the file, line number and other things.

Modes: In the Mode line you will see something like this, Fundamental. This denotes the mode in which you are writing. Think of modes as the way emacs understands how the file should be indented and colored, speaking in a lay way. Check out C-h m to get more information about your current mode.

Once you press C-h m you will see two things, a major mode and several minor modes. Major mode defines how certain indentations happen with emacs and the colour scheme etc… If I am using markdown I will use Markdown mode. If I wan’t to use ORG I will use ORG-mode. Minor modes are additions that can be added to any Major mode. For example, say I want to count the number of words in my doc. Then I am looking at the minor mode WC which can be added to any major mode.

Echo area: When ever we type any commands they will appear in the bottom empty space. It is also called the Mini buffer sometimes.

Commands related to Files

Help related commands

Buffer related features

Interesting options

The Meta/Alt-x is the Meta key followed by x.

Quick P.s I was blown away while writing this table in Markdown mode. The fact that someone actually thought about it in this way, and the naturalness of using a table with a tab and the whole self adjusting nature of the table… Kill me!

This is what I constantly see online, people madly in love with this invention. And people crying and preeching to others to use this madness that is Emacs.

Configuring Emacs to your needs

This is the part that is sort of hard to grasp within emacs. I make a quick attempt to list out the important things.

1 reason why we care about configuring:

Sometimes we might need to install some packages to our system to improve or have access to other functionality that is not preshipped with the installation. For me I wanted the markdown-mode that I saw online to write in markdown in emacs. FYI, markdown-mode has org-mode like features for using tables and visbility cycling (we will talk about this later).

Typing M-x markdown followed by tab didn’t list anything in the minibuffer. So we don’t have it installed and so what you need to do is M-x package-list-packages. This shows a list of packages that we can install. My problem was I didn’t find anything close to markdown-mode or the like. That is why kids, we need to do this configuration thingy.

Configuration/setting up the init file implies manipulating a text file. Emacs has this init file that can have Lisp code, to perform some tasks at start up.

For GnuEmacs, your init file is ~/.emacs, ~/.emacs.el, or ~/.emacs.d/init.el. You can choose to use any of these names. ‘~/’ stands for your home directory. -emacs init wiki

And so, I created a text file as ~/.emacs.d/init.el as I didn’t have the file already created. I guess thats how it’s supposed to work. BTW, I didn’t have a .emacs file already created either.

Based off of Aaron Biebers introduction to emacs , here is my init file (just copy it):

;; https://blog.aaronbieber.com/2015/05/24/from-vim-to-emacs-in-fourteen-days.html 

(require 'package)

(add-to-list 'package-archives '("org" . "http://orgmode.org/elpa/"))
(add-to-list 'package-archives '("marmalade" . "http://marmalade-repo.org/packages/"))
(add-to-list 'package-archives '("melpa" . "http://melpa.org/packages/"))
(add-to-list 'package-archives '("melpa-stable" . "http://stable.melpa.org/packages/"))

(setq package-enable-at-startup nil)
(package-initialize)

I added the marmalade line as well (which is not there in Aaron Biebers init file), for some reason. Stongly recommend adding it. With this I was able to install all the packages I wanted easily using the method described below.

Load the init file without exiting by simply typing:

 M-x load-file "filename"

To install a package all you need to do is type

M-x package-list-packages

This opens a buffer with all packages. With C-s you can search for your package and then click it using a mouse and install it by clicking on the install button or just type M-x package-install <package name>.

Links like this also say I need to add other things in my init file, but I suspect the data is outdated in some parts, and I suggest that as you need you shall add to your init file. Keep track with comments what you are putting in your init file. Right now my computer works just fine this way with the installation as explained above. The version I have now is 26.0.50.2. I am a bloody noob. If you are reading this, then you are probably a bloddy noob as well. This document hopes to just get you started and I detail out some of the things I spent a lot of time on, and hope you don’t have to. :)

If you want to install markdown mode for example, use this (Markdown-mode-Manual).

P.S

Aarob Bieber’s page also shows other ways of installation. But it went over my head and I will get back to it later.

Setting global key bindings

If you want to set global key bindings, then you will find in Rules of thumb to overide global commands that C-c <letter> is available for usage for end users. And this website gives the right syntax.

Adding Word counter

According to github ,

git clone git://github.com/bnbeckwith/wc-mode.git

and then you add the follwing to the init file.

;; https://github.com/bnbeckwith/wc-mode
;; Add the path to the repo
(add-to-list 'load-path "~/emacs_stuff/wc-mode/")
(require 'wc-mode)
;; Suggested setting
(global-set-key "\C-cw" 'wc-mode)

Using python console from emacs in python mode

I have an anaconda installation of python. Setting up emacs to use Anaconda’s python or any python that you want can be done by adding this to the init file:

(setq python-shell-interpreter "/pathto/anaconda3/bin/python")

More info can be found here

P.S It appears that opening your python from the desktop and in the terminal environment inherit different PATH variables. This lead to the point that some files were not called and gave some errors. Beware, I have documented this over here (in stackoverflow)

Using indirect buffers

Indirect Buffers

My final init file

;; https://blog.aaronbieber.com/2015/05/24/from-vim-to-emacs-in-fourteen-days.html 

(require 'package)

(add-to-list 'package-archives '("org" . "http://orgmode.org/elpa/"))
(add-to-list 'package-archives '("marmalade" . "http://marmalade-repo.org/packages/"))
(add-to-list 'package-archives '("melpa" . "http://melpa.org/packages/"))
(add-to-list 'package-archives '("melpa-stable" . "http://stable.melpa.org/packages/"))

(setq package-enable-at-startup nil)
(package-initialize)

;; https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/efaq/Turning-on-auto_002dfill-by-default.html

(setq-default auto-fill-function 'do-auto-fill)

;; https://github.com/bnbeckwith/wc-mode

;; Add the path to the repo
(add-to-list 'load-path "~/emacs_stuff/wc-mode/")
(require 'wc-mode)
;; Suggested setting
(global-set-key "\C-cw" 'wc-mode)


;; https://github.com/syohex/emacs-mode-line-timer

;; Add the path to the repo
(add-to-list 'load-path "~/emacs_stuff/emacs-mode-line-timer")
(require 'mode-line-timer)
;; Suggested setting
(global-set-key "\C-ct" 'mode-line-timer-start)
(global-set-key "\C-cp" 'mode-line-timer-stop)
;; https://emacs.stackexchange.com/questions/3488/define-controlshift-keys-without-kbd

;; https://emacs.stackexchange.com/questions/27926/avoiding-overwriting-global-key-bindings
;; info on key bindings


;; https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/AutoFillMode
(add-hook 'text-mode-hook 'turn-on-auto-fill)
(add-hook 'text-mode-hook 'flyspell-mode)

;; for python
;; https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2515754/changing-python-interpreter-for-emacs?utm_medium=organic&utm_source=google_rich_qa&utm_campaign=google_rich_qa

(setq python-shell-interpreter "/home/eghx/anaconda3/bin/python")


;;https://emacs.stackexchange.com/questions/15097/how-do-i-run-a-function-on-start-up?utm_medium=organic&utm_source=google_rich_qa&utm_campaign=google_rich_qa

;; https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2736087/eval-after-load-vs-mode-hook?utm_medium=organic&utm_source=google_rich_qa&utm_campaign=google_rich_qa
;;doesn't work
;;(eval-after-load "markdown-mode"
;; '(markdown-toggle-url-hiding)) 

;; https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2736087/eval-after-load-vs-mode-hook?utm_medium=organic&utm_source=google_rich_qa&utm_campaign=google_rich_qa

(add-hook 'markdown-mode-hook 'markdown-toggle-url-hiding)
(custom-set-variables ;; custom-set-variables was added by Custom. ;; If you edit it by hand, you could mess it up, so be careful. ;; Your init file should contain only one such instance. ;; If there is more than one, they won't work right. '(package-selected-packages (quote (markdown-mode))))

(custom-set-faces ;; custom-set-faces was added by Custom. ;; If you edit it by hand, you could mess it up, so be careful. ;; Your init file should contain only one such instance. ;; If there is more than one, they won't work right. '(markdown-header-face-1 ((t (:inherit markdown-header-face :foreground "medium blue" :height 1.0)))) '(markdown-header-face-2 ((t (:inherit markdown-header-face :foreground "medium blue" :height 1.0)))) '(markdown-header-face-3 ((t (:inherit markdown-header-face :foreground "dark orange" :height 1.0)))) '(markdown-header-face-4 ((t (:inherit markdown-header-face :foreground "dark cyan" :height 1.0)))))

Org mode, the farthest I have come

Org mode is for keeping notes, maintaining TODO lists, planning projects, and authoring documents with a fast and effective plain-text system.- orgwiki

Check out this video for a nice introduction to orgmode and its capabilities. In short, the idea of org-mode along with emacs makes writing easy, allows us to focus straight on content and less on setting up and formatting and thinking about other things. How ever there is learning curve. It took me about 10 hrs before I got anywhere with emacs. I spent another 10hrs working with it, trying to make things work, ask for help and get replies etc…

If you have already come this far, then pat yourself on the back, you have a working emacs and a basic understanding that is going to probably propell you on a journey of emacs-epicness. Honestly the hype that people who use it gives me enough enthusiasm to echo their feelings. Also, it’s been a week since I started using emacs. I really love it and I think I am going to stay here for a long time, purely because it much much better than the text editors I have used all my life (these are primarily gedit and atom).

ORG-Mode and other modes (such as markdown mode) associated with it, really take plain text to a whole new level. Writing tables has never been this easy. Org-mode is not just for computer programmers, it is for writers, poets, bloggers, anyone who writes text. Check this video by Jay Dixit, who is a writer, psycologist. It gives an introduction to how a writer got into emacs who will probably never leave this space. My plan with emacs is to use it for all my personal work, right from logging workout data to writing my blog. I have successfully converted all my logging data files to plain text, over which I can operate later using unix commands on a linux terminal. For references to what I am talking about, check out [unix-for-poets][unic-for-poets] for manuplating text.

For blogging I was having some issues. I was not able to get certain things working.

Blogging

My setup with blogging is that I write posts in plain text markdown format and jekyll subsequently converts it to html and just pushing this to git allows me to have a static website online via github.

The problem now is that I would like to write in org mode and have the workflow as described here and here. I did as suggested with adding the text to the init file. The workflow suggested was to write in org-mode and then subsequently export html to the right location with one click and the site should work as it used to. I don’t know what went wrong, somehow it didn’t work the way it was supposed to.

I also tried writing in org mode and then exporting it to markdown into the folder I wanted (all with one click to export), but it was much more involved and complex. Having spent quite some time and having had some issues, I gave up on it.

With its foot quite deep into the philosopy of org-mode, comes another mode called Markdown mode.

Markdown mode

Markdown mode is the currently what I use. Installation is simple as explained in the above sections. This mode has the basics that I need, such as visibility cycling and highlights the headings, although not in different colours according to their level (as in org-mode).

Check this link, for more info.

How do I run a function on start-up?

Based on this answer on emacs.exchange:

(markdown-toggle-url-hiding)

This will and does not work, as it first needs markdown-mode to be alive. After quite some deliberation, we go with adding a hook instead of eval-after-load.

Emacs: invalid byte opcode: op=183, ptr=185

Markdown mode not working with tables, giving error.

M-x package-delete RET `package name`
M-x package-install RET `package name`

macro!

https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/KeyboardMacros

You want to add the text “– foobar was here” at the end of each of the lines in a file.

Place the TextCursor at the beginning of the first line. C-x (’ to start recording a keyboard macro. ‘C-e’ (or ‘M-x end-of-line’) to move the cursor to the end of the line. Type “-- foobar was here” ‘C-a’ (or ‘M-x beginning-of-line’) to move the cursor to the beginning of the line. ‘C-n’ (or ‘M-x next-line’) to move the cursor to the beginning of the next line. C-x )’ to stop recording the keyboard macro. ‘C-u 0 C-x e’ to execute the macro an infinite number of times until the end of the file is reached (See InfiniteArgument).

https://emacs.stackexchange.com/a/71/17941

Here are the steps that you can follow:

• Select the region you want to do the search-replace.
• Start recording macro.

M-x start-kbd-macro

• Do the required M-x query-replace-regexp (replace “abc” with “def”) and use ! to force search-replace in the whole region.
• Stop recording macro.

M-x kmacro-end-or-call-macro.

• Do M-x kmacro-name-last-macro and give the macro a descriptive name like replace-abc-with-def. You will then be able to call that macro again by doing M-x replace-abc-with-def.
• Now save this macro as a function to a file that you load during your emacs initialization; for example, init.el.
• M-x insert-kbd-macro
• Select your named macro to be inserted there.

The auto-created replace-abc-with-def function definition looks like this:

(fset 'replace-abc-with-def
   (lambda (&optional arg) "Keyboard macro." (interactive "p") (kmacro-exec-ring-item (quote ([59 39 return 97 98 99 return 100 101 102 return 33] 0 "%d")) arg)))

Now you can M-x replace-abc-with-def in all your emacs sessions.

Conclusion

Emacs as hyped by everyone who uses it, who have jumped to using it after 15 years is crazy. My current usage of emacs already shows me the power it has.

I conclude my current learning with emacs and how I started up. I love it and I am sure I would like to customize so many things. For now I have markdown mode and a word counter installed, with which I can set writing goals. Other things I wanted to do are as in the todo list below. For example icicles, apparently allows to search for commands in a neat way, w3 a web browser within emacs allows to just extract the links I need. But all these are quite involved and I don’t know how to install them yet. They don’t come as packages. They seem to have a particular method of installation, which I need to explore and try, something that has to do with the %PATH variable.

Otherwise, I find emacs really interesting, I wouldn’t go back to my old editors such as gedit and atom.

The overall journey until my current understanding would be estimated at ~20 hrs. Currently I would have spent about 30-40 hrs including writing and editing this post.

P.S google and stack will always be your friends. Feel free to ask questions on stack, once you have done your due research. The community is active and amazing. Please stick to their code of conduct while writing questions.

Peace.

TODO’s

• TODO figure out how to install other things as per emacswiki
• TODO Figure out how to use the web browser from emacs
• TODO figure out how to write similar to org mode and convert it to markdown or html.