Emacs: More pro-tips
This is a follow-up to my first Emacs pro-tips.
Speed up initialization
If you don’t use Emacs daemon or if you develop Emacs, you might find yourself re-starting it a lot. In which case it may be useful to keep startup time to a minimum.
;;; Temporarily reduce garbage collection during startup. Inspect `gcs-done'. (defun ambrevar/reset-gc-cons-threshold () (setq gc-cons-threshold (car (get 'gc-cons-threshold 'standard-value)))) (setq gc-cons-threshold (* 64 1024 1024)) (add-hook 'after-init-hook #'ambrevar/reset-gc-cons-threshold) ;;; Temporarily disable the file name handler. (setq default-file-name-handler-alist file-name-handler-alist) (setq file-name-handler-alist nil) (defun ambrevar/reset-file-name-handler-alist () (setq file-name-handler-alist (append default-file-name-handler-alist file-name-handler-alist)) (cl-delete-duplicates file-name-handler-alist :test 'equal)) (add-hook 'after-init-hook #'ambrevar/reset-file-name-handler-alist)
Avoid the pitfall of “loading old bytecode instead of newer source”
(setq load-prefer-newer t)
Site Lisp folder for local packages and development
We need to roll out our own function since we want the local site folder first
in the load-path, while normal-top-level-add-subdirs-to-load-path appends it
to the very end.
(defun ambrevar/package-refresh-load-path (path)
"Add every non-hidden sub-folder of PATH to `load-path'."
(when (file-directory-p path)
(dolist (dir (directory-files path t "^[^\\.]"))
(when (file-directory-p dir)
(setq load-path (add-to-list 'load-path dir))
(dolist (subdir (directory-files dir t "^[^\\.]"))
(when (file-directory-p subdir)
(setq load-path (add-to-list 'load-path subdir))))))))
(let ((site-lisp (expand-file-name "site-lisp/" "~/.local/share/emacs/")))
(add-to-list 'load-path site-lisp)
(ambrevar/package-refresh-load-path site-lisp))
Flyspell and whitespace-mode
(defun ambrevar/flyspell-and-whitespace-mode ()
"Toggle `flyspell-mode' and `whitespace-mode'."
(interactive)
(if (derived-mode-p 'prog-mode)
(flyspell-prog-mode)
(flyspell-mode)
(when flyspell-mode
(flyspell-buffer)))
(whitespace-mode 'toggle))
(global-set-key (kbd "<f9>") #'ambrevar/flyspell-and-whitespace-mode)
Download video URL at point
The following requires the youtube-dl program.
(defun ambrevar/youtube-dl-at-point (&optional url)
"Run 'youtube-dl' over the URL at point.
If URL is non-nil, use that instead."
(interactive)
(setq url (or url (thing-at-point-url-at-point)))
(let ((eshell-buffer-name "*youtube-dl*"))
(eshell)
(when (eshell-interactive-process)
(eshell t))
(eshell-interrupt-process)
(insert "cd ~/temp && youtube-dl " url)
(eshell-send-input)))
See also youtube-dl-emacs.
List current minor modes
(defun ambrevar/current-minor-modes () "Return the list of minor modes enabled in the current buffer." (interactive) (delq nil (mapcar (lambda (mode) (if (and (boundp mode) (symbol-value mode)) mode)) minor-mode-list)))
Window management
Since I use EXWM as a window manager, I can dedicate the super key to window
management.
Some simple, yet efficient rules:
s-TAB: Switch to last buffer.s-<arrows>(ors-<hjkl>with Evil): select window in the chosen direction.S-s-<arrows>(orS-s-<hjkl>with Evil): swap current window with window in the chosen direction.s-\: Toggle between horizontal and vertical splitting.s-o: Toggle-hide all other windows.
With Helm, I use C-c o (or my custom binding S-RET) to find a file or a
buffer in a new split window.
I need some extra functions to implement the above workflow:
(defun ambrevar/swap-windows (&optional w1 w2)
"If 2 windows are up, swap them.
Else if W1 is a window, swap it with current window.
If W2 is a window too, swap both."
(interactive)
(unless (or (= 2 (count-windows))
(windowp w1)
(windowp w2))
(error "Ambiguous window selection"))
(let* ((w1 (or w1 (car (window-list))))
(w2 (or w2
(if (eq w1 (car (window-list)))
(nth 1 (window-list))
(car (window-list)))))
(b1 (window-buffer w1))
(b2 (window-buffer w2))
(s1 (window-start w1))
(s2 (window-start w2)))
(with-temp-buffer
;; Some buffers like EXWM buffers can only be in one live buffer at once.
;; Switch to a dummy buffer in w2 so that we don't display any buffer twice.
(set-window-buffer w2 (current-buffer))
(set-window-buffer w1 b2)
(set-window-buffer w2 b1))
(set-window-start w1 s2)
(set-window-start w2 s1))
(select-window w1))
(global-set-key (kbd "C-x \\") 'swap-windows)
(defun ambrevar/swap-windows-left ()
"Swap current window with the window to the left."
(interactive)
(ambrevar/swap-windows (window-in-direction 'left)))
(defun ambrevar/swap-windows-below ()
"Swap current window with the window below."
(interactive)
(ambrevar/swap-windows (window-in-direction 'below)))
(defun ambrevar/swap-windows-above ()
"Swap current window with the window above."
(interactive)
(ambrevar/swap-windows (window-in-direction 'above)))
(defun ambrevar/swap-windows-right ()
"Swap current window with the window to the right."
(interactive)
(ambrevar/swap-windows (window-in-direction 'right)))
(defun ambrevar/switch-to-last-buffer ()
"Switch to last open buffer in current window."
(interactive)
(switch-to-buffer (other-buffer (current-buffer) 1)))
(defun ambrevar/toggle-single-window ()
"Un-maximize current window.
If multiple windows are active, save window configuration and
delete other windows. If only one window is active and a window
configuration was previously save, restore that configuration."
(interactive)
(if (= (count-windows) 1)
(when single-window--last-configuration
(set-window-configuration single-window--last-configuration))
(setq single-window--last-configuration (current-window-configuration))
(delete-other-windows)))
(defun ambrevar/toggle-window-split ()
"Switch between vertical and horizontal split.
It only works for frames with exactly two windows."
(interactive)
(if (= (count-windows) 2)
(let* ((this-win-buffer (window-buffer))
(next-win-buffer (window-buffer (next-window)))
(this-win-edges (window-edges (selected-window)))
(next-win-edges (window-edges (next-window)))
(this-win-2nd (not (and (<= (car this-win-edges)
(car next-win-edges))
(<= (cadr this-win-edges)
(cadr next-win-edges)))))
(splitter
(if (= (car this-win-edges)
(car (window-edges (next-window))))
'split-window-horizontally
'split-window-vertically)))
(delete-other-windows)
(let ((first-win (selected-window)))
(funcall splitter)
(if this-win-2nd (other-window 1))
(set-window-buffer (selected-window) this-win-buffer)
(set-window-buffer (next-window) next-win-buffer)
(select-window first-win)
(if this-win-2nd (other-window 1))))))
Use FreeDesktop.org’s trash
Whenever Emacs “delete” a file (from dired, Helm Find-Files or Elisp
primitives), tell Emacs to move it to the trash instead:
(setq delete-by-moving-to-trash t)
Lisp parentheses editing
A recurring complaint with Lisp is the need for balancing parentheses.
That is to say, on a blackboard… Since such a task should pose no difficulty to a computer and Emacs can obviously help here!
First, let’s enable parenthesis highlighting. I like to remove the delay so that Emacs highlights the matching parenthesis instantly:
;;; Show matching parenthesis (show-paren-mode 1) ;;; By default, there’s a small delay before showing a matching parenthesis. Set ;;; it to 0 to deactivate. (setq show-paren-delay 0) (setq show-paren-when-point-inside-paren t) (with-eval-after-load 'paren (set-face-background 'show-paren-match "#555555") (set-face-foreground 'show-paren-match "#def") (set-face-attribute 'show-paren-match nil :weight 'extra-bold))
Next, we can install the rainbow-delimiters third-party package which colors
parentheses according to their depth. This is no more than the moral equivalent
of indenting in C or other members of the Algol family.
Goodbye Paredit, hello Lispy
Consider using Lispy which brings Lisp syntactic editing to a whole new level: beside parenthesis balancing (which makes the previous section superfluous altogether), it offers advanced expression navigation, code transforms, style prettification and more.
Have a looks at the demos for some concrete examples.
If you think about it, Lispy is the obvious evolution of editor support for Lisp editing: it truly exploits the fact that the language syntax is an abstract syntax tree. It would be a shame not to make use of this property.
Image manipulation and thumbnail gallery
A maybe not-so-well-known command is image-dired: when run in a directory of
pictures, it displays a gallery of thumbnails with previews. SPC displays the
next picture in another window while C-RET opens the picture in the
image-dired-external-viewer. It’s possible to rotate files, tag them in dired
or add comments.
The image+ third-party package adds extra picture capabilities to Emacs, like
stiky transforms and file modifications.
Don’t use terminal-Emacs
Making music in Emacs
Emacs chart library
Odd nconc behaviour
One of the few oddities in the Elisp language: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/25157349/odd-behaviour-with-nconc-in-emacs-lisp
References
- http://emacs.sexy/
- https://writequit.org/org/
- Emacs as a Complete Computing Environment
- The Emacs Lisp Style Guide
- Why You Should Buy Into the Emacs Platform
Environment bootstraps:
- http://emacs-bootstrap.com/ (generic)
- https://portacle.github.io/ (Common Lisp)
