I have helped several people set up a basic Emacs configuration. In the process, I have learnt about some of the problems they have with the out-of-th

Emacs: a basic and capable configuration

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2024-11-28 17:00:06

I have helped several people set up a basic Emacs configuration. In the process, I have learnt about some of the problems they have with the out-of-the-box experience.

What follows is a rather simple, yet fully capable, setup to get started with Emacs. At the end of the file is the code block with the complete configuration (The complete configuration). The other sections explain the rationale for each component.

Emacs provides lots of possibilities, starting with where to put the main configuration file. In the interest of not overwhelming the user, I am being opinionated with certain choices:

Emacs has a graphical interface for modifying the variables that are intended for user configuration. Instead of writing Emacs Lisp code, the user clicks on buttons and fills in forms. This interface is accessed in a variety of ways, such as from the menu bar or with the command M-x customize.

When the user makes a modification in this way and requests to save it, Emacs will append a code block to the user’s configuration file. Putting this code in a separate file makes it easier to reason about what is written by the user and what is generated by the running session. We thus add the following to the configuration file (The complete configuration):

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