My Emacs configurations written in Org mode
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Emacs configuration file

About

This is an Emacs configuration file written in Org mode. It is an attempt to keep my ~/.emacs.d tidy, but still be able to keep it all in one file. I aim to briefly explain all my configurations as I go along!

I would not recommend using this configuration as-is, because it probably contains a lot you don't really need. I do, however, hope people find some golden nuggets that they can smuggle into their own configs.

If you really do want to try this config out, this is how I'd go about it:

  • Clone the repo.

      git clone https://github.com/larstvei/dot-emacs
  • Backup your old ~/.emacs.d (if necessary).

      mv ~/.emacs.d ~/.emacs.d-bak
  • Backup your old ~/.emacs-file (if necessary).

      mv ~/.emacs ~/.emacs-bak
  • And finally

      mv dot-emacs ~/.emacs.d

On first run it should install a bunch of packages (this might take a while), and you might have to restart your Emacs the first time. If you experience bugs, please let me know!

Configurations

Meta

All changes to the configuration should be done in init.org, not in init.el. Any changes in the init.el will be overwritten by saving init.org. The init.el in this repo should not be tracked by git, and is replaced the first time Emacs is started (assuming it has been renamed to ~/.emacs.d).

Emacs can't load .org-files directly, but org-mode provides functions to extract the code blocks and write them to a file. There are multiple ways of handling this; like suggested by this StackOverflow post, one could just use org-babel-load-file, but I had problems with byte-compilation. Previously I tracked both the org.- and el.-files, but the git commits got a little messy. So here is a new approach.

When this configuration is loaded for the first time, the init.el is the file that is loaded. It looks like this:

  ;; This file replaces itself with the actual configuration at first run.

  ;; We can't tangle without org!
  (require 'org)
  ;; Open the configuration
  (find-file (concat user-emacs-directory "init.org"))
  ;; tangle it
  (org-babel-tangle)
  ;; load it
  (load-file (concat user-emacs-directory "init.el"))
  ;; finally byte-compile it
  (byte-compile-file (concat user-emacs-directory "init.el"))

It tangles the org-file, so that this file is overwritten with the actual configuration.

There is no reason to track the init.el that is generated; by running the following command git will not bother tracking it:

  git update-index --assume-unchanged init.el

If one wishes to make changes to the repo-version of init.el start tracking again with:

  git update-index --no-assume-unchanged init.el

The init.el should (after the first run) mirror the source blocks in the init.org. We can use C-c C-v t to run org-babel-tangle, which extracts the code blocks from the current file into a source-specific file (in this case a .el-file).

To avoid doing this each time a change is made we can add a function to the after-save-hook ensuring to always tangle and byte-compile the org-document after changes.

  (defun tangle-init ()
    "If the current buffer is 'init.org' the code-blocks are
  tangled, and the tangled file is compiled."
    (when (equal (buffer-file-name)
                 (expand-file-name (concat user-emacs-directory "init.org")))
      ;; Avoid running hooks when tangling.
      (let ((prog-mode-hook nil))
        (org-babel-tangle)
        (byte-compile-file (concat user-emacs-directory "init.el")))))

  (add-hook 'after-save-hook 'tangle-init)

I'd like to keep a few settings private, so we load a private.el if it exists after the init-file has loaded.

  (add-hook
   'after-init-hook
   (lambda ()
     (let ((private-file (concat user-emacs-directory "private.el")))
       (when (file-exists-p private-file)
         (load-file private-file)))))

Package

Managing extensions for Emacs is simplified using package which is built in to Emacs 24 and newer. To load downloaded packages we need to initialize package. cl is a library that contains many functions from Common Lisp, and comes in handy quite often, so we want to make sure it's loaded, along with package, which is obviously needed.

  (require 'cl)
  (require 'package)
  (package-initialize)

Packages can be fetched from different mirrors, melpa is the largest archive and is well maintained.

  (setq package-archives
        '(("gnu" . "http://elpa.gnu.org/packages/")
          ("org" . "http://orgmode.org/elpa/")
          ("MELPA" . "http://melpa.milkbox.net/packages/")))

The configuration assumes that the packages listed below are installed. To ensure we install missing packages if they are missing.

  (let* ((packages
          '(ac-geiser            ; Auto-complete backend for geiser
            ac-slime             ; An auto-complete source using slime completions
            ace-jump-mode        ; quick cursor location minor mode
            auto-compile         ; automatically compile Emacs Lisp libraries
            auto-complete        ; auto completion
            centered-window-mode ; Center the text when there's only one window
            elscreen             ; window session manager
            expand-region        ; Increase selected region by semantic units
            flx-ido              ; flx integration for ido
            idle-require         ; load elisp libraries while Emacs is idle
            ido-vertical-mode    ; Makes ido-mode display vertically
            geiser               ; GNU Emacs and Scheme talk to each other
            haskell-mode         ; A Haskell editing mode
            jedi                 ; Python auto-completion for Emacs
            js2-mode             ; Improved JavaScript editing mode
            magit                ; control Git from Emacs
            markdown-mode        ; Emacs Major mode for Markdown-formatted files
            matlab-mode          ; MATLAB integration with Emacs
            monokai-theme        ; A fruity color theme for Emacs
            move-text            ; Move current line or region with M-up or M-down
            multiple-cursors     ; Multiple cursors for Emacs.
            org                  ; Outline-based notes management and organizer
            paredit              ; minor mode for editing parentheses
            powerline            ; Rewrite of Powerline
            pretty-lambdada      ; the word `lambda' as the Greek letter.
            projectile           ; Manage and navigate projects in Emacs easily
            slime                ; Superior Lisp Interaction Mode for Emacs
            smex                 ; M-x interface with Ido-style fuzzy matching
            undo-tree            ; Treat undo history as a tree
            try))                ; Try out Emacs packages
         ;; Remove all packages already installed
         (packages (remove-if 'package-installed-p packages)))
    (when packages
      (package-refresh-contents)
      (mapcar 'package-install packages)
      ;; This package is only relevant for Mac OS X.
      (when (memq window-system '(mac ns))
        (pacakge-install-package 'exec-path-from-shell))))

Mac OS X

I run this configuration mostly on Mac OS X, so we need a couple of settings to make things work smoothly. In the package section exec-path-from-shell is included (only if you're running OS X), this is to include environment-variables from the shell. It makes useing Emacs along with external processes a lot simpler. I also prefer using the Command-key as the Meta-key.

  (when (memq window-system '(mac ns))
    (setq mac-option-modifier nil
          mac-command-modifier 'meta
          x-select-enable-clipboard t)
    (exec-path-from-shell-initialize))

Require

Some features are not loaded by default to minimize initialization time, so they have to be required (or loaded, if you will). require-calls tends to lead to the largest bottleneck's in a configuration. idle-require delays the require-calls to a time where Emacs is in idle. So this is great for stuff you eventually want to load, but is not a high priority.

  (require 'idle-require)             ; Need in order to use idle-require
  (require 'auto-complete-config)     ; a configuration for auto-complete-mode

  (dolist (feature
           '(auto-compile             ; auto-compile .el files
             jedi                     ; auto-completion for python
             matlab                   ; matlab-mode
             ob-matlab                ; org-babel matlab
             ox-latex                 ; the latex-exporter (from org)
             ox-md                    ; Markdown exporter (from org)
             pretty-lambdada          ; show 'lambda' as the greek letter.
             recentf                  ; recently opened files
             smex                     ; M-x interface Ido-style.
             tex-mode))               ; TeX, LaTeX, and SliTeX mode commands
    (idle-require feature))

  (setq idle-require-idle-delay 5)
  (idle-require-mode 1)

Sane defaults

These are what I consider to be saner defaults.

We can set variables to whatever value we'd like using setq.

  (setq default-input-method "TeX"    ; Use TeX when toggling input method.
        doc-view-continuous t         ; At page edge goto next/previous.
        echo-keystrokes 0.1           ; Show keystrokes asap.
        inhibit-startup-message t     ; No splash screen please.
        initial-scratch-message nil   ; Clean scratch buffer.
        ring-bell-function 'ignore    ; Quiet.
        ;; Save undo history between sessions, if you have an undo-dir
        undo-tree-auto-save-history
        (file-exists-p
         (concat user-emacs-directory "undo"))
        undo-tree-history-directory-alist
        ;; Put undo-history files in a directory, if it exists.
        (let ((undo-dir (concat user-emacs-directory "undo")))
          (and (file-exists-p undo-dir)
               (list (cons "." undo-dir)))))

  ;; Some mac-bindings interfere with Emacs bindings.
  (when (boundp 'mac-pass-command-to-system)
    (setq mac-pass-command-to-system nil))

Some variables are buffer-local, so changing them using setq will only change them in a single buffer. Using setq-default we change the buffer-local variable's default value.

  (setq-default fill-column 76                    ; Maximum line width.
                indent-tabs-mode nil              ; Use spaces instead of tabs.
                split-width-threshold 100         ; Split verticly by default.
                auto-fill-function 'do-auto-fill) ; Auto-fill-mode everywhere.

The load-path specifies where Emacs should look for .el-files (or Emacs lisp files). I have a directory called site-lisp where I keep all extensions that have been installed manually (these are mostly my own projects).

  (let ((default-directory (concat user-emacs-directory "site-lisp/")))
    (when (file-exists-p default-directory)
      (normal-top-level-add-to-load-path '("."))
      (normal-top-level-add-subdirs-to-load-path)))

Answering yes and no to each question from Emacs can be tedious, a single y or n will suffice.

  (fset 'yes-or-no-p 'y-or-n-p)

To avoid file system clutter we put all auto saved files in a single directory.

  (defvar emacs-autosave-directory
    (concat user-emacs-directory "autosaves/")
    "This variable dictates where to put auto saves. It is set to a
    directory called autosaves located wherever your .emacs.d/ is
    located.")

  ;; Sets all files to be backed up and auto saved in a single directory.
  (setq backup-directory-alist
        `((".*" . ,emacs-autosave-directory))
        auto-save-file-name-transforms
        `((".*" ,emacs-autosave-directory t)))

Set utf-8 as preferred coding system.

  (set-language-environment "UTF-8")

By default the narrow-to-region command is disabled and issues a warning, because it might confuse new users. I find it useful sometimes, and don't want to be warned.

  (put 'narrow-to-region 'disabled nil)

Call auto-complete default configuration, which enables auto-complete globally.

  (eval-after-load 'auto-complete-config `(ac-config-default))

Automaticly revert doc-view-buffers when the file changes on disk.

  (add-hook 'doc-view-mode-hook 'auto-revert-mode)

Modes

There are some modes that are enabled by default that I don't find particularly useful. We create a list of these modes, and disable all of these.

  (dolist (mode
           '(tool-bar-mode                ; No toolbars, more room for text.
             scroll-bar-mode              ; No scroll bars either.
             blink-cursor-mode))          ; The blinking cursor gets old.
    (funcall mode 0))

Let's apply the same technique for enabling modes that are disabled by default.

  (dolist (mode
           '(abbrev-mode                ; E.g. sopl -> System.out.println.
             column-number-mode         ; Show column number in mode line.
             delete-selection-mode      ; Replace selected text.
             dirtrack-mode              ; directory tracking in *shell*
             recentf-mode               ; Recently opened files.
             show-paren-mode            ; Highlight matching parentheses.
             projectile-global-mode     ; Manage and navigate projects.
             global-undo-tree-mode))    ; Undo as a tree.
    (funcall mode 1))

  (when (version< emacs-version "24.4")
    (eval-after-load 'auto-compile
      '((auto-compile-on-save-mode 1))))  ; compile .el files on save.

This makes .md-files open in markdown-mode.

  (add-to-list 'auto-mode-alist '("\\.md\\'" . markdown-mode))

Visual

Change the color-theme to leuven.

  (load-theme 'leuven t)

leuven is my preferred light theme, but monokai makes a very nice dark theme. I want to be able to cycle between these.

  (defun cycle-themes ()
    "Returns a function that lets you cycle your themes."
    (lexical-let ((themes '#1=(leuven monokai . #1#)))
      (lambda ()
        (interactive)
        ;; Rotates the thme cycle and changes the current theme.
        (load-theme (car (setq themes (cdr themes))) t))))

Use the Inconsolata font if it's installed on the system.

  (when (member "Inconsolata" (font-family-list))
    (set-face-attribute 'default nil :font "Inconsolata-14"))

Ido

Interactive do (or ido-mode) changes the way you switch buffers and open files/directories. Instead of writing complete file paths and buffer names you can write a part of it and select one from a list of possibilities. Using ido-vertical-mode changes the way possibilities are displayed, and flx-ido-mode enables fuzzy matching.

  (dolist (mode
           '(ido-mode                   ; Interactivly do.
             ido-everywhere             ; Use Ido for all buffer/file reading.
             ido-vertical-mode          ; Makes ido-mode display vertically.
             flx-ido-mode))             ; Toggle flx ido mode.
    (funcall mode 1))

We can set the order of file selections in ido. I prioritize source files along with org- and tex-files.

  (setq ido-file-extensions-order
        '(".el" ".scm" ".lisp" ".java" ".c" ".h" ".org" ".tex"))

Sometimes when using ido-switch-buffer the *Messages* buffer get in the way, so we set it to be ignored (it can be accessed using C-h e, so there is really no need for it in the buffer list).

  (add-to-list 'ido-ignore-buffers "*Messages*")

To make M-x behave more like ido-mode we can use the smex package. It needs to be initialized, and we can replace the binding to the standard execute-extended-command with smex.

  (smex-initialize)

Calendar

Define a function to display week numbers in calender-mode. The snippet is from EmacsWiki.

  (defun calendar-show-week (arg)
    "Displaying week number in calendar-mode."
    (interactive "P")
    (copy-face font-lock-constant-face 'calendar-iso-week-face)
    (set-face-attribute
     'calendar-iso-week-face nil :height 0.7)
    (setq calendar-intermonth-text
          (and arg
               '(propertize
                 (format
                  "%2d"
                  (car (calendar-iso-from-absolute
                        (calendar-absolute-from-gregorian
                         (list month day year)))))
                 'font-lock-face 'calendar-iso-week-face))))

Evaluate the calendar-show-week function.

  (calendar-show-week t)

Set Monday as the first day of the week, and set my location.

  (setq calendar-week-start-day 1
        calendar-latitude 60.0
        calendar-longitude 10.7
        calendar-location-name "Oslo, Norway")

mu4e and offlineimap

I might not be at a computer using my very specific mail-setup, but if my mail-folder exists, then it's probably safe to load.

  (defvar load-mail-setup (file-exists-p "~/.ifimail"))

I use mu4e (which is a part of mu) along with offlineimap on one of my computers.

mu4e

mu4e must be informed where it can find your mail and where the different folders of interest are located. Some additional mu4e-tweaks are supplied here as well.

message-insert-signature is an existing Emacs function, that adds your signature prefixed by a "-- " at the end of the email, which is a convention I don't really follow. I redefine it as a function that adds some newlines and my signature at the top of the email.

  (when load-mail-setup
    (eval-after-load 'mu4e
      '(progn
         ;; Some basic mu4e settings.
         (setq mu4e-maildir           "~/.ifimail"     ; top-level Maildir
               mu4e-sent-folder       "/Sent Items"    ; folder for sent messages
               mu4e-drafts-folder     "/INBOX.Drafts"  ; unfinished messages
               mu4e-trash-folder      "/INBOX.Trash"   ; trashed messages
               mu4e-get-mail-command  "offlineimap"    ; offlineimap to fetch mail
               mu4e-compose-signature "- Lars"         ; Sign my name
               mu4e-update-interval   (* 5 60)         ; update every 5 min
               mu4e-confirm-quit      nil              ; just quit
               mu4e-view-show-images  t                ; view images
               mu4e-html2text-command
               "html2text -utf8")                      ; use utf-8

         ;; Setup for sending mail.
         (setq user-full-name
               "Lars Tveito"                          ; Your full name
               user-mail-address
               "larstvei@ifi.uio.no"                  ; And email-address
               smtpmail-smtp-server
               "smtp.uio.no"                          ; Host to mail-server
               smtpmail-smtp-service 465              ; Port to mail-server
               smtpmail-stream-type 'ssl              ; Protocol used for sending
               send-mail-function 'smtpmail-send-it   ; Use smpt to send
               mail-user-agent 'mu4e-user-agent)      ; Use mu4e

         ;; Register file types that can be handled by ImageMagick.
         (when (fboundp 'imagemagick-register-types)
           (imagemagick-register-types))

         (add-hook 'mu4e-compose-mode-hook
                   (lambda ()
                     (auto-fill-mode 0)
                     (visual-line-mode 1)
                     (ispell-change-dictionary "norsk")))

         (add-hook 'mu4e-view-mode-hook (lambda () (visual-line-mode 1)))

         (defun message-insert-signature ()
           (goto-char (point-min))
           (search-forward-regexp "^$")
           (insert "\n\n\n" mu4e-compose-signature))))

    (autoload 'mu4e "mu4e" nil t))

Flyspell

Flyspell offers on-the-fly spell checking. We can enable flyspell for all text-modes with this snippet.

  (add-hook 'text-mode-hook 'turn-on-flyspell)

To use flyspell for programming there is flyspell-prog-mode, that only enables spell checking for comments and strings. We can enable it for all programming modes using the prog-mode-hook. Flyspell interferes with auto-complete mode, but there is a workaround provided by auto complete.

  (add-hook 'prog-mode-hook 'flyspell-prog-mode)
  (eval-after-load 'auto-complete
    '(ac-flyspell-workaround))

When working with several languages, we should be able to cycle through the languages we most frequently use. Every buffer should have a separate cycle of languages, so that cycling in one buffer does not change the state in a different buffer (this problem occurs if you only have one global cycle). We can implement this by using a closure.

  (defun cycle-languages ()
    "Changes the ispell dictionary to the first element in
  ISPELL-LANGUAGES, and returns an interactive function that cycles
  the languages in ISPELL-LANGUAGES when invoked."
    (lexical-let ((ispell-languages '#1=("american" "norsk" . #1#)))
      (ispell-change-dictionary (car ispell-languages))
      (lambda ()
        (interactive)
        ;; Rotates the languages cycle and changes the ispell dictionary.
        (ispell-change-dictionary
         (car (setq ispell-languages (cdr ispell-languages)))))))

Flyspell signals an error if there is no spell-checking tool is installed. We can advice turn-on-flyspell and flyspell-prog-mode to only try to enable flyspell if a spell-checking tool is available. Also we want to enable cycling the languages by typing C-c l, so we bind the function returned from cycle-languages.

  (defadvice turn-on-flyspell (before check nil activate)
    "Turns on flyspell only if a spell-checking tool is installed."
    (when (executable-find ispell-program-name)
      (local-set-key (kbd "C-c l") (cycle-languages))))
  (defadvice flyspell-prog-mode (before check nil activate)
    "Turns on flyspell only if a spell-checking tool is installed."
    (when (executable-find ispell-program-name)
      (local-set-key (kbd "C-c l") (cycle-languages))))

Org

I use org-agenda for appointments and such.

  (setq org-agenda-start-on-weekday nil              ; Show agenda from today.
        org-agenda-files '("~/Dropbox/cal.org")      ; A list of agenda files.
        org-agenda-default-appointment-duration 120) ; 2 hours appointments.

When editing org-files with source-blocks, we want the source blocks to be themed as they would in their native mode.

  (setq org-src-fontify-natively t
        org-confirm-babel-evaluate nil)

This is quite an ugly fix for allowing code markup for expressions like "this string", because the quotation marks causes problems.

  ;;(require 'org)
  (eval-after-load "org"
    '(progn
       (setcar (nthcdr 2 org-emphasis-regexp-components) " \t\n,")
       (custom-set-variables `(org-emphasis-alist ',org-emphasis-alist))))

Interactive functions

<<sec:defuns>>

To search recent files useing ido-mode we add this snippet from EmacsWiki.

  (defun recentf-ido-find-file ()
    "Find a recent file using Ido."
    (interactive)
    (let ((f (ido-completing-read "Choose recent file: " recentf-list nil t)))
      (when f
        (find-file f))))

just-one-space removes all whitespace around a point - giving it a negative argument it removes newlines as well. We wrap a interactive function around it to be able to bind it to a key. In Emacs 24.4 cycle-spacing was introduced, and it works like just one space, but when run in succession it cycles between one, zero and the original number of spaces.

  (defun cycle-spacing-delete-newlines ()
    "Removes whitespace before and after the point."
    (interactive)
    (if (version< emacs-version "24.4")
        (just-one-space -1)
      (cycle-spacing -1)))

Often I want to find other occurrences of a word I'm at, or more specifically the symbol (or tag) I'm at. The isearch-forward-symbol-at-point in Emacs 24.4 works well for this, but I don't want to be bothered with the isearch interface. Rather jump quickly between occurrences of a symbol, or if non is found, don't do anything.

  (defun jump-to-symbol-internal (&optional backwardp)
    "Jumps to the next symbol near the point if such a symbol
  exists. If BACKWARDP is non-nil it jumps backward."
    (let* ((point (point))
           (bounds (find-tag-default-bounds))
           (beg (car bounds)) (end (cdr bounds))
           (str (isearch-symbol-regexp (find-tag-default)))
           (search (if backwardp 'search-backward-regexp
                     'search-forward-regexp)))
      (goto-char (if backwardp beg end))
      (funcall search str nil t)
      (cond ((<= beg (point) end) (goto-char point))
            (backwardp (forward-char (- point beg)))
            (t  (backward-char (- end point))))))

  (defun jump-to-previous-like-this ()
    "Jumps to the previous occurrence of the symbol at point."
    (interactive)
    (jump-to-symbol-internal t))

  (defun jump-to-next-like-this ()
    "Jumps to the next occurrence of the symbol at point."
    (interactive)
    (jump-to-symbol-internal))

I sometimes regret killing the *scratch*-buffer, and have realized I never want to actually kill it. I just want to get it out of the way, and clean it up. The function below does just this for the *scratch*-buffer, and works like kill-this-buffer for any other buffer. It removes all buffer content and buries the buffer (this means making it the least likely candidate for other-buffer).

  (defun kill-this-buffer-unless-scratch ()
    "Works like `kill-this-buffer' unless the current buffer is the
  ,*scratch* buffer. In witch case the buffer content is deleted and
  the buffer is buried."
    (interactive)
    (if (not (string= (buffer-name) "*scratch*"))
        (kill-this-buffer)
      (delete-region (point-min) (point-max))
      (switch-to-buffer (other-buffer))
      (bury-buffer "*scratch*")))

To duplicate either selected text or a line we define this interactive function.

  (defun duplicate-thing (comment)
    "Duplicates the current line, or the region if active. If an argument is
  given, the duplicated region will be commented out."
    (interactive "P")
    (save-excursion
      (let ((start (if (region-active-p) (region-beginning) (point-at-bol)))
            (end   (if (region-active-p) (region-end) (point-at-eol))))
        (goto-char end)
        (unless (region-active-p)
          (newline))
        (insert (buffer-substring start end))
        (when comment (comment-region start end)))))

To tidy up a buffer we define this function borrowed from simenheg.

  (defun tidy ()
    "Ident, untabify and unwhitespacify current buffer, or region if active."
    (interactive)
    (let ((beg (if (region-active-p) (region-beginning) (point-min)))
          (end (if (region-active-p) (region-end) (point-max))))
      (indent-region beg end)
      (whitespace-cleanup)
      (untabify beg (if (< end (point-max)) end (point-max)))))

Advice

An advice can be given to a function to make it behave differently. This advice makes eval-last-sexp (bound to C-x C-e) replace the sexp with the value.

  (defadvice eval-last-sexp (around replace-sexp (arg) activate)
    "Replace sexp when called with a prefix argument."
    (if arg
        (let ((pos (point)))
          ad-do-it
          (goto-char pos)
          (backward-kill-sexp)
          (forward-sexp))
      ad-do-it))

When interactively changing the theme (using M-x load-theme), the current custom theme is not disabled. This often gives weird-looking results; we can advice load-theme to always disable themes currently enabled themes.

  (defadvice load-theme
    (before disable-before-load (theme &optional no-confirm no-enable) activate)
    (mapc 'disable-theme custom-enabled-themes))

Presentation-mode

When giving talks it's nice to be able to adjust the size of everything (not just a buffer like text-scale-mode provides). This is not a particularly neat solution, but it works OK. It simply increases/decreases the size of the font. It assumes that your using Inconsolata with size 14 by default. This should be probably be generalized (or maybe be substituted by a package if it's out there).

  (defun global-scale-default ()
    (interactive)
    (set-face-attribute 'default nil :font "Inconsolata-14"))

  (lexical-let ((size 14))
    (defun global-scale-up ()
      (interactive)
      (set-face-attribute
       'default nil
       :font (concat "Inconsolata-" (number-to-string (incf size)))))

    (defun global-scale-down ()
      (interactive)
      (set-face-attribute
       'default nil
       :font (concat "Inconsolata-" (number-to-string (decf size))))))

Mode specific

Shell

I use shell whenever i want to use access the command line in Emacs. I keep a symlink between my ~/.bash_profile (because I run OS X) and ~/.emacs_bash, to make the transition between my standard terminal and the shell as small as possible. To be able to quickly switch back and forth between a shell I make use of this little function.

  (defun toggle-shell ()
    "Jumps to eshell or back."
    (interactive)
    (if (string= (buffer-name) "*shell*")
        (switch-to-prev-buffer)
      (shell)))

I'd like the C-l to work more like the standard terminal (which works like running clear), and resolve this by simply removing the buffer-content. Mind that this is not how clear works, it simply adds a bunch of newlines, and puts the prompt at the top of the window, so it does not remove anything. In Emacs removing stuff is less of a worry, since we can always undo!

  (defun clear-comint ()
    "Runs `comint-truncate-buffer' with the
  `comint-buffer-maximum-size' set to zero."
    (interactive)
    (let ((comint-buffer-maximum-size 0))
     (comint-truncate-buffer)))

Lastly we should bind our functions. The toggle-shell should be a global binding (because we want to be able to switch to a shell from any buffer), but the clear-shell should only affect shell-mode.

  (add-hook 'comint-mode-hook (lambda () (local-set-key (kbd "C-l") 'clear-comint)))

Lisp

Pretty-lambda provides a customizable variable pretty-lambda-auto-modes that is a list of common lisp modes. Here we can add some extra lisp-modes. We run the pretty-lambda-for-modes function to activate pretty-lambda-mode in lisp modes.

  (dolist (mode '(slime-repl-mode geiser-repl-mode ielm-mode clojure-mode
                                  cider-repl-mode))
    (add-to-list 'pretty-lambda-auto-modes mode))

  (pretty-lambda-for-modes)

I use Paredit when editing lisp code, we enable this for all lisp-modes in the pretty-lambda-auto-modes list.

  (dolist (mode pretty-lambda-auto-modes)
    ;; add paredit-mode to all mode-hooks
    (add-hook (intern (concat (symbol-name mode) "-hook")) 'paredit-mode))

Emacs Lisp

In emacs-lisp-mode we can enable eldoc-mode to display information about a function or a variable in the echo area.

  (add-hook 'emacs-lisp-mode-hook 'turn-on-eldoc-mode)
  (add-hook 'lisp-interaction-mode-hook 'turn-on-eldoc-mode)

Common lisp

I use Slime along with lisp-mode to edit Common Lisp code. Slime provides code evaluation and other great features, a must have for a Common Lisp developer. Quicklisp is a library manager for Common Lisp, and you can install Slime following the instructions from the site along with this snippet.

  (defun activate-slime-helper ()
    (when (file-exists-p "~/.quicklisp/slime-helper.elc")
      (load (expand-file-name "~/.quicklisp/slime-helper.elc"))
      (define-key slime-repl-mode-map (kbd "C-l")
        'slime-repl-clear-buffer))
    (remove-hook 'lisp-mode-hook #'activate-slime-helper))

  (add-hook 'lisp-mode-hook #'activate-slime-helper)

We can specify what Common Lisp program Slime should use (I use SBCL).

  (setq inferior-lisp-program "sbcl")

To improve auto completion for Common Lisp editing we can use ac-slime which uses slime completions as a source.

  (add-hook 'slime-mode-hook 'set-up-slime-ac)
  (add-hook 'slime-repl-mode-hook 'set-up-slime-ac)

  (eval-after-load "auto-complete"
    '(add-to-list 'ac-modes 'slime-repl-mode))

More sensible loop indentation, borrowed from simenheg.

  (setq lisp-loop-forms-indentation   6
        lisp-simple-loop-indentation  2
        lisp-loop-keyword-indentation 6)

Scheme

Geiser provides features similar to Slime for Scheme editing. Everything works pretty much out of the box, we only need to add auto completion, and specify which scheme-interpreter we prefer.

  (add-hook 'geiser-mode-hook 'ac-geiser-setup)
  (add-hook 'geiser-repl-mode-hook 'ac-geiser-setup)
  (eval-after-load "auto-complete"
    '(add-to-list 'ac-modes 'geiser-repl-mode))
  (eval-after-load "geiser"
    '(setq geiser-active-implementations '(racket)))

Java and C

The c-mode-common-hook is a general hook that work on all C-like languages (C, C++, Java, etc…). I like being able to quickly compile using C-c C-c (instead of M-x compile), a habit from latex-mode.

  (defun c-setup ()
    (local-set-key (kbd "C-c C-c") 'compile))

  (add-hook 'c-mode-common-hook 'c-setup)

Some statements in Java appear often, and become tedious to write out. We can use abbrevs to speed this up.

  (define-abbrev-table 'java-mode-abbrev-table
    '(("psv" "public static void main(String[] args) {" nil 0)
      ("sopl" "System.out.println" nil 0)
      ("sop" "System.out.printf" nil 0)))

To be able to use the abbrev table defined above, abbrev-mode must be activated.

  (defun java-setup ()
    (abbrev-mode t)
    (setq-local compile-command (concat "javac " (buffer-name))))

  (add-hook 'java-mode-hook 'java-setup)

Assembler

When writing assembler code I use # for comments. By defining comment-start we can add comments using M-; like in other programming modes. Also in assembler should one be able to compile using C-c C-c.

  (defun asm-setup ()
    (setq comment-start "#")
    (local-set-key (kbd "C-c C-c") 'compile))

  (add-hook 'asm-mode-hook 'asm-setup)

LaTeX and org-mode LaTeX export

.tex-files should be associated with latex-mode instead of tex-mode.

  (add-to-list 'auto-mode-alist '("\\.tex\\'" . latex-mode))

Use biblatex for bibliography.

  (setq-default bibtex-dialect 'biblatex)

I like using the Minted package for source blocks in LaTeX. To make org use this we add the following snippet.

  (eval-after-load 'org
    '(add-to-list 'org-latex-packages-alist '("" "minted")))
  (setq org-latex-listings 'minted)

Because Minted uses Pygments (an external process), we must add the -shell-escape option to the org-latex-pdf-process commands. The tex-compile-commands variable controls the default compile command for Tex- and LaTeX-mode, we can add the flag with a rather dirty statement (if anyone finds a nicer way to do this, please let me know).

  (eval-after-load 'tex-mode
    '(setcar (cdr (cddaar tex-compile-commands)) " -shell-escape "))

When exporting from Org to LaTeX, use latexmk for compilation.

  (eval-after-load 'ox-latex
    '(setq org-latex-pdf-process
           '("latexmk -pdflatex='pdflatex -shell-escape -interaction nonstopmode' -pdf -f %f")))

For my thesis, I need to use our university's LaTeX class, this snippet makes that class available.

  (eval-after-load "ox-latex"
    '(progn
       (add-to-list 'org-latex-classes
                    '("ifimaster"
                      "\\documentclass{ifimaster}
  [DEFAULT-PACKAGES]
  [PACKAGES]
  [EXTRA]
  \\usepackage{babel,csquotes,ifimasterforside,url,varioref}"
                     ("\\chapter{%s}" . "\\chapter*{%s}")
                     ("\\section{%s}" . "\\section*{%s}")
                     ("\\subsection{%s}" . "\\subsection*{%s}")
                     ("\\subsubsection{%s}" . "\\subsubsection*{%s}")
                     ("\\paragraph{%s}" . "\\paragraph*{%s}")
                     ("\\subparagraph{%s}" . "\\subparagraph*{%s}")))
      (custom-set-variables '(org-export-allow-bind-keywords t))))

Markdown

I sometimes use a specialized markdown format, where inline math-blocks can be achieved by surrounding a LaTeX formula with $math$ and $/math$. Writing these out became tedious, so I wrote a small function.

  (defun insert-markdown-inline-math-block ()
    "Inserts an empty math-block if no region is active, otherwise wrap a
  math-block around the region."
    (interactive)
    (let* ((beg (region-beginning))
           (end (region-end))
           (body (if (region-active-p) (buffer-substring beg end) "")))
      (when (region-active-p)
        (delete-region beg end))
      (insert (concat "$math$ " body " $/math$"))
      (search-backward " $/math$")))

Most of my writing in this markup is in Norwegian, so the dictionary is set accordingly. The markup is also sensitive to line breaks, so auto-fill-mode is disabled. Of course we want to bind our lovely function to a key!

  (add-hook 'markdown-mode-hook
            (lambda ()
              (auto-fill-mode 0)
              (ispell-change-dictionary "norsk")
              (local-set-key (kbd "C-c b") 'insert-markdown-inline-math-block)) t)

Python

Haskell

haskell-doc-mode is similar to eldoc, it displays documentation in the echo area. Haskell has several indentation modes - I prefer using haskell-indent.

  (add-hook 'haskell-mode-hook 'turn-on-haskell-doc-mode)
  (add-hook 'haskell-mode-hook 'turn-on-haskell-indent)

Matlab

Matlab-mode works pretty good out of the box, but we can do without the splash screen.

  (eval-after-load 'matlab
    '(add-to-list 'matlab-shell-command-switches "-nosplash"))

Key bindings

Inspired by this StackOverflow post I keep a custom-bindings-map that holds all my custom bindings. This map can be activated by toggling a simple minor-mode that does nothing more than activating the map. This inhibits other major-modes to override these bindings. I keep this at the end of the init-file to make sure that all functions are actually defined.

  (defvar custom-bindings-map (make-keymap)
    "A keymap for custom bindings.")

Bindings for expand-region.

  (define-key custom-bindings-map (kbd "C-'")  'er/expand-region)
  (define-key custom-bindings-map (kbd "C-\"") 'er/contract-region)

Bindings for multiple-cursors.

  (define-key custom-bindings-map (kbd "C-c e")  'mc/edit-lines)
  (define-key custom-bindings-map (kbd "C-c a")  'mc/mark-all-like-this)
  (define-key custom-bindings-map (kbd "C-c n")  'mc/mark-next-like-this)

Bindings for Magit.

  (define-key custom-bindings-map (kbd "C-c m") 'magit-status)

Bindings for ace-jump-mode.

  (define-key custom-bindings-map (kbd "C-c SPC") 'ace-jump-mode)

Bindings for Helm.

  (define-key custom-bindings-map (kbd "C-c h g") 'helm-google-suggest)

Bindings for smex. This overrides the standard M-x.

  (define-key custom-bindings-map (kbd "M-x") 'smex)

Bindings for move-text.

  (define-key custom-bindings-map (kbd "<M-S-up>")    'move-text-up)
  (define-key custom-bindings-map (kbd "<M-S-down>")  'move-text-down)

Bind some native Emacs functions.

  (define-key custom-bindings-map (kbd "C-j")      'newline-and-indent)
  (define-key custom-bindings-map (kbd "C-c s")    'ispell-word)
  (define-key custom-bindings-map (kbd "C-c t")    'org-agenda-list)
  (define-key custom-bindings-map (kbd "C-x C-r")  'recentf-ido-find-file)
  (define-key custom-bindings-map (kbd "C-x m")    'mu4e)

Bind the functions defined above.

  (define-key global-map          (kbd "M-p")     'jump-to-previous-like-this)
  (define-key global-map          (kbd "M-n")     'jump-to-next-like-this)
  (define-key custom-bindings-map (kbd "M-,")     'jump-to-previous-like-this)
  (define-key custom-bindings-map (kbd "M-.")     'jump-to-next-like-this)
  (define-key custom-bindings-map (kbd "C-c .")   (cycle-themes))
  (define-key custom-bindings-map (kbd "C-x k")   'kill-this-buffer-unless-scratch)
  (define-key custom-bindings-map (kbd "C-c C-0") 'global-scale-default)
  (define-key custom-bindings-map (kbd "C-c C-=") 'global-scale-up)
  (define-key custom-bindings-map (kbd "C-c C--") 'global-scale-down)
  (define-key custom-bindings-map (kbd "C-x t")   'toggle-shell)
  (define-key custom-bindings-map (kbd "C-c j")   'cycle-spacing-delete-newlines)
  (define-key custom-bindings-map (kbd "C-c d")   'duplicate-thing)
  (define-key custom-bindings-map (kbd "<C-tab>") 'tidy)

Lastly we need to activate the map by creating and activating the minor-mode.

  (define-minor-mode custom-bindings-mode
    "A mode that activates custom-bindings."
    t nil custom-bindings-map)

License

My Emacs configurations written in Org mode.

Copyright (c) 2013 - 2014 Lars Tveito

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.