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

I want lexical scoping for the init-file, which can be specified in the header. The first line of the configuration is as follows:

;;; -*- lexical-binding: t -*-

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))
     (server-start))))

A common optimization is to temporarily disable garbage collection during initialization. Here, we set the gc-cons-threshold to a ridiculously large number, and restore the default value after initialization.

(lexical-let ((old-gc-treshold gc-cons-threshold))
  (setq gc-cons-threshold most-positive-fixnum)
  (add-hook 'after-init-hook
            (lambda () (setq gc-cons-threshold old-gc-treshold))))

Packages

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" . "https://elpa.gnu.org/packages/")
    ("MELPA Stable" . "https://stable.melpa.org/packages/")
    ("MELPA"        . "https://melpa.org/packages/"))
  package-archive-priorities
  '(("MELPA Stable" . 10)
    ("gnu"          . 5)
    ("MELPA"        . 0)))

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

(let* ((package--builtins nil)
       (packages
        '(auto-compile         ; automatically compile Emacs Lisp libraries
          cider                ; Clojure Interactive Development Environment
          clj-refactor         ; A collection of clojure refactoring functions
          company              ; Modular text completion framework
          define-word          ; display the definition of word at point
          diminish             ; Diminished modes from modeline
          drag-stuff           ; Drag stuff around in Emacs
          erlang               ; Erlang major mode
          expand-region        ; Increase selected region by semantic units
          focus                ; Dim color of text in surrounding sections
          geiser               ; GNU Emacs and Scheme talk to each other
          git-gutter-fringe    ; Fringe version of git-gutter.el
          golden-ratio         ; Automatic resizing windows to golden ratio
          haskell-mode         ; A Haskell editing mode
          helm                 ; Incremental and narrowing framework
          helm-ag              ; the silver searcher with helm interface
          helm-company         ; Helm interface for company-mode
          helm-dash            ; Offline documentation using Dash docsets.
          helm-projectile      ; Helm integration for Projectile
          helm-swoop           ; Efficiently hopping squeezed lines
          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
          material-theme       ; A Theme based on Google Material Design
          matlab-mode          ; MATLAB integration with Emacs
          maude-mode           ; Emacs mode for the programming language Maude
          multiple-cursors     ; Multiple cursors for Emacs
          olivetti             ; Minor mode for a nice writing environment
          org                  ; Outline-based notes management and organizer
          org-ref              ; citations bibliographies in org-mode
          paredit              ; minor mode for editing parentheses
          pdf-tools            ; Emacs support library for PDF files
          projectile           ; Manage and navigate projects in Emacs easily
          slime                ; Superior Lisp Interaction Mode for Emacs
          try                  ; Try out Emacs packages
          which-key)))         ; Display available keybindings in popup
  (ignore-errors ;; This package is only relevant for Mac OS X.
    (when (memq window-system '(mac ns))
      (push 'exec-path-from-shell packages)
      (push 'reveal-in-osx-finder packages))
    (let ((packages (remove-if 'package-installed-p packages)))
      (when packages
        ;; Install uninstalled packages
        (package-refresh-contents)
        (mapc 'package-install packages)))))

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 using 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 ns-pop-up-frames nil
        mac-option-modifier nil
        mac-command-modifier 'meta
        x-select-enable-clipboard t)
  (exec-path-from-shell-initialize)
  (when (fboundp 'mac-auto-operator-composition-mode)
    (mac-auto-operator-composition-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 auto-revert-interval 1            ; Refresh buffers fast
      custom-file (make-temp-file "")   ; Discard customization's
      default-input-method "TeX"        ; Use TeX when toggling input method
      echo-keystrokes 0.1               ; Show keystrokes asap
      inhibit-startup-screen t          ; No splash screen please
      initial-scratch-message nil       ; Clean scratch buffer
      recentf-max-saved-items 100       ; Show more recent files
      ring-bell-function 'ignore        ; Quiet
      sentence-end-double-space nil)    ; No double space
;; 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 tab-width 4                       ; Smaller tabs
              fill-column 79                    ; Maximum line width
              truncate-lines t                  ; Don't fold lines
              indent-tabs-mode nil              ; Use spaces instead of tabs
              split-width-threshold 160         ; Split verticly by default
              split-height-threshold nil        ; 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)
    (setq load-path
          (append
           (let ((load-path (copy-sequence load-path)))
             (normal-top-level-add-subdirs-to-load-path)) 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)

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*
           drag-stuff-global-mode       ; Drag stuff around
           global-company-mode          ; Auto-completion everywhere
           global-git-gutter-mode       ; Show changes latest commit
           global-prettify-symbols-mode ; Greek letters should look greek
           projectile-global-mode       ; Manage and navigate projects
           recentf-mode                 ; Recently opened files
           show-paren-mode              ; Highlight matching parentheses
           which-key-mode))             ; Available keybindings in popup
  (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

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 material . #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.

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

diminish.el allows you to hide or abbreviate their presence in the modeline. I rarely look at the modeline to find out what minor-modes are enabled, so I disable every global minor-mode, and some for lisp editing.

To ensure that the mode is loaded before diminish it, we should use with-eval-after-load. To avoid typing this multiple times a small macro is provided.

(defmacro safe-diminish (file mode &optional new-name)
  `(with-eval-after-load ,file
     (diminish ,mode ,new-name)))

(diminish 'auto-fill-function)
(safe-diminish "eldoc" 'eldoc-mode)
(safe-diminish "flyspell" 'flyspell-mode)
(safe-diminish "helm-mode" 'helm-mode)
(safe-diminish "projectile" 'projectile-mode)
(safe-diminish "paredit" 'paredit-mode "()")

git-gutter-fringe gives a great visual indication of where you've made changes since your last commit. There are several packages that performs this task; the reason I've ended up with git-gutter-fringe is that it reuses the (already present) fringe, saving a tiny bit of screen-estate.

I smuggled some configurations from torenord, providing a cleaner look.

(require 'git-gutter-fringe)

(dolist (p '((git-gutter:added    . "#0c0")
             (git-gutter:deleted  . "#c00")
             (git-gutter:modified . "#c0c")))
  (set-face-foreground (car p) (cdr p))
  (set-face-background (car p) (cdr p)))

New in Emacs 24.4 is the prettify-symbols-mode! It's neat.

(setq-default prettify-symbols-alist '(("lambda" . )
                                       ("delta" . )
                                       ("gamma" . )
                                       ("phi" . )
                                       ("psi" . )))

PDF Tools

PDF Tools makes a huge improvement on the built-in doc-view-mode; the only drawback is the pdf-tools-install (which has to be executed before the package can be used) takes a couple of seconds to execute. Instead of running it at init-time, we'll run it whenever a PDF is opened. Note that it's only slow on the first run!

(add-hook 'pdf-tools-enabled-hook 'auto-revert-mode)
(add-to-list 'auto-mode-alist '("\\.pdf\\'" . pdf-tools-install))

Completion

Auto-Complete has been a part of my config for years, but I want to try out company-mode. If I code in an environment with good completion, I've made an habit of trying to guess function-names, and looking at the completions for the right one. So I want a pretty aggressive completion system, hence the no delay settings and short prefix length.

(setq company-idle-delay 0
      company-echo-delay 0
      company-dabbrev-downcase nil
      company-minimum-prefix-length 2
      company-selection-wrap-around t
      company-transformers '(company-sort-by-occurrence
                             company-sort-by-backend-importance))

Helm

I've been a long time user of ido-mode along with ido-vertical-mode, and don't have any particular complaints. Though I've got a feeling I'm missing out on something by not using helm. I will this excellent tutorial as a starting point, along with some of the suggested configurations.

helm has a wonderful feature, being able to grep files by C-s anywhere, which is useful. ack is a great grep-replacement, and is designed to search source code, so I want to use that if it's available.

Note that some changes in bindings are located in the key bindings (found near the end of the configuration).

(require 'helm)
(require 'helm-config)

(setq helm-split-window-in-side-p t
      helm-M-x-fuzzy-match t
      helm-buffers-fuzzy-matching t
      helm-recentf-fuzzy-match t
      helm-move-to-line-cycle-in-source t
      projectile-completion-system 'helm)

(when (executable-find "ack")
  (setq helm-grep-default-command
        "ack -Hn --no-group --no-color %e %p %f"
        helm-grep-default-recurse-command
        "ack -H --no-group --no-color %e %p %f"))

(set-face-attribute 'helm-selection nil :background "cyan")

(helm-mode 1)
(helm-projectile-on)
(helm-adaptive-mode 1)

Helm dash

(setq helm-dash-browser-func 'eww)
(add-hook 'emacs-lisp-mode-hook
          (lambda () (setq-local helm-dash-docsets '("Emacs Lisp"))))
(add-hook 'erlang-mode-hook
          (lambda () (setq-local helm-dash-docsets '("Erlang"))))
(add-hook 'java-mode-hook
          (lambda () (setq-local helm-dash-docsets '("Java"))))
(add-hook 'haskell-mode-hook
          (lambda () (setq-local helm-dash-docsets '("Haskell"))))
(add-hook 'clojure-mode-hook
          (lambda () (setq-local helm-dash-docsets '("Clojure"))))

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.

(add-hook 'prog-mode-hook 'flyspell-prog-mode)

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 along with org-capture for appointments and such.

(setq org-agenda-files '("~/Dropbox/agenda.org")  ; A list of agenda files
      org-agenda-default-appointment-duration 120 ; 2 hours appointments
      org-capture-templates                       ; Template for adding tasks
      '(("t" "Oppgave" entry (file+headline "~/Dropbox/agenda.org" "Oppgaver")
         "** TODO %?" :prepend t)
        ("m" "Master" entry (file+olp "~/Dropbox/agenda.org" "Oppgaver" "Master")
         "*** TODO %?" :prepend t)
        ("a" "Avtale" entry (file+headline "~/Dropbox/agenda.org" "Avtaler")
         "** %?\n   SCHEDULED: %T" :prepend t)))

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-src-tab-acts-natively t
      org-confirm-babel-evaluate nil
      org-edit-src-content-indentation 0)

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>>

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)))))

Org mode does currently not support synctex (which enables you to jump from a point in your TeX-file to the corresponding point in the pdf), and it seems like a tricky problem.

Calling this function from an org-buffer jumps to the corresponding section in the exported pdf (given that the pdf-file exists), using pdf-tools.

(defun org-sync-pdf ()
  (interactive)
  (let ((headline (nth 4 (org-heading-components)))
        (pdf (concat (file-name-base (buffer-name)) ".pdf")))
    (when (file-exists-p pdf)
      (find-file-other-window pdf)
      (pdf-links-action-perform
       (cl-find headline (pdf-info-outline pdf)
                :key (lambda (alist) (cdr (assoc 'title alist)))
                :test 'string-equal)))))

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))

global-scale-mode

These functions provide something close to text-scale-mode, but for every buffer, including the minibuffer and mode line.

(lexical-let* ((default (face-attribute 'default :height))
               (size default))

  (defun global-scale-default ()
    (interactive)
    (setq size default)
    (global-scale-internal size))

  (defun global-scale-up ()
    (interactive)
    (global-scale-internal (incf size 20)))

  (defun global-scale-down ()
    (interactive)
    (global-scale-internal (decf size 20)))

  (defun global-scale-internal (arg)
    (set-face-attribute 'default (selected-frame) :height arg)
    (set-temporary-overlay-map
     (let ((map (make-sparse-keymap)))
       (define-key map (kbd "C-=") 'global-scale-up)
       (define-key map (kbd "C-+") 'global-scale-up)
       (define-key map (kbd "C--") 'global-scale-down)
       (define-key map (kbd "C-0") 'global-scale-default) map))))

Mode specific

Compilation

I often run latexmk -pdf -pvc in a compilation buffer, which recompiles the latex-file whenever it is changed. This often results in annoyingly large compilation buffers; the following snippet limits the buffer size in accordance with comint-buffer-maximum-size, which defaults to 1024 lines.

(add-hook 'compilation-filter-hook 'comint-truncate-buffer)

Shell

Inspired by torenord, I maintain quick access to shell buffers with bindings M-1 to M-9. In addition, the M-§ (on an international English keyboard) is bound toggle between the last visited shell, and the last visited non-shell buffer. The following functions facilitate this, and are bound in the /larstvei/emacs/src/commit/9057f1ff7af35c9b6ae3af4c3f2ea511898789fb/Key%20bindings section.

(lexical-let ((last-shell ""))
  (defun toggle-shell ()
    (interactive)
    (cond ((string-match-p "^\\*shell<[1-9][0-9]*>\\*$" (buffer-name))
           (goto-non-shell-buffer))
          ((get-buffer last-shell) (switch-to-buffer last-shell))
          (t (shell (setq last-shell "*shell<1>*")))))

  (defun switch-shell (n)
    (let ((buffer-name (format "*shell<%d>*" n)))
      (setq last-shell buffer-name)
      (cond ((get-buffer buffer-name)
             (switch-to-buffer buffer-name))
            (t (shell buffer-name)
               (rename-buffer buffer-name)))))

  (defun goto-non-shell-buffer ()
    (let* ((r "^\\*shell<[1-9][0-9]*>\\*$")
           (shell-buffer-p (lambda (b) (string-match-p r (buffer-name b))))
           (non-shells (cl-remove-if shell-buffer-p (buffer-list))))
      (when non-shells
        (switch-to-buffer (first non-shells))))))

Don't query whether or not the shell-buffer should be killed, just kill it.

(defadvice shell (after kill-with-no-query nil activate)
  (set-process-query-on-exit-flag (get-buffer-process ad-return-value) nil))

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)))

The clear-shell should only be bound in comint-mode, which is a mode most shell and REPL's is derived from.

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

Lisp

I use Paredit when editing lisp code, we enable this for all lisp-modes.

(dolist (mode '(cider-repl-mode
                clojure-mode
                ielm-mode
                geiser-repl-mode
                slime-repl-mode
                lisp-mode
                emacs-lisp-mode
                lisp-interaction-mode
                scheme-mode))
  ;; 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)

Clojure

(add-hook 'cider-repl-mode-hook (lambda () (local-set-key (kbd "C-l") 'cider-repl-clear-buffer)))
(setq cider-cljs-lein-repl
      "(do (require 'figwheel-sidecar.repl-api)
           (figwheel-sidecar.repl-api/start-figwheel!)
           (figwheel-sidecar.repl-api/cljs-repl))")

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.el")
    (load (expand-file-name "~/.quicklisp/slime-helper.el"))
    (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")

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.

(eval-after-load "geiser"
  '(setq geiser-active-implementations '(guile)))

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}")))
     (add-to-list 'org-latex-classes
                  '("easychair" "\\documentclass{easychair}"
                   ("\\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

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

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

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)
            (visual-line-mode 1)
            (ispell-change-dictionary "norsk")
            (local-set-key (kbd "C-c b") 'insert-markdown-inline-math-block)) t)

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)

Maude

Use --- for comments in Maude.

(add-hook 'maude-mode-hook
          (lambda ()
            (setq-local comment-start "---")))

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 define-word

(define-key custom-bindings-map (kbd "C-c D") 'define-word-at-point)

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 company-mode

(define-key company-active-map (kbd "C-d") 'company-show-doc-buffer)
(define-key company-active-map (kbd "C-n") 'company-select-next)
(define-key company-active-map (kbd "C-p") 'company-select-previous)
(define-key company-active-map (kbd "<tab>") 'company-complete)

(define-key company-mode-map (kbd "C-:") 'helm-company)
(define-key company-active-map (kbd "C-:") 'helm-company)

Bindings for Helm

(define-key custom-bindings-map (kbd "C-c h")   'helm-command-prefix)
(define-key custom-bindings-map (kbd "M-x")     'helm-M-x)
(define-key custom-bindings-map (kbd "M-y")     'helm-show-kill-ring)
(define-key custom-bindings-map (kbd "C-x b")   'helm-mini)
(define-key custom-bindings-map (kbd "C-x C-f") 'helm-find-files)
(define-key custom-bindings-map (kbd "C-c h d") 'helm-dash-at-point)
(define-key custom-bindings-map (kbd "C-c h o") 'helm-occur)
(define-key custom-bindings-map (kbd "C-c h g") 'helm-google-suggest)
(define-key custom-bindings-map (kbd "M-i")     'helm-swoop)
(define-key custom-bindings-map (kbd "M-I")     'helm-multi-swoop-all)

(define-key helm-map (kbd "<tab>") 'helm-execute-persistent-action)
(define-key helm-map (kbd "C-i")   'helm-execute-persistent-action)
(define-key helm-map (kbd "C-z")   'helm-select-action)

Bindings for built-ins

(define-key custom-bindings-map (kbd "M-u")         'upcase-dwim)
(define-key custom-bindings-map (kbd "M-c")         'capitalize-dwim)
(define-key custom-bindings-map (kbd "M-l")         'downcase-dwim)
(define-key custom-bindings-map (kbd "M-]")         'other-frame)
(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 c")       'org-capture)
(define-key custom-bindings-map (kbd "C-x m")       'mu4e)
(define-key custom-bindings-map (kbd "C-c <up>")    'windmove-up)
(define-key custom-bindings-map (kbd "C-c <down>")  'windmove-down)
(define-key custom-bindings-map (kbd "C-c <left>")  'windmove-left)
(define-key custom-bindings-map (kbd "C-c <right>") 'windmove-right)
(define-key custom-bindings-map (kbd "C-c t")
  (lambda () (interactive) (org-agenda nil "n")))

Bindings for 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-up)
(define-key custom-bindings-map (kbd "C-c C--") 'global-scale-down)
(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)
(define-key custom-bindings-map (kbd "M-§")     'toggle-shell)
(dolist (n (number-sequence 1 9))
  (global-set-key (kbd (concat "M-" (int-to-string n)))
                  (lambda () (interactive) (switch-shell n))))
(define-key custom-bindings-map (kbd "C-c C-q")
  '(lambda ()
     (interactive)
     (focus-mode 1)
     (focus-read-only-mode 1)))
(with-eval-after-load 'org
  (define-key org-mode-map (kbd "C-'") 'org-sync-pdf))

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 - 2015 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/>.