A series of notes that I learn Emacs hacking. Splitting the $\in it.el$ file, enabling auto revert mode, package loading mechanism overview, enable abbreivation mode, about popwin package, more about major and minor mode in Eamcs, function and variable naming convention, counsel-git to find files.

Split the init.el configuration into multiple files

Use git to keep track of your .emacs.d

• git init
• git add .
• git commit -m "initial commit"
• Or do it with Github (my choice).
• We can also use git to backup ./elpa, in case bug occurs after upgrading a package.
• Use git throw (a self-defined command) to discard anything that is not committed.

Auto-revert-mode

• Auto load a file from disk once it is revised by external command.
• M-x auto-revert-mode

Package loading mechanism

• load-file
• load
• require
• autoload
• The differences can be found on the web
• C-h v features: view all the features available.

The real topic of this part

• Recommended organization of configuration files.
  • init-packages.el: deal with the 3rd party packages, loading and configurations.
  • init-ui.el: how Emacs looks like.
  • init-better-defaults.el: improvement of built-in settings.
  • init-keybindings.el
  • custom.el: save customize-group.
• Such that we can view and edit things faster.
• Remember to add (provide 'xx) and (require 'xx).
• Remember to add the configuration file directory to load-path variable.
• For the custom.el, we have to all one line code to set the customize group.

Abbrevation mode

• Help to type things fast!
• Code

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(abbrev-mode t)
(define-abbrev-table 'global-abbrev-table '(
					    ("ltd" "LanternD")
					    ))

• Recommand: use ‘8’ as the start of the abbrev, prevent typo accidentally.
• <space> or <enter> to complete the word.
• For key binding, C-c is for customize key, while C-x is for built-in keys.

Popwin package

• It helps to move the cursor to the new opened window, such as function manual.
• Configuration:

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(require 'popwin)
(popwin-mode t)

More about major and minor mode

require and load-file

• Some package just use (global-xx-mode 1), while some use require and (xx-mode t).
• The difference is autoload marco. it needs xx-autoloads.el.
• It works with (package-initialize) function.
• “Require” will load a file indirectly, we can do it by calling load-file function.

Naming conventions

• LanternD/xxx as personal variable or function names.
• Mode naming: everything (variable and function) in the mode should starts with the name of the mode.
• e.g. happy-mode, happy-init, happy-status.
• Naming of features: xxx-mode-key-map, xxx-mode-hook.
• We can use prog-mode-hook to turn on line number only for programing mode.

3 types of major mode

• text-mode
• special-mode
• prog-mode

Set key for counsel-git

• counsel-git can find a file very fast in a git managed directory.
• Add key binding to it.

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(global-set-key (kbd "C-c p f") 'counsel-git)