

Ask HN: Emacs starter kit? - newsisan

Which one should I use?<p>https://github.com/technomancy/emacs-starter-kit
https://github.com/topfunky/emacs-starter-kit
https://github.com/eschulte/emacs-starter-kit<p>If you can't make an absolute recommendation, could you explain some of the differences so I can decide? It is a bit over my head as I am very new to emacs.
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jhferris3
I don't know of any particular "starter kits". Generally speaking, the way I
(and most people I know) got started was either by copying a friends .emacs
file or just googling for something when you realize you need it. The latest
versions of (at least GNU) emacs ship with a lot of language major modes.

If you're on debian/ubuntu, the emacs-goodies-el is a good package to grab, as
it has a bunch of useful packages including color-themes.

<http://www.emacswiki.org/> tends to be fairly helpful to get started, as is
the included manual (although its only ~3.5 years after I started using emacs
that I'm starting to abandon the arrow keys in favor of the builtin movement
chords)

I think as you use emacs, you realize "I really want feature X", then you
google for it and find it exists and you're happier for it. After a while you
get more comfortable with your .emacs file you start adding your own
keybindings, macros, etc.

------
camperman
The echulte one is the one I use because it has a _fantastic_ literate add-on
that inlines org-mode into your startup scripts. Actually, it's the other way
around now I think about it - you write org-mode files and inline your elisp
customisations :) My personal init.org looks like this:

    
    
      Writing
      Programming
      Game dev
      Settings
    

and so on. All my settings for all my packages are in here - I just tab to
change the visibility. At startup the package generates the correct elisp
files from the org file. But the defaults are all sensible too if you're just
getting started.

~~~
newsisan
Thanks for that, I used org-mode previously so went with this one. Can you
briefly explain the literate org-mode addon and your init.org? Thanks

~~~
camperman
Sure. Your init files are actually .org files so you can arrange your
customisations in logical order by sections. The actual code is encapsulated
between #+begin_src and #+end_src tags and the init file will generated the
proper .el files for you. here's an extract:

    
    
      Personal customisations
    
      * Settings
      ** Paths
    
      #+begin_src emacs-lisp
    
      ;; PATH settings
    
      (setenv "PATH"
        (concat
         "/bin" ":"
       ;; and so on
        )

#+end_src emacs-lisp __Colors __Abbreviations __Misc

So your .emacs becomes an org file with all the goodness, organisation and
layout friendliness that implies. No need to split all your settings and elisp
stuff across different files to keep it tidy - just stick them under another
bullet!

------
ikitat
Don't worry about it too much. It's just a way to configure your Emacs with
some niceties while you're busy learning the editor. I've spent a bit of time
digging through the starter kits and learning how everything is configured for
the languages I care about. The keybindings mods and additions are much better
than the Emacs defaults.

I use technomancy's, I'd assume the differences are negligible and great
changes make their way back to technomancy.

------
SingAlong
Topfunky's report is a fork of technomancy's. Eschulte's fork contains modes
for most programming languages. Both topfunky's and eschulte's fork contain a
lot of modes and are well maintained.

I use the topfunky fork. These starterkits contain instructions on how to add
more modes so just choose something that has most you want and the rest :)

Welcome to emacs.

