Much Ado about Emacs 001

This is going to be a recurrent series on my working in Emacs. I will write about what I am trying, adopting, and discarding. The rationale or the benefits behind the decisions. The goal is two pronged:

It might help people going through the same process.
It will help me understand the changes I am making to the configuration of Emacs and my workflow in it.

god-mode

god-mode is a major change to the way I interact with Emacs.

I am using the ZSA Moonlander as my keyboard and was having trouble with the continual mashing of the Ctrl key and the Alt key while using Emacs. I tried to change the location of those keys to get rid of the fatigue that comes from contorting my hands to reach them. Didn’t help. God-mode solves that problem.

Not interested in switching to evil-mode, or doom yet, it made sense to try out god-mode as an alternative. I specially liked this feature in god-mode:

All existing key bindings will work in God mode. It’s only there to reduce your usage of modifier keys.

Using it for a week now. Still getting used to it, but I must point out that not reaching for the Ctrl key and the Alt key makes the process of using Emacs easier on my wrists. Will use this for a couple of months before I decide on continuing to use this or switching to evil-mode. Have to give it a reasonable amount of time to embed itself in my muscle memory.

This is my setup for god-mode.¹

#+begin_src emacs-lisp
(use-package god-mode)
  (god-mode)
    (global-set-key (kbd "<escape>") #'god-mode-all)
    (setq god-exempt-major-modes nil)
    (setq god-exempt-predicates nil)
    (global-set-key (kbd "C-x C-1") #'delete-other-windows)
    (global-set-key (kbd "C-x C-2") #'vsplit-last-buffer)
    (global-set-key (kbd "C-x C-3") #'hsplit-last-buffer)
    (global-set-key (kbd "C-x C-0") #'delete-window)
    (defun my-god-mode-update-cursor-type ()
    (setq cursor-type (if (or god-local-mode buffer-read-only) 'box 'bar)))
    (add-hook 'post-command-hook #'my-god-mode-update-cursor-type)
#+end_src

A New Mode line

I was using the mode line from Sophie Bosio. It was impressively minimal. I wanted some more information displayed. Being slightly familiar with doom-modeline. I decided to switch to it. The result is still minimal but it does contain the information I want.

This is what I am using:

#+begin_src emacs-lisp
(use-package doom-modeline
  :ensure t
  :init (doom-modeline-mode 1)
(setq doom-modeline-height 25)
(setq doom-modeline-bar-width 4)
(setq doom-modeline-hud nil)
(setq doom-modeline-window-width-limit 85)
(setq doom-modeline-project-detection 'auto)
(setq doom-modeline-buffer-file-name-style 'truncate-nil)
(setq doom-modeline-icon t)
(setq doom-modeline-major-mode-icon t)
(setq doom-modeline-major-mode-color-icon t)
(setq doom-modeline-buffer-state-icon t)
(setq doom-modeline-buffer-modification-icon t)
(setq doom-modeline-buffer-name t)
(setq doom-modeline-highlight-modified-buffer-name t)
(setq doom-modeline-column-zero-based t)
(setq doom-modeline-percent-position '(-3 "%p"))
(setq doom-modeline-position-line-format '("L%l"))
(setq doom-modeline-position-column-format '("C%c"))
(setq doom-modeline-position-column-line-format '("%l:%c"))
(setq doom-modeline-minor-modes nil)
(setq doom-modeline-enable-word-count 1)
(setq doom-modeline-continuous-word-count-modes '(markdown-mode gfm-mode org-mode))
(setq doom-modeline-buffer-encoding nil)
(setq doom-modeline-indent-info nil)
(setq doom-modeline-total-line-number 1)
(setq doom-modeline-vcs-icon nil)
(setq doom-modeline-check-icon t)
(setq doom-modeline-check-simple-format nil)
(setq doom-modeline-number-limit 99)
(setq doom-modeline-workspace-name nil)
(setq doom-modeline-persp-name nil)
(setq doom-modeline-display-default-persp-name nil)
(setq doom-modeline-persp-icon nil)
(setq doom-modeline-lsp nil)
(setq doom-modeline-github nil)
(setq doom-modeline-modal t)
(setq doom-modeline-modal-icon t)
(setq doom-modeline-modal-modern-icon t)
(setq doom-modeline-always-show-macro-register nil)
(setq doom-modeline-mu4e nil)
(setq doom-modeline-gnus nil)
(setq doom-modeline-buffer-file-name-function #'identity)
(setq doom-modeline-buffer-file-truename-function #'identity))

(use-package nerd-icons
  :custom
  (nerd-icons-font-family "Symbols Nerd Font Mono"))
  
#+end_src

Turning Off M-Ret From Splitting the Line

M-return continues a list in org-mode. You have to get to the end of the line and press it to get a new list item. That was a pain. This code makes it possible to press the keyboard command wherever you are in the line and it gives a new list item after the one you were on.

I did not write this. Unfortunately I don’t remember where I got it from. Sorry. Need to do a better job of documenting the source of ideas. The code is:

#+begin_src emacs-lisp
(setq org-M-RET-may-split-line '((item . nil)))
#+end_src

macosxguru at the gmail thingie.

I will write about vsplit-last-buffer and hsplit-last-buffer in the next edition.↩︎

emacs

Lexend I have always used monospaced fonts in my text editors. For the last few years, I have been using: Recursive Sans & Mono protesilaosiosevka-comfy

Links of Note 2024-11-11 I loved the detail in this review. App Review Paper Havn. The app pricing is mad. But the review itself was fantastic. Sometimes I wonder about

Much Ado about Emacs 001

god-mode

A New Mode line

Turning Off M-Ret From Splitting the Line

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