Simple Emacs for Simple Users

Introduction

This is an Emacs configuration specially designed for new users. Emacs and vi users currently have zero support from this configuration as all the shortcuts have been simplified for normal usage.

Quick Jump

• Install development version of Emacs
• Install simple-emacs
• Keybinding conventions
• Keybinding list
• Different features

Target users

This configuration is targeted towards new users who have been using modern editors like Sublime Text and want to see the power of Emacs.

Drawbacks of using this configuration?

• This is a beta configuration and forever will be in beta. If you don't have time to check out this configuration and report bugs, features and keybindings then it is not for you.
• Smooth scrolling isn't there.
• The point(cursor) moves as you scroll the buffer. Workaround is to press C-SPC twice before scrolling. To go back to the position, use C-x twice.
• No minimap.
• Ligature support is missing. Ligature support is there but there are a few technical difficulties related to indentation when writing Lisp code or multiline statements in a language like C++. Else, it works 100% fine. Its not included with this configuration so you don't need to worry about it.
• Tabs in the GUI may vanish in some modes. To switch to a buffer you can still use either of C-x C-<left>, C-x C-<right>, C-<tab>, C-S-<tab>, C-x b. See keybinding conventions.

Requirements

This has been tested on GNU Emacs development build on Linux. Other stable versions of Emacs which are normally available through an app store might work with this configuration but wont be supported from my side.

The best option I recommend is to compile Emacs from source from https://git.sv.gnu.org/emacs.git but that might be hard for newbies. So, there are alternate options to install the latest builds.

For Ubuntu:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-elisp/ppa
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 0D7BAE435ADBC6C3E4918A74062D648FD62FCE72
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install emacs-snapshot

If the public key has changed then you can use the fingerprint from here.

For Arch Linux:

pacaur -S emacs-git

For macOS:

brew install emacs-mac --with-cocoa --with-xml2 --with-gnutls --with-imagemagick --with-glib --HEAD

Installing simple-emacs

If you have been using Emacs from before then backup your configurations:

mv ~/.emacs.d ~/.emacs.d.bak
mv ~/.emacs ~/.emacs.bak

Clone the simple-emacs repository using git:

git clone https://github.com/Compro-Prasad/simple-emacs.git ~/.emacs.d

Now open Emacs and start doing your stuff.

Some keybinding conventions

• F9 s → Press and leave F9 then press and leave S
• C-x b → Press and hold Ctrl then press X. Leave the keys. Then press B.
• C-x → Ctrl + X
• M-x → Alt + X
• C-S-x → Ctrl + Shift + X
• C-M-x → Ctrl + Alt + X
• M-S-x → Alt + Shift + x
• Keybindings are case sensitive, i.e., C-t and C-S-t are different keys. Or C-x b and C-x B are also different.
• This configuration has changed many default keybindings. Trying to run these keys on a different configuration would result in a totally different outcome.
• General keybinding conventions in Emacs can be found here and there.

C-g the Panic key

When you think you pressed the wrong key or Emacs isn't responding then you can press C-g to cancel any action.

If that doesn't help then do ESC or C-] or C-x X q or M-x top-level.

Files

• Press C-n to create an unsaved buffer. Use C-s to save it else it will be lost in the next session.
• Press C-o to open or create a file.
• Use native C-x C-f to do any of the above but using Ivy interface.

Projects

• File > Open project opens project in sidebar.
• Clicking on extreme left of the window toggles sidebar. Shortcut is C-b.
• C-p @ - find a string in current project.
• C-p & - Run a shell command from project root.
• C-p c - Compile and run current project(accepts a command).
• C-p b - List buffers in current project.
• C-p r - Replace a string in whole project.
• C-p : - Goto line number in current buffer.

Tabs and Buffers

Buffers are internal representations of tabs in Emacs. In other words, tabs are a secondary representation of an Emacs buffer.

Navigating

• You can switch between tabs using C-TAB and C-S-TAB.
• To switch between recently used buffers, use C-x C-right and C-x C-left.
• C-x b lists all buffers in current session. Select one to open.
• C-p b lists all buffers in current open project.
• Tabs are grouped by projects. Use - in top left corner to switch projects.

Closing

• Closing a tab is analogous to closing a buffer.
• C-w or C-x k to close any tab.
• C-f4 to close current tab.

Multiple cursors

Work in progress.

Keybind	Definition
C-d	Select next occurance
C-S-d	Select previous occurance
C-;	Select all occurances
M-S-click	Create cursor with mouse

Undo and Redo

• To undo a change press C-z.
• To redo changes press C-S-z.
• If the undo/redo is confusing you then press C-x u to visualize undo tree. Use up/down to navigate history or q to close the tree.
• Undo history is saved throughout sessions.

Searching

When searching for a query, all the results are grouped in the minibuffer itself. Pressing return on any of them takes you to that place.

• C-f searchs in the current buffer
• C-r searches in a Git project. If it is not a Git repository then directory is asked first. For it to work in absence of git project install the_silver_searcher:

Ubuntu:

sudo apt install silversearcher-ag

Arch Linux:

sudo pacman -S the_silver_searcher

Shell

• Pop up, switch or close shell using C-'
• There are three shells in Emacs: shell, eshell and term
• Default shell is eshell
• Use C-l to clear eshell buffer
• In Eshell, type use-theme to list and preview available themes
• To customize shell behaviour look into simple-shell.el

Preview HTML pages

When you open an HTML file in Emacs you can see its live preview by going to http://localhost:8080/imp/.

Python

To make Emacs a Python IDE, you need to have anaconda_mode installed:

sudo pip2 install anaconda_mode   # For python2
sudo pip3 install anaconda_mode   # For python3

This will enable syntax checking and symbol completion for python files.

• Find definitions using M-.
• Find assignments using M-*
• Find references using M-r
• Jump back to previous location using M-,
• Activate virtual environment using M-x pyvenv-activate. Enter root directory of the virtual environment as input.
• If you are using pipenv then you can easily do M-x pipenv-activate.

See official repository for more information on keybindings for jumping to definitions and stuff.

Toggling features

Keybinding	Feature	Function
C-t m	Menu bar	menu-bar-mode
C-t t	Tool bar	tool-bar-mode
C-t l	Line numbers	linum-mode
C-t s	Syntax checking	flycheck-mode
C-t c	Completion	company-mode
C-t T	Tabs	tabbar-mode
C-t i	Aggressive indentation	aggressive-indent-mode

See ChangleLog for further bits of technical details as per release.