Zyxir’s Emacs config

Fast and lightweight Emacs configuration tailored for my daily usage.

• Support Emacs 29.1+ on WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux).
• Use Vim keybindings (via Evil).
• Works in terminal.
• Tailored for development in: Python, Scala.
• Org-mode powered PKM (personal knowledge management) system.

Philosophy

Efficiency

Being fast and productive is the utmost goal.

Minimal

Stick to a simple, text-based UI. Terminal support is highly valued.

Modular

Composed of modules without inter-dependency, except a common library.

Why Evil

I sticked to Emacs keybindings for years before switching to Evil, because of several problems:

• Key availability: As I assign more keys to different functionalities, the keybindings have been a mess. I do not hate the Ctrl key, but it is often hard for my muscle memory to distinguish between C-x and C-c. Evil’s modal keybindings are more mnemonic and provide more free keys.
• Efficiency: Vim keys are easier to press correctly. Killer features like Evil-surround can be implemented without mess up the keybindings.

Installation

Clone this repository recursively to ~/.emacs.d, then run the synchronization script in batch mode.

git clone https://github.com/zyxir/emacs.d $HOME/.emacs.d --recurse-submodules -j$(nproc)
emacs --batch --load $HOME/.emacs.d/zy-sync.el

Now Emacs should be ready.

These third-party programs enable additional functionalities of my configuration:

Fd

Fast filesystem search. Used by commands like project-find-file.

Ripgrep

Fast text search. Used by commands like rg.

Customization

Most behavior of this configuration is hard-coded. That is because I am currently the only user of this configuration, and I can change any behavior by modifying the source code. However, there are some machine-dependent settings that is not consistent in every device of mine. It is recommended to configure these settings via the customize UI:

zy~font-size

This determines the default font size. Customize this according to the screen size of the device.

Tips

TODO: Add features that are often forgotten here.

Naming Conventions

This configuration conforms to The Emacs Lisp Style Guide by Bozhidar Bastov. Symbol names in this configuration follow the following conventions:

abc!

A public function or macro that should be defined all the time. Such function or macro is often defined in zylib.el.

zy/NAME or +MODULE/NAME

A command designed to be used interactively.

zy-[-]NAME or +MODULE-[-]NAME

A non-interactive function or variable.

zy-[-]NAME-h or +MODULE-[-]NAME-h

A hook function.

zy-[-]NAME-a or +MODULE-[-]NAME-a

An advice function.

zy-[-]NAME-fn or +MODULE-[-]NAME-fn

A strategy (replaceable) function.

It is worth noting that most of these conventions are learned from Doom Emacs.

Links

This configuration has been heavily influenced by:

• Doom Emacs