Hi Tim, Tim Cross <[email protected]> writes:
> Management of an emacs init file is a challenge for anyone who has been > using Emacs for a long time. I did this after being a user for over 20 > years and like you, was a little daunted by the task. However, I now > realise it was the single best thing I ever did to improve my emacs. I > also had let my config grow organically and what I found out when I > decided to clean it up was that a lot of what I had in there was > unnecessary, was slowing down my Emacs (both startup and runtime) and > that many of my long-term emacs 'annoyances' were actually due to > incorrect or outdated settings in my init file. > > A few things I learned which may be of help > > 1. Put your init in git (or your favourite source control system ) and > do your changes incrementally. You will need to revert to previous > versions, so be methodical with checking in changes and do it > incrementally. > > 2. Have a look at the use-package macro. This really cleaned up my init > file, helped me make it more modular and really improved both the > structure and maintenance as well as startup times etc. > > 3. I now use org to manage my init file. In fact, I have a few init > files. I have a bare bones minimal init file which I use when I need to > debug a specific feature/package or generate bug reports, I have an > experimental one where I play with new things and I have my stable > one. Using org, I can just 'tangle' a new init based on one of those > files whenever I need it. I started by just putting all my existing > setup into a block in an org file and exporting that as elisp. As time > permitted, I broke bits off into their own blocks with explanatory > comments/text so that I can remember why/what of the block. > > 4. Finally, there are some really good 'canned' configurations out > there. I personally quite like purcell's setup (on github). While I > don't use any of these per se, I did 'borrow' some of the ideas. > > My setup is now healthier and more stable than it ever has been. The > effort is definitely worth it. > > Tim [snip (28 lines)] OK, you've convinced me - I'm sure you are right about potential incorrect and outdated stuff. I already have my .emacs in Git, so that's a start and I'll definitely have a look at 'use-package'. I might even go wild and move to init.el ;-) Cheers, Loris -- Dr. Loris Bennett (Mr.) ZEDAT, Freie Universität Berlin Email [email protected]
