#This config is old and now unmaintaied/used. See my new config here: https://github.com/scottaj/new-emacs-config

Al's Emacs Config

Introduction

This config contains add-ons and enhancements to GNU Emacs. It is mostly targeted at Ruby development, but contains many good general enhancements. All of the add-on packages are managed via el-get(my personal fork which has some alternative recipes). Some of the highlights include:

• Vim emulation enabled by default
• Static syntax checking of Ruby, CoffeeScript, and css/scss/sass code
• Git integration via Magit
• Ubiquitous auto-completion
• Easy project/file navigation via Textmate emulation
• Code snippet insertion via Yasnippet
• Easy directory navigation and manipulation via Emacs-nav
• Test runner and navigation support for RSpec and Cucumber

There are 2 branches available for download. The master branch contains the basic enhancements, but removes many of the more superfluous and less general customizations in order to give an easier jumping off point for your own customizations. The al branch contains the exact configuration as I use it on my machine, including fonts, themes, etc.

Installation

Basic Instructions

This configuration has only been tested with Emacs 24.

To install, simply clone this repository into ~/.emacs.d/, then launch emacs. Emacs will begin downloading and compiling the necessary packages. The initial install can take upwards of 5-10 minutes, during which time you will be unable to use emacs. Subsequent starts of Emacs should be quite fast however, usually 1-2 seconds.

External Programs

Some of the features included in this config require external programs to be present in your path. Emacs will still work without these programs but the selected features will not be available:

• Ruby syntax checking

Requires a Ruby executable. On the master branch the emacs will look for a Macruby executable, as Macruby is required to properly parse Rubymotion code without errors. On the stripped-down branch Emacs is configured to use a normal ruby executable. In either case, the exact executable used to parse ruby can be configured in init/init-flymake-ruby.el.

• CoffeeScript syntax checking

Requires either a coffee or coffeelint executable to be available. If both are present it will default to coffeelint.

• Sass/Scss syntax checking

Requires sass gem in a place emacs can find it, it will automatically set the flags to check whichever of the 2 syntaxes you are using.

• CSS syntax checking

Requires csslint executable.

• LESS syntax checking

Requires lessc executable.

• HAML syntax checking

Requires HAML gem in a place emacs can find it.

• RVM

Many of the Ruby related modes work much better if you are using RVM and have a .rvmrc file in your project.

If you wish to install this configuration to another directory (for example if you want to share the configuration between different users of the same machine) then there are a couple of things you need to do.

1. Create a ~/.emacs file in every home directory where you want to load the config.
2. Put the following line into the created file:

 (load-file "/path/to/downloaded/init.el")

1. Modify the following two lines in the downloaded init.el file:

 (load-file "~/.emacs.d/user.el") => ( load-file "/path.to/downloaded/user.el" )
 (load-file "~/.emacs.d/custom.el") => ( load-file "/path.to/downloaded/custom.el" )

And make sure that the download custom.el is writable by every user that will be using it.

1. Modify the following three lines in the downloaded init/init-evil.el:

 (load-file "~/.emacs.d/init/evil/evil-user-settings.el") => ( load-file "/path/to/downloaded/init/evil/evil-user-settings.el" )
 (load-file "~/.emacs.d/init/evil/evil-user-keymaps.el") => ( load-file "/path/to/downloaded/init/evil/evil-user-keymaps.el" )
 (load-file "~/.emacs.d/init/evil/evil-user-misc.el") => ( load-file "/path/to/downloaded/init/evil/evil-user-misc.el" )

Files and Directories

1. init.el

This is the main entry point for emacs. This file initializes el-get, lists the 3rd party packages to install, and loads several other initialization files. You should not put any actual configuration code in this file, other than adding new el-get packages.

1. custom.el

This file is where emacs is configured to save changes made through its customize interface, you should not edit anything in there directly unless you know what you are doing.

1. user.el

This is the home of all generic customizations to built in emacs functionality. If you aren't sure where to put something, this is probably a good spot.

1. init/

This directory contains initialization files for el-get packages. Every package that is configured should have a init-package-name.el file.

1. snippets/

This is the directory where you should put all yasnippet code snippet files.

Keybindings

Following is a listing of many of the useful non-standard keybindings included in this config. Since this config uses evil-mode to emulate Vim's modal editing. Since "mode" has a different meaning in Emacs, we will refer to Vim-style "modes" as "states", e.g. what would be "normal mode" in Vim will be referred to as "normal state".

When discussing keybindings, it is important to note the specific modes and states to which they apply. Therefore, we will use the following notation to list keybindings:

brief description

Emacs-mode : Vim state : keybinding

If either Emacs mode or Vim state is blank, you can assume that the keybinding works in all states/modes.

You will also see key notations in the style: C-<somekey>, _M-<somekey>, and s-<somekey>. These are standard Emacs notations for Control, Meta, and super. These three keys are generally bound to the Control key, Option/alt key, and Command/Windows key respectively.

This is not a comprehensive list of all the custom keybindings, just some of the more interesting ones that I use alot.

In most cases, I have tried not to clobber Emacs default keybindings in evil insert-state. The one notable exception is C-n, which is bound to auto-complete text rather than next line. This is to increase compatibility with an existing Vim configuration I was porting over into this config.

File/project navigation

Open a directory navigation buffer (this buffer has a number of useful keybindings that you can view by pressing ?)

: s-r

normal-state : ,n

Jump to file in project with fuzzy completion (Project determined by presence of source control directory, Rakefile, etc.)

: s-t

normal-state : ,t

Clear jump-to-file cache (needed if you add new files to the project while Emacs is open)

: M-s-t

normal-state : ,C-t

Jump to symbol in current file

: s-T

normal-state : ,T

Switch to another currently open buffer

normal-state : ,,

Git

Open Git status buffer for current repository (q to close). This status buffer serves as a kind of Git "control panel" and has many useful keybindings. For an overview see here

: s-ESC

normal-state : ,gs

View the commit history for the current file (q to close)

normal-state : ,gh

View blame for current file inline (q to return to normal)

normal-state : ,gb

Do a git grep in the current project

normal-state : ,gg

Testing

Verify test under cursor

rspec-mode : : C-c ,s

feature-mode, rspec-mode : normal-state : ,ss

Verify all tests in current file

rspec-mode : : C-c ,v

feature-mode, rspec-mode : normal-state : ,sv

Verify all tests in project

rspec-mode : : C-c ,a

feature-mode, rspec-mode : normal-state : ,sa

Toggle the spec under the cursor as enabled or disabled

rspec-mode : normal-state : ,st

Jump between a ruby file and it's spec or vice versa

rspec-mode, ruby-mode : normal-state : ,sg

Jump to the step definition for the step under the cursor

feature-mode : normal-state : ,sg

MISC

Start a Ruby REPL from a Ruby buffer

ruby-mode : : C-c C-s

Insert a code snippet template to fill in

normal-state : ,SPACE