From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Tim Cross Subject: Re: (gnus-icalendar-org-setup) not evaluated in .emacs? Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2017 08:11:19 +1000 Message-ID: <87lglabapk.fsf@gmail.com> References: <87a81x3e8n.fsf@hornfels.zedat.fu-berlin.de> <87wp517kut.fsf@t3610> <871sn91iqc.fsf@hornfels.zedat.fu-berlin.de> <877ewvdpmz.fsf@pinto.chemeng.ucl.ac.uk> <87mv5rkodt.fsf@hornfels.zedat.fu-berlin.de> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Return-path: Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:54128) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1duQjr-0008Fi-R3 for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Tue, 19 Sep 2017 18:11:32 -0400 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1duQjq-0001fU-Kg for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Tue, 19 Sep 2017 18:11:31 -0400 In-reply-to: <87mv5rkodt.fsf@hornfels.zedat.fu-berlin.de> List-Id: "General discussions about Org-mode." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sender: "Emacs-orgmode" To: Loris Bennett Cc: info-gnus-english@gnu.org, emacs-orgmode@gnu.org 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my Emacs (both startup and runtime) and that many of my long-term emacs 'annoyances' were actually due to incorrect or outdated settings in my init file.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 Loris Bennett writes: > Eric S Fraga writes: > >> On Thursday, 14 Sep 2017 at 16:02, Loris Bennett wrote: >>> But should this kind of ordering dependency happen? Or should my >>> Customize block just be at the beginning of my .emacs rather than at the >>> end? >> >> I make sure my customizations are loaded before anything else. I have >> my customizations in a separate file and "(load custom-file)" as one of >> the first things in my Emacs init. Not the first as such as I set the >> load-path to point to the versions of packages I am using that may >> conflict with built-in ones in Emacs. > > For someone like me, who fails to spot the related variables even > within a single file, I think hiving customisation off into a separate > file might set up a few new tripwires for future me. > > Having said that, having let my .emacs grow organically (think "rampant > weeds") for 30 years, maybe I should take the shears to it. I'm just > worried that, if I started today, I might not be productive again until > the New Year :-( > > Cheers, > > Loris -- Tim Cross