I just recovered one minor setting from my pre-#spacemacs #emacs configuration.
Shift + click to select text:
;; select with shift + click
(global-set-key (kbd "S-<down-mouse-1>") #'mouse-set-mark)
Not usually needed, but good to have when you're copypasting from the editor to somewhere else.
People of Emacs and Org Mode:
Are there any packages to manage a project? I have projectile, but that's more for coding. I mean like a house move or fence build kinda project: something that has multiple todos and will take a protracted amount of time.
Failing any specific package for that, what about a org template for said project?
TYIA
I've had many Take Two moments with #emacs. From trying out #vi emulation that led to try #spacemacs to my bespoke configuration. I think I may blog about meow, my tempting new #taketwo.
https://christiantietze.de/posts/2025/06/emacs-carnival-2025-06-take-two/
text ed nerdery poll
I have decided I'm going to try and make a minimal Emacs setup from scratch rather than use Spacemacs following @daviwil videos "Emacs from Scratch". He brings in a lot of the functionality I like from Spacemacs so this will probably be better.
It should also help me read up on using Orgmode and not worrying about the keycombos (although as advised, I have started using M-x a lot more).
Spent a good couple of hours trying to get my head around Org Mode again. I think I can use it to get organised with work and (HR willing) my upcoming Software Development course. If I can get my head round it, I might even treat myself to the new @frameworkcomputer 12 computer.
It's a shame most of the tutorials are 3-6 years old. Hard to find something that teaches Spacemacs and Org Mode that's not so old most of the key bindings and settings have changed.
Me está cayendo mejor #spacemacs que la mayoría de las personas
@asltf Overall I find lazyvim to provide a more feature rich start than spacemacs but expect things to break quite often. #spacemacs #lazyvim
I've been using #Emacs for the last couple of months now for all my daily work (I'm a translator, not a programmer) and here's a thought.
Of course, I stumbled upon rather contrasting recommendations:
1) Don't use vanilla, use #DoomEmacs or #Spacemacs. Preferably Doom. Well, I tried this in the past, but it didn't stick. It''s everything and the kitchen sink, but you generally don't know if you really need all this. So you study Doom, not Emacs. I might get back to it in the future. I did prefer Spacemacs, though (aesthetically).
2) Use vanilla and spend ten years building your own config. This sounds fairly reasonable, because you naturally learn the program itself, not its plugins. But it's a huge timesink when you start to "build your own Emacs". So you'd end up with DoomEmacs, but badly written, slow and constantly breaking on every update.
I went with the second alternative and here's what I got for my personal usecase:
me@desktop:~$ grep "use-package" .emacs.d/init.el | wc -l
8
Eight packages. howm, inkpot-theme, which-key, avy, counsel, general, annotate, markdown-mode. I didn't even bother to make annotate work for now, so it's 7. And I don't really use avy, so it could be 6.
That's all I need for now. For several months I haven't had a moment yet when I thought that I need something else or that my workflow is getting somewhat cumbersome.
Of course, this doesn't mean that my setup is perfect. But my point is: configuring your own Emacs could be way easier than you might think (depending on the workflow), and you probably don't need to fight a bazillion packages waging civil war in your config file.
Look at my #emacs / #spacemacs , lol.
@tymoty vanilla emacs může být složitá na nějaké prvotní konfigurace, podívej se na #doomemacs nebo #spacemacs - dostaneš předkonfigurovaný setup podobný klasickým IDE. Je tam i evil mod pro lidi co přichází z vim.
https://docs.doomemacs.org/
https://github.com/doomemacs/doomemacs
@profoundlynerdy Welcome to this great (and potentially large) rabbit hole. 
As a daily vim+Emacs user for decades, you probably won't agree with me (right from you system 1 reaction) when I tell you that Emacs + Org-mode are totally different tools you most probably will never have with vim (or anywhere else).
I'm using #vim + #Emacs - both - with their native bindings. I'd really recommend you to try Emacs - optionally with vim bindings (there are more than one option). #Spacemacs seems to be popular as a modern configuration starterpack.
For #Orgmode, I've written many articles. That's my starting point:
https://karl-voit.at/orgmode/
Trust me: in the long run, it's worth any switching effort. You'll get a trusted, flexible #PIM companion for many decades. And you can use vim for normal editing tasks in parallel, like I do.
Cómo empezar con Emacs: Distribuciones
La experiencia inicial para quienes prueban Emacs por primera vez puede ser un poco intimidante. Una posible alternativa para facilitar el proceso: distribuciones.
https://picandocodigo.net/2020/como-empezar-con-emacs-distribuciones/
Well, I now have a kind of usable vanilla emacs config, and the discovery that spacemacs actually has an 'emacs' mode which seems to permanently disable most of evil's annoyances. So, I think I'll slowly continue improve my vanilla config but have a good fallback.
@danderzei Hi, I finished reading the book yesterday and here is my short review.
First, thanks again, your book arrived at the perfect moment for me, as I was starting think about migrating from #Obsidian to #Emacs. This book was a real help to get me started. As you said in chapter 9, #EWS is a great way to save some time and have tools needed to be able to work immediately after learning the basics of Emacs.
Not everyone has the time and energy to learn as well as to start tinkering with a new software, since these can be necessary when starting from a vanilla configuration. I love to play with tools but I'm not sure if I would have been able to make the transition to Emacs without the foundation you created with EWS. For example, you implemented many quality of life improvement to make sure every part of the writing process are made as easy as possible, something that can be hard to produce for a new user who is not sure of the workflow to implement. For example, when I entertained the idea of moving to Emacs, I was not sure if #Denote or #Org-Roam was the best option for me, but I can see now that choosing between either was just a small step, and that the configuration you offer with EWS is very well crafted and functional.
I appreciate the fact that you stayed as close as possible to the default Emacs experience. This way, a new user can start writing with the different tools you offered right for the start while having the space to eventually add new packages and play with the configuration. I remember playing with #Spacemacs years ago and it was overwhelming to make modifications to this distribution, even though the documentation was good.
Your book makes learning Emacs pleasant, since it is not written in a dry way as your usual manual. Playing with the software at the same time is the best way to read your book and I now feel confident using it for my own projects. External resources like Prot's channel and @daviwil Systemcrafters.net were really complimentary to reading your book, but I don't see this as a negative point. Maybe pointing to more online resources could be a good idea for the newcomers.
I must say, I know how to search info online and I like to deep into things, so I don't know if I'm the best candidate to review this book as I think you wanted to offer a distribution for someone entirely new to Emacs, but still, I thank you a lot for this rich book. I've already started changing some configurations and I don't feel the need at all to switch to something with #Doomemacs (even though I will definitely try to implement Evil mode in EWS).
A final word to say I also appreciated the integration of well known tools in EWS. In addition to being a good platform for writing, it integrates other ideas like #GTD and it's possible to come with some knowledge of #Zettelkasten, #PKM or Second brain systems and methodology and have them work out of the box. It could be a good idea to point it out in the introduction so people familiar with those will be even more motivated to learn about EWS and read until then end.
Thanks again for this project! I hope I will be able to contribute in some ways in the future to some of those projects that were leveraged to make EWS possible, or maybe to EWS by itself. I look forward diving deeper into it!
@shipwreckt I really never expected to become an #emacs user. Vim keybindings are wired pretty hard in my muscle memory but I've been using #spacemacs (https://cmdln.org/2023/03/13/reflecting-on-my-history-with-org-mode-in-2023/) for ~8 years. Org-mode was my reason.
I'm on GNU Emacs 29.2.50 that I build myself with native compilation and #mu version 1.8.13 (which I believe installs 1.8.14 mu4e). I'm also running #spacemacs develop version which I know ads another layer of complexity ...
I'm a big Vim user, and I have tried Emacs with the Evil Vim bindings, but now I'm looking to try Spacemacs. That might do it for me.
#vim #emacs #spacemacs #texteditors #linux
Hmm, you know, I don't think I've ever even seen the names of the people behind spacemacs...
Well, whoever you people are, thank you..you made it so emacs was something I started to actually use. Before stumbling over spacemacs, I'd tried emacs a few times and decided that I wasn't really interested in it's keybindings.
People are always complaining about #emacs startup time, especially on macOS.
I might be just lucky, but this is what I have with my fairly vanilla #spacemacs config:
Trentskunk
