‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾
Welcome to the
System Crafters Newsletter!
Issue #011 - November 11, 2024
by David Wilson
-- This newsletter is best viewed with a monospace font! --
-- If your e-mail client can't do that, use this URL: --
-- https://systemcrafters.net/newsletter/sc-news-011.html --
-- Read it in Emacs with `M-x eww`! --
== Table of Contents ==
1. Introduction
2. Crafting a Minimal Terminal Emacs Configuration
3. Take the Guix User and Contributor Survey!
4. Tip of the Week - Using Logos For Presentations
5. Crafter News
6. Upcoming Git Workshops!
7. Closing== Introduction ==
Welcome to the System Crafters Newsletter!
It's been just over 5 months now since the last issue. I was quite busy this
year working on the Guile Scheme course, new videos, and some other stuff behind
the scenes so the newsletter went on a bit of a hiatus.
Since the last issue, there have been a few new videos on the System Crafters
YouTube channel:
- [Never Miss a Task Again: Tagging Org Mode TODOs by Context]
- [5 Custom Org Mode Agenda Views for Productivity]
- [How to Organize Your Guix Configuration]
- [Why I Choose Guix Over NixOS]
- [Getting Started with Guix Home]
Which one was your favorite? I'm looking forward to making a lot more videos
about Guix, Git, and other interesting topics for the rest of this year and into
2025, so your feedback is valuable!
If you'd like to tell me your thoughts about anything in this issue, please feel
free to reply directly to this e-mail or comment on this System Crafters Forum
thread:
https://forum.systemcrafters.net/t/system-crafters-newsletter-issue-011/
------
Links:
[Never Miss a Task Again: Tagging Org Mode TODOs by Context]
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GP8uOU6SSyk>
[5 Custom Org Mode Agenda Views for Productivity]
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9rpQA6O3aM>
[How to Organize Your Guix Configuration]
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGGvoabfvkM>
[Why I Choose Guix Over NixOS] <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiAMRXYIri0>
[Getting Started with Guix Home] <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRL3J6rfb3w>
== Crafting a Minimal Terminal Emacs Configuration ==
On a recent live stream called [Making the Most of Terminal Emacs] ([video]), I
described what I consider to be the value of using a lightly-configured Emacs in
the terminal.
As the stream progressed, we hacked together a simple configuration that would
be a good starting point to streamline a "vanilla" Emacs experience when used in
the terminal.
Since that stream I've been somewhat obsessed with the idea of building a
minimal base Emacs configuration that is terminal-first and replicates as much
of my usual workflow as possible while only relying on minimally-configured,
built-in Emacs features.
I've started writing a brand new Emacs configuration from scratch that brings
together these ideas with everything I've learned over the past few years and a
couple other config rewrites.
The most important goal was to produce a single `init.el' file that I can easily
`curl' onto a new machine and load up to be productive immediately. This can be
useful when I need to SSH into a remote machine, use Emacs in a TTY (like during
a Guix install) or inside of a container environment.
The rest of the functionality I need on a day to day basis should be provided as
a set of optional modules that will be loaded conditionally on different
machines. These modules may actually pull in community packages as needed to
fulfill the use cases that they're designed for.
I also decided to go back to a literate configuration format again because,
despite the challenges it can pose, it still feels more convenient to manage
things this way. It also enables me to write a lot about my rationale for the
configuration in a convenient way!
For that reason, It seemed more effective to write up my goals and motivations
there instead of directly in the newsletter, so check out the new `Emacs.org' at
one of the following links to learn more about the configuration and see it for
yourself:
- https://codeberg.org/daviwil/dotfiles/src/branch/master/Emacs.org
- https://github.com/daviwil/dotfiles/blob/master/Emacs.org
You can also check out the standalone `init.el' file here:
- https://codeberg.org/daviwil/dotfiles/src/branch/master/emacs/init.el
If you want to give this configuration a try without replacing your existing
configuration and you have Emacs 29 or above, download the `init.el' file I
linked above into a folder like `~/minimal-emacs' and use the `--init-directory'
parameter to set that directory as the `user-emacs-directory':
,----
|
| emacs -nw --init-directory ~/minimal-emacs
|
`----
Do you have any other cool tips for minimal Emacs configurations, especially for
terminal use? Let us know on the forum post for this newsletter:
https://forum.systemcrafters.net/t/system-crafters-newsletter-issue-011/
------
Links:
[Making the Most of Terminal Emacs]
<https://systemcrafters.net/live-streams/october-18-2024/>
[video] <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjMTNSdhUvk>
== Take the Guix User and Contributor Survey! ==
Want to give feedback on your experience as a Guix user and influence future
efforts on the project? If so, spend 10 minutes and fill out the [Guix User and
Contributor Survey]!
More information can be found on [this Guix blog post] by [Steve George]
(futurile).
I've filled it out and you should too!
------
Links:
[Guix User and Contributor Survey] <https://guix.limesurvey.net/>
[this Guix blog post]
<https://guix.gnu.org/en/blog/2024/guix-user-contributor-survey-2024/>
[Steve George] <https://www.futurile.net/>
== Tip of the Week - Using Logos For Presentations ==
[Logos] is yet another useful Emacs package by Protesilaos Stavrou (prot) which
provides some convenient behavior for focusing on a subset of the content of a
buffer. This comes in handy when you want to make a presentation of something
like an Org Mode file.
The interesting part about Logos is that it also provides capabilities for
narrowing to specific sections of *any* kind of file as long as there is a
common pattern in each file that can be identified in a page break, like a
certain comment syntax in a source code file.
As is common with Prot's packages, Logos is pretty straightforward and doesn't
do /everything/ you can imagine, so it will require a bit of configuration to
approximate how I normally use it for presentations.
Here is a simple configuration for Logos that uses some of the tricks I discuss
in the [Secrets of My Emacs Presentation Style] video. Take a look and then
I'll explain each part:
,----
|
| (defun dw/present-prepare-slide ()
| (when (and logos-focus-mode
| (derived-mode-p 'org-mode))
| (org-overview)
| (org-show-entry)
| (org-show-children)))
|
| (defun dw/present-toggle ()
| "Configures the buffer for a presentation."
| (interactive)
| (if logos-focus-mode
| (progn
| (setq-local face-remapping-alist nil)
| (widen)
| (logos-focus-mode 0))
|
| (setq-local face-remapping-alist '((default (:height 1.5) default)
| (org-document-title (:height 1.75) org-document-title)
| (org-block-begin-line (:height 0.7) org-block)))
|
| ;; Narrow the buffer and start focus mode
| (logos-narrow-dwim)
| (logos-focus-mode 1)
|
| ;; Prepare the slide
| (dw/present-prepare-slide)))
|
| (use-package logos
| :bind (([remap narrow-to-region] . logos-narrow-dwim)
| ([remap forward-page] . logos-forward-page-dwim)
| ([remap backward-page] . logos-backward-page-dwim))
| :custom
| (logos-outlines-are-pages t)
| (logos-scroll-lock t)
| :config
| (setf (alist-get 'org-mode logos-outline-regexp-alist) "^\\*\\{1,2\\} +")
| (add-hook 'logos-page-motion-hook #'dw/present-prepare-slide))
|
`----
The `use-package logos' expression sets the stage for everything. To make sure
that Logos can treat both Org and source code files as presentations, I set
`logos-outlines-are-pages' to `t'.
I also set `logos-scroll-lock' to `t' so that the whole page scrolls when I move
the cursor up and down to make motion more consistent for presentations. This
causes `scroll-lock-mode' to be activated when I turn on `logos-focus-mode'.
By default, Logos will treat /all/ Org headings as slides, so I've used `setf'
to customize `logos-outline-regexp-alist' to set the `org-mode' regex to limit
the number of heading starts to 2. You can change the `2' in that string to `3'
or any other value if you have a specific level that you'd only like to see
treated as a slide.
I also add `dw/present-prepare-slide' to `logos-page-motion-hook' to customize
how each "slide" is set up whenever I switch between them. More on that later.
For the key bindings, I follow the recommended configuration for Logos and remap
`narrow-to-region', `forward-page' (`C-x ]') and `backward-page' (`C-x [') so
that Logos provides improved behavior for those default commands.
The `forward/backward-page' bindings are especially useful because they help you
navigate through the headings of your files faster even when you aren't
displaying them as presentations!
The `dw/present-toggle' command will turn on or off `logos-focus-mode' and
narrow or widen the buffer depending on its current state. Narrowing is what
causes the buffer to be focused on the contents of a particular heading. I also
tweak the face configuration for the buffer to make the text slightly larger for
presentations.
The `dw/present-prepare-slide' function will collapse all children of the
current slide upon entry, but only if it's an `org-mode' buffer and
`logos-focus-mode' is active. You definitely don't want this happening when
you're trying to navigate around an Org Mode buffer outside of a presentation!
There's probably a lot more to say about Logos configuration but I'll leave it
there for now. Feel free to share your own Logos tweaks in the forum thread for
this issue!
------
Links:
[Logos] <https://protesilaos.com/emacs/logos>
[Secrets of My Emacs Presentation Style]
<https://systemcrafters.net/emacs-tips/presentations-with-org-present/>
== Crafter News ==
Here are some interesting news items in the broader sphere of system crafting.
All of today's items come from members of the System Crafters community! If
you'd like to see your posts mentioned here, consider joining the Craftering:
https://craftering.shom.dev
* Using Emacs for Container Development
Here's a useful article by Rahul Juliato (Lionyx in #systemcrafters) which
describes the workflow he uses for hacking on projects inside of Docker
containers using Emacs!
https://www.rahuljuliato.com/posts/emacs-docker-podman
This workflow uses a number of Emacs packages that make it convenient to
create and manage Docker containers without touching the command line. He
even goes through how you can manage more complicated apps with Docker
Compose.
This information is very useful if you have to work with Docker containers
frequently. It should be of particular interest to Guix users who need to use
containers to work on projects for development platforms that are not well
supported in Guix!
* Denote Project Tasks
In this detailed article, Ben Whitley (PurplG) describes a task management
workflow using Denote, Org Mode, and a cool Org feature called Dynamic Blocks
(dblocks) which enables him to create individual notes for project tasks and
aggregate their details into the overall project note file.
If you want to see another interesting angle for task and project management
with Denote, check this out:
https://purplg.dev/posts/denote-project-tasks/
* A Journey Into Scheme
Here's a nice post by Glenn Thompson (glenneth) where he details his journey
into learning Guile Scheme for the purpose of building his own Stow-like
symlink management tool called `stash'.
If you don't consider yourself a programmer but aspire to learn to use
programming languages like Scheme, check out Glenn's article for inspiration!
https://glenneth.srht.site/a-journey-into-scheme.html
* Customizing Scheme Indentation in Emacs
Yuval Langer (cow_2001) has just published a tutorial on how you can customize
indentation of your own custom syntaxes in Emacs by tweaking the
`scheme-indent-function'.
This is a pretty useful technique for all Lisps where you write custom macros
that may need to be indented more like a syntax than a normal expression!
https://kaka.farm/posts/adding-extra-syntax-indentation-to-gnu-emacs-scheme-mode.html
== Upcoming Git Workshops! ==
I'm excited to announce that I am kicking off a new learning experience in the
month of December: a one-day, 4-hour workshop where I will teach you the Git
techniques used by expert hackers!
"Git Good: From Basics to Beyond in 4 Hours" is a live workshop experience where
I will teach you the fundamentals of Git beyond the basic commands so that you
actually learn what is happening "under the hood."
I'll also show you a number of practical techniques with hands-on examples so
that you can try them out for yourself and ask questions during the event.
Here is a sample of the topics we will cover:
- Unlocking the Git conceptual model: commits, hashes, and refs
- Discovering what Git stores locally
- Understanding remotes and how to use them effectively
- Understanding merge vs rebase, when to use them, and how to resolve conflicts
- Cleaning up commits with amends and interactive rebase
- Fixing commit mistakes with `git reset` and `git cherry-pick`
- ... and other best practices for working with Git repositories in professional
and open source projects!
For specific dates and more information, check out the event page here:
https://systemcrafters.net/courses/git-good-workshop/
If you have any questions about the workshop, please feel free to reply directly
to this e-mail.
Hope to see you there!
== Closing ==
I hope you enjoyed this issue of the System Crafters Newsletter! I always want
to improve and streamline the content so please send me your thoughts and
feedback by replying directly to this e-mail.
Until next time, Happy Hacking!
--
David Wilson
[email protected]