Configuring Emacs is a lifelong, personal, rewarding, and frustrating pursuit. It’s easy to go overboard from the start, adding packages and tweaks all over the place.
My configuration is tailored around a few key principles:
- Emacs is fast. Keep it that way.
- Don’t install a third-party tool when a built-in one exists, unless you have a very good reason for doing so.
- Spend your time working on the work, not working on the tools.
- Don’t use a tool if you don’t understand what it’s doing (and how). Eliminate “black magic” from your toolbelt.
In pursuit of these goals, I try very hard to run a “lean”
configuration. I like the default Emacs keybindings for navigating
and editing text, so you won’t find things like Evil. M-x + a few
letters isn’t that much of a time-waster, so I don’t have a ton of
custom key mappings. All-in-all, I’m aiming to be familiar with Emacs
itself, and good at doing my daily work in it.