Must have Emacs extensions? - emacs

Question

I'm trying out http://emacspeak.sourceforge.net now that I have it running on windows. I'd like to use emacs as more than a plain text editor and was wondering what extensions/packages everyone can't live with out? The languages I use the most are Perl, Java, and some C/C++.

Answer 1

There is a pretty terrific initial setup in the EMACS Starter Kit. If you like working with plain text, look at Org-Mode. And by all means, explore the EMACS Wiki.

Answer 2

I like color theme and of course the modes for the languages I'm using.

Answer 3

I like being able to make my editor behave exactly as I want it. Consequently, I've written a bunch of packages to do tweak things to within an inch of their lives. I'll list a few at the bottom of the post. Standard packages I'd have trouble living without would include:
gnus
tnt - AOL IM client (which I help to maintain)
jabber
git-emacs
camel-case
swbuff (and my swbuff-advice extension)
dired
And here are some that I wrote that I could never, ever live without (which is why I wrote them):
whole-line-or-region - cut and paste the whole line when region is not defined
cua-lite - a lite-weight CUA package
dired-single - restrict dired to a single, reusable buffer
hobo - tramp replacement, not quite ready for prime-time
Also, as Charlie mentions, just peruse EmacsWiki whenever you get bored. You'll always find something new to try. And I read gnu.emacs.sources to see the latest and greatest that people have to offer.

Answer 4

some bits from my overly-large .emacs file:
(setq inhibit-startup-message t)
;; window maximized
(when (fboundp 'w32-send-sys-command)
(w32-send-sys-command #xf030))
;; http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki/DiredPlus
(load "dired+")
(load "w32-browser") ;; open file on current line (etc.)
;; dired stuff to open files a la Windows from Howard Melman
(defun dired-execute-file (&optional arg)
(interactive "P")
(mapcar #'(lambda (file)
(w32-shell-execute "open" (convert-standard-filename file)))
(dired-get-marked-files nil arg)))
(defun dired-mouse-execute-file (event)
"In dired, execute the file or goto directory name you click on."
(interactive "e")
(set-buffer (window-buffer (posn-window (event-end event))))
(goto-char (posn-point (event-end event)))
(if (file-directory-p (dired-get-filename))
(dired-find-file)
(dired-execute-file)))
(global-set-key [?\C-x mouse-2] 'dired-mouse-execute-file)
;; push current-line onto kill-ring
;; http://www.dotemacs.de/dotfiles/SteveMolitor.emacs.html
(defun push-line ()
"Select current line, push onto kill ring."
(interactive)
(save-excursion
(copy-region-as-kill (re-search-backward "^") (re-search-forward "$"))))
(global-set-key "\C-cp" 'push-line)
;; default groups for ibuffer
;; http://www.shellarchive.co.uk/content/emacs_tips.html#sec17
(setq ibuffer-saved-filter-groups
(quote (("default"
("dired" (mode . dired-mode))
("perl" (mode . cperl-mode))
("java" (mode . java-mode))
("planner" (or
(name . "^\\*Calendar\\*$")
(name . "diary")))
("emacs" (or
(mode . help-mode)
(mode . occur-mode)
(mode . Info-mode)
(mode . bookmark-bmenu-mode)
(name . "^\\*Apropos\\*$")
(name . "^.emacs$")
(name . "el$")
(name . "^\\*scratch\\*$")
(name . "^\\*Messages\\*$")
(name . "^\\*Completions\\*$")))
("vb" (or
(mode . visual-basic-mode)
(mode . vb-project)))
("BugTracker" (name . ".*btnet.*"))
("gnus" (or
(mode . message-mode)
(mode . bbdb-mode)
(mode . mail-mode)
(mode . gnus-group-mode)
(mode . gnus-summary-mode)
(mode . gnus-article-mode)
(name . "^\\.bbdb$")
(name . "^\\.newsrc-dribble")))))))
;; ibuffer, I like my buffers to be grouped
(add-hook 'ibuffer-mode-hook
(lambda ()
(ibuffer-switch-to-saved-filter-groups
"default")))
;; http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki/CPerlMode
;; http://www.khngai.com/emacs/perl.php
;; Use cperl-mode instead of the default perl-mode
(add-to-list 'auto-mode-alist '("\\.\\([pP][Llm]\\|al\\)\\'" . cperl-mode))
(add-to-list 'interpreter-mode-alist '("perl" . cperl-mode))
(add-to-list 'interpreter-mode-alist '("perl5" . cperl-mode))
(add-to-list 'interpreter-mode-alist '("miniperl" . cperl-mode))
;; daily-tip (or whenever Emacs is launched)
;; http://emacs.wordpress.com/2007/06/21/tip-of-the-day/
(defun totd ()
(interactive)
(random t) ;; seed with time-of-day
(with-output-to-temp-buffer "*Tip of the day*"
(let* ((commands (loop for s being the symbols
when (commandp s) collect s))
(command (nth (random (length commands)) commands)))
(princ
(concat "Your tip for the day is:\n"
"========================\n\n"
(describe-function command)
"\n\nInvoke with:\n\n"
(with-temp-buffer
(where-is command t)
(buffer-string)))))))
;; swap slashes and backslashes in current line -- useful for converting paths to be Windows-readable
;;http://www.xsteve.at/prg/emacs/.emacs.txt
(defun xsteve-exchange-slash-and-backslash ()
"Exchanges / with \ and in the current line or in the region when a region-mark is active."
(interactive)
(save-match-data
(save-excursion
(let ((replace-count 0)
(eol-pos (if mark-active (region-end) (progn (end-of-line) (point))))
(bol-pos (if mark-active (region-beginning) (progn (beginning-of-line) (point)))))
(goto-char bol-pos)
(while (re-search-forward "/\\|\\\\" eol-pos t)
(setq replace-count (+ replace-count 1))
(cond ((string-equal (match-string 0) "/") (replace-match "\\\\" nil nil))
((string-equal (match-string 0) "\\") (replace-match "/" nil nil)))
(message (format "%d changes made." replace-count)))))))
(global-set-key (kbd "M-\\") 'xsteve-exchange-slash-and-backslash)
Check out: dotfiles.org/.emacs
EmacsWiki: Category DotEmacs
SO: What's in YOUR .emacs?
some other packages not referenced above:
Elscreen -
W3m (emacs-friendly text-based browser)