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https://github.com/rdallasgray/graphene

A set of defaults for Emacs, for refugees from GUI text editors.
https://github.com/rdallasgray/graphene

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A set of defaults for Emacs, for refugees from GUI text editors.

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README 

        
[![Melpa Status](http://melpa.org/packages/graphene-badge.svg)](http://melpa.org/#/graphene)



# Graphene

Graphene is a 'starter kit' for Emacs, in the vein of

[Prelude](https://github.com/bbatsov/prelude) or

[emacs-starter-kit](https://github.com/technomancy/emacs-starter-kit).



![Graphene screenshot](http://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/graphene/graphene.png)



It provides:

- Some sensible defaults

- A clean look

- The basics you need to make Emacs functionality discoverable

- A set of third-party packages that set the standard for the

  essential functionality they provide

- Some plumbing to make the above 'just work', seamlessly and silently



Although Graphene is intended to help users of GUI editors such as

Textmate or Sublime Text find their feet quickly, it is not an attempt

to turn Emacs into a sparkly GUI editor or IDE. It is minimal,

lightweight, and respectful of the history and character of Emacs.



# News

Graphene 0.9 depends on [project-persist-drawer](https://github.com/rdallasgray/project-persist-drawer) and [ppd-sr-speedbar](https://github.com/rdallasgray/ppd-sr-speedbar) to hook a drawer into project activity.



Custom variables are extended and refined -- see the relevant info documentation in the `graphene` group.



## Sensible defaults

Among many other things, Graphene turns off the Emacs startup screen,

turns on

[line wrapping](http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/VisualLineMode), turns

off the scroll bars and tool bar (and menu bar on non-OS X systems),

moves automatic backups into the temp directory -- generally clears

the way of small annoyances and makes things look and work the way

you'd expect.



## A clean look

Graphene includes its own 'meta-theme' which works hard to unify the

look of the editor across a range of packages. This theme loads on top

of any 'normal' theme you want to load, so you can still choose

exactly how you want your Emacs to look.



It also sets more pleasant and modern default fonts appropriate to the

host platform (which can be overridden), and maintains window size and

position across sessions.



## Discoverability

At first Emacs can appear a little opaque; it is in fact a very

discoverable environment, and Graphene tries to turn this up to

maximum, by using

[Ido](http://emacswiki.org/emacs/InteractivelyDoThings) everywhere,

[Smex](http://www.emacswiki.org/Smex) for running extended commands,

and [Company](http://company-mode.github.io) for in-editor

completion. These allow gradual discovery of Emacs' functionality, and

gradual building of speed and fluidity.



## Essential packages

The collection of packages Graphene includes prevents you having to

research and discover on your own what the Emacs community has largely

decided on as best-in-class packages.



- [project-persist](https://github.com/rdallasgray/project-persist)

  Disclaimer: this is my own project, and is perhaps the exception to the

  above rule. It provides simple project loading and saving;

  Graphene adds a project 'drawer' using

  [Sr-Speedbar](https://github.com/emacsmirror/sr-speedbar)

- [Smartparens](https://github.com/Fuco1/smartparens)

  For auto-pairing

- [Company](http://company-mode.github.io)

  For code completion

- [Web-mode](https://github.com/fxbois/web-mode)

  For mixed-mode editing

- [Smex](http://www.emacswiki.org/Smex)

  For command completion

- [Ido](http://emacswiki.org/emacs/InteractivelyDoThings)

  For general completion

- [Flycheck](https://github.com/flycheck/flycheck)

  For error checking



## Installation

Graphene is available on [Melpa](http://melpa.org).



If you don't already have your Emacs set up to use the package

installation system, let me gently point you to

[Pallet](https://github.com/rdallasgray/pallet).



Anyway -- your default initialisation file is in (old-school)

`~/.emacs` or (new-school, and where it *should* be)

`~/.emacs.d/init.el`. First, you need to set up the Emacs package

system and tell it about Melpa, so create one of those files if it

doesn't already exist, and add these lines to the file:



```

;; Require Emacs' package functionality

(require 'package)



;; Add the Melpa repository to the list of package sources

(add-to-list 'package-archives '("melpa" . "http://melpa.org/packages/") t)



;; Initialise the package system.

(package-initialize)

```



Then either select those lines and do `M-x eval-region`, or restart

Emacs. After that, do `M-x list-packages`, search for

'graphene' (either manually or using `C-s`), mark it for installation

by pressing 'i', and install it by pressing 'x'.



It will take a while to install itself and its various dependencies, and will

probably raise a few compilation issues. You can probably safely ignore

these. Once it's done, add this to your initialisation file:



```

(require 'graphene)

```

Restart Emacs, and away you go.



## How do I ... ?

All of the packages Graphene includes are well-documented, and I'll

refer you to them rather than retread that documentation here. That

said, there are some Graphene-specific things you need to know.



### Keybindings

Graphene creates some new keybindings, and alters some existing ones:



- `C-x k` always kills the active buffer, rather than asking you which

  one you want to kill

- `C-x C-k` kills the default buffer and closes its window

- `C-c n` creates a new buffer

- `C-c N` creates a new instance of Emacs

- `C-;` adds a semicolon at the end of the line

- `M-RET` creates a newline below the current line and moves to it

- `C-M-;` comments or uncomments the current line

- `C->` increases the height of the current window

- `C-<` decreases it

- `C-.` increases the width of the current window

- `C-,` decreases it

- `C-c s` selects the Speedbar window



Graphene used to bind the standard Mac keys for various purposes

(Command-n for new buffer, for instance), but no longer does.



### Projects

[project-persist](https://github.com/rdallasgray/project-persist) uses

the following keybindings:



- `C-c P n` to create a new project

- `C-c P f` to find an existing project

- `C-c P k` to close the current project

- `C-c P d` to delete an existing project



### Customising

Try `M-x customize-group` and type 'graphene', for an idea of what can

be customised; you may wish to set these programmatically in your init

file, instead.



## Contributions and feedback

Contributions to Graphene are very welcome, as are feedback and bug

reports. The latter can be raised via the Issues section.



To contribute code, fork and clone the repo. If you want to be able to

build the package, run `git submodule update --init`,

which will install [el.mk](http://github.com/rdallasgray/el.mk), then

[install Cask](https://github.com/cask/cask) and run `cask install`.



When you've created your feature, make a pull request against master

in this repo.