complete-computing-environment/text_editing_fundamental_opinions.org

Text Editing Fundamental Opinions

(provide 'cce/text-editing)

Text editing is, of course, one of the fundamental functions of a modern computer. In the last few years we've seen a surge in voice-assistant applications, and have even seen a few serviceable self-hosted privacy-preserving options like Mycroft.ai. However, I still find dactile keyboard input to be the most efficient way to convey and capture my thoughts. I have invested a lot in my physical computing inventory, working to build a set of tools which can be productive at home and on the road. I also strive in my Emacs configuration to extend the power of my environment to its limits and to my world. Most of the text-editing configuration is handled in other places, but should reference ideas here.

One thing which I want to try is to integrate the idea of SmartTabs, eventually. For now, though, tabs become four spaces.

(setq-default indent-tabs-mode nil
              tab-width 4)
(setq-default require-final-newline t)

I use Visual Line Mode in text-mode, but not in prog-mode. Either way, I disable the automatic text-wrapping mode since I am wrapping my code manually in the case of prog-mode buffers. YAML mode derives from text-mode and not prog-mode, but I generally treat it as data.

really what I need is an Emacs 'data-mode' maybe. 🤔

(defun cce/text-mode-hook ()
  (visual-line-mode 1)
  (auto-fill-mode -1))
(add-hook 'text-mode-hook #'cce/text-mode-hook)
(diminish 'visual-line-mode)

(defun cce/prog-mode-hook ()
  (visual-line-mode -1)
  (auto-fill-mode -1))
(add-hook 'text-mode-hook #'cce/text-mode-hook)
(add-hook 'yaml-mode-hook #'cce/text-mode-hook)

Since I will be in Visual Line Mode when I am I in text-mode, refit Evil Mode to use visual line commands so that they properly traverse long paragraphs of text. I want to try to use things like avy-mode more and more often, and to use these sorts of movement less often.

More to come…