.emacs file for running parallel instances is at https://gist.github.com/kaz-yos/0c7bc69d3df6a9199b4db715b9455a30

1. Spacemacs: emacs user’s first impression
Kazuki Yoshida
March 20, 2017
1 / 21

2. Who am I?
Doctoral student at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public
Health (Epidemiology & Biostatistics).
Main use of emacs in R programming and LATEX(5 years?).
Recently started using org-mode.
2 / 21

3. What is spacemacs?
A community-driven Emacs distribution: "The best editor
is neither Emacs nor Vim, it’s Emacs and Vim!"
i.e., spacemacs is a bunch of emacs configuration files
contributed by the community that transforms the vanilla
emacs to a "ready-to-use" system.
spacemacs is NOT a fork of emacs, it runs on the latest
GNU Emacs.
3 / 21

4. How to install spacemacs
Nice looking website at http://spacemacs.org/
Github repo at
https://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs
Quick start at
http://spacemacs.org/doc/QUICK_START.html
4 / 21

5. Installation: Wait, replacing .emacs.d!?
## Default installation method
git clone https://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs ~/.emacs.d
The default installation methods assumes that you use
spacemacs as a drop-in replacement.
This is unlikely to be what existing emacs users want.
Recommendation is to back up the existing .emacs.d
and move it out of the way. It’s not ideal.
5 / 21

6. Run parallel instances of spacemacs and emacs
Clone the develop branch to ~/.spacemacs.d.
git clone https://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs -b develop ~/.spacemacs.d
Create an empty ~/.spacemacs file. This will be the
user-specific configuration file. This seems to avoid
messing with the git repo.
touch ~/.spacemacs
These files are ignored by the regular emacs without an
additional trick.
6 / 21

7. ~/.emacs trick
In the emacs startup process, ~/.emacs has the highest
priority. (51.4.4 How Emacs Finds Your Init File)
We can conditionally load ~/*/init.el using ~/.emacs.
I used the name of the executable to use different folder.
My .emacs (link; or find kaz-yos on Gist)
Inspired by Running spacemacs alongside regular emacs
on emacs stack exchange.
7 / 21

8. First start up
Open Spacemacs.app if you are doing my trick.
You may experience this certificate issue. Just press A as
many times as it asks.
8 / 21

9. Default packages
A lot of default packages are installed automatically.
9 / 21

10. Fresh spacemacs
Fresh spacemacs looks pretty good already
10 / 21

11. SPC key rules!
As the name suggests, SPC serves as a prefix.
11 / 21

12. Some key bindings
SPC prefix to grouped commands. guide-key.el will
guide you.
SPC SPC corresponds to M-x, but with the helm.el
backend.
SPC h help related prefix.
SPC h l help for layers available.
SPC h T Evil tutor
SPC f file related prefix.
SPC f f for helm-find-files.
SPC f e d for editing the ~/.spacemacs configuration
file.
SPC b buffer related prefix.
SPC b b helm-mini for choosing a buffer.
SPC b d kill-this-buffer
SPC a application related prefix.
SPC a d dired (C-RET to decide)
12 / 21

13. What is a layer?
A layer can be considered as a meta-package that
organizes multiple individual packages nicely.
SPC h l will list 150 available layers that are available
currently.
http://spacemacs.org/layers/LAYERS.html
13 / 21

14. How a layer is implemented
"A configuration layer is a directory containing at least a
packages.el file which defines and configures packages to
be downloaded from Emacs package repositories using the
package.el built-in feature of Emacs."
14 / 21

15. Configuring spacemacs
~/.spacemacs is for individual configuration.
SPC SPC dotspacemacs/install overwrites
~/.spacemacs with the template.
SPC f e d (file/emacs/dotfile) opens this file for editing.
15 / 21

16. Layer configuration
Put names of layers you want in the
dotspacemacs-configuration-layers list.
SPC SPC
dotspacemacs/sync-configuration-layers to
activate the layer.
16 / 21

17. Layer example: git
If the git layer is added and the config file is sync’ed, SPC
g prefix is added.
17 / 21

18. Changing defaults
Default settings are in the dotspacemacs/init part of
~/.spacemacs.
The most important decision here is
dotspacemacs-editing-style.
18 / 21

19. User configuration beyond layers
User configuration should be in these parts of
~/.spacemacs.
dotspacemacs/user-init loads before layers.
dotspacemacs/user-config loads after layers.
19 / 21

20. Migrating existing configuration
A proper way to incorporate your pre-existing emacs
configuration is to create a custom layer. But starting
from scratch may be a better way considering the way
spacemacs differs.
https://www.reddit.com/r/emacs/comments/
4niswu/migrating_from_emacs_to_spacemacs/
20 / 21

21. Summary
Spacemacs is a distribution of emacs with nice defaults
and sophisticated layer-based configuration.
If someone is coming to emacs for the first time or
existing Evil mode user, spacemacs is highly
recommended.
For someone with highly customized emacs configuration,
the transition appears daunting.
I haven’t made the switch (yet?).
21 / 21