16. Your `.emacs' File

"You don't have to like Emacs to like it" -- this seemingly paradoxical statement is the secret of GNU Emacs. The plain, `out of the box' Emacs is a generic tool. Most people who use it, customize it to suit themselves.

GNU Emacs is mostly written in Emacs Lisp; this means that by writing expressions in Emacs Lisp you can change or extend Emacs.

Emacs' Default Configuration

There are those who appreciate Emacs' default configuration. After all, Emacs starts you in C mode when you edit a C file, starts you in Fortran mode when you edit a Fortran file, and starts you in Fundamental mode when you edit an unadorned file. This all makes sense, if you do not know who is going to use Emacs. Who knows what a person hopes to do with an unadorned file? Fundamental mode is the right default for such a file, just as C mode is the right default for editing C code. But when you do know who is going to use Emacs--you, yourself--then it makes sense to customize Emacs.

For example, I seldom want Fundamental mode when I edit an otherwise undistinguished file; I want Text mode. This is why I customize Emacs: so it suits me.

You can customize and extend Emacs by writing or adapting a `~/.emacs' file. This is your personal initialization file; its contents, written in Emacs Lisp, tell Emacs what to do.(11)

A `~/.emacs' file contains Emacs Lisp code. You can write this code yourself; or you can use Emacs' customize feature to write the code for you. You can combine your own expressions and auto-written Customize expressions in your `.emacs' file.

(I myself prefer to write my own expressions, except for those, particularly fonts, that I find easier to manipulate using the customize command. I combine the two methods.)

Most of this chapter is about writing expressions yourself. It describes a simple `.emacs' file; for more information, see section `The Init File' in The GNU Emacs Manual, and section `The Init File' in The GNU Emacs Lisp Reference Manual.

16.1 Site-wide Initialization Files

In addition to your personal initialization file, Emacs automatically loads various site-wide initialization files, if they exist. These have the same form as your `.emacs' file, but are loaded by everyone.

Two site-wide initialization files, `site-load.el' and `site-init.el', are loaded into Emacs and then `dumped' if a `dumped' version of Emacs is created, as is most common. (Dumped copies of Emacs load more quickly. However, once a file is loaded and dumped, a change to it does not lead to a change in Emacs unless you load it yourself or re-dump Emacs. See section `Building Emacs' in The GNU Emacs Lisp Reference Manual, and the `INSTALL' file.)

Three other site-wide initialization files are loaded automatically each time you start Emacs, if they exist. These are `site-start.el', which is loaded before your `.emacs' file, and `default.el', and the terminal type file, which are both loaded after your `.emacs' file.

Settings and definitions in your `.emacs' file will overwrite conflicting settings and definitions in a `site-start.el' file, if it exists; but the settings and definitions in a `default.el' or terminal type file will overwrite those in your `.emacs' file. (You can prevent interference from a terminal type file by setting term-file-prefix to nil. See section A Simple Extension.)

The `INSTALL' file that comes in the distribution contains descriptions of the `site-init.el' and `site-load.el' files.

The `loadup.el', `startup.el', and `loaddefs.el' files control loading. These files are in the `lisp' directory of the Emacs distribution and are worth perusing.

The `loaddefs.el' file contains a good many suggestions as to what to put into your own `.emacs' file, or into a site-wide initialization file.

16.2 Specifying Variables using defcustom

You can specify variables using defcustom so that you and others can then can use Emacs' customize feature to set their values. (You cannot use customize to write function definitions; but you can write defuns in your `.emacs' file. Indeed, you can write any Lisp expression in your `.emacs' file.)

The customize feature depends on the defcustom special form. Although you can use defvar or setq for variables that users set, the defcustom special form is designed for the job.

You can use your knowledge of defvar for writing the first three arguments for defcustom. The first argument to defcustom is the name of the variable. The second argument is the variable's initial value, if any; and this value is set only if the value has not already been set. The third argument is the documentation.

The fourth and subsequent arguments to defcustom specify types and options; these are not featured in defvar. (These arguments are optional.)

Each of these arguments consists of a keyword followed by a value. Each keyword starts with the character :.

For example, the customizable user option variable text-mode-hook looks like this:

(defcustom text-mode-hook nil
  "Normal hook run when entering Text mode and many related modes."
  :type 'hook
  :options '(turn-on-auto-fill flyspell-mode)
  :group 'data)

The name of the variable is text-mode-hook; it has no default value; and its documentation string tells you what it does.

The :type keyword tells Emacs what kind of data text-mode-hook should be set to and how to display the value in a Customization buffer.

The :options keyword specifies a suggested list of values for the variable. Currently, you can use :options only for a hook. The list is only a suggestion; it is not exclusive; a person who sets the variable may set it to other values; the list shown following the :options keyword is intended to offer convenient choices to a user.

Finally, the :group keyword tells the Emacs Customization command in which group the variable is located. This tells where to find it.

For more information, see section `Writing Customization Definitions' in The GNU Emacs Lisp Reference Manual.

Consider text-mode-hook as an example.

There are two ways to customize this variable. You can use the customization command or write the appropriate expressions yourself.

Using the customization command, you can type:

M-x customize

and find that the group for editing files of data is called `data'. Enter that group. Text Mode Hook is the first member. You can click on its various options to set the values. After you click on the button to

Save for Future Sessions

Emacs will write an expression into your `.emacs' file. It will look like this:

(custom-set-variables
  ;; custom-set-variables was added by Custom --
  ;;                           don't edit or cut/paste it!
  ;; Your init file should contain only one such instance.
 '(text-mode-hook (quote (turn-on-auto-fill text-mode-hook-identify))))

(The text-mode-hook-identify function tells toggle-text-mode-auto-fill which buffers are in Text mode.)

In spite of the warning, you certainly may edit, cut, and paste the expression! I do all time. The purpose of the warning is to scare those who do not know what they are doing, so they do not inadvertently generate an error.

The custom-set-variables works somewhat differently than a setq. While I have never learned the differences, I do modify the custom-set-variables expressions in my `.emacs' file by hand: I make the changes in what appears to me to be a reasonable manner and have not had any problems. Others prefer to use the Customization command and let Emacs do the work for them.

Another custom-set-... function is custom-set-faces. This function sets the various font faces. Over time, I have set a considerable number of faces. Some of the time, I re-set them using customize; other times, I simply edit the custom-set-faces expression in my `.emacs' file itself.

The second way to customize your text-mode-hook is to set it yourself in your `.emacs' file using code that has nothing to do with the custom-set-... functions.

When you do this, and later use customize, you will see a message that says

this option has been changed outside the customize buffer.

This message is only a warning. If you click on the button to

Save for Future Sessions

Emacs will write a custom-set-... expression near the end of your `.emacs' file that will be evaluated after your hand-written expression. It will, therefore, overrule your hand-written expression. No harm will be done. When you do this, however, be careful to remember which expression is active; if you forget, you may confuse yourself.

So long as you remember where the values are set, you will have no trouble. In any event, the values are always set in your initialization file, which is usually called `.emacs'.

I myself use customize for hardly anything. Mostly, I write expressions myself.

16.3 Beginning a `.emacs' File

When you start Emacs, it loads your `.emacs' file unless you tell it not to by specifying `-q' on the command line. (The emacs -q command gives you a plain, out-of-the-box Emacs.)

A `.emacs' file contains Lisp expressions. Often, these are no more than expressions to set values; sometimes they are function definitions.

See section `The Init File `~/.emacs'' in The GNU Emacs Manual, for a short description of initialization files.

This chapter goes over some of the same ground, but is a walk among extracts from a complete, long-used `.emacs' file--my own.

The first part of the file consists of comments: reminders to myself. By now, of course, I remember these things, but when I started, I did not.

;;;; Bob's .emacs file
; Robert J. Chassell
; 26 September 1985

Look at that date! I started this file a long time ago. I have been adding to it ever since.

; Each section in this file is introduced by a
; line beginning with four semicolons; and each
; entry is introduced by a line beginning with
; three semicolons.

This describes the usual conventions for comments in Emacs Lisp. Everything on a line that follows a semicolon is a comment. Two, three, and four semicolons are used as section and subsection markers. (See section `Comments' in The GNU Emacs Lisp Reference Manual, for more about comments.)

;;;; The Help Key
; Control-h is the help key;
; after typing control-h, type a letter to
; indicate the subject about which you want help.
; For an explanation of the help facility,
; type control-h two times in a row.

Just remember: type C-h two times for help.

; To find out about any mode, type control-h m
; while in that mode.  For example, to find out
; about mail mode, enter mail mode and then type
; control-h m.

`Mode help', as I call this, is very helpful. Usually, it tells you all you need to know.

Of course, you don't need to include comments like these in your `.emacs' file. I included them in mine because I kept forgetting about Mode help or the conventions for comments--but I was able to remember to look here to remind myself.

16.4 Text and Auto Fill Mode

Now we come to the part that `turns on' Text mode and Auto Fill mode.

;;; Text mode and Auto Fill mode
; The next three lines put Emacs into Text mode
; and Auto Fill mode, and are for writers who
; want to start writing prose rather than code.

(setq default-major-mode 'text-mode)
(add-hook 'text-mode-hook 'text-mode-hook-identify)
(add-hook 'text-mode-hook 'turn-on-auto-fill)

Here is the first part of this `.emacs' file that does something besides remind a forgetful human!

The first of the two lines in parentheses tells Emacs to turn on Text mode when you find a file, unless that file should go into some other mode, such as C mode.

When Emacs reads a file, it looks at the extension to the file name, if any. (The extension is the part that comes after a `.'.) If the file ends with a `.c' or `.h' extension then Emacs turns on C mode. Also, Emacs looks at first nonblank line of the file; if the line says `-*- C -*-', Emacs turns on C mode. Emacs possesses a list of extensions and specifications that it uses automatically. In addition, Emacs looks near the last page for a per-buffer, "local variables list", if any.

See section `How Major Modes are Chosen' in The GNU Emacs Manual.

See section `Local Variables in Files' in The GNU Emacs Manual.

Now, back to the `.emacs' file.

Here is the line again; how does it work?

(setq default-major-mode 'text-mode)

This line is a short, but complete Emacs Lisp expression.

We are already familiar with setq. It sets the following variable, default-major-mode, to the subsequent value, which is text-mode. The single quote mark before text-mode tells Emacs to deal directly with the text-mode variable, not with whatever it might stand for. See section Setting the Value of a Variable, for a reminder of how setq works. The main point is that there is no difference between the procedure you use to set a value in your `.emacs' file and the procedure you use anywhere else in Emacs.

Here are the next two lines:

(add-hook 'text-mode-hook 'text-mode-hook-identify)
(add-hook 'text-mode-hook 'turn-on-auto-fill)

In these two lines, the add-hook command first adds text-mode-hook-identify to the variable called text-mode-hook and then adds turn-on-auto-fill to the variable.

turn-on-auto-fill is the name of a program, that, you guessed it!, turns on Auto Fill mode. text-mode-hook-identify is a function that tells toggle-text-mode-auto-fill which buffers are in Text mode.

Every time Emacs turns on Text mode, Emacs runs the commands `hooked' onto Text mode. So every time Emacs turns on Text mode, Emacs also turns on Auto Fill mode.

In brief, the first line causes Emacs to enter Text mode when you edit a file, unless the file name extension, first non-blank line, or local variables tell Emacs otherwise.

Text mode among other actions, sets the syntax table to work conveniently for writers. In Text mode, Emacs considers an apostrophe as part of a word like a letter; but Emacs does not consider a period or a space as part of a word. Thus, M-f moves you over `it's'. On the other hand, in C mode, M-f stops just after the `t' of `it's'.

The second and third lines causes Emacs to turn on Auto Fill mode when it turns on Text mode. In Auto Fill mode, Emacs automatically breaks a line that is too wide and brings the excessively wide part of the line down to the next line. Emacs breaks lines between words, not within them.

When Auto Fill mode is turned off, lines continue to the right as you type them. Depending on how you set the value of truncate-lines, the words you type either disappear off the right side of the screen, or else are shown, in a rather ugly and unreadable manner, as a continuation line on the screen.

In addition, in this part of my `.emacs' file, I tell the Emacs fill commands to insert two spaces after a colon:

(setq colon-double-space t)

16.5 Mail Aliases

Here is a setq that `turns on' mail aliases, along with more reminders.

;;; Mail mode
; To enter mail mode, type `C-x m'
; To enter RMAIL (for reading mail),
; type `M-x rmail'

(setq mail-aliases t)

This setq command sets the value of the variable mail-aliases to t. Since t means true, the line says, in effect, "Yes, use mail aliases."

Mail aliases are convenient short names for long email addresses or for lists of email addresses. The file where you keep your `aliases' is `~/.mailrc'. You write an alias like this:

alias geo [email protected]

When you write a message to George, address it to `geo'; the mailer will automatically expand `geo' to the full address.

16.6 Indent Tabs Mode

By default, Emacs inserts tabs in place of multiple spaces when it formats a region. (For example, you might indent many lines of text all at once with the indent-region command.) Tabs look fine on a terminal or with ordinary printing, but they produce badly indented output when you use TeX or Texinfo since TeX ignores tabs.

The following turns off Indent Tabs mode:

;;; Prevent Extraneous Tabs
(setq-default indent-tabs-mode nil)

Note that this line uses setq-default rather than the setq command that we have seen before. The setq-default command sets values only in buffers that do not have their own local values for the variable.

See section `Tabs vs. Spaces' in The GNU Emacs Manual.

See section `Local Variables in Files' in The GNU Emacs Manual.

16.7 Some Keybindings

Now for some personal keybindings:

;;; Compare windows
(global-set-key "\C-cw" 'compare-windows)

compare-windows is a nifty command that compares the text in your current window with text in the next window. It makes the comparison by starting at point in each window, moving over text in each window as far as they match. I use this command all the time.

This also shows how to set a key globally, for all modes.

The command is global-set-key. It is followed by the keybinding. In a `.emacs' file, the keybinding is written as shown: \C-c stands for `control-c', which means `press the control key and the c key at the same time'. The w means `press the w key'. The keybinding is surrounded by double quotation marks. In documentation, you would write this as C-c w. (If you were binding a META key, such as M-c, rather than a CTL key, you would write \M-c. See section `Rebinding Keys in Your Init File' in The GNU Emacs Manual, for details.)

The command invoked by the keys is compare-windows. Note that compare-windows is preceded by a single quote; otherwise, Emacs would first try to evaluate the symbol to determine its value.

These three things, the double quotation marks, the backslash before the `C', and the single quote mark are necessary parts of keybinding that I tend to forget. Fortunately, I have come to remember that I should look at my existing `.emacs' file, and adapt what is there.

As for the keybinding itself: C-c w. This combines the prefix key, C-c, with a single character, in this case, w. This set of keys, C-c followed by a single character, is strictly reserved for individuals' own use. (I call these `own' keys, since these are for my own use.) You should always be able to create such a keybinding for your own use without stomping on someone else's keybinding. If you ever write an extension to Emacs, please avoid taking any of these keys for public use. Create a key like C-c C-w instead. Otherwise, we will run out of `own' keys.

Here is another keybinding, with a comment:

;;; Keybinding for `occur'
; I use occur a lot, so let's bind it to a key:
(global-set-key "\C-co" 'occur)

The occur command shows all the lines in the current buffer that contain a match for a regular expression. Matching lines are shown in a buffer called `*Occur*'. That buffer serves as a menu to jump to occurrences.

Here is how to unbind a key, so it does not work:

;;; Unbind `C-x f'
(global-unset-key "\C-xf")

There is a reason for this unbinding: I found I inadvertently typed C-x f when I meant to type C-x C-f. Rather than find a file, as I intended, I accidentally set the width for filled text, almost always to a width I did not want. Since I hardly ever reset my default width, I simply unbound the key.

The following rebinds an existing key:

;;; Rebind `C-x C-b' for `buffer-menu'
(global-set-key "\C-x\C-b" 'buffer-menu)

By default, C-x C-b runs the list-buffers command. This command lists your buffers in another window. Since I almost always want to do something in that window, I prefer the buffer-menu command, which not only lists the buffers, but moves point into that window.

16.8 Keymaps

Emacs uses keymaps to record which keys call which commands. When you use global-set-key to set the keybinding for a single command in all parts of Emacs, you are specifying the keybinding in current-global-map.

Specific modes, such as C mode or Text mode, have their own keymaps; the mode-specific keymaps override the global map that is shared by all buffers.

The global-set-key function binds, or rebinds, the global keymap. For example, the following binds the key C-x C-b to the function buffer-menu:

(global-set-key "\C-x\C-b" 'buffer-menu)

Mode-specific keymaps are bound using the define-key function, which takes a specific keymap as an argument, as well as the key and the command. For example, my `.emacs' file contains the following expression to bind the texinfo-insert-@group command to C-c C-c g:

(define-key texinfo-mode-map "\C-c\C-cg" 'texinfo-insert-@group)

The texinfo-insert-@group function itself is a little extension to Texinfo mode that inserts `@group' into a Texinfo file. I use this command all the time and prefer to type the three strokes C-c C-c g rather than the six strokes @ g r o u p. (`@group' and its matching `@end group' are commands that keep all enclosed text together on one page; many multi-line examples in this book are surrounded by `@group ... @end group'.)

Here is the texinfo-insert-@group function definition:

(defun texinfo-insert-@group ()
  "Insert the string @group in a Texinfo buffer."
  (interactive)
  (beginning-of-line)
  (insert "@group\n"))

(Of course, I could have used Abbrev mode to save typing, rather than write a function to insert a word; but I prefer key strokes consistent with other Texinfo mode key bindings.)

You will see numerous define-key expressions in `loaddefs.el' as well as in the various mode libraries, such as `cc-mode.el' and `lisp-mode.el'.

See section `Customizing Key Bindings' in The GNU Emacs Manual, and section `Keymaps' in The GNU Emacs Lisp Reference Manual, for more information about keymaps.

16.9 Loading Files

Many people in the GNU Emacs community have written extensions to Emacs. As time goes by, these extensions are often included in new releases. For example, the Calendar and Diary packages are now part of the standard GNU Emacs.

(Calc, which I consider a vital part of Emacs, would be part of the standard distribution except that it was so large it was packaged separately and no one has changed that.)

You can use a load command to evaluate a complete file and thereby install all the functions and variables in the file into Emacs. For example:

(load "~/emacs/slowsplit")

This evaluates, i.e. loads, the `slowsplit.el' file or if it exists, the faster, byte compiled `slowsplit.elc' file from the `emacs' sub-directory of your home directory. The file contains the function split-window-quietly, which John Robinson wrote in 1989.

The split-window-quietly function splits a window with the minimum of redisplay. I installed it in 1989 because it worked well with the slow 1200 baud terminals I was then using. Nowadays, I only occasionally come across such a slow connection, but I continue to use the function because I like the way it leaves the bottom half of a buffer in the lower of the new windows and the top half in the upper window.

To replace the key binding for the default split-window-vertically, you must also unset that key and bind the keys to split-window-quietly, like this:

(global-unset-key "\C-x2")
(global-set-key "\C-x2" 'split-window-quietly)

If you load many extensions, as I do, then instead of specifying the exact location of the extension file, as shown above, you can specify that directory as part of Emacs' load-path. Then, when Emacs loads a file, it will search that directory as well as its default list of directories. (The default list is specified in `paths.h' when Emacs is built.)

The following command adds your `~/emacs' directory to the existing load path:

;;; Emacs Load Path
(setq load-path (cons "~/emacs" load-path))

Incidentally, load-library is an interactive interface to the load function. The complete function looks like this:

(defun load-library (library)
  "Load the library named LIBRARY.
This is an interface to the function `load'."
  (interactive "sLoad library: ")
  (load library))

The name of the function, load-library, comes from the use of `library' as a conventional synonym for `file'. The source for the load-library command is in the `files.el' library.

Another interactive command that does a slightly different job is load-file. See section `Libraries of Lisp Code for Emacs' in The GNU Emacs Manual, for information on the distinction between load-library and this command.

16.10 Autoloading

Instead of installing a function by loading the file that contains it, or by evaluating the function definition, you can make the function available but not actually install it until it is first called. This is called autoloading.

When you execute an autoloaded function, Emacs automatically evaluates the file that contains the definition, and then calls the function.

Emacs starts quicker with autoloaded functions, since their libraries are not loaded right away; but you need to wait a moment when you first use such a function, while its containing file is evaluated.

Rarely used functions are frequently autoloaded. The `loaddefs.el' library contains hundreds of autoloaded functions, from bookmark-set to wordstar-mode. Of course, you may come to use a `rare' function frequently. When you do, you should load that function's file with a load expression in your `.emacs' file.

In my `.emacs' file for Emacs version 21, I load 12 libraries that contain functions that would otherwise be autoloaded. (Actually, it would have been better to include these files in my `dumped' Emacs when I built it, but I forgot. See section `Building Emacs' in The GNU Emacs Lisp Reference Manual, and the `INSTALL' file for more about dumping.)

You may also want to include autoloaded expressions in your `.emacs' file. autoload is a built-in function that takes up to five arguments, the final three of which are optional. The first argument is the name of the function to be autoloaded; the second is the name of the file to be loaded. The third argument is documentation for the function, and the fourth tells whether the function can be called interactively. The fifth argument tells what type of object---autoload can handle a keymap or macro as well as a function (the default is a function).

Here is a typical example:

(autoload 'html-helper-mode
  "html-helper-mode" "Edit HTML documents" t)

(html-helper-mode is an alternative to html-mode, which is a standard part of the distribution).

This expression autoloads the html-helper-mode function. It takes it from the `html-helper-mode.el' file (or from the byte compiled file `html-helper-mode.elc', if it exists.) The file must be located in a directory specified by load-path. The documentation says that this is a mode to help you edit documents written in the HyperText Markup Language. You can call this mode interactively by typing M-x html-helper-mode. (You need to duplicate the function's regular documentation in the autoload expression because the regular function is not yet loaded, so its documentation is not available.)

See section `Autoload' in The GNU Emacs Lisp Reference Manual, for more information.

16.11 A Simple Extension: line-to-top-of-window

Here is a simple extension to Emacs that moves the line point is on to the top of the window. I use this all the time, to make text easier to read.

You can put the following code into a separate file and then load it from your `.emacs' file, or you can include it within your `.emacs' file.

Here is the definition:

;;; Line to top of window;
;;; replace three keystroke sequence  C-u 0 C-l
(defun line-to-top-of-window ()
  "Move the line point is on to top of window."
  (interactive)
  (recenter 0))

Now for the keybinding.

Nowadays, function keys as well as mouse button events and non-ASCII characters are written within square brackets, without quotation marks. (In Emacs version 18 and before, you had to write different function key bindings for each different make of terminal.)

I bind line-to-top-of-window to my F6 function key like this:

(global-set-key [f6] 'line-to-top-of-window)

For more information, see section `Rebinding Keys in Your Init File' in The GNU Emacs Manual.

If you run two versions of GNU Emacs, such as versions 20 and 21, and use one `.emacs' file, you can select which code to evaluate with the following conditional:

(cond
 ((string-equal (number-to-string 20) (substring (emacs-version) 10 12))
  ;; evaluate version 20 code
  ( ... ))
 ((string-equal (number-to-string 21) (substring (emacs-version) 10 12))
  ;; evaluate version 21 code
  ( ... )))

For example, in contrast to version 20, version 21 blinks its cursor by default. I hate such blinking, as well as some other features in version 21, so I placed the following in my `.emacs' file(12):

(if (string-equal "21" (substring (emacs-version) 10 12))
    (progn
      (blink-cursor-mode 0)
      ;; Insert newline when you press `C-n' (next-line)
      ;; at the end of the buffer
      (setq next-line-add-newlines t)
      ;; Turn on image viewing
      (auto-image-file-mode t)
      ;; Turn on menu bar (this bar has text)
      ;; (Use numeric argument to turn on)
      (menu-bar-mode 1)
      ;; Turn off tool bar (this bar has icons)
      ;; (Use numeric argument to turn on)
      (tool-bar-mode nil)
      ;; Turn off tooltip mode for tool bar
      ;; (This mode causes icon explanations to pop up)
      ;; (Use numeric argument to turn on)
      (tooltip-mode nil)
      ;; If tooltips turned on, make tips appear promptly
      (setq tooltip-delay 0.1)  ; default is one second
       ))

(You will note that instead of typing (number-to-string 21), I decided to save typing and wrote `21' as a string, "21", rather than convert it from an integer to a string. In this instance, this expression is better than the longer, but more general (number-to-string 21). However, if you do not know ahead of time what type of information will be returned, then the number-to-string function will be needed.)

16.12 X11 Colors

You can specify colors when you use Emacs with the MIT X Windowing system.

I dislike the default colors and specify my own.

Here are the expressions in my `.emacs' file that set values:

;; Set cursor color
(set-cursor-color "white")

;; Set mouse color
(set-mouse-color "white")

;; Set foreground and background
(set-foreground-color "white")
(set-background-color "darkblue")

;;; Set highlighting colors for isearch and drag
(set-face-foreground 'highlight "white")
(set-face-background 'highlight "blue")

(set-face-foreground 'region "cyan")
(set-face-background 'region "blue")

(set-face-foreground 'secondary-selection "skyblue")
(set-face-background 'secondary-selection "darkblue")

;; Set calendar highlighting colors
(setq calendar-load-hook
      '(lambda ()
         (set-face-foreground 'diary-face   "skyblue")
         (set-face-background 'holiday-face "slate blue")
         (set-face-foreground 'holiday-face "white")))

The various shades of blue soothe my eye and prevent me from seeing the screen flicker.

Alternatively, I could have set my specifications in various X initialization files. For example, I could set the foreground, background, cursor, and pointer (i.e., mouse) colors in my `~/.Xresources' file like this:

Emacs*foreground:   white
Emacs*background:   darkblue
Emacs*cursorColor:  white
Emacs*pointerColor: white

In any event, since it is not part of Emacs, I set the root color of my X window in my `~/.xinitrc' file, like this(13):

# I use TWM for window manager.
xsetroot -solid Navy -fg white &

16.13 Miscellaneous Settings for a `.emacs' File

Here are a few miscellaneous settings:

• Set the shape and color of the mouse cursor:

  ; Cursor shapes are defined in ; `/usr/include/X11/cursorfont.h'; ; for example, the `target' cursor is number 128; ; the `top_left_arrow' cursor is number 132. (let ((mpointer (x-get-resource "*mpointer" "*emacs*mpointer"))) ;; If you have not set your mouse pointer ;; then set it, otherwise leave as is: (if (eq mpointer nil) (setq mpointer "132")) ; top_left_arrow (setq x-pointer-shape (string-to-int mpointer)) (set-mouse-color "white"))

16.14 A Modified Mode Line

Finally, a feature I really like: a modified mode line.

When I work over a network, I forget which machine I am using. Also, I tend to I lose track of where I am, and which line point is on.

So I reset my mode line to look like this:

-:-- foo.texi   rattlesnake:/home/bob/  Line 1  (Texinfo Fill) Top

I am visiting a file called `foo.texi', on my machine `rattlesnake' in my `/home/bob' buffer. I am on line 1, in Texinfo mode, and am at the top of the buffer.

My `.emacs' file has a section that looks like this:

;; Set a Mode Line that tells me which machine, which directory,
;; and which line I am on, plus the other customary information.
(setq default-mode-line-format
 (quote
  (#("-" 0 1
     (help-echo
      "mouse-1: select window, mouse-2: delete others ..."))
   mode-line-mule-info
   mode-line-modified
   mode-line-frame-identification
   "    "
   mode-line-buffer-identification
   "    "
   (:eval (substring
           (system-name) 0 (string-match "\\..+" (system-name))))
   ":"
   default-directory
   #(" " 0 1
     (help-echo
      "mouse-1: select window, mouse-2: delete others ..."))
   (line-number-mode " Line %l ")
   global-mode-string
   #("   %[(" 0 6
     (help-echo
      "mouse-1: select window, mouse-2: delete others ..."))
   (:eval (mode-line-mode-name))
   mode-line-process
   minor-mode-alist
   #("%n" 0 2 (help-echo "mouse-2: widen" local-map (keymap ...)))
   ")%] "
   (-3 . "%P")
   ;;   "-%-"
   )))

Here, I redefine the default mode line. Most of the parts are from the original; but I make a few changes. I set the default mode line format so as to permit various modes, such as Info, to override it.

Many elements in the list are self-explanatory: mode-line-modified is a variable that tells whether the buffer has been modified, mode-name tells the name of the mode, and so on. However, the format looks complicated because of two features we have not discussed.

The first string in the mode line is a dash or hyphen, `-'. In the old days, it would have been specified simply as "-". But nowadays, Emacs can add properties to a string, such as highlighting or, as in this case, a help feature. If you place your mouse cursor over the hyphen, some help information appears (By default, you must wait one second before the information appears. You can change that timing by changing the value of tooltip-delay.)

The new string format has a special syntax:

#("-" 0 1 (help-echo "mouse-1: select window, ..."))

The #( begins a list. The first element of the list is the string itself, just one `-'. The second and third elements specify the range over which the fourth element applies. A range starts after a character, so a zero means the range starts just before the first character; a 1 means that the range ends just after the first character. The third element is the property for the range. It consists of a property list, a property name, in this case, `help-echo', followed by a value, in this case, a string. The second, third, and fourth elements of this new string format can be repeated.

See section `Text Properties in String' in The GNU Emacs Lisp Reference Manual, and see section `Mode Line Format' in The GNU Emacs Lisp Reference Manual, for more information.

mode-line-buffer-identification displays the current buffer name. It is a list beginning (#("%12b" 0 4 .... The #( begins the list.

The `"%12b"' displays the current buffer name, using the buffer-name function with which we are familiar; the `12' specifies the maximum number of characters that will be displayed. When a name has fewer characters, whitespace is added to fill out to this number. (Buffer names can and often should be longer than 12 characters; this length works well in a typical 80 column wide window.)

:eval is a new feature in GNU Emacs version 21. It says to evaluate the following form and use the result as a string to display. In this case, the expression displays the first component of the full system name. The end of the first component is a `.' (`period'), so I use the string-match function to tell me the length of the first component. The substring from the zeroth character to that length is the name of the machine.

This is the expression:

(:eval (substring
        (system-name) 0 (string-match "\\..+" (system-name))))

`%[' and `%]' cause a pair of square brackets to appear for each recursive editing level. `%n' says `Narrow' when narrowing is in effect. `%P' tells you the percentage of the buffer that is above the bottom of the window, or `Top', `Bottom', or `All'. (A lower case `p' tell you the percentage above the top of the window.) `%-' inserts enough dashes to fill out the line.

Remember, "You don't have to like Emacs to like it" -- your own Emacs can have different colors, different commands, and different keys than a default Emacs.

On the other hand, if you want to bring up a plain `out of the box' Emacs, with no customization, type:

emacs -q

This will start an Emacs that does not load your `~/.emacs' initialization file. A plain, default Emacs. Nothing more.