Lightning intro to Emacs using evil-mode and org-mode
There are a ton of good org-mode guides, and lots of evil-mode documentation, but here is a quick guide to get up and running with a vim-emulating editor. We’ll even apply those text editing abilities to channel the organizational power of Emacs’ org-mode.
First, we’ll install evil mode. These install instructions were taken from the Emacs wiki:
Install using the latest version of Emacs and its builtin package system. Start by adding this in your ~/.emacs:
(require 'package)
(push '("marmalade" . "http://marmalade-repo.org/packages/")
package-archives )
(push '("melpa" . "http://melpa.milkbox.net/packages/")
package-archives)
Then execute the following commands in your Emacs minibuffer, located at the bottom of the window:
M-x list-packages
C-s evil
Use C-s to select the Evil package and press enter. Follow the prompt to install. Note that M stands for meta, which is the alt key. C means the ctrl key.
The latest stable version of Evil-mode is available from the Marmalade repository, which you have just fetched and installed.
After installation, add the following to your ~/.emacs config file. Alternatively, you can add the code into ~/.emacs.d/init.el and delete ~/.emacs if you want a more scalable config:
Feel free to download the file here:
Here is the Elisp code (it will look prettier in your buffer!):
;; Basic evil-mode and org-mode config to get started
;; Include this in your Emacs config file (ie ~/.emacs.d/init.el or ~/.emacs)
(require 'evil)
;; Enable Evil mode as defuault
(evil-mode 1)
;; Treat wrapped line scrolling as single lines
(define-key evil-normal-state-map (kbd "j") 'evil-next-visual-line)
(define-key evil-normal-state-map (kbd "k") 'evil-previous-visual-line)
;;; esc quits pretty much anything (like pending prompts in the minibuffer)
(define-key evil-normal-state-map [escape] 'keyboard-quit)
(define-key evil-visual-state-map [escape] 'keyboard-quit)
(define-key minibuffer-local-map [escape] 'minibuffer-keyboard-quit)
(define-key minibuffer-local-ns-map [escape] 'minibuffer-keyboard-quit)
(define-key minibuffer-local-completion-map [escape] 'minibuffer-keyboard-quit)
(define-key minibuffer-local-must-match-map [escape] 'minibuffer-keyboard-quit)
(define-key minibuffer-local-isearch-map [escape] 'minibuffer-keyboard-quit)
;; Enable smash escape (ie 'jk' and 'kj' quickly to exit insert mode)
(define-key evil-insert-state-map "k" #'cofi/maybe-exit-kj)
(evil-define-command cofi/maybe-exit-kj ()
:repeat change
(interactive)
(let ((modified (buffer-modified-p)))
(insert "k")
(let ((evt (read-event (format "Insert %c to exit insert state" ?j)
nil 0.5)))
(cond
((null evt) (message ""))
((and (integerp evt) (char-equal evt ?j))
(delete-char -1)
(set-buffer-modified-p modified)
(push 'escape unread-command-events))
(t (setq unread-command-events (append unread-command-events
(list evt))))))))
(define-key evil-insert-state-map "j" #'cofi/maybe-exit-jk)
(evil-define-command cofi/maybe-exit-jk ()
:repeat change
(interactive)
(let ((modified (buffer-modified-p)))
(insert "j")
(let ((evt (read-event (format "Insert %c to exit insert state" ?k)
nil 0.5)))
(cond
((null evt) (message ""))
((and (integerp evt) (char-equal evt ?k))
(delete-char -1)
(set-buffer-modified-p modified)
(push 'escape unread-command-events))
(t (setq unread-command-events (append unread-command-events
(list evt))))))))
;; ORG MODE
;; auto-indent an org-mode file
(add-hook 'org-mode-hook
(lambda()
(local-set-key (kbd "C-c C-c") 'org-table-align)
(local-set-key (kbd "C-c C-f") 'org-table-calc-current-TBLFM)
(org-indent-mode t)))
To refresh your config, have your config file open and run M-x eval-buffer. Or just restart emacs (save in Emacs via C-x C-s and close via C-x C-c)
You can toggle evil and org modes with M-x org-mode and M-x evil-mode respectively.
After that, create any .org file and you should have a vim-emulated editor in org-mode!
Let’s create a sample org-file to try out our evil-mode editing on an org-mode file. To test an example org-file, execute C-x C-f, type in a filepath, ie ~/test/sample-org-file.org, and add these contents to it:
Feel free to download the file above and copy/paste it into your new .org file.
You should now be feeling the power of Vim and Org-mode! You might even experience why they call it evil-mode :-)
For further tips and tricks, feel free to check out the org mode docs. Just remember, the applications with org-mode are extremely expansive. For example, if you are inclined, you can even use it to log your hours and invoice clients from a latex template!
Have fun!