dotfiles/modules/interface.org

Interface

Bring Emacs out of the eighties

Completion

There's a lot of occasions Emacs asks to input text to match a file name in a directory, just one example of an oppertunity for a completion system. Swiper¹ is a family of packages that work towards this common goal in Emacs.

Selection menu

Ivy¹ is a powerful selection menu for Emacs.

(use-package ivy
  :diminish
  :config (ivy-mode 1))

Replace built in commands

Counsel¹ is a customized set of commands to replace built in completion buffers.

(use-package counsel
  :after ivy
  :custom (counsel-linux-app-format-function #'counsel-linux-app-format-function-name-only)
  :config (counsel-mode 1))

Switch buffers with ,

Cherry picked from doom.

(dotfiles/leader
  "," '(counsel-switch-buffer :which-key "Buffers"))

Additional details

Provide more information about each item in the completion menu with Ivy rich².

(use-package ivy-rich
  :after counsel
  :init (ivy-rich-mode 1))

Fonts

Write out to all of Emacs' available font faces with the unified font defined in the options.

(set-face-attribute 'default nil :font dotfiles/font :height dotfiles/font-size)
(set-face-attribute 'fixed-pitch nil :font dotfiles/font :height dotfiles/font-size)
(set-face-attribute 'variable-pitch nil :font dotfiles/font :height dotfiles/font-size)

Text scaling

Define a transient keybinding for Scaling the text.

(defhydra hydra-text-scale (:timeout 4)
  "Scale"
  ("j" text-scale-increase "Increase")
  ("k" text-scale-decrease "Decrease")
  ("f" nil "Finished" :exit t))

• Scale the text inside of buffers with SPC t f

  • Increase j

  • Decrease k

  • Finished f

(dotfiles/leader
  "tf" '(hydra-text-scale/body :which-key "Font"))

Icons

Dired feels more modern with prioritized icon fonts using All the Icons³. This makes navigation and visually parsing directories much faster, given that file types are quickly identified by their corresponding icons.

(use-package all-the-icons)

Integration with the All the Icons Dired⁴package.

(use-package all-the-icons-dired
  :hook (dired-mode . all-the-icons-dired-mode))

Themes

High quality and modern colour themes are provided in the Doom Themes⁵ package.

(use-package doom-themes
  :init (load-theme 'doom-moonlight t))

Load a theme with SPC t t.

(dotfiles/leader
  "tt" '(counsel-load-theme t t :which-key "Theme"))

Modeline

Doom modeline⁶ provides an elegant and modern status bar / modeline.

(use-package doom-modeline
  :custom (doom-modeline-height 16)
  :config (doom-modeline-mode 1))

Line numbering

Relative line numbers are important when using VI emulation keys. You can prefix commands with a number, allowing you to perform that action that number of times. Useful when navigating around pages that are hundreds, or even thousands of lines long.

  5:
  4:
  3:
  2:
  1:
156: << CURRENT LINE >>
  1:
  2:
  3:
  4:
  5:

(use-package linum-relative
  :commands (linum-relative-global-mode)
  :custom (linum-relative-backend 'display-line-numbers-mode))

Toggle line numbers with SPC t l.

(dotfiles/leader
  "tl" '(linum-relative-global-mode :which-key "Lines"))

Parenthesis

Colourize nested parenthesis with Rainbow delimeters⁷.

(use-package rainbow-delimiters
  :hook (prog-mode . rainbow-delimiters-mode))

Pretty symbols

Programming buffers made prettier with Pretty mode⁸, complimentary to the built-in Prettify symbols mode⁹.

(use-package pretty-mode
  :hook (python-mode . turn-on-pretty-mode))

Ligatures

Enable font ligatures via Fira Code mode¹⁰, perform this action only when Fira Code is the current font.

(when (display-graphic-p)
  (use-package fira-code-mode
    :hook (prog-mode org-mode)))

Toggle global ligature mode with SPC t g.

(dotfiles/leader
  "tg" '(global-fira-code-mode :which-key "Ligatures"))

Dashboard

Present a Dashboard when first launching Emacs. Customize the buttons of the navigator.

• Brain @ http://localhost:8080

• Homepage @ https://chrishayward.xyz

• Athabasca @ https://login.athabascau.ca/cas/login

• Bookshelf @ https://online.vitalsource.com

(use-package dashboard
  :custom (dashboard-center-content t)
          (dashboard-set-init-info t)
          (dashboard-set-file-icons t)
          (dashboard-set-heading-icons t)
          (dashboard-set-navigator t)
          (dashboard-startup-banner 'logo)
          (dashboard-projects-backend 'projectile)
          (dashboard-items '((projects . 5) (recents  . 5) (agenda . 10)))
          (dashboard-navigator-buttons `(((,(all-the-icons-fileicon "brain" :height 1.1 :v-adjust 0.0)
                                          "Brain" "Knowledge base"
                                          (lambda (&rest _) (browse-url "http://localhost:8080"))))
                                         ((,(all-the-icons-material "public" :height 1.1 :v-adjust 0.0)
                                          "Homepage" "Personal website"
                                          (lambda (&rest _) (browse-url "https://chrishayward.xyz"))))
                                         ((,(all-the-icons-faicon "university" :height 1.1 :v-adjust 0.0)
                                          "Athabasca" "Univeristy login"
                                          (lambda (&rest _) (browse-url "https://login.athabascau.ca/cas/login"))))
                                         ((,(all-the-icons-faicon "book" :height 1.1 :v-adjust 0.0)
                                          "Bookshelf" "Vitalsource bookshelf"
                                          (lambda (&rest _) (browse-url "https://online.vitalsource.com"))))))
  :config (dashboard-setup-startup-hook))

When running in daemon mode, ensure that the dashboard is the initial buffer.

(setq initial-buffer-choice
      (lambda ()
        (get-buffer "*dashboard*")))

Quickly navigate to the dashboard with SPC SPC.

(dotfiles/leader
  "SPC" '((lambda () (interactive) (switch-to-buffer "*dashboard*")) :which-key "Dashboard"))

Resources

---

¹

https://github.com/abo-abo/swiper

²

https://github.com/Yevgnen/ivy-rich

³

https://github.com/domtronn/all-the-icons.el

⁴

https://github.com/jtbm37/all-the-icons-dired

⁵

https://github.com/hlissner/emacs-doom-themes

⁶

https://github.com/seagle0128/doom-modeline

⁷

https://github.com/Fanael/rainbow-delimiters

⁸

https://emacswiki.org/emacs/pretty-mode.el

⁹

https://emacswiki.org/emacs/PrettySymbol

¹⁰

https://github.com/jming422/fira-code-mode