A New Beginning With GNU Emacs - Configuring Emacs 01

Tech/product goals of the video

• The creator wants to build a plain “vanilla” GNU Emacs setup that feels closer to Doom Emacs.
• They start a multi-part series (“Configuring Emacs 01”).
• Main approach: write the Emacs configuration as an Org-mode document (config.org) and tangle/load it into Emacs via Org Babel.

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Step-by-step setup described (tutorial/guide content)

1) Install Emacs + start from a clean config

• Install GNU Emacs via your OS package manager (examples:
  • pacman on Arch
  • apt on Debian/Ubuntu)
• Ensure config directories don’t already exist:
  • Remove ~/.emacs.d
  • Remove XDG config location (mentioned as ~/.config/emacs), then create a fresh one

2) Create init.el that loads config.org (Org Babel)

• Create ~/.config/emacs/init.el with an Org Babel setup that:
  • Treats config.org as the source config
  • Loads/transforms it into usable Emacs configuration behavior (similar to auto-generating config.el)

3) Create config.org as the configuration “source of truth”

• Includes org metadata for export (title/author/description).
• Sets org options like:
  • Startup visibility (e.g., “show everything” / unfolding headings)
  • Table of contents depth
• Builds the config in sections/headers, starting with important programs to load first.

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Core tooling choices (package management + keybinding stack)

4) Use Elpaca as the package manager (instead of package.el)

• Install/configure Elpaca by copying its GitHub example snippet into config.org inside an Emacs Lisp source block.
• Add an early-init setting to disable the built-in Emacs package manager:
  • Set package-enable-at-startup to nil (so package.el doesn’t conflict)

5) Enable Elpaca’s use-package integration

• Add Elpaca support for use-package so packages can be declared via macros.

6) Install and configure Evil mode (Vim-like modal editing)

• Install Evil via a use-package example.
• Configure Evil to start automatically at Emacs launch.
• Settings highlighted:
  • Split preferences:
    • Vertical splits open to the right
    • Horizontal splits open to the bottom
• Also install:
  • evil-collection (expands Evil beyond basic editing)
  • evil-tutor (a Vim-tutor-like learning aid)

7) Install general.el for keybindings

• Install general.el via use-package.
• Use general-evil-setup so keybindings integrate with Evil’s modal states.
• Define a leader key using Evil-compatible maps:
  • Leader prefix: Space (spc)
• Example leader bindings (with which-key descriptions):
  • Buffer actions:
    • SPC b b → switch buffer
    • SPC b n → next buffer
    • SPC b p → previous buffer
    • SPC b k → kill buffer

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GUI/UX improvements made in the config

8) Fix fonts (custom faces + frame defaults)

• Adds a fonts section configuring:
  • Default font face: JetBrains Mono; height 110; medium weight
  • Variable-pitch font: Ubuntu
  • Fixed-pitch font: JetBrains Mono
  • Italic styling for comments and keywords
• Updates default-frame-alist so appearance is consistent in Emacs client windows.
• Sets line spacing via Q-default line spacing (0.12).
• Notes that default Emacs fonts looked “terrible/small,” and this section improves readability.

9) Remove extra GUI chrome + enable line numbers

• Disables:
  • menu-bar-mode (set to -1)
  • toolbar-mode (set to -1)
  • scroll-bar-mode (set to -1)
• Enables:
  • Global line numbers (global-display-line-numbers-mode)
  • Wrapped/truncated line behavior via global-visual-line-mode (set to true)

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Productivity/UI integration

10) Install which-key

• Install via use-package which-key.
• Configuration highlights:
  • Display position: bottom
  • Padding, columns, and separator style (right arrow)
• Demonstration: keybinding hints appear when pressing leader sequences (e.g., SPC b... and C-x...).

11) Improve Org-mode writing experience: TOC + bullets

• Installs/configures:
  • toc-org
    • Dynamic table of contents
    • Added via add-hook org-mode-hook toc-org-enable
  • org-bullets
    • Bullet-based headings instead of heavy asterisks
    • Enabled via org-indent-mode and org-bullets-mode on org-mode-hook
• Demonstrates:
  • A special org block label like SPACE :toc: to generate the TOC
  • TOC updates automatically as headings change
  • Clicking TOC entries jumps to sections

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Project organization / where the code is saved

• The creator saves the result to a GitLab repo and keeps a versioned directory per video.
• Example repository naming:
  • 01-alpaca-evil-general
• Repo includes:
  • config.org
  • init.el
  • early-init.el

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Main speakers/sources (end)

• Main speaker/source: The video creator (solo narrator) discussing GNU Emacs/Doom Emacs and demonstrating the configuration live.
• Primary external sources referenced:
  • GitHub documentation/snippets for:
    • Elpaca
    • use-package integration
    • general.el
    • toc-org / org-bullets