dotfiles VS prelude

Oh my gosh, that /opt/local rant was prophetic.

This is how I set my $PATH, note this code is portable between several Linux distros (including NixOS), macOS, OpenBSD, FreeBSD, and amd64/arm64...

<https://github.com/rollcat/dotfiles/blob/52a634f/.profile#L1...>

Whenever I touch it, I just wish I could put PATH=/bin in there instead, but then I'd be stuck juggling 17 different ways to make bind mounts.

In my dotfiles:

https://github.com/rollcat/dotfiles/blob/0d44759/.emacs.d/th...

There's also a dark variant, and a "base" variant to convince Emacs not to touch colors when running in a terminal. There's also support for matching the system theme in Emacs & Terminal.app on macOS: https://github.com/rollcat/dotfiles/commit/b3e49ad

> If you do consider switching, one warning about Mac is this: Window management is utter garbage. Maximizing is actively discouraged. Tiling left / right etc? Doesn't exist. Everything must be random size and overlap weirdly. Instead, each new version brings a new quick switch or workspace functionality that I have never seen anyone use.

Mac has a different window management paradigm. It suits some people, it frustrates others. I've switched from Linux/BSD after 15 years there, and it immediately made so much more sense to me. YMMV.

It also makes so much more sense if you have a very large screen. I've tried using dwm or Sway with my 43" screen and it's incredibly awkward. You need first-class support for floating windows, or at least smarter tiling.

But I agree, some things on macOS are not as good (workspaces), or plain dumb/useless (stage manager). For missing functionality, like keyboard-driven tiling, I fix things using Hammerspoon: https://github.com/rollcat/dotfiles/blob/master/.hammerspoon...

> Being usable out of the box?

It's interesting that you bring up this point in defense of KDE, because that's exactly my problem with it, especially when contrasted with macOS. Every issue I have with KDE boils down to: "there are too many options, and none of them make the system feel right".

> decent window snapping

In my opinion, no window manager gets it right. I've made a shot at it with my Hammerspoon config[1], it will move/resize/tile floating windows in a 2x2/3x3 grid using custom hotkeys. It's annoying though, that the code works on macOS only - I could probably refactor it to work with an X11 window manager.

[1]: https://github.com/rollcat/dotfiles/blob/master/.hammerspoon...

> put files on my Android phone over USB

I think integration within the Apple ecosystem is what really outshines all competition. I've never had to plug my iPhone over USB to a Mac, and yet I can just copy on the phone, and paste on the computer, like they are one device. Files, mail, contacts, calendar, photos, notes, todos, bookmarks, are all synced - heck I can use the phone camera as a webcam, all out of the box.

> I don't need to give my terminal permission to display my fucking documents folder

Sounds like you never had to fight SELinux or AppArmor. Personally I'm happy that desktop OS's are trying to improve end-user security (why do I have to type the root password to install a game, but I don't need one to run a cryptolocker?), but let's be honest, all attempts so far have ended up half-assed. The root of the issue is that desktop OS's must remain general-purpose tools, otherwise we could just as well call PCs glorified toasters.

> I'd say that's kinda a big selling point of Emacs though: you can write elisp code to make anything you do (not just writing code) less of a pain.

I agree in principle, but in practice, I find myself writing a lot of ELisp just to work around Emacs' shortcomings. E.g. on macOS, to support dark/light theme switching integrated with the rest of the system, I need an external program[0], a shell script to tell that program to call emacsclient, a LaunchAgent to keep it running, an unholy build of Emacs with all of the GNU-unapproved Cocoa integrations that some kind soul is maintaining, and only THEN a piece of ELisp (which is also calling out to AppleScript) to actually change the theme[1]. And as I wrote this, I realised half of this glue didn't even make it into version control.

[0]: https://github.com/cormacrelf/dark-notify

[1]: https://github.com/rollcat/dotfiles/blob/7f6a6d7/.emacs.d/in...

I've been using Emacs for about 20 years, and with every passing year I just wish there was *less* ELisp for me to think about. The actual useful customisations (like adding the +x bit on shell scripts) are few and far between, most of it is just glue and fixes.

This is my strategy for dotfiles. My home directory has a .gitignore with "*" in it. I will "git add -f" any files I want tracked; git is extremely efficient at ignoring the rest. It doesn't require any frameworks, symlinks, installation scripts, elaborate tutorials/manpages, or any other voodoo.

To move in to a new machine - unfortunately you can't git clone into a non-empty directory, but the commands to work around that are simple enough to remember.

https://github.com/rollcat/dotfiles

> I tried my hand at tiling WMs with pop!OS, I just couldn't wrap my hand around it (pun intended). I really admire people who work through all the keyboard shortcuts. It's just not for my capabilities.

I think Windows actually did a great job of making tiling more mainstream - the way windows automatically snap to the left/right half of the screen. macOS could use something like that - I've hacked something similar using Hammerspoon[1] but I think Windows does it better: it's very discoverable for regular users, and has a very intuitive shortcut for the power users (win+left/right/up).

The world of minimalist tiling WMs suffers from the elitism factor. It's a shame that you can't get the right dose of minimalism, without making this huge leap. I think people making most of these WMs misunderstand good UX design: it's not about accommodating non-power users, it's about lowering the barrier for everyone, hackers included.

[1]: https://github.com/rollcat/dotfiles/blob/master/.hammerspoon...

Well, you blew it ;) I have no idea how you've identified my dotfiles as a web project using any kind of an established web framework/language, and at this point I'm too afraid to ask.

I'm happy with my Hammerspoon setup. I need something to fix "the other 90%".

> I forgot how absolutely horrible the new user experience is...

The bbatsov/prelude project was started in 2011 to help address that problem. I started using it not long after that, and it's been a joy to use ever since.

And by "started using" I mean I forked it on GitHub, stared personalizing, and then merging/rebasing from upstream ever since at my own leisure.

https://github.com/bbatsov/prelude

https://prelude.emacsredux.com/en/latest/

From 2011 to present, not everyone in the Emacs community feels bbatsov's Emacs Prelude makes the best/correct decisions, but given how long Emacs has been around and how large the community has been over time, what can you really expect?

It's certainly a lighter-weight starter kit compared to Doom Emacs and Spacemacs. (I'm not knocking those projects!). I've also looked at some of the newer starter kits mentioned in other comments here and previous HN threads; they seem okay to me, just reinventing a lot of the same "wheels" you'll find in Prelude but in a less refined form in many cases... such are the freedoms, joys, and trials of Free Software.

If I recall correctly, on my mac I had an issue with the meta and super keys. I had to rebind Meta to Cmd and Super to Opt. Im pretty sure I used Bozhidar Batsov's solution for this.

Another reason for you to stick to Emacs is Emacs Lisp. If you enjoy writing lisp you are not going to find a better piece of software written in any other lisp language. I prefer common lisp to elisp (alot!) but this is a fact in my opinion. Plus elisp is somewhat similar to common lisp and learning/appreciating the differrnces between the two will make you a better lisp programmer.

https://github.com/bbatsov/prelude/blob/master/core/prelude-...

I have based my emacs config on Emacs Prelude from u/bbatsov, because I did not trust starting from vanilla emacs.

When some days ago I decided to use org-mode again, I didn't use Doom Emacs, and it was the best decision that I've made. Instead, I used Prelude, which is a very simple and powerful Emacs config, and it's much less opinionated than Doom Emacs and Spacemacs. Then I disabled the Prelude theme, and combined it with Nano-Emacs. Now I have a very simple Emacs config, which provides me with some of the best tools, and also a very beautiful and elegant theme. I can change everything I want very easily, customized it to my needs.

How do you know? You said you want "fully setup" :) Prelude? Spacemacs? Your own version?

Thanks :)… it was originally heavily inspired by Emacs Prelude, but has since drifted quite far from it.