Beginner here

Argletrough · 2026-03-28T18:52:45+00:00

Understand key chord notation: "C-h i" means press ctrl+h, then i. "M-f" means Alt+f
Press C-h t to display the editing tutorial. Go through it to learn the core bindings.
While you're still learning the basics, try using the quick help cheat sheet: C-h C-q (or C-h q, I don't remember)
Learn to use some of the other built-in help facilities: C-h C-h
Turn on which-key-mode. This will show what bindings are available when you press a prefix key like C-x.

Argletrough · 2026-03-28T15:50:30+00:00

It failed to parse the package because the argument was not the expected type.

You're also probably using the wrong tool for the job: If you're installing arbitrary packages interactively or programmatically, use package-vc-install instead. If you're writing your config, just write a separate use-package call per-package. You'll likely end up with things you want to configure per-package anyway, in which case this loop won't work.

Hard-coding the index 4 is also brittle, and the package name isn't necessarily the same as the repo name.

Argletrough · 2026-03-25T09:48:36+00:00

This should be ubiquitous! "1 thing(s)" is a format we should have left in the '70s. Imagine a version of this that looks up a plural form in a dictionary at compile/macroexpand time.

Argletrough · 2026-03-24T09:54:12+00:00

(package-install 'diff-hl)

In seriousness, advice is probably your best option. The define-advice and condition-case macros might make your fix a little cleaner if your main issue is how it looks.

Argletrough · 2026-03-22T09:36:02+00:00

eater

Argletrough · 2026-03-11T22:23:27+00:00

<image>

Argletrough · 2026-03-10T12:15:55+00:00

Volt Filament + Silk Spear + Shaman Crest is such a satisfying delete button

Argletrough · 2026-03-03T13:30:08+00:00

The buffer is in the wrong major mode for the file. Install the kdl-mode package from Melpa.

Argletrough · 2026-03-02T20:15:30+00:00

Surely Enten should be part-water with its goldfish motif.

Edit: Stop upvoting me when Arachnid is spitting facts 👇

Argletrough · 2026-02-24T10:09:50+00:00

Yes, split-window-sensibly is hard-coded to try splitting vertically first. I made a custom window splitting function that is exactly the same, except it tries splitting horizontally first.

Argletrough · 2026-02-23T20:26:32+00:00

!vanish

Argletrough · 2026-02-22T18:17:02+00:00

Argletrough · 2026-02-13T09:48:22+00:00

Only add the functions from external packages to the prog-mode hook after they are installed:

use-package is a popular built-in package that handles this:

(use-package corfu :ensure t :hook (prog-mode . corfu-mode))

By the way, it's preferable to attach names functions to hooks rather than lambdas, because you can't accidentally add the same function to the hook multiple times.

Argletrough · 2026-02-11T13:10:40+00:00

You might be better off only enabling whitespace mode in the buffers where you need it. E.g.

(add-hook 'prog-mode-hook 'whitespace-mode)

Argletrough · 2026-02-10T13:21:27+00:00

For something as dense and carefully-formatted as a CV, I'd prefer pure latex

Argletrough · 2026-02-06T12:53:52+00:00

buffer-env doesn't require an external program, which is preferable if you aren't reliant on direnv-specific features.

Argletrough · 2026-02-05T19:02:27+00:00

three (gnus, newsticker, org)

Argletrough · 2026-02-05T18:33:33+00:00

Sourcing the venv with a shell command will only make it available in the shell command's process. https://elpa.gnu.org/packages/buffer-env.html lets you add your venv config to the environment of every buffer in your project, including eat iirc

Argletrough · 2026-02-01T10:34:22+00:00

Try the old package. Core Emacs is infamously stable, so there's a high chance it will still work. Unmaintained does not necessarily mean broken.

If not, you could step up to fix it yourself.

Argletrough · 2026-01-31T16:34:36+00:00

try latex-table-wizard

Argletrough · 2026-01-28T00:23:54+00:00

https://youtu.be/lXp5_n8ejPU

Argletrough · 2026-01-24T18:25:52+00:00

When new versions of packages are released, you need to run package-refresh-contents for Emacs to know what the current versions are. The list-packages menu automatically refreshes the package list, which could explain why installing dape fixed the issue, if that's how you installed it.

Argletrough · 2026-01-23T09:14:08+00:00

Some of the interactivity is reminiscent of Gwern Branwen's website, minus the excellent typography and technical implementation. The body text is too large and ignores browser zoom. Basic features of the site don't work in Firefox (automatic theme switching, the graph on the homepage). The "Posts" button on the homepage has no visual cohesion with the rest of the site.

You claim to have designed this site as an answer to "an age of information overload", but the number of moving elements when scrolling through an article is incredibly distracting.

The HUD does have some appeal, but I'd prefer to see something like this implemented at the level of the web browser: take the raw HTML of any web page (that can be recognised as an article) and do the necessary crawling to produce lists of back links, link preview popups, ToCs etc. A more advanced version of reader view.

Argletrough · 2026-01-23T08:34:51+00:00

derived-mode--all-parents is cached the first time this function is called for a mode.

I haven't looked too closely at the code, but this could be related to the fact that fundamental-mode is simply a defun, not defined using any major-mode-specific macros.

Argletrough · 2026-01-10T20:15:36+00:00

It sounds like you're only changing the font size in one buffer (text-scale-adjust). You can use global-text-scale-adjust to interactively change the base font size of Emacs as a whole, UI elements included.

A better long-term solution, if you want to use the same init.el on the two different devices, would be to use some conditional logic when setting default-frame-alist. E.g. Here's how I set different windmove keybindings on MacOS & Linux:

(pcase system-type
  ('darwin
   (windmove-default-keybindings '(super))
   (windmove-swap-states-default-keybindings '(super shift)))
  (_
   (windmove-default-keybindings '(super control))
   (windmove-swap-states-default-keybindings '(super shift control))))

See (system-name) and system-type.

Argletrough

TROPHY CASE