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Lambda-Emacs (𝛌-Emacs) is intended to serve as a useful starting point for your own custom configuration. The design of this configuration is aimed at writing and academic work in the humanities (for discussion of my view of the use of text editors in the humanities [[https://www.colinmclear.net/posts/texteditor/][see here]]), rather than opposed to, e.g., a programming language emphasis, though I've tried to make it user-friendly for programmers as well. Another goal of 𝛌-Emacs is to provide enough commentary on the configuration such that it might be useful to those new to emacs or even [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Text_editor][text-editors]] generally.

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The themes here are from [[https://github.com/Lambda-Emacs/lambda-themes][lambda-themes.]]

* Why use 𝛌-Emacs?

Why choose this configuration over any of the other amazing Emacs "distros" out there, such as (if you use vim-bindings) [[http://spacemacs.org][spacemacs]], or [[https://github.com/hlissner/doom-emacs][doom-emacs]], or the more traditional configurations of [[Https://github.com/purcell/emacs.d][Purcell]], [[https://github.com/bbatsov/prelude][Batsov (prelude)]], [[https://github.com/seagle0128/.emacs.d][Zhang (Centaur Emacs)]], the [[https://github.com/gilbertw1/bmacs][bmacs]] configuration of Bryan Gilbert (see also his [[https://github.com/gilbertw1/emacs-literate-starter][literate starter kit]]) and [[https://github.com/novoid/dot-emacs][Karl Voit's]] config, John Kitchen's [[https://github.com/jkitchin/scimax][scimax]], Kieran Healy's [[https://github.com/kjhealy/emacs-starter-kit][social sciences starter kit]], and [[https://github.com/caisah/emacs.dz][many others]]. Further helpful starts include [[https://github.com/hrs/sensible-defaults.el][sensible defaults]] or especially [[https://github.com/SystemCrafters/crafted-emacs][Crafted Emacs]]. There are also the recent stylings of [[https://github.com/rougier][Nicolas Rougier's]] [[https://github.com/rougier/elegant-emacs][elegant-emacs]] and [[https://github.com/rougier/nano-emacs][nano-emacs]]. Truly a surfeit of riches. So why another one? Here are three reasons. 𝛌-Emacs is largely an abstraction from my own config, which I wanted to make more easily available to others. I also want a clean but useful config to point my students to. Finally, setting this up is a useful way for me to think about how "best" to configure Emacs.

* 𝛌-Emacs Features 

1. Short start up time -- emacs-init-time < 1 sec (though this may vary somewhat
   depending on your system)
2. Uses [[https://github.com/raxod502/straight.el][straight.el]] for package management
3. Comprehensive keybindings using [[https://github.com/jwiegley/use-package/blob/master/bind-key.el][bind-key]] 
4. Sensible defaults
5. Dired with sensible colors and settings 
6. Completion with [[https://github.com/minad/vertico][Vertico]] and related packages
7. [[https://github.com/Lambda-Emacs/lambda-themes][Lambda-themes]], with toggles for dark/light mode & various other options
8. A custom status-line, [[https://github.com/Lambda-Emacs/lambda-line][Lambda-line]] 
9. Extensive MacOS integration
10. Tab-based project workflow leveraging the built-in project.el
    and tab-bar, with [[https://github.com/mclear-tools/tabspaces][buffer-isolated tab/workspaces]]
11. A configurable splash page
12. A writing-centric configuration with great citation support, markdown, [[https://github.com/jgm/pandoc][pandoc]],
    [[https://github.com/mclear-tools/consult-notes][dedicated functions for notes]] and notetaking (using [[https://github.com/protesilaos/denote][denote]]), and settings for org-mode 

* 𝛌-Emacs Modules

𝛌-Emacs is a "modular" distribution of Emacs. It consists of a set of "setup"
elisp files grouped according to the following areas (*NOTE*: these are still works in progress):

- *Core*: These files load essential libraries, useful functions, macros, and sane
  settings. 
- *UI*: Primary settings concerning frame, window, and buffer interaction, along
  with fonts, faces, themeing, and completion all belong to this group.
- *Navigation & Search*: Useful navigation and search functions, plus setup and
  extension of the built-in dired file manager.
- *Writing & Editing*: Settings for spelling, citation (using citar and completion
  at point), dictionary, notes (using consult-notes), typesetting (LaTeX) and
  writing-specific modes (markdown and org).
- *Org*: Writing, Project management, TODOs, Literate programming. What doesn't
  org do? Since many people use Emacs almost exclusively for org-mode, it
  warrants its own group. There are three modules. There is =lem-setup-org-base=,
  which provides a base configuration. It also loads (optionally) two further
  modules, =lem-setup-org-settings= and =lem-setup-org-extensions=. The former
  provides configuration for various built-in aspects of org, including the
  agenda. The latter provides a variety of useful additional packages, including
  styling with =org-modern=. Note that no capture templates, etc., are set here.
  The interested user might want to consult my [[https://github.com/mclear-tools/dotemacs/blob/master/cpm-setup-org.el][dotfiles org]] setup as well as the
  [[https://systemcrafters.cc/emacs-from-scratch/organize-your-life-with-org-mode/][System Crafters]] tutorial.
- *Programming & Languages*: Editing and Language specific settings. 
- *Shell*: Configuration for compilation, shell, and terminal (vterm).
- *Eshell*: Configuration for the Emacs eshell  
- *Workspaces*: Version control, tab settings, buffer-isolation, and other
  configuration for the built-in project.el and tab-bar.el

See the [[file:DOCUMENTATION.org][documentation]] (WIP) for further details.

* Getting Started
1. Clone lambda-emacs as emacs.d: =git clone
   https://github.com/Lambda-Emacs/lambda-emacs.git ~/.emacs.d= 
2. Run Emacs -- it will ask at startup if you want to generate a user
   configuration file, if you do it will generate that file and start up with
   some basic packages (this will take a little while to do). Otherwise Emacs
   will start with all the default packages in Lambda-Emacs (which will take
   even longer to do).
3. Put whatever settings you prefer in your config file. This should include
   things like the font you prefer and whatever other variable settings you
   might like. For some hints see my [[https://github.com/mclear-tools/dotemacs/blob/master/config.el][configuration file]] and the list of
   variables in the [[id:20220720T151238.406634][docs]]. Or ask a question on the [[https://discord.gg/NtYcrRtTxg][Lambda-Emacs discord]].