Re: basic settings of Emacs

Gottfried <[email protected]> writes:

>
>
> I have got a basic question.
>

Different people will have different answers to your
questions. 

> 1.
> Some people use their init.el file and put everything there
> They have a nice overview of all their settings for emacs.
> But it is very long.
>
> 2.
> Some people use init.el and gnus.el and other .el files
> to sort them topically.
>
> 3.
> Some people use the Emacs customization to customize everything.
> And besides the init.el file there appears then a custom.el file in 
> which you can´t change anything, but through customization options 
> everything is done.
>
> 4.
> What option should one prefer?
>

Three reasons for writing your own expressions for your
init.el are:

   - You are setting values that cannot be set using the
     "Easy Customization" mechanism (the variables are not
     user options)

   - You have complex customizations (such as personal
     function definitions) that cannot be set using the
     "Easy Customization" mechanism

   - You include comments to describe the reasons for the
     customization

Reasons for using the "Easy Customization" mechanism:

   - You are a new user who does not know the Emacs Lisp
     syntax or types of values for writing correct
     expressions, or even an experienced user who does not
     know the types of values for an unfamiliar user option

   - You want to make a one-time change (using the ‘Apply’
     button) that is not saved across Emacs sessions

   - You want to be able to remove/delete a customization(s)
     (using the ‘Revert...’ button)

   - You want to separate user options from non-user variables

> 5.
> I have got now init.el, gnus.el, custom.el, and other .el files
> I like to sort out everything for an easy overview.
>

Be careful to avoid duplication across these files.
Expressions that set the same variable across two or more
files can get out of sync, in which case an expression in
one file can overwrite a similar, but different expression
in another file.

-- 
The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.
- Geoffrey Chaucer, The Parliament of Birds.