Vanilla Emacs Looks Plain

• Vanilla unconfigured Emacs looks very plain on all operating systems.
• The System Crafters videos typically use a custom configuration with a theme applied to it.
• Based on this article, I believe the theme he uses is doom-palenight. https://github.com/doomemacs/themes
• Here's how you configure your Emacs to use that theme.

How To Change Your Theme

Open Your Init File

• C-x C-f ~/.emacs.d/init.el RET
• M-x make-directory RET RET - Do this if it's your first time to ensure that ~/.emacs.d/ exists.

Install The Theme With use-package

• Since this is your first time, you have to tell Emacs where to download packages from.
• Paste the following into the top of your init.el.

(require 'package) (package-initialize) (add-to-list 'package-archives '("melpa" . "https://melpa.org/packages/")) (when (< emacs-major-version 29) (unless (package-installed-p 'use-package) (unless package-archive-contents (package-refresh-contents)) (package-install 'use-package))) 

• Then, paste the following use-package expression from the doomemacs/themes README into init.el.

(use-package doom-themes :ensure t :custom ;; Global settings (defaults) (doom-themes-enable-bold t) ; if nil, bold is universally disabled (doom-themes-enable-italic t) ; if nil, italics is universally disabled ;; for treemacs users (doom-themes-treemacs-theme "doom-atom") ; use "doom-colors" for less minimal icon theme :config (load-theme 'doom-palenight t) ; Change this line to load a different theme at startup. ;; Enable flashing mode-line on errors (doom-themes-visual-bell-config) ;; Enable custom neotree theme (nerd-icons must be installed!) (doom-themes-neotree-config) ;; or for treemacs users (doom-themes-treemacs-config) ;; Corrects (and improves) org-mode's native fontification. (doom-themes-org-config)) 

• To run all this code, M-x eval-buffer RET.
  • This will take a few seconds to download and install doom-themes the first time you do this.
• Another way to run code is to hit C-x C-e to evaluate one expression at a time.
  • Put your cursor after the closing parentheses of the expression you want to run and hit C-x C-e.
  • This is more fine-grained.

Trying Different Themes

• M-x load-theme RET
• Hit TAB to see a list of available options.

Another way to do the same thing is to use the ielm REPL.

• M-x ielm RET
• Then type the following Elisp into the REPL.

(load-theme 'doom-nord t) 

Closing Thoughts

I've found over time that the better I am at Elisp, the more I enjoy Emacs. Here are some tips to get you started.

• Docs: C-h f [function] C-h v [variable] C-h k [keybinding] C-h m [mode] M-x ielm [REPL]
  • Memorize the above and use them often.
• https://protesilaos.com/emacs/emacs-lisp-elements (Emacs Lisp Elements)

Source: https://rentry.org/lispresources#emacs-lisp-lisp2