Building on these idea, eric schulte's emacs 24 starter kit actually uses tags to configure what should and shouldn't be tangled, to make things easily configurable by others (not really a feature most of us are looking for in configs, but interesting nonetheless). Check out the starter-kit-load function in https://raw.github.com/eschulte/emacs24-starter-kit/master/starter-kit.org
On Wed, Jan 23, 2013 at 2:06 PM, Darlan Cavalcante Moreira <darc...@gmail.com> wrote: > > I also have my Emacs configuration in org mode and it is really great. > Before moving to an org-mode initialization file I had multiple elisp files > and the main initialization file loaded the individual files. But having > everything in one place with the outline and search powers of org-modemuch > better. You can even put todos there if you want. > > There are many benefits of using tags in your initialization. You can, for > instance, put a "Keybinds" tag in all headlines that change some > keybindings. You can put a "Flymake" tag in all headlines configuring > flymake for the different programming languages you use. If you need to > locate the flymake configuration specific for python, for instance, all > that is necessary is to do a tag search for the Flymake and Python tags. > > Note that Emacs does not evaluate your initialization org-mode file > directly. It tangles all elisp blocks in that file to an elisp file and > then load that elisp file as usual. The tangling can be slow if you have > many blocks, but it only does that once after editing the org-mode > file. Therefore, you don't get a performance hit by having your > initialization in an org-mode file. > > You can also take advantage of this tangle process. For instance, I have a > "Themes" headline where each child headline configures Emacs with a > different theme. I set the TANGLE property of all of these headlines to > "no" except one. Then Emacs will use that theme. You can easily > enable/disable big parts of your configuration like this and I find it > easier then commenting and uncommenting different parts of an elisp > file. For visual feedback, I like to add the COMMENT keyword in the > headlines where I have set the TANGLE property to no. > > -- > Darlan > > At Wed, 23 Jan 2013 15:40:35 +0100, > Karl Voit wrote: >> >> Hi! >> >> * Jonathan Arkell <jonath...@criticalmass.com> wrote: >> > I am a huge advocate of using org files and literate programming in your >> > config files. >> >> Great. >> >> I am not completely convinced to convert my config to org/babel but >> I am not oppose either. Not sure, if there are that many advantages, >> that it is worth my effort, that's all. >> >> > A few reasons why: >> > - Makes it easy to logically group sections of your init and >> > configuration >> >> Well, this is also possible with pure elisp and comments. Folding is >> a different topic tough. >> >> > - Agenda tags search on your initialization file? Yes please! >> > Extremely useful for those "cross-cutting" bits. I have tags like >> > "keybinding", "osx" and "linux", and working on others as appropriate. >> >> Hm. Interesting but I guess this is not my use-case (except for >> :keybinding:). I do use "(when (system-is-linux) ... )" and similar >> all over my configuration. >> >> Although I am a huge fan of tagging, I don't see the use when >> editing my emacs config (yet). >> >> > - Add TODOs to your init file. >> >> I am using ~/org/mainfile.org -> "* shorts" -> "** TODO do this >> :hostname:" all the time. Also for my config tasks. No worries: I do >> see your point but I like to have all my sysadmin-tasks combined in >> "mainfile.org/shorts". So maybe this is just me. >> >> > Here is my example, but I stand on the shoulders of giants: >> > >> > https://github.com/jonnay/emagicians-starter-kit >> >> Thanks for sharing! >> >> One thing which I would appreciate would be that it is more easy to >> write documentation (including URLs; outside of elisp sections) in >> org. >> >> >> Naive question: Are there any performance issues with not being able >> to compile my config.org to config.elc as it is possible with >> config.el files? >> >> -- >> Karl Voit >> >> >
