Amethyst

Writing should be all about the words. But word processors like Microsoft Word, Google Docs, or Apple’s Pages force you to think about formatting as you compose.

Emacs is the most powerful text editor in the world. It gets out of your way and lets you work with your words, free from distraction. Beyond this, it’s infinitely customizable. It’s also Free/Libre Software. So why don’t writers use it more? The default Emacs settings are a little difficult for non-technical users to get accustomed to. This setup aims to make the transition to Emacs a little easier.

WARNING: This is a work in progress!

Installation

1. Get yourself GNU Emacs (it’s free!)
2. Download this repository
3. Put the following into your init file (usually ~/.emacs):

   (load-file "~/path/to/downloaded/repo/amethyst.el")
       

NOTE: These instructions will improve over time; if you need help, please just open an issue or send me an email. (See the Author section.)

Usage

Recommended for writers: If you intend to use Emacs almost exclusively with this theme turned on, you can simply download amethyst.el and move it into your home directory:

cp amethyst.el ~/.emacs

If you’d rather use this theme occasionally, the easiest way is to keep the file in this directory and turn it on like so:

emacs -q -l amethyst.el

For those already familiar with Emacs

If you have used Emacs in the past, this is good to know. If this is your first time with Emacs, then you can safely skip this section.

Amethyst uses straight.el for package management. That means that if you want to try out Amethyst along side your current set up, note that this will create the folder ~/.emacs.d/straight and put all the dependencies in there. I have yet to hear of reports of this actually messing up someone else’s configuration; even those that use straight have not reported any problems. (I use straight for my personal config, and I’ve been just fine.)

Please open an issue if you come across anything that messes up your config.

Once you’re done taking Amethyst out for a spin, you can safely delete the ~/.emacs.d/straight/ folder. It will get rebuilt if you decide to turn Amethyst back on again.

Description

This started out as a few tweaks to elegant-emacs, but it grew into a more comprehensive set of changes that I thought would be good to break out into its own package.

Features:

• Clean, distraction-free theme (Elegant Emacs, Nord)
• Common keybindings that most users are familiar with (CUA-mode)
• Starter set of packages to make Emacs a little nicer to use

WARNING: This is a work in progress! I’m trying things out and tweaking things as I try them. I do not consider this ready for general-use. Don’t set up your non-technical significant other with this unless you’re willing to be tech support for them!

History

My wife is a writer, and I wanted to help Emacs be less intimidating for her to use.

I think using Free/Libre software is the ideal—I use it whenever I can—and Emacs is in some respects the FSF and GNU’s flagship program. Emacs is what brought me to use free software, and I want to help others experience the joys of free software.

Most free software requires some detailed knowledge of computers to use effectively. There are plenty of memes about Arch Linux being difficult to use unless you really know what you’re doing. I don’t have a problem with this per se; these are power tools built for power users.

But if we want to help spread free software in the world, then we should try to make some of that software more user-friendly so that people who don’t want to tweak their configuration and just have things work so they can get their work done. This package is my small contribution to that effort.

Changelog

2021-03-02

Change name from Emacs Writer to Amethyst. I’ve got a bunch of package ideas, and I think I’ll name them after semi-precious stones.

Author

Amethyst: Ashton Wiersdorf

Elegant Emacs: Nicolas P. Rougier

See Also

This package is derived in large part from Nicolas P. Rougier’s beautiful elegant-emacs package. I also uses Nord Theme.