From 4f8ac8fc39fc3773a8dd029ee2e6c65f53354a1d Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Daniel Nicolai Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2021 10:01:09 +0200 Subject: [PATCH] Improve quick-start guide The [quick-start](https://www.spacemacs.org/doc/QUICK_START.html) starts with explaining that users can build their own layers. Instead it should start by showing how easy and straightforward it is to use one of the existing layer, then continue about the possibility of creating personal layers (the quick-start guide is a logical place to visit first for a newcomer). It is only a small detail, but it can make a substantial difference for people who peek into the quick-start guide and decide if it is worth the trouble to switch to Spacemacs (Many newcomers think that even only trying another editor, is probably not worth it because they are already using vim). A guide that starts explaininging that you can build your own layers in Spacemacs that exists of a directory containing at a packages.el file, is not a quick-start guide. --- doc/QUICK_START.org | 23 ++++++++++++++++++++--- 1 file changed, 20 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-) diff --git a/doc/QUICK_START.org b/doc/QUICK_START.org index c1688b325..a0719bc66 100644 --- a/doc/QUICK_START.org +++ b/doc/QUICK_START.org @@ -16,11 +16,28 @@ * Configuration layers Spacemacs divides its configuration into self-contained units called -=configuration layers=. These layers are stacked on top of each other -to achieve a custom configuration. +=configuration layers=. These layers are stacked on top of each other to achieve +a custom configuration. By default Spacemacs uses a dotfile called =~/.spacemacs= to control which -layers to load. Within this file you can also configure certain features. +layers to load. Within this file you can also configure certain features. This +design makes it extremely easy to turn Spacemacs into a fully integrated +development environment. + +For example to get python support, simply add =python= to the list of +=dotspacemacs-configuration-layers= in your =~/.spacemacs=. Find the +=~/.spacemacs= file by pressing =SPC f e d= and then after adding the layer, +reload it with =SPC f e R=. Now open a =.py= file (=SPC f f=) to find the python +environment has been fully configured. Some extra configuration might make the +environment even more powerful, which is very well described in the [[https://develop.spacemacs.org/layers/+lang/python/README.html][layer's +documentation]] that can be accessed by pressing =SPC h l= and selecting the +=python= layer entry. For configuration of specific packages within a layer, +=SPC h SPC= provides quick navigation functionality for jumping directly to the +relevant location within the configuration files. + +A list of pre-configured layers is available [[https://develop.spacemacs.org/layers/LAYERS.html][here]]. If you still would like to +configure anything not covered by any layer, then it is easy to build a personal +layer. A configuration layer is a directory containing at least a =packages.el= file which defines and configures packages to be downloaded from Emacs