515 lines
24 KiB
Org Mode
515 lines
24 KiB
Org Mode
#+TITLE: Newsletter #01: About the 0.200 release
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* Newsletter #01: About the 0.200 release :TOC_4_gh:noexport:
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- [[#introduction][Introduction]]
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- [[#breaking-changes][Breaking changes]]
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- [[#support-for-emacs-243-has-been-dropped][Support for Emacs 24.3 has been dropped]]
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- [[#some-modifications-in-the-layer-format][Some modifications in the layer format]]
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- [[#controlling-downloaded-packages][Controlling downloaded packages]]
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- [[#key-bindings][Key bindings]]
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- [[#whats-new-][What's new ?]]
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- [[#startup-improvments][Startup improvments]]
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- [[#improved-composability][Improved composability]]
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- [[#improved-stability][Improved stability]]
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- [[#lazy-installation-of-layers][Lazy installation of layers]]
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- [[#a-better-hybrid-editing-style][A better hybrid editing style]]
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- [[#support-for-ivy][Support for Ivy]]
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- [[#better-transient-states][Better transient-states]]
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- [[#more-debugging-tools][More debugging tools]]
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- [[#new-keyboard-layouts][New keyboard layouts]]
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- [[#directory-and-file-local-variables][Directory and file local variables]]
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- [[#more-useful-abstraction][More useful abstraction]]
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- [[#new-welcome-screen][New welcome screen]]
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- [[#about-spacemacs-update-notifications][About Spacemacs update notifications]]
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- [[#a-new-community-document][A new community document]]
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- [[#the-spacemacs-shop][The Spacemacs shop]]
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- [[#whats-next-][What's next ?]]
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- [[#even-more-stability][Even more stability]]
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- [[#more-consistent-window-behaviour][More consistent window behaviour]]
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- [[#new-layers][New layers]]
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- [[#a-few-thanks][A few thanks]]
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* Introduction
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0.200 is a huge release with more than 1700 commits since the last major version
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released in January 2016. Actually it is so big that we jumped directly from
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version 0.105 to version 0.200, so don't panic if you think you missed all the
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versions since 0.105 :-)
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This first newsletter describes with details the main changes introduced in the
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new version and gives some explanation about the various choices made during the
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last months.
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The (boring) complete list of changes can be found in the file =CHANGELOG.org=
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at the root of the Git repository.
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Let's start with the hottest section: breaking changes!
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* Breaking changes
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Before starting with the breaking changes let me begin with a few words about
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the motivation behind those changes. Spacemacs moves at an incredible pace
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thanks to a big and active community, the project already counts more than 400
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contributors! With such a high number of contributors lots of new ideas are
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proposed to constantly evolve and improve the project, some of them make a lot
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of sense and we give them priority over backward compatibility, this is
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especially true with key bindings. In this release quite a few changes have been
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made to the key bindings, some of them are deep changes and anyone using the
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develop branch had to adapt to them at some point, the result seems to worth it.
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** Support for Emacs 24.3 has been dropped
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The packages ecosystem moves even faster than Spacemacs and a lot of packages
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are now incompatible with the version 24.3 of Emacs which has been released
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in 2013. Supporting this version in Spacemacs is more and more work for
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maintainers so we decided to drop all the 24.3 related code in Spacemacs
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effectively raising the minimum Emacs version required to 24.4. We believe that
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users are able to switch to a newer version of Emacs, if you need help in this
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process you can try the [[https://gitter.im/syl20bnr/spacemacs][Gitter chat]], I'm sure you'll find solutions there.
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** Some modifications in the layer format
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We renamed =extensions= directories in layers to =local= and the file
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=extensions.el= is now ignored, their contents must be moved to the file
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=packages.el= and their package declarations must now set the keyword
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=:location= to =local=.
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_Before:_
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#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp
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;; in extensions.el
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(setq python-post-extensions
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'(
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nose
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pylookup
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python-compile
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py-yapf
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))
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#+END_SRC
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_After:_
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#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp
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;; in packages.el
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(setq python-packages
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'(
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;; skipping packages before...
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(nose :location local)
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(pylookup :location local)
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;; skipping packages after...
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))
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#+END_SRC
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The variables =<package>-excluded-packages= are now ignored, they have been
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replaced by the =:excluded= keyword in =<layer>-packages= variables.
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_Before:_
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#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp
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(setq vim-empty-lines-packages
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'(
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(vim-empty-lines-mode :location local)
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))
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(setq vim-empty-lines-excluded-packages
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'(vi-tilde-fringe))
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#+END_SRC
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_After:_
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#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp
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(setq vim-empty-lines-packages
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'(
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(vim-empty-lines-mode :location local)
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(vi-tilde-fringe :excluded t)
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))
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#+END_SRC
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A new file called =layers.el= is in charge of layers dependency, i.e. when a
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layer needs to declare additional layers. Previously this was done in the
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=config.el= file, to avoid errors you'll have to move the calls to the functions
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=configuration-layer/declare-layer= and =configuration-layer/declare-layers= to
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a dedicated =layers.el= file. An example can be found in the
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[[https://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs/blob/564cbc40eda936985325c9b79088fbcb39d9a69d/layers/%2Bdistributions/spacemacs/layers.el][spacemacs distribution layer]].
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** Controlling downloaded packages
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The method to install all packages supported by Spacemacs has been improved. The
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old way was to set the variable =dotspacemacs-configuration-layers= to the value
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=all=. This method had several major drawbacks like forcing all layers to be
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marked as =used= and it triggered various bad side effects. We removed the
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support for the value =all=.
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A new variable =dotspacemacs-install-packages= is now dedicated to control what
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packages are downloaded by Spacemacs. Three behaviours are supported:
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- =used-only= (default) will download only the used packages
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- =used-but-keep-unused= will download only the used packages but won't uninstall
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them if they become unused
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- =all= will download _all_ the supported packages by Spacemacs.
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** Key bindings
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Here is the scary section, the one feared by most users :-) Let be honest, there
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is a rather big amount of changes for users jumping from master 0.105 to 0.200.
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First of all the most visible change is for ~SPC SPC~ which triggers now ~M-x~
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instead of =avy= to jump to a character. The ~SPC~ key in Spacemacs is a central
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key as it acts as the leader key for _all_ the key bindings, it made sense to
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give the same sense of "root" key to the sequence ~SPC SPC~, so now ~SPC SPC~ is
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the central sequence to execute _any_ interactive function in Emacs.
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Where is the =avy= command then ? We reorganised from the ground up the prefix
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~SPC j~ for all jump commands. In the conventions a doubled key is often used
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for the default command under a given prefix, for instance ~SPC b b~ is for
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buffer selection, ~SPC f f~ for file selection etc... The "jump to character"
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command of =avy= is then under ~SPC j j~. Here is a detailed list of the new
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~SPC j~ prefix:
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- =avy= commands are now behind the prefix ~SPC j~ for =jump=:
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- ~SPC j j~ to jump to a character in the buffer (works as an evil motion)
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- ~SPC j l~ to jump to a line with avy (works as an evil motion)
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- ~SPC j w~ to jump to a word in the current buffer (works as an evil motion)
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- the following key bindings have been moved:
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- ~SPC j j~ to split a line has been moved to ~SPC j n~ (mnemonic is New line)
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- ~SPC j h~ and ~SPC j l~ have been moved to ~SPC j 0~ and ~SPC j $~
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respectively.
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- ~SPC J~ to split a string or sexp has been moved to ~SPC j s~
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A lot of other handy commands are under this prefix, I let you discover them with
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the =which key= menus.
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Closing, deleting or killing things ? This can be a tough call to distinguish
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them and we can find such confusion in the Spacemacs key bindings, for instance
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we close a window but we delete a buffer and we can also kill a buffer. Whereas
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it can make sense for a lot of users, there are still users finding this
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confusing. So we decided to simplify the notion of "closing/deleting" things
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under the ~d~ key for =delete=. We moved ~SPC w c~ and ~SPC w C~ to ~SPC w d~
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and ~SPC w D~.
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More generally we tried to map prefixes ~SPC b~ and ~SPC w~ to the same actions
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and bring a convention with =avy= commands with the capital letter to manipulate
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windows and buffers. The result is detailed here:
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- ~SPC b k~ has been removed.
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- ~SPC b C-k~ (kill buffer matching regexp) is now ~SPC b C-d~
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- ~SPC b m~ (buffer move) has been removed because the functionality
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is available via ~SPC w~ with ~SPC w h/j/k/l~, ~SPC w H/J/K/L~ and
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~SPC w M~.
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- ~SPC b K~ (kill other buffers) is now ~SPC b m~ to map with ~SPC w m~
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(maximize buffer/window which effectively delete other windows).
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- ~SPC b D~ now kills a buffer using =ace-window=.
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- Buffer actions don't delete the windows by default, use the universal
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prefix argument to do so, for instance ~SPC u SPC b d~ and ~SPC u SPC b D~
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will delete the buffer and also the window. Another example is
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~SPC u SPC b m~ to maximize a buffer.
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=Helm= has a new friend in this release, it is called =ivy= and it has more and
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more adopters. Since we have now a new package capable of doing =helm= commands
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we decided to remove all =helm= related command from the prefix ~SPC h~. ~SPC h~
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is now exclusively for _help_ commands and the following =helm= commands has
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been moved:
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- ~SPC h b~ for =helm-filetered-bookmarks~is now ~SPC f b~
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- ~SPC h l~ for =helm-resume= is now ~SPC r l~
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- ~SPC h L~ for =helm-locate-library= is now ~SPC f e l~
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The =git= related commands have been drastically simplified to leverage the
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=magit= dispatch menu. Instead of replicating all the =magit= dispatch keys
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under the ~SPC g~ prefix we now only define the key binding ~SPC g m~ to display
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the =magit= dispatch menu. We get several benefits by doing so: first we free up
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a lot of valuable keys under ~SPC g~, second we have now more consistent key
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bindings since we always use the =magit= dispatch menu. Previously we have some
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actions bound to different keys between ~SPC g~ and the =magit= dispatch menu
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accessible under ~?~. The new available keys allowed us to move some key
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bindings directly under ~SPC g~ like =git-link= which is now under ~SPC g l~,
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it makes more sense to have it under ~SPC g l~ since it is agnostic of the
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hosting platform (i.e. it works with =GitHub=, =GitLab= etc...).
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Spacemacs layouts now restrict the scope of the buffer list opened with
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~SPC b b~. Use ~SPC b B~ to list all the buffers of all the layouts. Also
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~1,2,...,9,0~ keys now select a layout and close the layout menu, use
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~C-1,C-2,...,C-9,C-0~ to switch to a layout and keep the menu opened.
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To conclude this section about key binding changes and breaking changes the
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=micro-states= in Spacemacs are dead, say hi to the =transient-states=. We took
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advantage of the =micro-states= refactoring to change the name to a more
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accurate new name =transient-states=, indeed these states leverage the notion
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of transient maps in Emacs. The refactoring replaces the custom back-end by
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=hydra= a powerful and very popular package to define transient maps. In effect
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the macro =spacemacs|define-micro-state= is deprecated and is replaced by the
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new =hydra= powered macro =spacemacs|define-transient-state=.
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* What's new ?
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** Startup improvments
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The layer system has been rewritten to index packages information, the startup
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time of Spacemacs should be reduced by 20~25%. Also this refactoring will better
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scale as we add new layers and packages to the distribution.
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** Improved composability
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The =spacemacs= distribution layer has been split into several layers under the
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=spacemacs= directory. Users can now easily customize their Spacemacs experience
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by choosing the spacemacs-base distribution and using only the spacemacs layers
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they want.
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An exhaustive list of all the =spacemacs= layers:
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- spacemacs-completion
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- spacemacs-editing
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- spacemacs-editing-visual
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- spacemacs-evil
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- spacemacs-language
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- spacemacs-layouts
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- spacemacs-misc
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- spacemacs-org
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- spacemacs-ui
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- spacemacs-ui-visual
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For people wanting an even more bare Emacs experience try the distribution
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layer =spacemacs-bootstrap= which installs only essential packages like
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=use-package=, =which-key=, etc...
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Also it is easier to select or exclude a sub-list of packages in a layer with
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the new keyword =:packages=. For instance here is an example to select only the
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packages =fill-column-indicator= and =golden-ratio= in the layer
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=spacemacs-ui-visual=:
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#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp
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(setq dotspacemacs-configuration-layers
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(spacemacs-ui-visual :packages fill-column-indicator golden-ratio))
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#+END_SRC
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Another example to select all the packages except =fancy-battery=:
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#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp
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(setq dotspacemacs-configuration-layers
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(spacemacs-ui-visual :packages (not fancy-battery))
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#+END_SRC
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** Improved stability
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This is one of the Achilles' heel of Spacemacs. We rely on bleeding edge version
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of packages from =melpa= repository to install a fresh version of Spacemacs. If
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the repository is down then no sugar, try again later.
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With 0.200 we introduce [[https://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs-elpa-mirror][mirrors]] for all =elpa= repositories used by Spacemacs.
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If one of them is down then Spacemacs falls back on the mirror hosted on GitHub.
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Obviously the fall-back repository should not be used as a primary repository
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and should only be used when official =elpa= repositories are down.
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It is also possible to freeze packages by adding their name to the new variable
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=dotspacemacs-frozen-packages=. Frozen packages cannot be updated or rollbacked.
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This is useful if a package upstream needs a fix, the package can be frozen
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until the fix is released.
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Packages can be stored in different =elpa= directories, the most useful setting
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is maybe to define a different directory per Emacs version. You can do it by
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setting the new variable =dotspacemacs-elpa-subdirectory= to the value
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=emacs-version=. By default the value of this variable is =nil= which means that
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all packages are installed in the same =elpa= directory.
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** Lazy installation of layers
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A feature borrowed to [[https://github.com/bbatsov/prelude][Prelude]] distribution and adapted to the layers, it
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allows to install a layer and all its packages when opening a new file with a
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supported extension.
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For instance, when opening an Elixir file with extension =.ex= Spacemacs will
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ask to install the =elixir= layer if it is not already used. The =elixir= layer
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is automatically added to the dotfile so it won't be uninstalled after a
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restart.
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By default this feature is _disabled_, you have to opt-in for it by setting
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the variable =dotspacemacs-enable-lazy-installation= to one of the following
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values:
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- =unused= to lazy install only layers not listed in
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=dotspacemacs-configuration-layers=
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- =all= to lazy install any layer supporting lazy installation (i.e. even the
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used layers won't be installed at startup until you open a file with a
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supported extension).
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** A better hybrid editing style
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The Hybrid state wanders between the Emacs style and the Evil style, three
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new variables allow to fine tune the Hybrid style experience:
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- =hybrid-mode-enable-evilified-state=, if non nil then buffers are evilified,
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- =hybrid-mode-enable-hjkl-bindings=, if non nil navigation on ~hjkl~ keys is
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enabled (for instance in =helm= or =ivy= buffers),
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- =hybrid-mode-default-state=, the default state when opening a new buffer,
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by default it is =normal=.
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To define these new variables use the =:variables= keyword. For example:
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#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp
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(setq dotspacemacs-editing-style '(hybrid :variables
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hybrid-mode-enable-evilified-state t
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hybrid-mode-enable-hjkl-bindings t
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hybrid-mode-default-state 'normal))
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#+END_SRC
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** Support for Ivy
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The community has made a wonderful work to bring [[https://github.com/abo-abo/swiper][ivy]] support to Spacemacs.
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Want to switch from =helm= to =ivy= ? This is as simple as adding the =ivy=
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layer to your dotfile and reloading it with ~SPC f e R~!
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The level of feature of the =ivy= layer is pretty on par with the =helm= layer,
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this is a fantastic work and it demonstrates all the power of a community-driven
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configuration. I'm really excited by this new feature and how it is so easy to
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enjoy it. Nice work guys!
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** Better transient-states
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=Transient-states= replace the =micro-states=. They are powered by [[https://github.com/abo-abo/hydra][hydra]]
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making =hydra= part of the bootstrap packages (pillars of the distribution).
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=Hydra= is now 100% supported in Spacemacs and does not require hacks to
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work correctly.
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We tried to get consistent =transient-states= in all the layers by keeping
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the same documentation strings format everywhere.
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** More debugging tools
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Emacs comes with lots of tools to help the user to debug their configuration.
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Spacemacs adds several concepts which can make harder for a user to debug
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his configuration, especially the layer system.
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In this new release we are eager to introduce new easy way to debug your
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configuration:
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- press ~SPC q d~ to restart Emacs in debug mode with command line parameter
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=--debug-init= fed in for you
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- press ~SPC q D~ to restart Emacs with a selected list of packages to load,
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in this mode Spacemacs is completely disabled so you get the perfect way
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to test wether a bug comes from Spacemacs configuration or not
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- press ~SPC h I~ to open an org buffer with an issue template, fill it then
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press ~C-c C-c~ to submit it with your default internet browser.
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Along with these new key bindings, new Spacemacs specific command line
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parameters are available to help you change the scope of an issue investigation:
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- =--no-layer= deactivates all the layers _except_ the distribution layer
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- =--distribution x= allows to change temporarily the distribution to =x=.
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This is a good time to remind you about the other useful Spacemacs specific
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command line parameters:
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- =--profile== will display profiling information on startup
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- =--timed-requires= will display the time taken by each =require= commands
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- =--adv-timers n= will display any load time greater than =n=.
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** New keyboard layouts
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A new layer =keyboard-layout= aims to provide the tools to define more easily
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new keyboard layouts. This release ships with support for =bépo= and =dvorak=
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layouts.
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Be sure to follow the =README.org= of the =keyboard-layout= layer for more
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information about layout definition.
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** Directory and file local variables
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[[https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Directory-Variables.html][Per-directory and file local variables]] are a standard feature of Emacs, we try
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to leverage them starting with 0.200. Some layers support several tools to do
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the same thing, for instance in the =ruby= layer both =rspec= and =ruby-test=
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are supported to run tests; the =haskell= layer supports several completion
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back-ends like =intero= and =ghci=. Those tools or back-ends are project
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specific so providing only a global value for them is not enough. With 0.200
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these layers become compatible with directory local variables so the test engine
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for =ruby= or the completion back-end for =haskell= can be setup differently for
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different directories (i.e. projects).
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Supporting directory and file local variable dynamically greatly improves the
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flexibility of Spacemacs and make it an even better choice to handle various
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types of projects. We don´t support multiple options for the sake of supporting
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them but for a more robust solution capable to deal easily with your day-to-day
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requirements.
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** More useful abstraction
|
||
We have even more abstraction of useful concepts in 0.200 like jumping to the
|
||
definition of a symbol or opening a REPL.
|
||
|
||
Like text searching tools, there is now the concept of jump handlers, each mode
|
||
can set a list of jump handlers and Spacemacs will try them in order to get you
|
||
to a symbol definition. This new abstraction alows to merge the different
|
||
jumping tools under the same key binding, for instance =dumb-jump=, =tags=
|
||
etc...
|
||
|
||
All supported REPLs are now registered in a list and you can run any registered
|
||
REPL with ~SPC a '~.
|
||
|
||
** New welcome screen
|
||
The contents of the welcome screen are now centered, there is also a nice new
|
||
footer.
|
||
The contents are recentered when the window is resized, to disable this
|
||
behaviour set the variable =dotspacemacs-startup-buffer-responsive= to =nil=.
|
||
|
||
Sizes of lists in the welcome screen can be customized independently for each
|
||
list with the variable =dotspacemacs-startup-list=, for instance the following
|
||
value will display a maximum of 5 items for the recent files list and a maximum
|
||
of 7 items for the projects list:
|
||
|
||
#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp
|
||
(setq dotspacemacs-startup-lists '((recents . 5)
|
||
(projects . 7)))
|
||
#+END_SRC
|
||
|
||
There are two new lists of items which can be displayed on the welcome screen:
|
||
- agenda
|
||
- todos
|
||
|
||
** About Spacemacs update notifications
|
||
In previous versions Spacemacs checked for a new version at every startup of
|
||
Emacs and every 6 hours. It was [[https://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs/issues/6692][stressing the GitHub infrastructure]] enough to
|
||
make GitHub throttle down the traffic for the repository.
|
||
|
||
In this version we changed the notification frequency and took several measures
|
||
to reduce the =git= commands monitored by GitHub:
|
||
- reduce number of required git commands per check from 3 to 1
|
||
- remove recurrent version check every 6 hours, i.e. the check happens only
|
||
at startup
|
||
- rate limit the checks to once per day
|
||
- change default value of variable =dotspacemacs-check-for-update= to =nil=
|
||
- make function =spacemacs/check-for-new-version= interactive so checking
|
||
for a new version can be done on demand.
|
||
|
||
If you want automatic check of new version you have now to opt-in by setting
|
||
=dotspacemacs-check-for-update= to =t=.
|
||
|
||
** A new community document
|
||
At the root of the project directory the new file =COMMUNITY.org= describes
|
||
the values of the project and the moderation rules. There is also an exhaustive
|
||
list of the moderation actions taken by collaborators.
|
||
|
||
** The Spacemacs shop
|
||
You can now show your support for Spacemacs by buying tee-shirts and goodies
|
||
in the new [[https://shop.spreadshirt.com/spacemacs-shop][Spacemacs shop]]!
|
||
|
||
There is a limited number of models for women but all the men tee-shirts
|
||
will be available for women as well in the coming weeks!
|
||
|
||
* What's next ?
|
||
** Even more stability
|
||
=Elpa= mirrors are a good start but it does not fix the bleeding edge packages
|
||
issue, especially when installing a fresh version of Spacemacs.
|
||
|
||
For 0.201 we plan to introduce stable snapshots of =elpa= repositories, a new
|
||
installation of Spacemacs will always install packages from this stable source.
|
||
Users will then be able to manually trigger an upgrade of packages if they
|
||
want the bleeding edge versions but they will always be able to rollback to the
|
||
previous stable state if required.
|
||
|
||
** More consistent window behaviour
|
||
One of the main focus for 0.201 will be to integrate [[https://github.com/bmag/emacs-purpose][emacs-purpose]]. It is a
|
||
package to display buffer in the same windows. The current pull request is very
|
||
popular and I'm sure you'll like what it will bring to the Spacemacs experience.
|
||
|
||
** New layers
|
||
Pull requests with new layers are low on the priority list because reviewing
|
||
them is more time consuming. For 0.201 I'll focus on all the pull requests with
|
||
new layers in order to speed up the merge so you can expect more new layers for
|
||
0.201 than 0.200.
|
||
|
||
* A few thanks
|
||
This first newsletter is a great opportunity to thanks the Emacs community and
|
||
more specifically:
|
||
|
||
- =Justin Burkett= (aka [[https://github.com/justbur][justbur]]) and =Fabien Dubosson= (aka [[https://github.com/StreakyCobra][StreakyCobra]])
|
||
who were collaborators during several months. This version would not be so
|
||
awesome without their dedicated involvement. We wish them all the success in
|
||
their future projects.
|
||
|
||
- =Boris= (aka [[https://github.com/d12frosted][d12frosted]]) who joined =TheBB= and myself as collaborator.
|
||
|
||
- Of course the unique =Eivind Fonn= (aka [[https://github.com/TheBB][TheBB]]) without his constant support
|
||
Spacemacs could not be successful and I think I would have burn-out a long
|
||
time ago.
|
||
|
||
- All the package maintainers, especially =Oleh Krehel= (aka [[https://github.com/abo-abo][abo-abo]]) for the
|
||
great help with =ivy= and obviously =Frank Fischer= (aka [[https://bitbucket.org/lyro/][lyro]]) the author
|
||
of =evil=.
|
||
|
||
- In no specific order: =Diego Berrocal= (aka [[https://github.com/CestDiego][CestDiego]]), [[https://github.com/bmag][bmag]], [[https://github.com/NJBS][NJBS]],
|
||
=Eugene Yaremenko= (aka [[https://github.com/JAremko][JAremko]]), [[https://github.com/travisbhartwell][Travis B. Hartwell]], =Tristan Hume=
|
||
(aka [[https://github.com/trishume][trishume]])
|
||
|
||
- All the Spacemacs community, you are the heart of Spacemacs!
|