Re: EXWM

[André A . Gomes]

calcium <calcium@disroot.org> writes:

> I was totally at lost when I started my emacs/exwm session and tried to 
> `find-file' only to be redirected to an 'ido-find-file` with whom I don't 
> know how to navigate.
>
> In the moment, it felt very intrusive for me and I was very afraid to be 
> unable to control my emacs because I have set all my emacs's keybindings to 
> non-standard keys ((in a modal way (à la vim) but using my own custom modals) 
> and without honoring the `C-c' convetion.) and I don't know how to navigate 
> emacs using the default key bindings.
>
> Luckly, this time (because packages can evolve to add more default key 
> bindings), it was just the annoyance of ido that affected me.
>
>
> I was thankfully able to understand what was going on by finding the 
> Guix-devel archive discussing this issue.
>
> I think that if we choose to keep things as they are, a simple fix that would 
> help next users know what is going on without having to find an archived 
> mailing list :
>
> a ) being more explicit in messages in both cases like :
>     (message "no \"~/.exwm\" elisp configuration found to setup exwm. "
>              "Falling back to executing the default config using 
> `(exwm-config-default)'")
>     (message "executing the elisp found at \"~/.exwm\"")
> b ) while still keeping the explicit messages, creating the ~/.exwm file when 
> it doesn't exist populated with guix's choice of default settings (so that 
> the user can read and tweak his config)
>
> Because the message thrown by the snippet bellow is not enough at all.
>   
>
> (cond ((file-exists-p "~/.exwm") (load-file "~/.exwm"))
>        ((not (featurep (quote exwm)))
>         (require (quote exwm))
>         (require (quote exwm-config))
>         (exwm-config-default)
>         (message (concat "exwm configuration not found. "
>                          "Falling back to default configuration..."))))
>

I feel you (been there, felt that).

I tried, without success, to raise awareness about the issue (perhaps in
the archived thread you mention).  Sadly, no one agreed or tried to
prove me wrong.

I wrote a very simple and sane EXWM package definition, and you can find
it here:

https://git.sr.ht/~aadcg/aadcg-guix-channel/tree/master/item/packages/aadcg-emacs-xyz.scm#L147

I could send it as a patch, but without interest from the
developers/maintainers it makes little sense.


-- 
André A. Gomes
"Free Thought, Free World"