You'd do well to replace `~/.emacs.d` with the value of
`user-emacs-directory` for your OS. You can check the value by doing
`C-h v user-emacs-directory` inside Emacs.
## Running
Nothing fancy here. Just start Emacs as usual. Personally I run Emacs
in daemon mode:
`$ emacs --daemon`
Afterwards I connect to the server with either a terminal or a GUI
client like this:
```bash
$ emacsclient -t
$ emacsclient -c
```
You'd probably do well to put a few aliases in your `.zshrc` (or
`.bashrc`):
```bash
alias e=emacsclient -t
alias ec=emacsclient -c
alias vim=emacsclient -t
alias vi=emacsclient -t
```
The last two aliases are helpful if you're used to editing files from
the command line using `vi(m)`.
## Getting to know Prelude
Certainly the best way to understand how Prelude enhances the default
Emacs experience is to peruse Prelude's source code (which is
obviously written in Emacs Lisp). If you're intimidated by the source
- do not despair. Prelude includes a `prelude-mode` minor Emacs mode
which collects some of the additional functionality added by
Prelude. It also adds an additional keymap that binds many of those
extensions to keybindings.
## Color Themes
Emacs 24 ships with a new theming facility that effectively renders
the old color-theme package obsolete. Emacs 24 provides a dozen of
built-in themes you can use out-of-the-box by invoking the `M-x
load-theme` command.
[Zenburn](https://github.com/bbatsov/zenburn-emacs) is the default color theme in Prelude, but you can change it
at your discretion. Why Zenburn? I (and lots of hackers around the
world) find it pretty neat for some reason. Personally I find the
default theme pretty tiresome for the eyes, that's why I took that
"controversial" decision to replace it. You can, of course, easily go
back to the default (or select another theme entirely).
To disable Zenburn just put in your personal config the following
line:
```elisp
(disable-theme 'zenburn)
```
Or you can use another theme altogether by adding something like:
```elisp
(load-theme 'solarized-dark t)
```
P.S. Solarized is not available by default - you'll have to install it from MELPA first.
## Personalizing
Fork the official Prelude repo and add your own touch to it. You're advised to avoid changing stuff outside of the
personal folder to avoid having to deal with git merge conflicts in the future.
## Prelude Modules
Additional settings for various programming languages are available for installation via MELPA. You might take a look at the [Prelude Modules project](https://github.com/bbatsov/prelude-modules) for further info.
## Caveats & Pitfalls
### Problems with flyspell-mode
Prelude makes heavy use of the flyspell-mode package for spell
checking of various things. The proper operation of flyspell depends
on the presence of the `aspell` program and an `en` dictionary on your
system. You can install `aspell` and the dictionary on OS X with
`homebrew` like this:
```bash
$ brew install aspell --lang=en
```
On Linux distros - just use your distro's package manager.
### Ugly colors in the terminal Emacs version
If your Emacs looks considerably uglier in a terminal (compared to the
GUI version) try adding this to your `.bashrc` or `.zshrc`:
```bash
export TERM=xterm-256color
```
Source the `.bashrc` file and start Emacs again.
### MELPA error on initial startup
If you get some http connection error related to the MELPA repo
just do a manual `M-x package-refresh-contents` and restart Emacs
afterwards.
### No arrow navigation in editor buffers
This is not a bug - it's a feature! I firmly believe that the one true
way to use Emacs is by using it the way it was intended to be used (as
far as navigation is concerned at least). That's why I've disabled all
movement commands with arrows (and keys like page up, page down, etc) - to prevent you from being tempted to
use them.
If you'd still like to use the arrow keys just invoke `M-x
guru-mode` to enable them for the duration of your
current Emacs session or add `(guru-mode -1)` to your
personal Emacs customization to enable them permanently.
### Windows compatibility
While everything in Prelude should work fine in Windows, I test it only
with Linux & OSX, so there are Windows related problems from time to
time. This situation will probably improve over time.
## Share the knowledge
[WikEmacs](http://wikemacs.org) collects useful resources for working
with GNU Emacs. Please, take the time to peruse and improve them as
you accumulate knowledge about Emacs. Prelude makes this especially
easy, since it bundles
[MediaWiki support](http://wikemacs.org/wiki/Mediawiki.el) + the
