GoKawiilEmacs features have a discoverability problem, and we’re chipping away at it one demo at a time. The years since I wrote the last one of these have yielded more surprising and useful finds, so it’s time again for a “batteries included” report.
Note This is the third in a series of articles highlighting useful but lesser-known features included in Emacs. Parts 1 & 2: Batteries included with Emacs
More batteries included with emacs “Lesser-known” is a subjective judgment. Roughly, it means that at the time of writing, I have seen these features mentioned fewer than five times – and often never – in the past two decades of dipping in and out of online Emacs discourse. Some of the features covered in past entries are well known and often recommended today. I claim no credit.
If you’re a new Emacs user, don’t start here. This is not a getting-started guide. You will be better served by grokking basic Emacs concepts and sticking to the most widely recommended packages. Once you’ve experienced the Emacs equivalents of thoughts like “Why didn’t anyone think to put wheels on luggage until 1990?”, this series might be more helpful. My rule of thumb is that if you aren’t yet aware of undo-in-region, there is much low hanging fruit for the picking, and you can come back to this article after that supply has run out! .
Veteran Emacs users tend to use some relatively niche Emacs features, but in my experience it’s always a different subset for each user. So if you’ve been around the block a few times, I promise there will still be surprises below for you as well!
Same rules as before:
No packages, stock Emacs only
No steep learning curves. Learn each feature in under five minutes or bust .
No gimmicks . No doctor , tetris , snake , dunnet , zone , butterfly … yes, we know about dissociated-press . Let’s move on.
Just the deltas . No commonly mentioned packages like Flymake, doc-view, outline-minor-mode, gnus or eww. Nothing that Emacs brings up automatically or a nonspecific Google search gets you.
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