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Emacs Bedrock 2.0

Emacs Bedrock 2.0 arrives, updating a popular minimal starter-kit designed for users who want to fully own and customize their Emacs configuration from the ground up. This release emphasizes better defaults and features without relying on external packages in its core. Its appeal on Hacker News stems from catering to the deep customization ethos of Emacs users and offering a stable, privacy-focused foundation for power users.

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Sep 8, 3:00 AM
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The Lowdown

The Emacs community is buzzing with the release of Bedrock 2.0, a significant update to the minimalist starter-kit that aims to provide a robust yet straightforward foundation for personal Emacs configurations. Unlike more complex frameworks, Bedrock's philosophy centers on giving users direct control over their init.el and early-init.el files, encouraging a deeper understanding and ownership of their editor setup.

Key highlights of Bedrock 2.0 include:

  • Emacs 31 Requirement: The new version mandates Emacs 31, signaling a forward-looking approach and breaking compatibility with older Emacs versions like 29.
  • Enhanced Defaults: It introduces a suite of 'better defaults' for Emacs, improving usability without incorporating third-party packages into its core.
  • Lexical Binding: All .el files now utilize lexical-binding: t, a modern Emacs feature.
  • Streamlined Package Management: use-package declarations now automatically install missing packages by default.
  • Feature Modernization: Updates include switching to embark-auto-prefix-help-mode over which-key (if embark is loaded) and replacing wgrep with the built-in grep-change-to-grep-edit-mode.
  • User Experience Improvements: The release boasts vastly improved tree-sitter configuration, a nicer isearch setup, auto-updating *Completions* buffer, and repeat-mode enabled by default.

While Bedrock 2.0 offers substantial improvements, its developers emphasize that it's an incremental update rather than a total overhaul. Users of previous versions are encouraged to manually compare and integrate desired changes, reinforcing the kit's core principle of user ownership and deep configuration understanding.