Emacs Basics

Understanding the basic terminology will help make the most out of Spacemacs and allow very effective use.

Terminology	Description
File	A file on the file system
Buffer	A container to display a file or other information (file navigation, REPL, data inspector, test report, etc.)
Window	Contains a buffer, organises multiple buffers in a frame
Frame	Holds one or more windows. Opening another frame gives you another instance of Emacs
Status bar	Information about current window and buffer, e.g. window number, buffer mode & name, location of cursor. Also referred to as the mode line.
Mini-buffer	A command line for Emacs - shows commands and some results, acts as an interactive prompt for some commands

Spacemacs also adds Layouts to manage a set of buffers within the scope of a project and Workspaces allow multiple window configurations

Working with Frames

By default, Spacemacs opens with a frame that contains a single window, that window containing the Spacemacs home buffer.

Space F n creates a new frame containing a single window that contains a buffer.

Space F d closes the current frame, unless its the last Emacs frame running, then Emacs itself closes.

Space q q to quit Emacs closes all frames.

Working with windows

Each frame contains one or more windows. Each window is assigned a unique number when created, even across multiple frames.

Space followed by a number jumps to the window with that number, e.g. Space 1 jumps to window number 1.

Windows are used to display multiple buffers (files, REPL, error messages, etc) within the same frame

Key Binding	Description
Space w .	Open Window transient state menu for multiple command
Space w 2	2 window layout - shows current buffer in new window
Space w 3	3 window layout - shows current buffer in new windows
Space w m	maximise the current buffer
Space w d	delete current window
Space w g	toggles golden ratio view of windows

Working with windows

A buffer is the fundamental presentation of information in Emacs. Buffers can show the contents of a file, search results in a helm-popup, an interactive process e.g. REPL buffer, etc.

Space Tab toggles between the current buffer and the last active buffer

Key Binding	Description
Space b .	Open buffer transient state menu for multiple command
Space b b	Show list of open buffers and recently opened buffers
Space b d	Kill current buffer
Space b h	Open Spacemacs Home buffer
Space b m	Open Spacemacs *messages* buffer - log of Emacs actions and commands
Space b s	Open Spacemacs scratch buffer - a persistent buffer for random note taking
Space b w	Toggle read-only mode on a buffer (Spacemacs Org docs open in Read-only mode by default)
Space b x	Kill buffer and the window containing it
Space b R	Revert buffer to file saved on disk (causes .dir-locals.el to load into Emacs)
Space b Y	Copy contents of a whole buffer

Golden Ratio

Golden-ratio automatically lays out windows in a Fibonacci style pattern. The active window becomes the largest window and all other windows are automatically shrunk so they are out of the way, but still visible.