I've been using Emacs for a decade and still have never had to write a single package of my own. Every time I have a good idea, someone else has already implemented it.
I donate little bits here and there when I can, but I'm unfortunately not in financial position to give what I think the maintainers deserve. Instead I try to submit documentation patches to projects whenever I find myself digging through the source code trying to answer a question the docs didn't make clear.
I've written a few specialisms that couldn't really be open-sourced. e.g. wiring up inf-ruby and internal dev tools to open up a rails console in dev, or generate a jwt from the auth server in the cluster.
The only package I've been ultimately responsible for is the Gruvbox theme[^1], but that was very quickly handed over to other emacsers :)
I still find it a joy to write and it's one of my more preferred rabbit holes to dive into. Maybe one day there'll be something more to share :)
Oh wow, I used to use that theme. Thanks for making it. Yeah, most of the elisp I write is mostly just glue code, not something that makes sense to package and distribute.
In what way do you find it too chatty? That hasn't been my experience, but I do use a pretty small subset of it. Are you using it on its own, or with helm/ivy?
It could have been hel or ivy I was seeing. I don’t like the mode line moving (growing the minibuffer) as I typically keep my eyes on part of the buffer and don’t want anything moving (or worse, obscuring where I’m looking)
This is the comment that most gets to the point. The blog post was about writing, not about giving Moleskine all of your money. The introductory and conclusive sections are independent of the tool one uses to keep records and logs, and those are the main points I wanted to get across. In hindsight, I have to admit the title I chose is misguiding.
The medium really should be one's own, very personal choice. In the article, I tried to justify my choice with the reasons that work _for me_. I've tried going digital many different times, but I like the directness of a notebook too much, and I tend to get distracted easily by flashy icons on the screen. A system is only as good as one's ability to use it.