Emacs Startup Screen
Constructing a custom startup screen
Some time ago, I decided to customize my Emacs startup screen in order to display something helpful for me. Ultimately, after much consideration, I settled on the following items I just want to see on my startup screen: 1) 3-month calendar, 2) agenda, 3) diary, 4) something just for fun.
No doubt, there are a number of packages that can assist you in making a pretty good-looking startup screen – like enlight, for instance. However, I decided to construct my own startup screen, a very simple one.
It requires having two command line utilities installed on your
system: fortune to print out a random epigram, and calendar to
print out some of the events that have occurred on the current date in
the past. If you, like me, are using Linux or macOS – it will not be
difficult to install them.
And this is what I got…
In the .emacs init file
First of all, disable the builtin startup screen.
(setq inhibit-startup-screen t)
Then add a startup hook.
(add-hook 'emacs-startup-hook
(lambda ()
(let* ((buffer-today (get-buffer-create "*today*"))
(buffer-calendar "*Calendar*")
(buffer-agenda "*Org Agenda*")
(buffer-diary "*Fancy Diary Entries*"))
;; Call calendar first to obtain the current date
;; required to display the diary.
(calendar)
(diary)
(org-agenda-list)
;; Fill and show the Today Events buffer.
;; NOTE: requires `fortune' and `calendar' command line utilities.
(switch-to-buffer buffer-today)
(call-process "fortune" nil buffer-today)
(insert "\n")
(call-process "calendar" nil buffer-today)
(goto-char 0)
(toggle-truncate-lines)
;; Maximize the Today Events window
(delete-other-windows)
;; Show Agenda in the lower left quadrant.
(split-window-vertically)
(other-window 1)
(switch-to-buffer (get-buffer buffer-agenda))
(split-window-horizontally)
;; Try to show Diary in the lower right quadrant.
(other-window 1)
(if (get-buffer buffer-diary)
;; If Diary exists then show it ...
(switch-to-buffer (get-buffer buffer-diary))
;; ... else show the scratch buffer.
(let* ((buffer-scratch (switch-to-buffer (get-buffer "*scratch*"))))
(goto-char (point-max))
(insert (format-time-string "\n;; No diary entries for %A %d %b")))
)
;; Go back to the Today Events buffer.
(other-window -2)
(split-window-horizontally)
;; Show Calendar in the upper left quadrant.
(switch-to-buffer (get-buffer buffer-calendar))
)))
The startup screen
Click or tap to view the full-size picture.
Happy emacsing!