Why isn’t return bound to newline-and-indent by default on emacs

defaultemacsnewline

I have tried emacs on and off for a while now and every time I start emacs, I go through the same routine. Customizing. The first one is binding return to newline-and-indent. (g)Vim does this by default. Showing matching parenthesis is also done by default on (g)Vim. It is grea that I can customize emacs to my heart's content but why doesn't emacs have nice and easy defaults? For reference, I am now using Emacs 23 on a RHEL5 box.

Best Solution

Probably because RMS didn't want it, that and because changing long-standing defaults is just an issue of politics. Like vi, Emacs has a hard-core following and basic changes like these are minefields.

Note: if you saved your customizations, then you wouldn't have to re-do them every time...

Short answer:

The key point is to tell emacs to insert whatever you want when indenting, this is done by changing the indent-line-function. It is easier to change it to insert a tab and then change tabs into 4 spaces than change it to insert 4 spaces. The following configuration will solve your problem:

(setq-default indent-tabs-mode nil)
(setq-default tab-width 4)
(setq indent-line-function 'insert-tab)

Explanation:

From Indentation Controlled by Major Mode @ emacs manual:

An important function of each major mode is to customize the key to indent properly for the language being edited.

[...]

The indent-line-function variable is the function to be used by (and various commands, like when calling indent-region) to indent the current line. The command indent-according-to-mode does no more than call this function.

[...]

The default value is indent-relative for many modes.

From indent-relative @ emacs manual:

Indent-relative Space out to under next indent point in previous nonblank line.

[...]

If the previous nonblank line has no indent points beyond the column point starts at, `tab-to-tab-stop' is done instead.

Just change the value of indent-line-function to the insert-tab function and configure tab insertion as 4 spaces.

How to replace a character with a newline in Emacs

M-x replace-string RET ; RET C-q C-j.

C-q for quoted-insert,
C-j is a newline.

Best Solution

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Set 4 Space Indent in Emacs in Text Mode

Short answer:

Explanation:

How to replace a character with a newline in Emacs

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