Setting window margins for particular buffers (org, in particular)

[jmhammond]

My objective:

My goal is that I want all my buffers to have the same basic margins; in org-mode, I have line numbers off for performance reasons, so I want to pad the margins. Here’s what it looks like now:

My config.el with line numbers

An org file without line numbers

I’ve tried:

I have the following attached to the org-mode-hook, to turn off line numbers (which it does) and change the window size (which it doesn’t):

  (defun jq-no-lines-but-gutter ()
    (doom-disable-line-numbers-h)
    (set-window-margins (selected-window) 3 3)
    )
  (add-hook 'org-mode-hook #'jq-no-lines-but-gutter)

However, it does work if I, at the top of the org buffer C-c C-c “Local setup has been refreshed”:

Request:

How can I make it that all my org buffers automatically have the marginal padding without having the line number mode? I didn’t see a different relevant hook on the org documentation, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I missed something obvious.

Thanks!

[elken]

visual-fill-column

[jmhammond]

What specifically would I use? The variable that looks most relevant, visual-fill-column-extra-text-width isn’t accomplishing the job.

New code in config.el:

  (defun jq-no-lines-but-gutter ()
    (doom-disable-line-numbers-h)
    (setq visual-fill-column-extra-text-width '(3 . 3))    ; <<--- new
    )
  (add-hook 'org-mode-hook #'jq-no-lines-but-gutter)
  (add-hook 'org-mode-hook #'visual-fill-column-mode) ; <<--- new

but when I open an org buffer, nothing is padded:

Can you point me to the specific thing I should try with this package to accomplish the padding?

[elken]

GitHub - elken/doom: Doom Emacs config is what I use to give

[jmhammond]

Thanks, that helps. I see that you’re using the (visual-fill-column-center-text t) which does push it from the margin, so that’s a help when my window is large enough to exceed visual-fill-column-width.

But if I’m working with emacs in a smaller window (which I regularly do), the text is “centered” and so pushed up against the left margin again.

Anyone else manage to adjust the margins? My (set-window-margins (selected-window) 3 3) works except that the org-mode-hook doesn’t load it. Anyone have a clue why that is the case?

[brongulus]

Is something like this what you’re looking for? It sets the left margin for org buffers to give it some padding.

(add-hook! 'org-mode-hook
  (setq left-margin-width 2))

[tecosaur]

I like the sound of this, so I just tried it. It seems like this is fragile to window configuration changes. I’ll try whipping something up.

[tecosaur]

Mmm, I think I do like this. Here’s an unpushed excerpt from my config:

Display-wise, somehow I don’t mind code buffers without any margin on the left, but it feels a bit off with text buffers once the padding provided by line numbers is stripped away.

(defvar +text-mode-left-margin-width 1
  "The `left-margin-width' to be used in `text-mode' buffers.")

(defun +setup-text-mode-left-margin ()
  (when (and (derived-mode-p 'text-mode)
             (eq (current-buffer) ; Check current buffer is active.
                 (window-buffer (frame-selected-window))))
    (setq left-margin-width (if display-line-numbers
                                0 +text-mode-left-margin-width))
    (set-window-buffer (get-buffer-window (current-buffer))
                       (current-buffer))))

Now we just need to hook this up to all the events which could either indicate a change in the conditions, or a require the setup to be re-applied.

(add-hook 'window-configuration-change-hook #'+setup-text-mode-left-margin)
(add-hook 'display-line-numbers-mode-hook #'+setup-text-mode-left-margin)
(add-hook 'text-mode-hook #'+setup-text-mode-left-margin)

There’s one little niggle with Doom, as doom/toggle-line-numbers doesn’t run display-line-numbers-mode-hook, so some advice is needed.

(defadvice! +doom/toggle-line-numbers--call-hook-a ()
  :after #'doom/toggle-line-numbers
  (run-hooks 'display-line-numbers-mode-hook))

Lastly, I think I actually like this enough that I’ll go ahead and remove line numbers in text mode.

(remove-hook 'text-mode-hook #'display-line-numbers-mode)

[jmhammond]

This is perfect. To get it just where I wanted, I just made +text-mode-left-margin-width 3.

The code works across restarts, window resizings and such. Thank you so much!