Setting up code blocks in org mode

2020 May 20 – Max A

Usually when taking notes, I like inserting code snippets to refer to commmands or neat ways of solving things. For those familiar with markdown this is ubiquitous with using backticks (`) for in-line snippets, and triple ticks (```) to start and end an entire code block.

Now that I’m using org mode with spacemacs to take these notes, often I find myself exporting to github-flavored markdown with the export functionality provided by markdown-toc markdown-mode in org mode. However, org mode has a bit more complicated way of denoting code blocks. If you want a typescript code block you’ll have to type up the following:

 #+begin_src typescript // this guy
 () => {console.log('hey');}
 #+end_src // and this guy

It’s not a lot of characters but its more tedious than the markdown version. After perusing the internet, the module org-tempo provides not just code blocks but a smattering of annotations. In terms of spacemacs, now all you need to type in is <s and you’ll get the code block tags inserted for you. Nice!

Now yes, it’s emacs; you could do this with one or two lisp functions and be done. For those of us who would rather just get a module, here’s how you would do it in your .spacemacs file:

first, get a list of all your org-mode modules (via SPC h d v)
append org-tempo to the list under custom-set-variables:

'(org-modules
   (quote
    (org-w3m org-bbdb org-bibtex org-docview 
    org-gnus org-info org-irc org-mhe org-rmail org-eww 
    org-tempo)))
    ^^^ <- this one right here