Emacs tips

evil-mode (vim for emacs) is good but not perfect. There will be occasions where you will get dropped into regular 'ole emacs mode for some feature or plugin. The trick is to not panic remember a few basic movement keys that will get through in 90% of cases.

1. C-n and C-p (C stands for the ctrl key) go down and up by line respectively.
2. M-f (M stands for the alt key) and M-b will go forwards and backwards by word respectively.
3. C-g is the universal emacs key for "STOP WHATEVER YOU'RE DOING".

There are a few other random things to keep in mind that will make life easier.

1. M-x (remember, M stands for the alt key) allows you to execute just about any function, e.g. kill-buffer.
2. F1 f will bring up documentation for any loaded function.
3. F1 v will bring up documentation for any variable.
4. F1 k will allow you to type a keybind and see what it's bound to.

Scripting tips

A few helpful built-in functions to know to start making your own functions.

1. nth is a built-in which lets you pull a specific item from a list by it's index like so: (nth 1 '("red", "blue")). Returns "blue".

2. split-string is another built-in that splits a string given a separator and returns the results in a list. (split-string "foo-bar" "-"). Returns ("foo" "bar")

3. concat also a built-in, combines strings. (concat "hello" "world"). Returns "helloworld".

4. null also a built-in. Return t if OBJECT is nil, and return nil otherwise. (null OBJECT).

I'll add to this post as I think of things that helped me out when I first started using emacs. You can also check out my emacs config in my dotfiles if you want to see how I have everything setup.