how do I say : here is a list of packages I want; if they're not installed, please package-install them?

check out use-package

and its :ensure option

@qqq Also, the package-install function seems to already check to if a package is installed and will return early if so. You could do something like:

(setf my-packages '(livescript-mode clojure-mode))
(mapcar (lambda (p) (package-install p)) my-packages)

If you really want to check if a package is installed yourself, you could use package-installed-p:

(package-installed-p 'clojure-mode)

are you guys using 24 or 25? I just switched from OSX (25) to ubuntu

and not sure if it's worth installing 25 from source

I'm using 25.1.1

(on ubuntu)

It looks like I compiled from source.

The version packaged w/ Ubuntu 16.04.1 (Emacs 24.3) wasn't good enough for Spacemacs which requires 24.4+.

@beppu I just got 25.1 compiled

Are you also stuck with the "gtk / multi monitor close emacs may crash bug" ?

cider requires 24.4+ afaik too

@qqq I haven't experienced that bug yet.

https://github.com/ch11ng/exwm <-- anyone used htis? I used to be xmonad + vim; now emacs + no window manager; but this would make so much sense

why not script winow manager in elisp too?

bad signture from gnu elpa on xelb

========== is there a way to fire off an chrome/firefox from emacs (but have emacs not wait for it to finish) ?

@qqq browse-url