emacs X resources
[![gnu.jpg](/space/gnu.jpg)](http://gnu.org/software/emacs/)

I
do most of my [Emacs](http://gnu.org/software/emacs/) customization in [my
.emacs file](http://ryan.barrett.name/dotfiles/emacs). However, Emacs starts
itself and creates an X11 window _before_ it reads the .emacs file. So,
customizations that affect the window itself are very expensive, since they're
applied _after_ the window is created.

A few of these customizations include turning the menu bar, toolbar, and scroll
bars off, as well as setting custom fonts and colors. Luckily, there's a much
faster way: [X resources](http://www.plig.org/xwinman/resource.html).

Try for yourself! Here's the elisp to turn off the menu bar, toolbar, and scroll
bars. Put it in your `.emacs`, and start Emacs.

    (menu-bar-mode nil)
    (tool-bar-mode nil)
    (scroll-bar-mode nil)

Now, take it out, and instead, add these lines to your `.Xresources` file.

    Emacs.menuBar: off
    Emacs.verticalScrollBars: off
    Emacs.toolBar: off

Run `xrdb .Xresources`, then try starting Emacs again. It should be much faster!

Emacs obeys many other X resources. For example, I use these to customize the
default font and foreground and background colors:

    Emacs*font: 7x14
    Emacs*foreground: lightgray
    Emacs*background: black

Here's to fast-starting Emacs!

See also:
  * [Emacs and remote X Windows](/space/Emacs and remote X Windows)
  * [minimal .emacs for fast startup](/space/minimal .emacs for fast startup)
  * [why I don't run shells inside Emacs](/space/why I don't run shells inside Emacs)