Creating a simple emacs package

[2023-12-18 Mon] I wanted to find a way how to override a function in Emacs. After a few unsuccessful attempts, I thought okay I first must understand how packages work in Emacs.

So researched a simple way to create one.

1 Steps to execute to create your own emacs package

1.1 Create a Package Directory Structure

Create a directory named my-word-counter (or any preferred name) within your Emacs configuration folder.

1.2 Write the Package Code

Inside the my-word-counter directory, create a file named my-word-counter.el and write the following Emacs Lisp code:

;;; my-word-counter.el --- A simple Emacs package to count words in the buffer.

;;;###autoload
(defun my-word-counter ()
  "Count the number of words in the current buffer."
  (interactive)
  (message "Number of words in the buffer: %d" (count-words (point-min) (point-max))))

;; Provide the feature
(provide 'my-word-counter)

1.3 Create the Package Metadata

In the my-word-counter directory, create a file named my-word-counter-pkg.el to define package metadata:

(define-package "my-word-counter" "1.0" "A simple package to count words in Emacs.")

1.4 Load the Package

Add code to your Emacs configuration file (~/.emacs or ~/.emacs.d/init.el) to add the directory containing your package to the load path and load the package:

;; Add the package directory to load-path
(add-to-list 'load-path "~/.emacs.d/my-word-counter")

;; Load the package
(require 'my-word-counter)

1.5 Usage

After following these steps, you can use the my-word-counter package in Emacs. Open a buffer and execute M-x my-word-counter. It should display a message with the count of words in the buffer.