Use Org for Your Dot Emacs + Tangling Strategies

Create an `init.el` and an `init.org`

Add this to `init.el`

;; -*- lexical-binding: t; -*-
(load-file "~/.emacs.d/name-of-your-file.el")

Or this:

;; -*- lexical-binding: t; -*-
(require 'org)
(let ((org-file "~/.emacs.d/init.org")
      (el-file "~/.emacs.d/Raoul.el"))
  (when (or (not (file-exists-p el-file))
            (file-newer-than-file-p org-file el-file))
    (org-babel-tangle-file org-file)))

(load-file "~/.emacs.d/Raoul.el")

With the above code tangling is automatic.
This obviates the need to do a manually invoke org-babel-tangle

Add this information to `init.org`

#+TITLE: My Name Emacs Configuration
#+AUTHOR: My Name
#+EMAIL: myname@internet.com
#+OPTIONS: toc:2 num:nil
#+PROPERTY: header-args:emacs-lisp :tangle Raoul.el
#+STARTUP: overview

Use `C-c C-v t` to manually tangle current file

Use :tangle no

Note: This option goes in the code block header
It can be used with experimental code, examples, temporary configs that you want to test but not deploy
Can still be executed with C-c C-c in Org mode

Use descriptive filenames (e.g., `:tangle ~/.emacs.d/hydras.el`)

This can be used in conjunction with a file level property like

#+PROPERTY: header-args:emacs-lisp :tangle Raoul.el

Use `:mkdirp yes` to auto-create directories when tangling

Useful for organizing tangled files

#+begin_src emacs-lisp :tangle ~/.emacs.d/modules/ui.el :mkdirp yes
  (setq inhibit-startup-screen t)

Use `:noweb yes` to reference other code blocks with

* Helper Functions
#+name: my-helpers
#+begin_src emacs-lisp :tangle no
(defun my-custom-function ()
  "Does something useful"
  (message "Hello world"))
#+end_src

* Main Configuration
#+begin_src emacs-lisp :tangle ~/.emacs.d/init.el :noweb yes
;; Load helpers first
<<my-helpers>>
#+end_src

Note: :noweb yes references the #+name: property, not the Org heading.