bash_profile

# setting ALTERNATE_EDITOR to the empty string "" instructs
# emacsclient to invoke Emacs in daemon-mode iff it isn't running already
export EDITOR=emacsclient
export ALTERNATE_EDITOR=""

dot_emacs

; full file is at https://github.com/RichardBarrell/dot_emacs/blob/master/dot_emacs.el

; I cribbed this from somewhere.
(defun alist-insert (alist key value)
  "Returns a new alist with (key,value) inserted into it."
  (let ((newlist nil) (found nil) k v)
	(dolist (e alist)
	  (setq k (car e))
	  (setq v (cdr e))
	  (if (equal k key)
		  (progn (unless found (setq newlist (cons (cons k value) newlist)))
				 (setq found t))
		  (setq newlist (cons (cons k v) newlist))))
	(unless found
	  (setq newlist (cons (cons key value) newlist)))
	(reverse newlist)))

; use default-frame-alist to set font rendering parameters because
; they will get picked up next time a frame is created, and if you're
; using Emacs in daemon mode, there often won't *be* any frames that
; exist at the time your .emacs is being evaluated :)
(setq default-frame-alist
	  (alist-insert default-frame-alist 'font-backend "xft"))
(setq default-frame-alist
	  (alist-insert default-frame-alist 'font "Source Code Pro-11:regular"))

macs.sh

#!/bin/sh
# this is what I usually run to boot Emacs in the gui
# I have mod4 + F2 bound to run this script
exec emacsclient -c -n -F '((fullscreen . maximized))' "$@"

mmy.py

#!/usr/bin/env python
# open a bunch of files in alternating left/right Emacs buffers
import re, os, os.path, sys

esc = re.compile(r'["\\]')

if __name__ == '__main__':
    fs = []
    for arg in sys.argv[1:]:
        arg = os.path.abspath(arg)
        fs.append('(other-window 1)(find-file "%s")' % esc.sub(lambda m: '\\'+m.group(0), arg))
    ff = '(progn %s)' % "".join(fs)
    os.execvp('emacsclient', ('emacsclient', '-n', '-e', ff))