title: Emacs: Symbol's value as variable is void
body: <p>This is my <code>~/.emacs</code> file:</p>
  
  <pre><code>(setq-default c-basic-offset 4 c-default-style "linux")
  (setq-default tab-width 4 indent-tabs-mode t)
  (define-key c-mode-base-map (kbd "RET") 'newline-and-indent)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I'm getting a warning when I open up emacs:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>Warning (initialization): An error occurred while loading
    <code>c:/home/.emacs</code>:</p>
    
    <p>Symbol's value as variable is void: <code>c-mode-base-map</code></p>
    
    <p>To ensure normal operations, you should investigate and remove the
    cause of the error in your initialization file. Start Emacs with the
    <code>--debug-init</code> option to view a complete error backtrace.</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>I ran <code>--debug-init</code> and this is what it returned. I don't know what I means:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>Debugger entered--Lisp error: (void-variable <code>c-mode-base-map</code>)  </p>
  
  <pre><code>(define-key c-mode-base-map (kbd "RET") (quote newline-and-indent)) 
  
  eval-buffer(#&lt;buffer *load*&gt; nil "c:/home/.emacs" nil t)
  
  ; Reading at buffer position 311
  load-with-code-conversion("c:/home/.emacs" "c:/home/.emacs" t t)
  
  load("~/.emacs" t t)
  </code></pre>
  </blockquote>