Xah Emacs Blog Archive 2013-11

emacs: Vote for Your Fav Builtin Package

[Andrew Hyatt https://plus.google.com/+AndrewHyatt/posts] (Google engineer) posted message from FSF/GNU forum requesting user feedback on what builtin modes should be turned on by default. See here: https://plus.google.com/+AndrewHyatt/posts/RTguQsNobjg.

be sure to vote.

new feature: random button for {tutorial, emacs manual, elisp manual}

News. Now, there are 3 “random page” buttons on every page.

1. Random tutorial page
2. Random emacs manual page
3. Random elisp manual page

Try it, at the top.

Am sending out a new version of emacs tutorial. If you haven't got it yet, Buy Xah Emacs Tutorial. You can also buy a copy for your friend as a gift. Just put in comment in paypal form where you want me to send it to (email address), and any message, i'll pass along. Thanks.

Emacs Lisp or Python to the Rescue?

i needed to write a emacs command, but, i wanted to practice python, so instead, wrote a python script with emacs lisp wrapper.

5 min job is now 1 hour. lol.

See the emacs lisp command and the python script at bottom of Emacs Lisp Wrapper for Perl/Python/Ruby Scripts

my python isn't very good. If you see improvements, please do point out. Thanks.

New version of emacs tutorial is out. Buy Xah Emacs Tutorial. I'll be emailing out the update. Thank you for support.

Emacs Keyboard Macros: F3 F4 Are Not Good Keys, and Elisp Cannot Replace Kmacros

By default, you can press F3 to start recording macro, and F4 to stop. But remember, if you care about key efficiency, one of the most important principle in keybinding is that most frequently used command must have most easy keys, because you have 10 times more commands you need than good key spots. So, the question is, how often do you record macros? Hourly, daily, weekly, monthly? I use emacs keyboard macro maybe about 2 times a month. So, for me, the function keys for macros is a very inefficient use of keys. As far as i know, most emacs users do not use key macros often. So, the function keys should be use for something that you need at least hourly. (you can follow this advice only if you are a keyboard nerd. The disadvantage is that you have to spend time on it, not compatible with plain gnu emacs, etc. But if you use ergoemacs-mode, F3 and F4 are cut and copy.)

The second point is that, keyboard macros, when needed, it is critical. Even if you know elisp well, it can't replace key macro at all, because in most cases, writing elisp will take 30 minutes or more, and often just is not practical, while key macro lets you finish the job in 1 minute. Here's a example: Emacs: Key Macro Example: Add HTML Attribute

possibly i'll have a first phone interview with Google engineers. The human resource asks me about Googlers i know. Who can give a helping hand? thanks. (xahlee@gmail.com)

if you haven't mastered emacs keyboard macros yet, now it's a good time. Emacs: Keyboard Macro

Wolfram language is on the news lately. It has a lot affinity with lisp.

“every developer should buy a copy of Mathematica, because it will expand their mind.” —Rich Hickey (Clojure inventor)

See: [http://xahlee.blogspot.com/2013/11/wolfram-language-and-lisp.html]

updated:

• Text Editor's Cursor Movement Behavior (emacs, vi, Notepad++)
• Emacs: Move Cursor to Bracket 🚀
• Emacs Keybinding Design: beginning-of-line-or-block

we've been all fool'd. Richard Stallman Wants Emacs to be Word Processor (2013)

Emacs Lisp vs JavaScript

Ask Emacs Tuesday 2013-11-12

Problems of grep in Emacs (old article)

Emacs: Inconsistency of Search Features. Old article. barrkel suggested using “helm-git-grip”. See his comment.

for those of you on Google Plus, i'm planning to do hangouts. (that is, we can get together for video and voice chat, with screen sharing). I think that'd be fun. See: https://plus.google.com/113859563190964307534/posts/PJtoomZ1XBB

Node.js Creator on Software Complexity (There's some relevance to emacs there.)

emacs. After Alt+x magit-status, you can press FF to pull. Emacs: magit-mode for git

try list-character-sets. Thanks to stef.

see also Emacs: Unicode Tutorial

Emacs: Xah Math Input Mode (xah-math-input.el) (new version. Buy it, help support this tutorial) If you already bought it, just email me to get latest version. (Xah@XahLee.org)

Ask Emacs Tuesday 2013-11-12

new. Emacs Images Thumbnails Index

seems the emacs lisp manual is missing the variable null-device, see sshaw's comment at System Environment - GNU Emacs Lisp Reference Manual

the most frequently used app for me are: emacs, firefox, chrome, terminal. Each's window has a visible area on screen. So i just hover to it to activate.

Mouse Hover to Auto-Raise Window

Ask Emacs Tuesday 2013-11-05

Ban Key Chords (oldie but goodie)

railwaycat emacs-mac-port

a emacs port for Mac that i hear good things about. https://github.com/railwaycat/emacs-mac-port

info added to Download Emacs for Windows/Mac

thanks to people on https://plus.google.com/104741873283601833312/posts/7VYWZ5yFSEy

• Computer Languages Characters Frequency
• Ergonomic Keyboard Layouts
• Semicolon vs Apostrophe Frequency in Programing Languages

ELisp: Docstring Markup (oldie. useful)

Tips and Tricks in Setting Up Emacs Init

several articles related to setting up emacs.

• How to Install Packages
• Emacs 24 Package System
• Associate a File with a Major Mode
• Organize Your Emacs Init
• Byte Compile Elisp File
• Determine OS, Version, Host Name
• Check If a Package is Loaded
• Emacs Customize System
• Set Environment Variables within Emacs
• Avoid Lambda in Hook
• Emacs Init: Mouse Config

ELisp: Determine OS, Emacs Version, Machine Host Name (updated)