Xah Emacs Blog Archive 2025-01

• Emacs: Split Window

minor updates

• Emacs: Copy Paste, kill-ring
• Emacs: Copy Current Line 📜
• Emacs: Show Copy History (kill-ring) 📜
• Emacs: Copy Buffer or Selection 📜

• Emacs: Copy to Register
• Emacs: Copy to Register 1 📜
• Emacs: Paste or Paste Previous 📜
• Emacs: Append to Register 1 📜

• Emacs Init: Standard Copy Cut Paste Keys

• Emacs: Hippie Expand

• Xah Talk Show 2025-06-27 Ep670 Make Spell Checking in Emacs Microsoft Windows Great Again
• Xah Talk Show 2025-06-26 Ep669 Emacs Lisp, HTML ul to dl, and More

• 2025-06-28
• Emacs: Xah Fly Keys 📦
• xah-select-block new behavior. now select without the ending empty lines, when the command is not repeated.
• change key, xah-slash-to-backslash and other related to slash backslash. now have the same prefix.

• 2025-06-24
• Emacs: Xah Fly Keys 📦
• key change. shell-command is now [space n g], was [n 9]. shell-command-on-region is now [space n f], was and [n 0]. reason: trying to reduce using the digit keys, because i find that for touch typers, they are not ergonomic. also on a lot new ergo keyboards in past 10 years, digit keys require combination.

• Emacs: Real Automatic Save File

• Elisp: Functions on Line

• Elisp: Number

• 2025-06-06
• Emacs: Xah Fly Keys 📦
• now use length= length> length<

• Elisp: List

• Xah Talk Show 2025-06-03 Ep663 emacs lisp coding, HTML show duplicate links

minor updates

• Elisp: Hash Table
• Elisp: Search Text Functions

• Elisp: Get Text at Cursor (thing-at-point)

• 🆕 Elisp: Reduce (Fold)
• Elisp: Sequence. Iteration Guide

• Elisp: Sequence Type

• Xah Talk Show 2025-05-20 Ep659 emacs lisp generic map functions. map-apply map-copy etc. Part 2

Emacs lisp, map-apply etc not documentated in manual

• for coders. emacs lisp.
• Interesting, these functions are not documentated in emacs lisp manual.
• map-apply map-contains-key map-copy map-delete map-do map-elt map-empty-p map-every-p map-filter map-insert map-into map-keys map-keys-apply map-length map-let map-merge map-merge-with etc.

Bit diddling in emacs lisp

for computer scientists. this is bit diddling in lisp, loved by certain Common LISP idiots

for c and cpp programming language lovers, and rust programming language lovers, they would get so excited about this that they piss in their pants.

• https://x.com/xah_lee/status/1924882043617607981

• Xah Talk Show 2025-05-18 Ep657 emacs lisp generic map functions (hashtable, associative list, property list), Google HTTPS censor

• Richard Stallman on Open Source (~2009)

• 2025-05-17
• Emacs: Xah Fly Keys 📦
• xah-clean-whitespace now takes option begin end args.
• xah-reformat-to-sentence-lines now also breaks with html br tag.

• Emacs: Change File Newline Format
• Emacs: Toggle Line Spacing Command 📜
• Emacs: Novel Reading Mode 📜

• Xah Talk Show 2025-05-05 Ep652 Design of Id System of Random Sequence of Character

• Emacs: Insert Random Number or String 📜

• Elisp: Get Buffer String

• Emacs: Clean Empty Lines 📜

• 2025-05-03
• Emacs: Xah Fly Keys 📦
• xah-repeat-key now default to space. (was m). removed xah-fly-insert-mode-activate-space-before and xah-fly-insert-mode-activate-space-after

• now full Table of Contents in each chapter.
• Practical Emacs Tutorial

minor update

• Emacs Init: Set Default Window (frame) Size
• Emacs: Command Line Options
• Emacs Init: site-start.el

• Xah Talk Show 2025-04-25 Ep647 install emacs ai bot interface (ollama, deepseek, chatgpt)

disable emacs changing the window title

(setq frame-title-format "Xah Emacs")

• 2025-04-22
• Emacs: Xah Fly Keys 📦
• xah-next-user-buffer, removed the behavior of using arrows to repeat after the command, that was added about 3 months ago. it is confusing. (i.e. removed (set-transient-map xah-fly-switch-buffer-map))

updated

• Elisp: Format String
• Elisp: Print, Output

code update

• Emacs: Insert Random Number or String 📜

• Emacs: Novel Reading Mode 📜

• 2025-04-19
• Emacs: Xah Fly Keys 📦
• xah-toggle-read-novel-mode removed. no belong.

code update. xah-insert-random-string now back to avoid vowels. vowel in random string is nasty, because they creat meaning.

• Emacs: Insert Random Number or String 📜

• Xah Talk Show 2025-04-17 Ep644 emacs lisp, text processing tutorial, validate HTML annotation markup

• 2025-04-18
• Emacs: Xah Fly Keys 📦
• removed require ido for xah-insert-date. thanks to Stefan Monnier.
• xah-open-in-external-app fixed a bug for Windows, of replacing apostrophe, now all, not just first.

code update

• Emacs: Open File in External App 📜

• emacs 30 major change. great fix.
• now sort takes key args and not destructive.

• Elisp: Sequence. Sort, Reverse
• Elisp: String Functions
• Elisp: Sequence Functions

• Xah Talk Show 2025-04-12 Ep643 emacs lisp, write a major mode for fsharp

• Emacs: Open Last Closed File 📜

• 2025-04-12
• Emacs: Xah Fly Keys 📦
• xah-insert-date major refactor. now show current date in minibufer menu. xah-show-kill-ring went back to qwerty key t.

• Xah Talk Show 2025-04-10 Ep641 emacs lisp coding, goto-line-number-next-buffer

• Emacs: Insert Date Time 📜

• for rocket scientists.
• Emacs: Insert Random Number or String 💠
• new algo and behavior.
• now includes all A to Z and 0 to 9, but first char is always letter.
• before, omits 1 0 o O and all vows aoeiu.

• Emacs: Insert Random Number or String 📜

• 2025-04-09
• Emacs: Xah Fly Keys 📦
• bumped up Package-Requires to (emacs "28.3"), due to use of seq-setq. and other minor code tweak.

• xah-insert-date now use ido-completing-read instead completing-read. because the latter does not work when recorded as key macro, with fido-vertical-mode on.

• Elisp: Sequence. Iteration Guide
• Elisp: Sequence. Filter

• Elisp: Sequence Functions
• Elisp: Sequence. Foreach

• Elisp: Destructure Binding (seq-setq, seq-let)

• Elisp: Variable

• Elisp Text Processing vs Structured Syntactic Manipulation (2021)
• Elisp: Problems of thing-at-point

more code update

• Emacs: HTML. URL to Link 📜
• Emacs: HTML. URL to Link with Date 📜
• Emacs: HTML. Link to Dead Link 📜

• Emacs: HTML. Word to Wikipedia Link 📜
• Emacs: HTML. Amazon URL to Link 📜

• Xah Emacs Commands

• 🆕 Xah Emacs HTML Commands

• Emacs Init: Set Color Theme

• LISP Logo

• Xah Talk Show 2025-04-01 Ep639 emacs lisp html make citation, extract photo taken date in image file

• Emacs: xah-fix-datetime 📜

• 2025-03-31
• Emacs: Xah Wolfram Mode 📦
• name completion now doesnt added [] because options shouldn't add it, but right now haven't found a way to determine when is a symbol a option. removed some abbrev that shouldn't be there.

emacs. syntax table. some unicode matching brackets no match

these match:

• math flattened parenthesis ⟮ ⟯
• math white tortoise shell ⟬ ⟭
• medium parenthesis ornament ❨ ❩
• medium flattened parenthesis ornament ❪ ❫
• medium curly ornament ❴ ❵
• medium pointing angle ornament ❬ ❭
• heavy pointing angle ornament ❰ ❱

these no match:

• double curly quote “ ”
• single curly quote ‘ ’
• french angle quote ‹ ›
• french double angle « »
• heavy single quotation mark ornament ❛ ❜
• heavy double turned comma quotation mark ornament ❝ ❞
• ❮ ❯ HEAVY LEFT-POINTING ANGLE QUOTATION MARK ORNAMENT

this behavior probably intensional

• Xah Talk Show 2025-03-28 Ep636 emacs lisp, change bracket type, design of function arguments

• massive code update.
• removed dependency on Emacs: xah-get-thing.el 📦

• Emacs: HTML. Add Paragraph Tags 📜
• Emacs: HTML. Lines to List 📜
• Emacs: HTML. Lines to Table 📜
• Emacs: HTML. Embed Youtube Video 📜
• Emacs: HTML. Ruby Annotation 📜
• Emacs: HTML Entities. Ampersand Encoding, Decoding 📜
• Emacs: HTML. Delete Tags 📜

• Emacs: Format CSS Code 📜

• Emacs: CSS. Convert Color, RGB to HSL 📜

• Emacs: Add Brackets to CAPITALIZED words 📜
• Emacs: Change Brackets 📜
• Emacs: Insert Brackets by Pair 📜
• Emacs: Check Brackets Balance 📜
• Emacs: Quote Lines 📜

• Emacs: Replace Straight Quotes to Curly 📜
• Emacs: Replace Greek Letter Names to Unicode 📜
• Elisp: Multi-Pair String Replacement with Report

• Emacs: Reformat Lines for Source Code 📜
• Emacs: Spaces to New Lines 📜
• Emacs: Add Period to Line Ends 📜
• Emacs: Reformat to Long Lines (unfill-region) 📜
• Emacs: Reformat to Sentence Lines 📜
• Emacs: Remove Punctuation Extra Spaces 📜
• Emacs: Clean Empty Lines 📜

• Emacs: Copy Current Line 📜
• Emacs: Select Text Block 📜
• Emacs: Delete Text Block 📜
• Emacs: Move Cursor by Text Block 📜
• Emacs: Upcase Sentences 📜

• Emacs: Remove Wikipedia Square Bracket Citations 📜

• Elisp: Refactoring, Move Code to Files 📜
• Emacs: Twitterfy 📜
• Elisp: Parse URL 📜
• Elisp Text Processing vs Structured Syntactic Manipulation (2021)

• Emacs: xah-get-thing.el 📦
• Elisp: Get Text Block 📜

• Xah Talk Show 2025-03-24 Ep634 emacs lisp coding, get image size

• Emacs: HTML. Extract URL 📜

• Emacs: Regular Expression Syntax

• History. Evolution of Emacs Lisp 2020 By Stefan Monnier, Michael Sperber

• Xah Talk Show 2025-03-21 Ep631 emacs lisp coding html insert doctype

• 2025-03-21
• Emacs: Xah Fly Keys 📦
• new key for xah-backward-punct, xah-forward-punct. in qwerty, it is [space k], and left or right arrow. (was just 1 and 2) now can also repeat by pressing arrows. also, xah-punctuation-regex by default checks equal sign. typically useful in moving cursor to string assignment.
• display-line-numbers-mode now has a key, qwerty [space l h].

• Emacs: rotate 13 cipher 📜

• Emacs: Dired Show Human Readable File Size 📜

• Elisp: Benchmark, Test Speed

• Elisp: Problems of thing-at-point

• Emacs calc sucks

• Emacs Init: Icomplete Mode
• Emacs: fido-mode (Minibuffer Name Completion)

• Emacs: Ido Mode (2007 to 2022)

• Emacs Init: Which Key Mode

• Elisp: Create List

• 2025-03-08
• Emacs: Xah Fly Keys 📦
• some key change.
• call-last-kbd-macro, new "r SPC", old "r e"
• rectangle-mark-mode, new "r r", old "r SPC"
• all dvorak notation.

emacs 30 is out.

• Emacs: Download
• Emacs Version History

• Emacs LISP Girls
• Wolf Girls

• Xah Talk Show 2025-03-01 Ep622 emacs lisp coding, write lookup-twitter

• Emacs: Command to Lookup Doc or Search Web 📜

• 2025-03-01
• Emacs: Xah Fly Keys 📦

• better docstring for • xah-fly-use-control-key • xah-fly-use-meta-key • xah-fly-use-isearch-arrows
• now split-window-right have key control right square bracket
• now xah-previous-user-buffer and xah-next-user-buffer has key control with page up down

• Xah Talk Show 2025-02-26 Ep620 emacs lisp, decimal to hexadecimal

• Emacs: Hexadecimal to Decimal 📜

• Xah Talk Show 2025-02-20 Ep616 Why Should You Use Math Symbols and Unicode in Programing Language

• Emacs Dev, Alan Mackenzie, Resigns 2024-11

• Emacs: Find Replace
• Emacs: Find Replace Text in Directory

• Elisp: Replace String or Regex in String
• Elisp: String Functions

• Xah Talk Show 2025-02-16 Ep614 emacs lisp coding, keyword parameters

• Elisp: Function Parameters (optional, rest)

• Elisp: Docstring Markup

• Emacs LISP Girls

• The Sigil War, Syntactic Indicator for Types of Function and Variable (2016)

• Emacs Keys: Meta Key
• Emacs Keys: Super Hyper
• Emacs: Microsoft Windows: Meta Super Hyper Keys Settings
• Emacs: Mac: Meta Super Hyper Keys Settings

• Elisp: Get Image Size 📜

• 2025-02-05
• Emacs: Xah Dired Mode (xah-dired.el) 📦
• lots updates.

• 2025-02-05
• Emacs: Xah Fly Keys 📦
• xah-smart-delete fix so in minibuffer when before cursor is space, don't complain.
• xah-search-current-word now do not deactivate mark.

• Emacs Flaw: isearch Current Word

• Elisp: Define Function
• Elisp: Define a Command

• Xah Talk Show 2025-02-04 Ep612 emacs lisp replace invisible char

• Elisp: Function Parameters (optional, rest)
• Elisp: Destructure Binding (seq-setq, seq-let)
• Elisp: Variable

• Elisp: Character Type
• Elisp: Lambda Function

• Elisp: Arithmetic
• Elisp: Boolean (true false nil)

• 2025-01-24
• Emacs: Xah Fly Keys 📦
• fixed issue https://github.com/xahlee/xah-fly-keys/issues/184 , and xah-run-current-file now show result buffer and make it current.
• xah-repeat-key, fixed issue https://github.com/xahlee/xah-fly-keys/issues/183 thanks to akashpal-21

• Xah Talk Show 2025-01-16 Ep607 Emacs Lisp, HTML Ruby Markup Chinese, Jump to String
• Emacs: Move Cursor to Punctuation 📜
• Emacs: HTML. Ruby Annotation 📜

• Elisp: Start External Process

• Emacs: Form Feed ^L (Page Break)

• 🆕 Emacs: Format CSS Code 📜

• Emacs Dev, Alan Mackenzie, Resigns 2024-11

• Emacs Misc Index

minor update

• Emacs: Interactive Abbrev 📜
• Elisp: Association List