Tips and tricks for emacs and emacs lisp.
Emacs Tutorial
Emacs Lisp Tutorial
Emacs Modernization
Misc Essays
ErgoEmacs
Creating a Sitemap with Emacs Lisp (updated)
Emacs Keybinding vs cua-mode Keys
if you bought my emacs tutorial years ago, you are probably not on the update announcement list. Please email to xah@xahlee.org with subject “emacs tutorial update”. Thanks.
vi Keybinding vs Emacs Keybinding
Emacs Lisp: How to Write a make-html-table Command (updated)
new version of emacs tutorial. If you are a scientist, or other fields but are not a dedicated professional programmer reading lots emacs blogs, then this tutorial just might help you get all the fundamentals of emacs and emacs lisp quickly. Buy Xah Emacs Tutorial. Thank you for support.
in emacs 24.3, the name ucs-insert is now alias to insert-char. A great change.
That command lets you insert Unicode character, or any character. 〔☛ Emacs ＆ Unicode Tips〕
Unicode: Character Representation, ASCII Character Symbols. Note that emacs heavily uses caret notation, and unprintable ASCII chars are heavily used in terminal.
Emacs Lisp: Copy Column of Text to Clipboard (oldish article. Now on a page by itself.)
Emacs: Edit Column Text, Align Text, ASCII-Diagram (updated.)
Emacs Lisp: Single Key to Copy/Paste from Register (old article, updated. A convenient command, and good for elisp beginners. )
Emacs: Clipboard History and Multiple Clipboards (old article, revised.)
after using mechanical keyboard for a few months, rubber dome keyboard becomes so hard to press. See: the effect of keyboard hardware on you.
not emacs related, but my random opinion that touches on lisp. JavaScript Book by David Flanagan, and the Man-made Complexity in Computer Language
A professional typist, a court reporter, Joe, replied a article on typing. See: http://xahlee.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-myth-qwerty-dvorak-keyboard-layout.html?showComment=1370847889291
when it comes to typing and hand health, put weight on professional typist's opinions. Because, they actually type a order of magnitude more than programers.
〈GNU bug report logs - #988: cursor runs over prompt in minibuffer; suggestion on default〉 @ http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=988
Add Extra Function Keys to Your Keyboard
Emacs: Stop Cursor Going into Minibuffer Prompt
old article. Updated. My Experience of Emacs vs XEmacs
updated. elisp tutorial. Very useful. Emacs Lisp: Multi-Pair String Replacement with Report
Why running shell inside emacs is good. See: Linux: Record a Terminal Session, Logging Shell Output
Got a very nice accolade for ErgoEmacs keybinding from a emacs oldbie, at ErgoEmacs forum. Thank you Paul Michael Reilly. (and thanks to David Capello and Matthew L Fidler for taking it much further than i can.)
The classic Microsoft Natural keyboard is discontinued. Get a few of them while they are still out there.
Chances are, in a year or two, you'll see the price rise to a few hundred. That's usually the case with good but discontinued products.
In my 5 years experience of using this and the Microsoft 4000, i think this is actually better. The 4000 got stiff space bar problem.
some programers, say that the best way to avoid typing injury is not to touch-type. Updated article: Bad Advices from Programers about Typing ＆ Keyboard (RSI). What do you think?
If you use emacs in terminal, this is good to know: Linux: Terminal Control Sequence Keys (tty, stty) ⌨
How Many Keystrokes Programers Type a Day?
For Mac users, a new keyboard designed for Mac. Compact, and mechanical keys. Keyboard: Matias Mini Tactile Pro
updated. Linux: Info Keys, Bash Manual in Chapters, Using Emacs for Info
updated. Symbols for {Super, Hyper, Meta} keys. Unicode: Keyboard Symbols, UI Icons ↹ ⌫ ⌘ ✉ ✍ ⌖. See also: Emacs: How to Define Super ＆ Hyper Keys.
WARNING: rant curve ahead. the Myth of Myth of QWERTY ＆ Dvorak Layout
updated. Keyboard Layout: What is the Most Efficient Layout? Dvorak vs Colemak?
New page. Keyboard: Why Undo Cut Keys Wreck Your Hand
New keyboard layouts: Minimak, Norman. See: Keyboard Layouts Fight! Dvorak, Maltron, Colemak, NEO, Bépo, Turkish-F, …
Matthew L Fidler fixed a long-standing major bug in ErgoEmacs keybinding. See: https://code.google.com/p/ergoemacs/issues/detail?id=37
In terminal, when you press arrow keys, ErgoEmacs will insert gibberish. This is a semi-bug in emacs.
In emacs, put this in your init:
(global-set-key (kbd "M-O") 'forward-char)
nothing but just that line. Then, start emacs by emacs --no-window-system. Then press any arrow key, you'll see that it insert gibberish.
This is related to escape sequence in terminal. Kinda have to do with terminal history. The arrow keys actually send escape sequences, and somehow, so does emacs's 【Meta+O】. (this is why emacs's Meta can also be pressed by Esc)
From user's perspective, this is clearly a emacs bug, but it might be such historical issue that it's hard to fix or can't be fixed. A related issue is that in emacs running in terminal, it can't distinguish between 【Ctrl+A】 and 【Ctrl+a】 (same for other letters).
howto. Linux: Swap Control and Alt Keys ⌨
Emacs Lisp: Color Model Conversion (RGB, HSL, HSV, …)
Emacs Tip: Save Position Across Sessions
watch this. Free spin mouse wheel for 28 seconds! Logitech Mouse with Spin Wheel
emacs users usually neglect the mouse. But! Why You Need a 9 Buttons Mouse?
keyboard design. ErgoEmacs Keyboard
updated. Emacs Lisp: Date/Time String
not related to emacs, but might be interesting. Computer Language Character Distribution
Here's how to shift indent a block of Python code in Emacs: Emacs: Python Shift Indent.
update. On its own page. Emacs: Switching Next/Previous User Buffers
on keyboard design. Updated. ErgoEmacs Keyboard
updated. Improved the code. Emacs Lisp: Open File Path Under Cursor Fast
ErgoEmacs has a new version, lots improvements in past month by Matthew L Fidler. Matt also created a new home page for ErgoEmacs keybinding minor mode. This should be the new home page going forward for community. At http://mlf176f2.github.io/ErgoEmacs/
on its own page. Emacs Lisp: Batch Convert Line Ending in Dired
Emacs Lisp: Open File Path Under Cursor Fast
Note: for those of you who know me, i got the keyboards free, but my opinion isn't bought, judge for yourself.
updated. Now using ido for automatic completion. Emacs Lisp: Hotkeys to Open File Fast
emacs lisp: you can use ido for automatic completion in your own commands. Example use:
(ido-completing-read "your prompt str:" ‹youList› )
Full example: Emacs: Change Brackets () {} [] in Text
A video recording on how i write blogs.
The commands used are:
xah-open-file-fast 〔☛ Emacs Lisp: Hotkeys to Open File Fast〕insert-date-tag 〔☛ Emacs Lisp: Insert Date Time Stamp〕xhm-wrap-html-tag (from Emacs: Xah HTML Mode)xhm-pre-source-code syntax coloring of source code in HTML.xah-browse-url-of-buffer 〔☛ Emacs Lisp: browse-url Function to View URL in a Web Browser〕xah-make-atom-entry 〔☛ Emacs Lisp: Updating Atom Webfeed〕dired-jumpxah-shell-commands. See: 〈Emacs, Shell, Abbrev, and ELISP Power to Bear!〉 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKS_iIoQ0A4
The video presentation is pretty bad. I have much to learn, tech and presentation. I was using Google Plus hangout feature with Hangout On Air to record directly to YouTube. Not sure what's a good solution on Linux yet.
also, i need to write code so that whatever command i called is displayed in a pane. So viewers can see it without me going over.
updated, with new elisp code to change file line ending in batch. Emacs: Newline Representations ^M ^J ^L
Keyboard pr0n, nth update. Computer Keyboards, Layouts, Hotkeys, Macros, RSI ⌨
Dear all, a new version of my tutorial is out. I'm making this a special version, for $40. If you support it, i'd be greatful, and i'll add your name to the Xah's Emacs Tutorial: Acknowledgment as sponsor.
Another way to voice your support is funding a emacs major mode that you might want. Please visit http://pledgie.com/campaigns/19973. Please let me know if you have questions..
Thank you for support.
updated. Emacs Lisp: Throw ＆ Catch, Exit a Loop
Been using the Truly Ergonomic keyboard for 5 months now. Added my experience here at bottom: Truly Ergonomic Computer Keyboard Review
updated. Emacs Lisp: Hash Table
updated. Split into 2 pages.
updated. Emacs Lisp: Convert Unicode String to ASCII (Zap Gremlins)
Emacs: Change Brackets () {} [] in Text
there's a fantastic heart-shaped keyboard. If you haven't seen it already, see at Keyboard Porn to Infinity ⌨ ∞. The guy plans to manufacture it. To keep updated for news, watch his website at http://launch.keyboard.io/
Emacs Lisp: Insert Date Time Stamp
much improved “xhm-make-citation”. Now, the order of lines for {title, url, author, date} doesn't matter. Get it in Emacs: Xah HTML Mode
to learn how to write it, see Emacs Lisp: Writing a make-citation Command
keyboard geeking. 〔one thousand function keys, redux @ xahlee.blogspot.com…〕
inspired from emacs lisp doc: Logic Writing Style: the Incongruousness of the Word “Actually”
updated. Emacs Lisp: Text Processing: Generate a Web Links Report
the Happy Hacking Keyboard, model “professional 2”, don't even have arrow keys. The Idiocy of Happy Hacking Keyboard
I had a great Ask Emacs Tuesday yesterday. Thanks for asking. Past Q＆A links at Ask Emacs Tuesday
emacs 24.3 app for Microsoft Windows is out. See Which Emacs to Download for Windows and Mac?. (thx to xfq)
i was calling unix uniq from emacs. Got a unexpected result. I thought it's Unicode data passing screwup. Turns out, the bug is in uniq itself. Unix Shell Util uniq Unicode Bug
updated. How to Write grep in Emacs Lisp
discovered that emacs has a bundled library for functional programing pattern matching! The package file is pcase.el. It's part of GNU Emacs 24.3.1.
it's written by Stefan Monnier, a professor of functional programing research, and one of the two current leader of emacs dev.
you can get to the file by calling describe-function then pcase-let, then click on the file name.
Note: ML stands for Meta Language. It was a family of languages. Current popular descendants include OCaml and Microsoft's FSharp. 〔☛ Xah's OCaml Tutorial〕 Among functional programing languages, OCaml is one of those that's heavily used in the industry (⁖ Mldonkey, Unison 〔☛ Unison Tutorial〕), especially in math formal proof systems ⁖ Coq. And it's famously used in JaneStreet. 〔☛ OCaml Use in Industry: Janestreet Talk by Yaron Minsky 📺〕
Proof systems written in OCaml includes: Coq, HOL Light. 〔☛ State of Theorem Proving Systems 2008〕
Also, the designer of ML is Robin Milner (1934 〜 2010), he died in recent years.
draft version of “xah-html-mode” home page. Some documentation on what it do. Emacs: Xah HTML Mode
updated. Emacs Lisp Mode Syntax Coloring Problem
updated. discovered big chunck of code in emacs lisp using math symbols as function/variable names. Programing Style: Variable Naming: English Words Considered Harmful
see also: Unicode in Ruby, Perl, Python, JavaScript, Java, Emacs Lisp, Mathematica
you should swap middle/right mouse buttons. For why and how, in {Linux, Microsoft Windows}, see: Swap Mouse Buttons: Right-Click ＆ Middle-Click
more improved. Emacs: Xah CSS Mode. You can now convert RGB hex color under cursor to HSL format (⁖ #aabbcc ⇒ hsl(210,25%,73%)). Call xcm-hex-color-to-hsl.
why should you convert? because, #rrggbb is one of the hack from history. HSL model isn't perfect, but is much more intuitive. You can change the hue, saturation, and lightness. For some explanation of HSL model and color samples, see: CSS3 HSL (Hue, Saturation, Lightness) Color Samples.
Vote which one you want me to work on. Tell your friends please. http://pledgie.com/campaigns/19973