Xah Emacs Blog

Update Highlights

• Wolfram language vs LISP

• Xah Talk Show 2024-06-11 Ep558, Which is Best Lisp? Common Lisp, Scheme, Elisp, Clojure, Wolfram Language

• Elisp: Symbol vs String. Symbol Pollutes Symbol Table.

• Emacs: What is Syntax Word vs Symbol

• Elisp: Hash Table

• Emacs: Jump to Error Line (xah-goto-line) 📜

• Xah Talk Show 2025-11-07 Ep710 Emacs Lisp Coding, lookup grokipedia, goto line in next pane

• Xah Fly Keys News

updated

• Elisp: universal-argument (prefix argument)
• Elisp: Interactive Form

• Emacs: Copy, Paste, Append, Clear, Register 1 📜

• Xah Fly Keys News

• Xah Talk Show 2025-11-01 Ep708 Emacs and AutoHotkey Work Session

• Xah Talk Show 2025-10-31 Ep707 Ultimate Hacking Keyboard UHK 80 Review in Depth

• Emacs: dired Rename File, Space to Hyphen or Lowline 📜

• Emacs: Xah Lookup Web (xah-lookup.el) 📦

• Xah Talk Show 2025-10-25 Ep706 Fold and Reduce, in Wolfram Language, Emacs Lisp, JavaScript

updates

• Emacs: Xah Increment Number 📜
• Emacs: Emacs Markdown to HTML 📜

• Emacs Keys: Syntax

• Xah Talk Show 2025-10-22 Ep705 Emacs Lisp, HTML to Markdown, and Inverse
• Emacs: Emacs Markdown to HTML 📜

code update. now pass by stdin, not working file. reading file is always slower.

• Emacs: Format HTML Code 📜
• Emacs: Format CSS Code 📜

• new way. 3 instances of emacs.
• some are running elisp code.
• tip: never use emacs server.
• setup your emacs so that there is no any possible freeze-the-world prompt when starting up.

• in software ui design, you should never have freeze-the-world, such as do you want to save before close.
• in those situation, simple abort and message.

fixed a minor bug in cycle order.

• Emacs: Cycle Color Theme, Toggle 📜

• Emacs: Insert Random Number or String 📜

• Elisp: Sequence. Map

updates

• Emacs: Regular Expression Syntax
• Emacs Regex vs Regex in Python, JavaScript, Java
• Elisp: Regular Expression in Lisp Syntax, Rx (Package)
• Elisp: Regex Named Character Class and Syntax Table

• Emacs Lisp Toothpick Syndrome
• TypeScript Ladder Flow

• Emacs: Newline Convention

• Elisp: Hash Table

• Emacs: Bold, Underline, Color Texts (Persistent Highlight)
• Emacs: File Variables (Run Elisp Code When File Opens)

updated.

• Elisp: Apply Function (List to Args), identity
• Elisp: Block of Expression (progn)
• Elisp: Search Text Functions

• Elisp: Parsing Expression Grammar (PEG)
• Elisp: Parsing HTML, XML

add to

• Elisp: Create Major Mode

updated

• Elisp: Text Editing Functions
• Elisp: Character Type

• Elisp: String Functions
• Elisp: Association List

• Elisp: Buffer Functions
• Elisp: Print, Output

• Elisp: load, load-file, autoload
• Elisp: File and Directory Functions

• Emacs: Byte Compile Elisp Files

• Emacs: Hexadecimal to Decimal 📜

• Xah Lee on Mickey Petersen's Mastering Emacs (2016)

• Comp Lang: Interning String, Symbol (2025)

• Computer science, emacs lisp.
• Master emacs lisp.
• Buffer Functions
• this buffer thing, makes emacs lisp the best programing language for text processing.
• No other programing language comes close, not perl python fsharp golang.

• Elisp: Buffer Functions

• Emacs Flaw: Menu Usability

• Emacs: Search Text
• Emacs Flaw: isearch Current Word
• Emacs Init: isearch by Arrow Keys
• Emacs: Search Current Word 📜

• Emacs: Copy Buffer or Selection 📜

• Emacs: Toggle Letter Case 📜

• Emacs: Remove Accent Marks 📜

• Emacs Flaws Index

• Emacs Flaw: The Mode Line

• Emacs Flaw: kill-buffer Command Induces Buffer Accumulation

• Emacs 23.2 nxml-mode Fontification Changes (2010)
• Elisp: Process HTML, span, code, Key, Title, Markups

• Emacs Flaw: HTML Mode (2008)

remove the number sign # pest in keybinding code.

• For coders, emacs lisp.
• Starting to remove the idiotic number sign # pest in elisp.
• The number sign is a ugly redundant thing.
• Emacs lisp priests tell you you need it because it tells emacs lisp compiler that it's a function, so you have better error checking.
• But in practice, that error never actually happens.
• It is a very ugly thing from Common Lisp.

• 🆕 Elisp: Quoting Symbol of Function (Number Sign Prefix)
• Elisp: Keyword Symbol (Colon Prefix)
• Elisp: Quoting Symbol (Apostrophe Prefix)

• Xah Fly Keys News

• Emacs: List Matching Lines

• Which Programing Language is Best for Text Processing (2025)

• Xah Fly Keys News

• Elisp: Sequence. some, every (conditional exit)

• Xah Talk Show Ep699 Emacs Lisp defvar-keymap, define-keymap , part 2

• Elisp: Create Keymap (keybinding)
• Emacs Keys: Keybinding Functions, Emacs 29 Change

• Emacs Keys: Key Sequence

• Elisp: Sequence Functions
• Elisp: Sequence. Iteration Guide
• Elisp: Sequence. Find
• Elisp: Sequence. Map

• Xah Talk Show Ep696 Emacs Lisp, Insert Date, Extend Selection, Generic Map Functions

• Emacs: Next/Previous User Buffer 📜

updated

• Elisp: Arithmetic

• Emacs: Toggle Background Color 📜
• Emacs: Cycle Color Theme, Toggle 📜

• Emacs: Insert Date Time 📜
• Emacs: Extend Selection 📜

• Xah Fly Keys News

• Emacs Init: Set Color Theme
• Emacs: Cycle Color Theme, Toggle 📜

• Emacs Keys: Keybinding Functions, Emacs 29 Change

• Emacs: Bind Number Pad Keys

• Elisp: Generic Map Functions (for hash table, alist, plist)

• Elisp: Hash Table to List
• Elisp: Sort Hash Table
• Elisp: Test Hash Tables Equality 📜

• Emacs Flaw: fill-paragraph fill-region
• Emacs: fill-region Problems

• Emacs: Reformat Lines for Source Code 📜
• Emacs: Reformat to Long Lines (unfill-region) 📜

• Emacs Lisp Count Function Frequency 📜

• Emacs Lisp Function Frequency
• Emacs Lisp Function Frequency (Emacs 27. Year 2020)
• Emacs Lisp Function Frequency (Emacs 23.2. Date 2010)

• Elisp: Place Expression, Generalized Variable

• Xah Fly Keys News

code update.

• Emacs: Move File to Dir (Categorize Files) 📜

• Talk Show 2025-08-20 Ep694 Emacs Lisp Coding, Command to Optimize SVG

• Emacs: Cycle Marks (Cycle local mark ring) 📜
• Emacs: Jump to Previous Position

• Emacs: HTML. Extract URL 📜

• Xah Fly Keys News

• Emacs: MacOS: Start Emacs from Terminal

• Emacs Init: Set Default Window (frame) Size

• Emacs: Microsoft Windows: Start Emacs from Terminal

updates

• Emacs Init Setup

• Emacs Init: Intro
• Emacs Init: File Location
• Emacs Init: Sample Init
• Emacs Init: Setup Font

• Emacs Init: Ruler Mode
• Emacs: Toggle Word Wrap
• Emacs: Line Wrap
• Emacs Init: Show Line Numbers

• Xah Talk Show 2025-08-14 Ep692 Emacs Lisp Find Replace Greek Chars, Multiple Pairs Algorithm, Feedback Loop Problem

• Emacs: Replace Greek Letter Names to Unicode 📜

major updates

• 🆕 Emacs: Find Replace and Change Letter Case

• Best Unicode Fonts for Coders

• Emacs: Change Font Size (For Current Session)
• Emacs Init: Minibuffer Font Size
• Emacs Init: Change Default Face (Font)
• Emacs: Find Character Name, Font, Position, Codepoint, Encoding, Etc

• Emacs: Command to Open Menu

• Xah Talk Show 2025-08-11 Ep691 Emacs Lisp Coding, HTML Ampersand Encode Decode

• Emacs: HTML Entities. Ampersand Encoding, Decoding 📜

• Elisp: Quote List Syntax vs List (2025)

• For Big Tech Bros. emacs, advanced editor.
• Explain why emacs undo has keys control+/ but also control+_
• ai bot answers.
• in short, a big baggage of history.

• Why Emacs Has Many Keys for Undo (2025)

• 🆕 Emacs: Find Replace, by Regex

• Emacs: Regular Expression

code update.

• Emacs: Toggle Background Color 📜

major rewrites

• Emacs: Search Text
• Emacs: Find Replace

• Emacs: What is Syntax Word vs Symbol
• Emacs Init: isearch Whitespace Regex

updated

• Emacs: Launch
• Emacs: Exit (Quit)
• Emacs: Graphical Menu
• Emacs: Basic Key Shortcuts
• Emacs: How-To

updated.

• Doomemacs vs Xah Fly Keys

• Emacs: Select Current HTML Element

• Emacs: History of Emacs Undo Packages (2011)

• Xah Talk Show 2025-08-08 Ep690 Emacs Lisp Coding, Increment Number, Why Emacs Lisp, C printf Crime

• Emacs: Xah Increment Number 📜

• Xah Talk Show 2025-07-01 Ep672 Make Spell Checking in Emacs Windows Work Again, Part 2

• Emacs: Run Current File 📜

• Emacs: Default Font is Still Courier New. 30 Years Old Font (2025)

• Xah Talk Show 2025-08-06 Ep689 Emacs. Commands for Cycle Color Themes, Font, Space Hyphen Lowline

• Emacs: Cycle Color Theme, Toggle 📜

• Emacs: Cycle Fonts by Command 📜

• Emacs: Cycle Hyphen Lowline Space 📜

more updates

• Xah Fly Keys News

• For Coders. Emacs, Advanced Code Editor.
• This command xah-extend-selection now has high prominence in Emacs: Xah Fly Keys 📦
• Now it has a easy key g (in dvorak layout is i).

• you can use it by grabbing the code.
• link in thread.

• Emacs: Extend Selection 📜

• for coders. Wolfram language, emacs lisp.
• success.
• xah-wolfram-eval-region no longer creates a temp file. xah-wolfram-temp-dir-path is removed.

• Emacs: Xah Wolfram Mode 📦

• Emacs: Basic Key Shortcuts

• Xah Fly Keys News

• Xah Fly Keys News

• Emacs: Recursive Edit
• Emacs Init: Highlight Current Line
• Emacs: Jargons (Glossary)

• Emacs: Mode Line (Status Bar)

• experimenting with Proportional Font in code again.
• Emacs: Toggle Monospace / Proportional Font

• 🆕 Problem of Using Proportional Font in Code

• Elisp: Start External Process

• Elisp: Reduce (Fold)

• Elisp: Define a Command

• Emacs: Declare Encoding for One File (Unicode, UTF-8)

• Emacs: Backup Current File 📜

• Xah Talk Show 2025-07-21 Ep685 Emacs Xah Fly Keys News, Function Keyword Parameter, and Rant

• Emacs: Show Function Documentation
• Emacs: Show Variable Value and Doc
• Emacs: Search Function by Name

• Elisp: Symbol

• Elisp: Function Keyword Parameters (Named Parameters)
• Elisp: Property List

more updates.

• Emacs: Xah Fly Keys 📦
• Emacs: Xah Fly Keys, Show All Leader Key Sequences
• Xah Fly Keys News

• Emacs Init: Which Key Mode

• Emacs: Replace Invisible Unicode Chars 📜

• Xah Fly Keys News

• 🆕 Elisp: Function Keyword Parameters (Named Parameters)

• Emacs: Open Marked Files in Dired 📜
• Emacs Init: Dired Config
• Elisp: provide, require, features

• Emacs: Xah Fly Keys. Mode Status Indicator

• 🆕 Elisp: Keyword Symbol (Colon Prefix)
• Elisp: Hash Table
• Elisp: Symbol

• Elisp: Mark, Region, Active Region
• Emacs: Transient Mark Mode

• Xah Talk Show 2025-07-12 Ep680 JSON in Emacs Lisp and Wolfram Language

• Elisp: JSON. Import, Export.

• Xah Talk Show 2025-07-11 Ep679 Emacs Lisp JSON, Serialize Idiocy, Crimes of Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge

more updates

• Xah Fly Keys News

updated with new key change

• Emacs: Xah Fly Keys 📦
• Emacs: Xah Fly Keys Tutorial
• Emacs: Xah Fly Keys, Show All Leader Key Sequences

• Emacs: Format Python Code 📜

• Elisp: Walk Directory, List Files
• Elisp: File Path Functions

• Xah Talk Show 2025-07-03 Ep673 Format Python JavaScript Golang HTML CSS in Emacs, Wolfram Language Auto Format

code update

• Emacs: Format CSS Code 📜
• Emacs: Format JavaScript Code 📜
• Emacs: Format HTML Code 📜
• Emacs: Format PowerShell Code 📜

• Xah Talk Show 2025-07-01 Ep672 Make Spell Checking in Emacs Windows Work Again, Part 2

updated with tip.

• Elisp: Start External Process