Xah Emacs Blog Archive 2015-08
Emacs Books
A new version is out. Buy Xah Emacs Tutorial.
Of all emacs books out there, online or in print, i do not believe there's anything that comes in close, in breath or in depth. Counting, all the emacs books O'Reilly published. (but excluding emacs lisp reference manual)
Not because Xah Emacs Tutorial is that great, but because, there is actually not much out there.
Of book-length emacs tutorials, there are just maybe 5 of them. Half of which are decade old, and none of them cover much emacs lisp. Except one: https://www.masteringemacs.org/.
Buy that book, and or buy my book. Thanks.
Emacs Menu Usability Problem (repost)
what features would you want for a keyboard
Reddit question: https://www.reddit.com/r/emacs/comments/3igjwa/what_features_would_you_want_for_a_keyboard/
See also:
Emacs: Terminal vs Graphical User Interface (someone asked on reddit)
Emacs: Insert Unicode Character (minor update)
emacs 24.5 is out. Download Emacs for Windows/Mac
it's out in April. Somehow i missed it.
on linux, you should build it yourself. 〔see How to Build Emacs on Linux〕
Emacs: Xah Fly Keys 📦. Major update. Now you can load it without errors. No dependencies. I'll be polishing it more in coming days.
Emacs: Run Current File 🚀 (now supports Java, and Clojure, TeX/LaTeX.)
Essential knowledge if you ever code emacs lisp.
emacs: should you use evil-mode?
here's my recommendation.
if you want efficient keyset, there are 3 choices. evil-mode, ergoemacs-mode, Xah Fly Keys.
if you don't like modal keys, then ergoemacs-mode is the best. It also supports standard keys for open close new copy cut paste undo etc, like any other software. Install and use right away, no need to learn. Also, extremely efficient keys. Keys are based on statistics of command call, mapped to score of key position, and using Alt+key instead of Control for fundamental cursor commands or delete operations.
use evil-mode if you are also a vi user, or plan to use vi too in the future. Modal keys is more efficient than Control/Alt. This also has large user base.
if you want the utmost efficiency, use Xah Fly Keys. It's modal like vi, but without any vi baggage or compatibility. Key choice based on statistics of command call. Most keys are same as ergoemacs but modal. You'll need to learn everything fresh.
When in Xah Fly Keys, you NEVER need to press Control+x. Everything C-x is a sequence of 2 to 3 single keys. Meta key is never used neither. You can still use all gnu emacs keys because Xah Fly Keys doesn't use any of emacs keys.
from question on Google Plus about whether one should use evil.
https://plus.google.com/107417407213709101682/posts/JKuXLk83aN6
About keybinding, each point above i have detailed article about it. About 2 hundred articles on every aspect of keybinding and keyboard too. You can find them at the following indexes.
Emacs: Run Current File 🚀 (minor update)
Emacs Autotetris Mode
elisp program that play emacs tetris-mode by itself.
See the package here: https://github.com/skeeto/autotetris-mode
See explanation here: http://nullprogram.com/blog/2014/10/19/
Chris Wellons is a expert emacs lisp programer. He wrote quite a few non-trivial emacs software.
non-trivial here means, takes several months to do, involving not just emacs lisp knowledge, but algorithms and protocols and languages outside of emacs. In contrast, a typical language major mode takes 1 day to a week.
Some of the notable include:
- skewer. live web dev with emacs. https://github.com/skeeto/skewer-mode
- elfeed, a RSS reader. https://github.com/skeeto/elfeed
- impatient-mode, instantaneous update html in browser as you type html in emacs. https://github.com/skeeto/impatient-mode
- javadoc lookup. https://github.com/skeeto/javadoc-lookup
Wellons is also a professional Java developer. So, if you work with Java, i'd recommend looking into his emacs config.
Wellons has mentioned in sacha's emacs talk [http://sachachua.com/blog/2014/05/emacs-chat-christopher-wellons/] that he has read the emacs lisp manual cover-to-cover several times. Top (ELISP Manual) (yours truly, haven't done so even once.)
Wellons's got quite a lot interesting things in his blog. Of all emacs blogs out there, if you want me to name just 1, i can only think of Chris Wellons.
in emacs, Alt+x display-time-world
.
Elisp: Run Elisp Script in Terminal (repost)
i do this every day for the past 6 years, text processing 5k html files.
#Emacs «how» ‘to’ 「type」 ‹curly› “quotes”, 〔and〕 【ALWAYS】 (insert) [Brackets] {by} 〈Pair〉 Emacs: Insert Brackets by Pair 🚀
Emacs: Cycle Space Hyphen Underscore (updated code)
Emacs: Move Cursor by camelCase, snake_case (minor update. repost)
Emacs: Backup Current File 🚀 (updated code. Now, if in dired, it'll backup current file or all marked files.)
thanks to reddit discussion, more keyboard added to
List of Keyboards with Topre Switch
reddit link at bottom.
Find File Location of a Feature Name
in emacs, if you know a feature name, you can locate the file by Alt+x find-library
For example, Alt+x describe-variable
then type “features”. Then pick any of the item. Then, Alt+x find-library
, type that item. Emacs will jump to the file where the feature is defined.
〔see Elisp: provide, require, features〕
I usually do describe-function
, then jump to the file location. But, find-library
is more direct, and useful.
Because sometimes you only know the feature name, not the command to invoke it.
got the tip from https://x.com/_wilfredh
List of Keyboards with Topre Switches (on its own page) This is the famous switch used in Happy Hacking Keyboard.
is now a minor mode.
if you have question using it, just ask me. Best way is just to post a comment on the page or on the github page. You can also ask me on twitter or Google Plus. Email's ok too but sometimes got eaten by spam filter.
currently it's suitable for those who love to tweak emacs keys.
i've seen pretty much all emacs keybinding systems out there. Especially in the past few years with lots packages. Including, evil, hydra, god-mode, etc. They are, scientifically, less efficient. But, better than GNU emacs default.
if you want something quality that works out of the box with lots users, then i recommend:
- ergoemacs-mode https://ergoemacs.github.io/
- evil https://github.com/emacs-evil/evil
the ergoemacs-mode is Alt+key based. Evil is vi based.
Emacs Conference 2015, San Francisco
There's a emacs conference, (a Saturday) in San Francisco, CA, USA.
register or plan at the above site.
i learned about it from the following emacs hangout.

- https://youtu.be/kN3Kgel3w6M
- 2015-08-13 Emacs Hangout European Edition
sachachua leads the emacs hangout. Check out schedule and news at her site at http://sachachua.com/blog/tag/emacs-hangout/
emacs lisp programer for hire
if you have a emacs project, such as writing a mode for your company, i'm available. I charge $50/hour.
For basic mode, 1 hour would do.
Please contact me at [xahlee@gmail.com]. (twitter ping me if i didn't respond. Sometimes new email are filtered by spam)
Emacs highlight current line
Emacs Init: Intro (added a screenshot for global-hl-line-mode
)
Emacs: Delete Current File 🚀 (update from yesterday's code. Now it won't ask to save if buffer is modified)
Mac OS X: How to Create Keyboard Layout and Keybinding ⌨ (repost)
Mac OS X supports basics emacs keys. But you can add more.
Emacs in Microsoft Windows FAQ
repost:
A new version of the command. The new one doesn't make backup, but simply copy file content to emacs's clipboard first.
fun emacs lisp: emulate real typing
(defun insert-typewriter (str) "Insert STR into the current buffer as if you were typing it by hand. 2015-08-10 Modified from URL `https://gist.github.com/howardabrams/b5dc2082bcce46fdc9b8' " (interactive "s") (mapc (lambda (char) (insert char) (sit-for (/ 1.0 (1+ (random 100))))) str)) ;; test (insert-typewriter "something, paste for example source code here. Be sure to escape double quotes.")
scifi author Tony Ballantyne on emacs
scifi author Tony Ballantyne (Recursion (novel) etc.), wrote a article on using emacs. See:
〔My Emacs Writing Setup By Tony Ballantyne. At http://www.tonyballantyne.com/EmacsWritingTips.html , accessed on 2015-08-09〕
eshell now has doc
in emacs 24.4.1, there's finally documentation for eshell. Alt+x info
, then just go to the eshell point.
you can also read it online at GNU site at http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_mono/eshell.html
Emacs: Copy File Path of Current Buffer 🚀 (improved code)
try this. blind fold yourself. Use your favorite language, favorite editor, write “hello world”, and run it.
did you succeed?
if so, it means, you can blind type, super fluent with your editor and without using mouse, familiar with your language.
comment at
https://plus.google.com/113859563190964307534/posts/3SfNXQ6oc7D
Ban Key Chords. (repost. Whence Key Chord Came From? Is emacs keys or vi keys more efficient?)
Emacs: magit-mode for git (minor update)
printed org-mode manual
there's a printed org-mode manual, published by GNU.

emacs major version of magit is out. To upgrade, Alt+x list-packages
, press U x.