Xah Emacs Blog Archive 2024-04

major updates

• Elisp: String Functions
• 🆕 Elisp: String Comparison, Equality, Order
• Elisp: Compare Numbers, Equality
• Elisp: Equality Test
• Elisp: Character Type

• Elisp: List vs Vector
• Elisp: Sequence Type
• Elisp: Sequence. Take, Drop, Slice

• Elisp: Text Editing Functions

• emacs init: Mouse Wheel Config

• Emacs: Repeat Last Command

updates

• Emacs: Universal Argument (C-u prefix arg)
• emacs init: Setup Default Browser
• Emacs: Terminal vs Graphical User Interface
• Why Run Shell in Emacs
• Emacs: File Manager, dired

lots updates

• 🆕 Emacs: Input Method
• Emacs: Insert Unicode Character
• Emacs Keys: Set Key to Insert Unicode Emoji

• Lisp Machine Keyboards ⌨
• History of Key Shortcuts: Emacs, vim, WASD

• Emacs: One Thousand Default Keybinding
• Emacs Keys: Meta Key
• Emacs Keys: Super Hyper
• Emacs Flaw: Meta Key Notation
• Emacs Flaw: Simple Changes Emacs Should Adopt

• Emacs: Edit Tables
• Emacs: Insert Tab or Newline
• Emacs: Newline Convention
• Emacs: Change File Newline Format

• Famous Programers with Repetitive Strain Injury

updates

• Emacs: Split Window
• Emacs: Save Split Windows Configuration
• Emacs: Buffer Flow Side-by-Side
• Emacs workflow, fullscreen vs multiple windows

• Emacs: Change Font Size (For Current Session)
• Emacs: Toggle Monospace / Proportional Font
• Best Unicode Fonts for Coders
• emacs init: Display Lambda as λ

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

• 2024-06-21
• Emacs: Xah Fly Keys 📦
• now a key for copy-matching-lines. and key for delete-matching-lines changed to kill-matching-lines

• 2024-06-22
• Emacs: Xah HTML Mode 📦
• xah-html-pre-tag-to-new-file renamed to xah-html-pop-out-source-code, and now support popping out css code of style tag and js of script tag.
• xah-html-back-to-pre-tag renamed to xah-html-pop-back-source-code
• xah-html-transpose-table now support table that has caption tag.

major updates

• Elisp: Find Replace Text in Buffer
• 🆕 Elisp: Search Text Functions
• 🆕 Elisp: Move Cursor
• Elisp: Get Line Begin/End Position, or Move To
• Elisp: Cursor Position Functions
• Elisp: Regex Functions
• Elisp: String Functions
• Elisp: Get Buffer String

• Elisp: Mark, Region, Active Region
• Elisp: Cut Copy Paste, kill-ring

• Elisp: Example of Abbrev as Function Templates

• Elisp: Variable
• Elisp: Place Expression, Generalized Variable

• 2024-06-18
• Emacs: Xah Fly Keys 📦
• xah-copy-line-or-region now work when in rectangle-mark-mode. fixed bug #175. thanks zadca123.
• xah-toggle-letter-case now do current alphanumerics, instead just letters.

• 2024-06-17
• Emacs: Xah HTML Mode 📦
• xah-html-promote-header, xah-html-demote-header, now do the next header, and when done, move to next header.
• xah-html-pre-tag-to-new-file now cursor must be at the beginning of pre tag. this is to prevent accidental call. experimental

updates.

• emacs init: Organize Init File
• Emacs: Command Line Options

• emacs init: Set default font
• emacs init: Font for Emoji
• emacs init: Font for Unicode Symbols

• emacs init: Get Version, Host Name, User Name, Init Dir

• Emacs: Basic Key Shortcuts
• Emacs: Show Version

• emacs init: isearch Whitespace Regex

• emacs init: Auto Insert Closing Bracket (electric-pair-mode)

updated

• emacs init: Install Package from ELPA, MELPA
• emacs init: Install Package Manually
• Emacs: View Info Page

• 2024-06-15
• Emacs: Xah Fly Keys 📦
• xah-smart-delete major refactor.
• Added optional args BracketOnly SkipDispatch.
• Now do not delete the prefix chars, eg in elisp the quote in '(...).
• removed internal functions:
• xah-delete-backward-bracket-text,
• xah-delete-backward-bracket-pair,
• xah-delete-bracket-text-backward,
• xah-delete-forward-bracket-pairs.

• 2024-06-15
• Emacs: Xah HTML Mode 📦
• xah-html-smart-delete-backward now fixed order of reversed cut text blocks

• 2024-06-15
• Emacs: Xah Wolfram Mode 📦
• xah-wolfram-smart-delete-backward now fixed order of reversed cut text blocks

updates

• Emacs: Abbrev Mode
• Emacs: Setup Hundreds of Abbrevs
• Emacs: Copy Paste, kill-ring
• Emacs: Copy to Register
• Emacs: Select Text (mark and region)
• Elisp: Text Editing Functions

• Emacs and Elisp Video Tutorial

updates

• Emacs: Principle, Command, Keys
• Emacs: Jargons (Glossary)
• Emacs: Mode Line (Status Bar)
• Emacs: Major Mode
• Emacs: Minor Mode
• emacs init: Hook
• Emacs: Minibuffer
• Emacs: Universal Argument (C-u prefix arg)

• Elisp: String Functions
• Emacs: Regular Expression Syntax

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

• 2024-06-08
• Emacs: Xah Fly Keys 📦
• xah-smart-delete now when deleting whitespaces, put into kill-ring. this allow repeated call to collect deleted text into one piece that can be pasted later.
• major fix on xah-smart-delete. thanks to maxwestrom
• added layout qwerty-se (Swedish). thanks to maxwestrom

• 2024-06-08
• Emacs: Xah HTML Mode 📦
• xah-html-smart-delete-backward now when deleting whitespaces, put into kill-ring. this allow repeated call to collect deleted text into one piece that can be pasted later.
• xah-html-smart-delete-backward now delete region or whitespace first
• xah-html-ampersand-chars-to-unicode removed.
• xah-html-open-local-link fixed a bug when path start with file:///
• abbre template code internal change. e.g. function renamed to xah-html--abb-enable-f

• 2024-06-08
• Emacs: Xah Wolfram Mode 📦
• xah-wolfram-smart-delete-backward now when deleting whitespaces, put into kill-ring. this allow repeated call to collect deleted text into one piece that can be pasted later. Also, changed key. Some fontlock change but incomplete.
• xah-html-smart-delete-backward now delete region or whitespace first. Other internal improvement, e.g. abbrev template code.

lots updates:

• Elisp: Character Type
• Elisp: Syntax Table
• 🆕 Elisp: Syntax Class
• 🆕 Elisp: Show Syntax Table
• Elisp: Show Char's Syntax
• 🆕 Elisp: Create Syntax Table
• Elisp: Modify Syntax Table Temporarily
• Elisp: Determine Cursor is Inside String or Comment
• Elisp: Find Matching Bracket Character

updates. include a major fix, keyword args to define-derived-mode must be right after docstring:

• Elisp: Syntax Color Comments
• Elisp: Abbrev Expand Function
• Elisp: Example of Abbrev as Function Templates
• Elisp: Create Function Templates

• Elisp: Why Common Lisp Sucks (2024)

• 2024-06-02
• Emacs: Xah Fly Keys 📦
• added qgmlwb layout. thanks to Elliott Villars (Necryotiks)

• Emacs Lisp Bytecode Manual (2018)

• Emacs: find char name, font, position, code point, encoding, etc

elisp is the best lisp today

• i declare today, emacs lisp is the best lisp, most practical, and most universal lisp today. the other is clojure.
• not common lisp, racket scheme lisp.
• the former is complex dead wart, the latter is academic toy.
• and the real actual best lisp family is wolfram language.

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

• emacs init: Minibuffer Font Size
• emacs init: Stop Cursor Going into Minibuffer Prompt

• Elisp: Font Face
• 🆕 Elisp: Define Face
• emacs init: Change Default Face (Font)
• Elisp: Font Lock Mode

updated.

• Emacs: xah-get-thing.el 📦

• Elisp: Define a Command
• Elisp: Abbrev Properties
• Elisp: Sequence. Split, Partition, Group by
• Elisp: Sequence. Join, Convert

• 🆕 Emacs: HTML. Create Etymology Link 📜
• 🆕 Elisp: Autoformat, Pretty Print
• Emacs: HTML. Embed Youtube Video 📜
• Emacs: Show Form Feed as Line 📜

• Emacs: xah-insert-unicode 📜
• Emacs: Format PowerShell Code 📜
• Emacs: Copy File Path of Current Buffer 📜
• Elisp: HTML. Update Title 📜
• Elisp: String Match in List 📜
• Emacs: Open File Path Under Cursor 📜
• 🆕 Emacs: Remove Wikipedia Square Bracket Citations 📜

• 🆕 emacs 26 lisp change. ucs-names is now a hashtable

• Emacs: eww web browser
• emacs init: Setup Default Browser
• emacs init: Ido Config
• Luhn Algorithm

updates

• Elisp: Symbol
• 🆕 Elisp: Symbol Cells
• Elisp: Quoting Symbol (Apostrophe Prefix)
• Elisp: Special Form
• Elisp: Boolean (true false nil)

major update

• Elisp: Cons Cell
• Elisp: Proper List

• Elisp: List
• 🆕 Elisp: Iterate over List (dolist)
• Elisp: List, Get Elements
• Elisp: Modify List
• Elisp: Check Element Exist in List
• Elisp: Remove Elements in List
• Elisp: Exit Loop or Function (throw, catch)

• 2024-05-25
• Emacs: Xah Elisp Mode 📦
• refactor. removed xah-elisp-expand-abbrev, modified xah-elisp--abhook, added abbrev table :regexp

major update

• Emacs lisp, Sequence Functions.
• The seq lib is major elisp milestone, new in 2016.
• now, a complete annotated documentation with examples, and with focus on functional programing usage.
• If you are using emacs dash lib, replace it, for faster, leaner, more efficient use of lisp data structures.

• Elisp: Sequence Functions
• Elisp: Sequence. Iteration Guide
• 🆕 Elisp: Sequence. Filter, Delete Duplicates
• 🆕 Elisp: Sequence. Find, Count, Contains, Get Positions
• 🆕 Elisp: Sequence. Split, Partition, Group by
• Elisp: Sequence. Sort, Reverse

• 2024-05-21
• Emacs: Xah Fly Keys 📦
• removed xah-insert-formfeed, new is xah-insert-seperator.
• removed xah-insert-column-az
• removed xah-show-formfeed-as-line

much update

• Elisp: Cursor Position Functions
• Elisp: Text Editing Functions
• Elisp: Mark, Region, Active Region
• Elisp: Cut Copy Paste, kill-ring
• Elisp: Get Buffer String
• Elisp: Get Line Begin/End Position, or Move To
• Elisp: Get Text at Cursor (thing-at-point)
• Elisp: Get Text Block 📜
• Elisp: Save narrow-to-region
• Elisp: Find Replace Text in Buffer

• 🆕 Emacs: Transient Mark Mode

more updates and new articles.

• 🆕 Elisp: Unit Testing

• Elisp: Run Elisp Script in Terminal
• Elisp: Get Command Line Arguments
• Elisp: Call Shell Command
• Elisp: Get Script Name at Run Time, Call by Relative Path
• Elisp: Benchmark, Test Speed

• Elisp: Abbrev Expand Function
• Elisp: Abbrev Hook

• Elisp: Property List (plist)
• Elisp: Symbol Property List

• Emacs: Format Python Code 📜

• Elisp: How to Write a Toggle Command

• Xah Emacs key system. Xah Fly Keys.
• All generic commands (C-x) start with a leader key SPACE.
• All major mode commands start with leader key TAB.
• All user own commands start with leader key of their choice.

updates Xah Emacs Packages

• 2024-05-16
• Emacs: Xah Elisp Mode 📦
• big refactor on function abbrev and templates. Removed xah-elisp--abbrev-position-cursor, use xah-elisp--abhook to move cursor to ▮. Rename xah-elisp-abbrev-enable-function to xah-elisp-abbrev-enable

• 2024-05-16
Emacs: Xah HTML Mode 📦
• Removed xah-major-mode-leader-key
• new xah-major-leader-key
• changed value meaning xah-repeat-key
• Big refactor on function abbrev and templates.
• Removed xah-html-expand-abbrev
• Renamed xah-html-abbrev-enable-function to xah-html--abbrev-enable
• Removed xah-html-expand-abbrev
• Removed xah-html--abbrev-position-cursor

• 2024-05-16
Emacs: Xah JS Mode (JavaScript) 📦
• major rewrite, on keyword and abbrev and templates.

• 2024-05-16
• Emacs: Xah PowerShell Mode 📦
• Big refactor on function abbrev and templates. removed xah-pwsh-expand-abbrev.
• Removed xah-major-mode-leader-key
• new xah-major-leader-key
• changed value meaning xah-repeat-key

• 2024-05-16
• Emacs: Xah Wolfram Mode 📦
• Lots refactor, but no behavior change. Removed xah-major-mode-leader-key. New xah-major-leader-key. Big refactor on function abbrev and templates. Removed xah-wolfram-expand-abbrev.

• Xah Talk Show 2024-05-13 Ep555, Random Topic, Keyboards History, Alice Layout, Chaturbate

• Elisp: Call Shell Command on Region

• Emacs Flaw: Lisp Mode Syntax Coloring
• Emacs: Xah Elisp Mode 📦

• Emacs: Name Completion
• Emacs: icomplete mode (name completion in minibuffer)
• emacs init: Icomplete Mode
• Emacs: ido mode
• Emacs: Ido Mode Setup 👎

• Emacs: Abbrev Mode
• emacs init: Abbrev Mode
• Emacs: Setup Hundreds of Abbrevs

• for all Xah Emacs Packages
• xah-major-mode-leader-key removed. new is xah-major-leader-key. The latter takes a string e.g. "TAB" instead of the former (kbd "TAB")
• major incompatible change to xah-repeat-key's value. now should be like arg to kbd, not what kbd returns. e.g. "m" instead of (kbd "m").

major update

• Emacs: Xah Fly Keys. Key for Org-Mode

Major rewrite, on how to write a major mode. Some article still need work.

• Elisp: Write a Major Mode for Syntax Coloring
• Elisp: Font Lock Mode
• Elisp: Syntax Color Comments
• Elisp: Write Comment/Uncomment Command
• Elisp: Keyword Completion
• Elisp: Create Keymap (keybinding)
• Elisp: Create Function Templates
• Emacs: Command to Lookup Doc on Web 📜
• Elisp: Create a Hook
• Elisp: Major Mode Names
• Elisp: provide, require, features
• Elisp: load, load-file, autoload
• Elisp: Syntax Table

• emacs init: Change Default Face (Font)
• Emacs: Fundamental Mode

• 2024-05-09
• Emacs: Xah HTML Mode 📦
• xah-html-extract-url now works for values starting with file:///
• xah-html-remove-list-tags now properly grab the list input, not just text block.
• removed xah-html-add-topic-box. xah personal command no belong here.

• Emacs calc sucks

major update.

• Elisp: Abbrev Table
• Elisp: Abbrev Properties
• Elisp: Abbrev Trigger Character
• Elisp: Abbrev Enable Function
• Elisp: Abbrev Expand Function
• Elisp: Abbrev Hook
• Elisp: Example of Abbrev as Function Templates

• 2024-05-08
• Emacs: Xah Fly Keys 📦

• removed f7 for xah-fly-leader-key-map. reason, redundant. time has changed. f1 to f12 keys are not in many keyboards. it was there because you can always call those commands without switching to command mode first.
• xah-show-kill-ring changed key. changed separator string in xah-show-kill-ring, removed xah-show-kill-ring-separator.
• massive docstring change. now there's a created date.

• Xah Talk Show 2024-05-08 Ep553 Emacs Lisp Coding, Calc Pad, Increment Digit, How to Change Behavior, Zoomer Idiocity

major update.

• Emacs: Xah Fly Keys Tutorial
• Emacs: Xah Fly Keys 📦

• 2024-05-07
• Emacs: Xah HTML Mode 📦
• xah-html-move-image-file rewrote large part

• 2024-05-07
• xah-elisp-util.el
• new, xah-get-matched-files , xah-title-to-filename

• Xah Talk Show 2024-05-03 Ep551 Emacs Lisp Coding, html add related box

• 2024-05-03
• Emacs: Xah HTML Mode 📦
• xah-html-local-file-to-link now handle path with query string
• rename xah-html-split-uri-hashmark to xah-html-split-url-hashmark
• rename xah-html-split-uri-query-mark to xah-html-split-url-query-mark

• 2024-05-03
• Emacs: xah-get-thing.el 📦
• xah-get-pos-of-word now include accented letters a to z

• How to Avoid Emacs Pinky

major update. thanks to Sashnya

• Emacs: Xah Fly Keys. Key for Org-Mode

• 🆕 Elisp: Test Hash Tables Equality 📜

• 2024-04-29
• Emacs: Xah Lookup Web (xah-lookup.el) 📦
• added xah-lookup-baidu

lots update on touch-typing issues, and keyboard layouts, at Xah Keyboard Blog.

major ones in past week:

• Ergonomic Keyboard Layouts

• What is Touch Typing
• How to Touch-Type
• Does Touch Typing Cause Repetitive Strain Injury
• Typing Tutorial, Speed Test, Typing Games
• World's Fastest Speed Typers
• Crackpot Theory of Speed Typer Sean Wrona
• Speed Typing, Barbara Blackburn and Zoomer Grifters
• Word Per Minute in Speed Typing
• Keyboard and Typing Speed
• Speed Typing on Multiple Layouts (QWERTY, Dvorak, Colemak)

• Xah Talk Show 2024-04-26 Ep548 Speed Typing, Sean Wrona's Crackpot Theory, Best Emacs Lisp Book

• Which Chapters of Elisp Manual to Read (2013)

• How to Learn Emacs Lisp?
• emacs init: Set Default Major Mode
• 🆕 My Path to Emacs Lisp

• Jargon: Lisp-1 vs Lisp-2 (Single Value Space vs Multi Value Space)

• added a russian layout
• Xah Fly Keys News
• 🆕 Emacs: Xah Fly Keys. Key for Org-Mode

major additions and new page

• Emacs: Xah Fly Keys Customization
• 🆕 Emacs: Xah Fly Keys. Add Keys to Switch Mode
• 🆕 Emacs: Xah Fly Keys. Add a Global Leader Key
• 🆕 Emacs: Xah Fly Keys. Modify Leader Key Sequence
• 🆕 Emacs: Xah Fly Keys. Setup Keys for Major Mode
• 🆕 Emacs: Xah Fly Keys. Create a New Layout
• 🆕 Emacs: Xah Fly Keys. Escape Key
• 🆕 Emacs: Xah Fly Keys. Mode Status Indicator
• 🆕 How to Make the CapsLock Key do Home Key
• 🆕 Emacs: Xah Fly Keys, Emacs Daemon
• 🆕 Emacs: Xah Fly Keys for Russian Layout

• Emacs: Xah Fly Keys. Create a New Layout

• 2024-04-22
• Emacs: Xah Fly Keys 📦
• Major rewrite the keyboard layout code. Before, to define a new layout, you have to create a alist of key mappings, now, you just draw a text diagram. Lots new layouts, some esoteric removed.

• Xah Fly Keys News

• 2024-04-22
• Emacs: Xah Elisp Mode 📦
• changed completion to use obarray again. in function template, option changed to just comma.

• Elisp: Read File Content as String or Lines

• Elisp: Write File

• Emacs: Backup Current File 📜
• Emacs: Delete Current File 📜

• Elisp: Get Buffer String

• 2024-04-21
• xah-elisp-util.el
• xah-trim-string removed. new: xah-print-hash , xah-alist-to-hash , xah-hashtable-equal. removed the history comment block

• xah talk show 2024-04-19 Ep546 emacs lisp coding

• 🆕 Microsoft Clippy in Vim

• Elisp: Pretty Print Hash Table

• 4chan Emacs Xah

• Fixed the Emacs Control Key

• Emergency vim Tutorial

• Emacs Keys: Layout Diagram

• Xah Talk Show 2024-04-13 Ep544 Did Richard Stallman Create Emacs? Happy Hacking Keyboard, Lexical vs Dynamic Scope

• History of Emacs, Who Truly Created Emacs?
• History of LISP, Emacs, Symbolics (Daniel Weinreb Rebut Richard Stallman)
• Richard Stallman Stole Emacs Source Code from James Gosling

• Famous Programers on How Common Lisp Sucks (2012)

• Emacs Flaw: Why Emacs Keys are Painful

• Best Keyboards for Emacs

• Elisp: Regex Functions

updated. added regexp-quote

• 2024-04-06
• Emacs: Xah Fly Keys 📦
• xah-open-file-at-cursor now can open path that start with file:///d:/xyz

• Emacs: HTML XML Syntax Validator (2023)

major update

• Emacs: Xah JS Mode (JavaScript) 📦

• Emacs: Key Macro
• Emacs: Visual Line Mode
• Emacs: line-move-visual

Xah Emacs Packages update

• 2024-04-04
• Emacs: xah-get-thing.el 📦
• xah-get-pos-of-symbol return (vector (point) (point)) if point is around blank, instead of nil.

• 2024-04-04
• Emacs: Xah Elisp Mode 📦
• added all string functions. syntax coloring and completion. removed extra faces.

• 2024-04-04
• Emacs: Xah JS Mode (JavaScript) 📦
• complete rewrite syntax coloring.

• xah-insert-random-id.el
• new function xah-random-string

• 2024-04-02
• Emacs: Xah Dired Mode (xah-dired.el) 📦
• xah-dired-dir-ignore-regex-list new.
• xah-list-empty-dirs and xah-delete-empty-dirs not going thru .git
• xah-dired-powershell-path changed to default of pwsh.
• xah-dired-open-in-inkscape-path now by default is inkscape.exe or inkscape, instead of a windows fullpath.

bug fix

• Emacs: Insert Random Number or String 📜