Xah Talk Show 2026-01-07 Ep739 emacs lisp, write a lookup web command

2026-01-07

https://youtu.be/YWJcI3xWQVo

Video Summary (Generated by AI, Edited by Human.)

Intro to the "lookup web" command (0:00-1:07): Emacs Lisp command that look up words or selections on the web.

Demonstration of existing lookup Wikipedia command (1:07-2:24)

Check Dependency on browse-url library (2:52-4:03)

Checking if browse-url is loaded (4:04-9:31). He confirms it is loaded by default.

Overview of xah-lookup package (11:09-12:26) various lookup functions for different online services like Google, Yandex, Baidu, Twitter, Google Maps, YouTube, Wikipedia, and the Internet Archive.

Demonstration of Internet Archive lookup (12:26-19:04): demo the "lookup Internet Archive" command, showing how to retrieve older versions of websites. He uses his own websites (xahlee.info and xahlee.org) as examples, showcasing their appearance from 2010 and 2000, respectively.

Demo of lookup synonyms (20:10-21:03).

Discuss code dependency and duplication (21:10-25:48): Dependencies make code harder to share and use, preferring to duplicate code if it means making functions independent and self-contained. Draws parallels to how applications bundle entire programming languages like Python.

Rewriting lookup-Wikipedia from scratch (25:49-48:51).

Using EWW (Emacs Web Wow) browser (49:50-55:07): demo how to modify the rewritten command to use Emacs's built-in web browser EWW.

Handling text selections (multiple words) (54:12-58:55): mod the code to handle text selections (regions) so that commands like "lookup Wikipedia" can search for multiple words (e.g., "group theory").

Call to donation (58:56-1:00:10).

Unicode digression

Unicode discussion (27:13 - 28:19).
Convention of using unicode 🔍 📦 📜 📺 in title. (28:22 - 29:19)
Lizard 🦎 for ex-trans. (30:01 - 35:00)
Dragon 🐉 as western dragon vs chinese dragon.
Ancient symbols ⚕ ☤ ⚚ ☘ ⚜ ☥ 🕊 ☮ ✌ snake on a staff (staff of Aesculapius), caduceus, shamrock, fleur-de-lis, and ankh, (34:30 - 35:50).
Printer symbols like daggers (35:53 - 36:27).
Sex symbols ♂ ♀ ⚦ ⚨ ⚩ ⚲ ⚤ ⚢ ⚣ ⚥ (37:50 - 41:29)
Math and Other Symbols: Including box shapes, various brackets (Asian, decorated, exotic), Tibetan, Arabic, Greek, and complex number sets (37:50 - 39:13).
Braille symbols and APL programming language symbols (39:18 - 39:52).

Emacs: Xah Fly Keys 📦

update the code example
Emacs: Command to Lookup Doc on Web 📜

check if browse-url is loaded by default

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

xts ep739 xahlee org 2000 archive 2026-01-07 2047d

xts ep739 xahlee org 2001 archive 2026-01-07 2048f