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Notes on Emacs

This is a small collection of Emacs related posts and documentation by other authors that I find useful.

Random Notes

Insert URL from Safari   IRREAL

Responding to yesterday's post, Sacha asks if I could post the code for jcs-insert-url for others to use. I thought I'd already done that but apparently not. That's probably because except for the part identical to jcs-get-link, which I did write about, it's pretty trivial. In any event, here it is:

(defun jcs-insert-url ()
  "Insert URL of current browser page into Emacs buffer."
  (interactive)
  (insert (jcs-retrieve-url)))

The jcs-retrieve-url function does all the work, of course, and is just the code that I abstracted out of jcs-get-link to actually retrieve the URL from Safari:

(defun jcs-retrieve-url ()
  "Retrieve the URL of the current Safari page as a string."
  (org-trim (shell-command-to-string
             "osascript -e 'tell application \"Safari\" to return URL of document 1'")))

One obvious problem with all this is that it works only for macOS. Not to despair, though, because in the comments to the original post, Brad Collins suggests a solution that uses grab-x-link to do the same thing for FireFox and Chrome on other systems. Be sure to read Brad's comment because there is—or at least was—an issue with the MELPA version.

Finally, Sacha took the part about looking for ways to make your workflow easier seriously and came up with a bit of Elisp to insert a function definition at the point, regardless of where it's defined. That's very handy and I immediately stole her code and used it to insert the two functions above. My old method was to switch to init.el, find the function, copy it to the kill ring, switch back to the original buffer, add the source block fences, and insert the code between them. Sacha's code did all of that for me and I didn't even have to leave my current buffer. That's splendid. If you find yourself having to add function definitions to your text, be sure to read Sacha's post. It will save you a lot of time.

Link

Calc for Programmers   IRREAL

After writing about Florian Adamsky's post on acronyms in AUCTeX, I snooped around on his site and came across a nice post on Emacs Calc from a programmer's and computer scientist's point of view. As regular readers know, I've been working to increase my calc-fu lately so I read the post with interest.

Adamsky demonstrates some of the Calc functions that are useful to programmers and computer scientists. This includes such things as entering and displaying numbers in various radixes and performing the standard logical operations on (the usually binary representation of) numbers. He even shows how to add a new “units” representation to Calc—in this case bits/bytes/bits per second.

Calc is a large subsystem and famously hard to master but worth the effort. It's been described as a “poor man's Mathematica.” It's not nearly as powerful as Mathematica, of course, but it's surprising how many things it can do. If you're a programmer/computer scientist and an Emacs user you should spend a little time investigating Calc. It really can make your life easier. An easy way to get started is to read Adamsky's post. It covers only a small slice of Calc but will give you an idea of its power.

Link

Parsing with org-element   IRREAL

The other day, I saw this query on the reddit Emacs subreddit. I already have solutions for this type of problem but I'm always interested in the how people use Org mode to record and report data so I followed the link that primitiveinds provided for his solution to generating time reports.

Even if, like me, you already have your time tracking and reporting needs under control, primitiveinds' solution is worth looking at for its own sake. It works by looking for CLOCK entries in an Org buffer and accumulating the relevant information in the CLOCK line as well data about the associated task. That might seem like it would require routine but tedious text manipulation but primitiveinds leverages the org-element functionality to easily handle the task.

He starts by calling org-element-parse-buffer to generate a tree representation of the Org buffer. Then he uses org-element-map to examine each CLOCK element (and only CLOCK elements) to extract the necessary information. It's a great technique that can easily be adapted for other parsing of Org data. The code that primitiveinds presents is easy to follow and he provides a nice explanation of what it's doing.

If you need to programmatically examine Org data for further processing, you should take a look at primitiveinds' post. It's definitely worth a read.

Link

The relevant code:

(nconc
 '(("date" "project" "hours" "task"))
 '(hline)
 (let ((ast (org-element-parse-buffer 'element)))
   (org-element-map ast 'clock
     (lambda (x)
       (let* ((val (org-element-property :value x))
              (task (org-element-property :parent (org-element-property :parent x))))
         `(,(let ((year (org-element-property :year-start val))
                  (month (calendar-month-name
                          (org-element-property :month-start val)))
                  (day (org-element-property :day-start val)))
              ;; (insert (org-element-property :raw-value val))
              (format "%s %s, %s" month day year))
           ,(org-element-property :PROJECT task)
           ,(org-element-property :duration x)
           ,(org-element-property :title task)
           )))))
 '(hline)
 '(("" "total:" ":=vsum(@2..@-1);T" "")))

Emacs Lisp Byte-Code   IRREAL

Very few Emacs users—no matter how advanced—ever need to worry about the specifics of the Elisp bytecode, or even, for that matter, that it exists. Still, as guys like Chris Wellons have shown, it can sometimes be useful to have a basic understanding of the bytecodes.

R Bernstein has put together a comprehensive, book-length documentation on Elisp bytecodes. After a short introduction, the documentation considers the bytecode environment including the compiler, interpreter, and bytecode optimization. Then there's a long section on the individual bytecode instructions.

Finally, there are sections on the changes in bytecodes between Emacs versions, a table of opcodes, and a reference section. There's also a GitHub repository of the document source.

As I said, you probably will never need this but if you do, you'll be very glad to have Bernstein's documentation. It's another example of the vibrant Emacs community.

Link

Formatting Tables   IRREAL

If you're like me, you automatically think of the Org mode table editor (or Orgtbl minor mode) when you think of tables in Emacs. It's hard to beat that functionality and Orgtbl mode makes it available everywhere in Emacs, even if you're not in an Org buffer. Sometimes, though, you'd like to have special formatting for some or all of the table. That's where delim-col comes in.

Delim-col is built-in Emacs functionality that allows you to do things like adjust what string separates the columns, add a beginning or ending string to each item, add an ending string for each row, and adjust the padding in the table. It can be really handy for copying and pasting and then reformatting tables from an external source.

I didn't know about delim-col until I read about it over at Emacs Notes, where you'll find a good explanation of the facility and what it can do. The Emacs Notes post also offers at bit of Elisp to make choosing the strings and delimiters a bit easier. By default you have to set them using a series of setq statements if you want something different from the built-in choices. The Emacs Notes codes arranges for you to be prompted for the values.

You probably won't need the delim-col functionality very often but when you do it's much easier than using something like a keyboard macro. Take a look at the post and see if you don't agree.

Link

Org Mode Cookbook   IRREAL

Way back in 2014, I posted about Eric Neilsen's excellent Emacs org-mode examples and cookbook. I recently came across a reference to it and was reminded what a great resource it is. It's easy to browse through and just read one or two entries when you have time. In skimming through it, I learned—or perhaps relearned—how to insert in-line calculations in a document.

As I wrote in the original post, Neilsen is a researcher and his cookbook is oriented at using Org mode to produce documents of various types. Still, that covers a lot of territory and there are many good examples of powerful Org mode use cases in it. The Document has moved or, really, taken up a second residence. It was originally hosted at Fermilab, where Neilsen works, and it's still there but it's also available at his own site. The two documents are identical so it doesn't matter if you use the new link or the original one pointing to FNAL.

If you're an Org user, especially if you use Org to produce documents, you should take a look at Neilsen's cookbook and bookmark it for future use.

Link

How to paste then copy

Question: how to set a mark such that all subsequent copy operations move their text to that exact mark.

Answer: use cua-selection-mode! See https://www.reddit.com/r/emacs/comments/8ekz0u/how_to_pastethencopy/.

Update: turns out it doesn’t work so well, disabled it again.

Tramp and Telnet over non-standard ports

Syntax: /telnet:HOST#PORT:, works also with other protocols.

Fractals in Emacs

From https://nullprogram.com/blog/2012/09/14/

(defun sierpinski (s)
  (pop-to-buffer (get-buffer-create "*sierpinski*"))
  (fundamental-mode) (erase-buffer)
  (labels ((fill-p (x y)
                   (cond ((or (zerop x) (zerop y)) "0")
                         ((and (= 1 (mod x 3)) (= 1 (mod y 3))) "1")
                         (t (fill-p (/ x 3) (/ y 3))))))
    (insert (format "P1\n%d %d\n" s s))
    (dotimes (y s) (dotimes (x s) (insert (fill-p x y) " "))))
  (image-mode))

(defun mandelbrot ()
  (pop-to-buffer (get-buffer-create "*mandelbrot*"))
  (let ((w 400) (h 300) (d 32))
    (fundamental-mode) (erase-buffer)
    (set-buffer-multibyte nil)
    (insert (format "P6\n%d %d\n255\n" w h))
    (dotimes (y h)
      (dotimes (x w)
        (let* ((cx (* 1.5 (/ (- x (/ w 1.45)) w 0.45)))
               (cy (* 1.5 (/ (- y (/ h 2.0)) h 0.5)))
               (zr 0) (zi 0)
               (v (dotimes (i d d)
                    (if (> (+ (* zr zr) (* zi zi)) 4) (return i)
                      (psetq zr (+ (* zr zr) (- (* zi zi)) cx)
                             zi (+ (* (* zr zi) 2) cy))))))
          (insert-char (floor (* 256 (/ v 1.0 d))) 3))))
    (image-mode)))

Presentations with org-reveal

Website: https://github.com/yjwen/org-reveal

Sample:

  #+title: Foo!
  #+author: bar
  
  #+options: author:t toc:t num:nil date:nil timestamp:nil
  #+reveal_theme: sky
  
  * Slide 1
  * Slide 2
  ** Subslide 1
  ** Subslide 2
  - Item 1
  - Item 2
  
   | a | b | d |
   |---+---+---|
   | 1 | 2 | 3 |
  * Slide 3

Writing a PhD thesis with Org Mode

From: https://write.as/dani/writing-a-phd-thesis-with-org-mode

TLDR: I started using Emacs about 3 years ago. I couldn't be more grateful to have seen the light, and to have been rescued from the darkness of Windoze, Goggle and/or friends. After enlightenment, I've taken upon myself the task of customising an environment to write my PhD thesis with Org Mode.*

Why

Post created in response to the current thread in r/emacs on thesis writing with Org Mode.\\ I see most people's reason to avoid Org mode for scientific writing is the fact that supervisors or co-authors use Mic. Word. I'll try to argue that that's not enough reason to accept subpar tools.

What I'll talk about

I'll mention a bit of my motivations, and then I'll discuss how to make use of (mostly) built in Org functionality such as tagging, export, setupfiles and includes, reference management, keyboard shortcuts and advanced searching; all with the purpose of building a useful thesis writing environment. Readers should have a minimum knowledge of Org mode, the Org export system and LaTeX.

My requirements

Here in the Netherlands, most PhD thesis consist of an introduction, 3 to 4 research chapters (as submitted for publication), a summary, bibliography and appendices. What this means for me is that my writing environment has to necessarily satisfy the following minimum requirements:

  • Inclusion of (parts of) external files
  • Keeping track of references
  • Include and reference figures
  • Version control documents
  • Support for sharing with my supervisor in whatever format he wants

Failure to comply with any of these means the editor is unfit for purpose#fn.1”>1. Unfortunately, this set of requirements are not seamlessly satisfied by likes of Mic. Word or G. Docs. I reckon they can probably be configured to satisfy them, but why bother.

Additionally, a PhD thesis writing environment should also provide the following features:

  • Extended searching facilities for both text and references
  • Simple syntax for tables and equations
  • Support within a proper text editor
  • Shortcuts to reach my files and build the thesis

To the best of my knowledge, only Emacs with Org Mode + ox-latex provide all of these out of the box.

Moulding Org Mode for thesis writing

Most of my inspiration comes from reading Kitchin's blogs and code, and reading the Org Mode documentation, mailing list and Emacs Stack Exchange. Here' I'll go one by one through all of the requirements listed above, and how to deal with them.

Prelude: File structure

I have a main thesis.org document, with latex heading declarations and a commented setup file. I also have research.org files, in different directories, with their own latex heading declarations and commented setup files.

The first lines of thesis.org look like the following:

  #  -*- mode: org; org-latex-title-command: ""; org-latex-toc-command: "" -*-
  #+TITLE: Thesis Title
  #+LATEX_CLASS: mimosis
  # Setupfile with #+LATEX_HEADER, #+OPTIONS and explanations
  #+SETUPFILE: thesis.setup
  #+LATEX_HEADER: \KOMAoptions{fontsize=12pt,headings=small}
  #+LATEX_HEADER: \bibliography{~/Papers/bibtex/Publications}
  #+EXCLUDE_TAGS: journal noexport
  
  * Frontmatter :ignore:
  #+LATEX: \frontmatter
  #+INCLUDE: ./Title.org
  #+LATEX: \tableofcontents
  
  * Mainmatter :ignore:
  #+LATEX: \mainmatter
  
  * Introduction
  * Research 1
  #+INCLUDE: "../research1/research.org::*Abstract" :only-contents t
  Some stuff.
  #+INCLUDE: "../research1/research.org" :lines "5-"
  
  * Research 2
  ...

And the first lines and structure overview of the multiple research.org files:

  #+TITLE: Research
  #+LATEX_CLASS: elsarticle
  #+LATEX_CLASS_OPTIONS: [authoryear,preprint,11pt]
  #+SETUPFILE: paper.setup
  #+LATEX_HEADER:\bibliography{./ref/Publications-research}
  #+EXCLUDE_TAGS: thesis noexport
  
  * Frontmatter :ignore:journal:
  #+LATEX: \begin{frontmatter}
  ** Author List :ignore: Abstract :ignore: Keywords :ignore:
  #+LATEX: \end{frontmatter}
  * Introduction
  ...
Inserting (parts of) external files

I write my research chapters with LaTeX classes targeting the journal's format. That means that a research chapter may be written with the elsarticle class, whereas the thesis as a whole is written with the mimosis class, a derivative of KOMA scrbook. Here's the class configuration for both:

(add-to-list 'org-latex-classes
             '("elsarticle"
               "\\documentclass{elsarticle}
                [NO-DEFAULT-PACKAGES]
                [PACKAGES]
                [EXTRA]"
               ("\\section{%s}"
                . "\\section*{%s}") ("\\subsection{%s}"
                . "\\subsection*{%s}") ("\\subsubsection{%s}"
                . "\\subsubsection*{%s}") ("\\paragraph{%s}"
                . "\\paragraph*{%s}") ("\\subparagraph{%s}"
                . "\\subparagraph*{%s}")))
(add-to-list 'org-latex-classes
             '("mimosis"
               "\\documentclass{mimosis}
                [NO-DEFAULT-PACKAGES]
                [PACKAGES]
                [EXTRA]
                \\newcommand{\\mboxparagraph}[1]{\\paragraph{#1}\\mbox{}\\\\}
                \\newcommand{\\mboxsubparagraph}[1]{\\subparagraph{#1}\\mbox{}\\\\}"
               ("\\chapter{%s}" . "\\chapter*{%s}")
               ("\\section{%s}"
                . "\\section*{%s}") ("\\subsection{%s}"
                . "\\subsection*{%s}") ("\\subsubsection{%s}"
                . "\\subsubsection*{%s}") ("\\mboxparagraph{%s}"
                . "\\mboxparagraph*{%s}") ("\\mboxsubparagraph{%s}"
                . "\\mboxsubparagraph*{%s}")))

Research chapters print the bibliography on their own, and they may contain acknowledgements that shouldn't be present in the middle of the thesis, so they should be excluded. In other to insert research chapters into my thesis, I use Org's #+INCLUDE derivative:

  #+INCLUDE: file.org

In order to not include the some parts of the file, i.e., to exclude the title, setupfile and headers, I narrow down the lines:

  # Include line 5 until the end of the file
  #+INCLUDE: file.org :lines 5-

In order to exclude parts of the file, I tag research chapter headings that are only meant for publication with a :journal: tag (such as the bibliography or acknowledgements). This way they are automatically excluded from the thesis (see the #+EXCLUDE_TAGS: derivative in the thesis.org file). Also, I could have thesis specific content in the research.org document tagged with :thesis:, and it would be excluded in the research.org export, but I currently don't have any.

Now, the most important piece of advice I can give anyone is to learn how to use tags, EXCLUDE_TAGS and the org-plus-contributions ignore tag. With the ignore tag we separate the structuring of the text as a physical document from the structuring of the text as a semantic unity. This allows an extremely fine control over pieces of text to include into another document. For example, in a research chapter written with the elsarticle class, the abstract has to be included in the Frontmatter. By tagging a headline as follows:

  ** Abstract :ignore:

I can write the research abstract in it's own heading, pretend that the heading itself does not exist (so it does not trigger /begin{document}), only its contents, and then include the contents in the thesis in an arbitrary location:

  # in thesis.org
  #+INCLUDE: "research.org::*Abstract" :only-contents t

The :ignore: tag is one of the best Org mode features, in my opinion. It's key to my workflow, and a shame to see it's not a part of Org core, but rather a contribution to be found in ox-extra.el. To activate it, add the following to your init:

(require 'ox-extra)
(ox-extras-activate '(ignore-headlines))

The realisation that it's possible to have such fine control over where to include or exclude pieces of text opens the door to all sort of interesting experiments: putting figures and captions directly into beamer or org-reveal presentations, creating conference posters, writing blog posts, etc.

Keep track of references

For backwards compatibility I still use Mendeley to track literature. I export bibtex files for each research project individually, and also a master bibtex for use in the thesis. These documents are saved to ~/Papers/bibtex/, but for the research chapters, I keep local copies under ./ref/Publications-research.bib.\\ To insert citations, I use org-ref. It's documentation says it all. After setting up local bibliography files with the derivative #+BIBLIOGRAPHY, press C-c ] to see a list of publications and insert them in place. I also prefer to have parencite citations instead of cite, because they work nicely with BibLaTeX. My setup for org-ref:

(with-eval-after-load 'org-ref ;; see org-ref for use of these variables
  (setq org-ref-default-bibliography '("~/Papers/bibtex/Publications.bib")
        org-ref-pdf-directory "~/Papers/MendeleyDesktop/"
        org-ref-get-pdf-filename-function 'org-ref-get-mendeley-filename
        bibtex-completion-pdf-field "file" org-latex-prefer-user-labels t
        org-ref-default-citation-link "parencite"
        ;; bibtex-dialect 'biblatex
        )

  (defun org-ref-open-pdf-at-point-in-emacs ()
    "Open the pdf for bibtex key under point if it exists."
    (interactive)
    (let* ((results (org-ref-get-bibtex-key-and-file))
           (key (car results))
           (pdf-file (funcall org-ref-get-pdf-filename-function key)))
      (if (file-exists-p pdf-file)
          (find-file-other-window pdf-file)
        (message "no pdf found for %s" key))))

  ;; https://github.com/jkitchin/org-ref/issues/597
  (defun org-ref-grep-pdf (&optional _candidate)
    "Search pdf files of marked CANDIDATEs."
    (interactive)
    (let ((keys (helm-marked-candidates))
          (get-pdf-function org-ref-get-pdf-filename-function))
      (helm-do-pdfgrep-1
       (-remove (lambda (pdf) (string= pdf ""))
                (mapcar (lambda (key) (funcall get-pdf-function key))
                        keys)))))

  (helm-add-action-to-source "Grep PDF" 'org-ref-grep-pdf helm-source-bibtex 1)

  (setq helm-bibtex-map (let ((map (make-sparse-keymap)))
                          (set-keymap-parent map helm-map)
                          (define-key map (kbd "C-s") (lambda () (interactive) (helm-run-after-exit 'org-ref-grep-pdf)))
                          map))
  (push `(keymap . ,helm-bibtex-map) helm-source-bibtex)

  (setq org-ref-helm-user-candidates
        '(("Open in Emacs" . org-ref-open-pdf-at-point-in-emacs))))
Include and reference figures

For each research project I keep a ./media directory, where all my figures live. You can include figures in Org mode by using the following syntax:

  #+NAME: figurename
  #+CAPTION: This is a figure caption
  [[path_to_figure][link_description]]

Currently there is a bug in the ELPA version of Org mode, such that relative paths to figures in #+INCLUDE 'd files aren't adapted with respect to the including file, so the latex export cannot find them. I've submitted a fix which should land in the next release of Org.

Version control documents

Magit. I thought about having the research chapters as git submodules in a thesis git project directory, but I currently don't. This would allow me to always have the thesis code in a saved state, even if I further work on my research chapters to answer to reviewers questions.

Support for sharing with my supervisor

Unfortunately, my supervisor likes to write comments in Mic. Word. I give in that sharing your writing with colleagues is a fundamental part of research.\\ Fortunately, ox-word export via Pandoc & LaTeX is capable of creating nice looking, structured Word files which I send to my supervisor. I then manually work through each comment step by step, though I'm looking for a way to improve this part of my workflow. I think the Emacs community is missing a minor mode to track Word document changes from within Org Mode. There are some ideas laying around on how to implement it hidden deep in the mailing list, or in this Emacs Exchange thread.

I may update this post with more information later.

Extended search facilities

By extended search facilities I mean the ability to quickly search for information in references, and to keep notes linked to the literature. For searching I make use of org-ref + pdfgrep, as shown in my org-ref setup. For notes linked to documents I've recently started to use Org-noter.

Simple syntax for tables and equations

Org tables are a pleasure to work with. The following:

| a | b | c |
|---+---+---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 |

Turns into:

a b c
1 2 3

Equations can be written in LaTeX:

\frac{d \vec{M} (t)}{dt} = \vec{M} (t) \times \gamma \vec{B} (t)

will become omitted

Support within a proper text editor

No need to talk about the synergy of using Emacs to edit text. I personally started using Spacemacs without Evil mode, because I find it aesthetically pleasing and because it offers great support for the languages I use the most, and excellent integration with Helm and Org.\\ The following configurations make the Org editing experience a bit nicer, in my opinion:

;; Writegood https://github.com/bnbeckwith/writegood-mode
(add-hook 'org-mode-hook 'writegood-mode)

;; https://github.com/cadadr/elisp/blob/master/org-variable-pitch.el
(use-package org-variable-pitch
  :load-path "~/Elisp")
(add-hook 'org-mode-hook 'org-variable-pitch-minor-mode)

(setq visual-fill-column-width 120 visual-fill-column-center-text t)
(add-hook 'org-mode-hook 'visual-line-mode)

;; https://github.com/joostkremers/visual-fill-column
(add-hook 'org-mode-hook 'visual-fill-column-mode)
(add-hook 'org-mode-hook 'org-display-inline-images)

;; I have a modified version of the following:
;; https://github.com/lepisma/rogue/blob/master/config.el
(load-file "~/Projects/rogue/config.el")
(add-hook 'org-mode-hook '(lambda () (setq-local line-spacing 5)))

;; Aesthetical enhancements.
(setq org-fontify-quote-and-verse-blocks t
      org-hide-macro-markers t
      org-fontify-whole-heading-line t
      org-fontify-done-headline t
      org-hide-emphasis-markers t)
Shortcuts to reach my files and build the thesis

I have a hydra (defined in Spacemacs as a transient-state) to move between my Thesis files:

;; Spacemacs hydra.
(spacemacs|define-transient-state
 thesis-menu
 :title "Ph.D. Thesis Menu"
 :doc "
^Main Files^ ^Chapters^ ^Actions^
^^^^^^^^-------------------------------------------
_m_: Thesis        _1_: Research 1  _o_: Open Thesis.pdf externally
_t_: Title page    _2_: Research 2  _c_: Async compile file
_i_: Introduction  _3_: Research 3  _a_: things
_s_: thesis.setup  _4_: Research 4  ^ ^
"
 :bindings
 ("a" things :exit t)
 ("m" (find-file "~/thesis/thesis.org") :exit t)
 ("t" (find-file
       "~/thesis/titlepage.org") :exit t)
 ("s" (find-file
       "~/thesis/thesis.setup") :exit t)
 ("i" (find-file
       "~/thesis/intro/intro.org") :exit t)
 ("1" (find-file
       "~/thesis/ch1/research.org") :exit t)
 ("2" (find-file
       "~/thesis/ch2/research.org") :exit t)
 ("3" (find-file
       "~/thesis/ch3/research.org") :exit t)
 ("4" (find-file
       "~/thesis/ch4/research.org") :exit t)
 ("o" (shell-command "open
        ~/thesis/thesis.pdf" :exit t))
 ("c" (org-latex-export-to-pdf :async t)
  :exit t))

(global-set-key (kbd "H-t") 'spacemacs/thesis-menu-transient-state/body)

Gnus and notmuch

Currently working: notmuch for nnmaildir backend. However, I also have a local nnimap-backend, which uses Maildir format locally. It would be nice to have this working with notmuch as well.

Relevant functions:

nnir-compose-result
Goes over the results of notmuch (stored in the buffer *nnir* (with an additional leading space) and decides which lines to keep;
nnir-notmuch-remove-prefix
a server-local variable to decide what to remove from the lines in *nnir*.

Summary of Search and Replace Commands in Emacs

[2016-08-13 Sat 17:50]

http://www.omps.in/blog/2016/01/20/day-10-search-and-replace-using-regex/

Bookmarks with Org-mode

http://karl-voit.at/2014/08/10/bookmarks-with-orgmode/

Inserting a function definition   CHUA

From Sacha Chua.

While nudging jcs to add a definition of jcs-insert-url to the blog post about Making Things Easier, I realized it might be handy to have a quick function for inserting a function definition without thinking about where it's defined. This tries to use the definition from the source, and it can fall back to using the stored function definition if necessary. There's probably a better way to do this, but this was small and fun to write. =)

Naturally, I used it to insert itself:

(defun my/org-insert-defun (function)
  "Inserts an Org source block with the definition for FUNCTION."
  (interactive (find-function-read))
  (let* ((buffer-point (condition-case nil
                           (find-definition-noselect function nil)
                         (error nil)))
         (new-buf (car buffer-point))
         (new-point (cdr buffer-point))
         definition)
    (if buffer-point
      (with-current-buffer new-buf ;; Try to get original definition
        (save-excursion
          (goto-char new-point)
          (setq definition (buffer-substring-no-properties
                            (point)
                            (save-excursion (end-of-defun) (point))))))
      ;; Fallback: Print function definition
      (setq definition (concat (prin1-to-string
                                (symbol-function function))
                               "\n")))
    (insert "#+begin_src emacs-lisp\n" definition "#+end_src\n")))

Tramping into GCloud instances from within emacs   IRREAL

From https://gist.github.com/jackrusher/36c80a2fd6a8fe8ddf46bc7e408ae1f9 via Irreal.

;; make sure you've set your default project with:
;; gcloud config set project <project-name>

(require 'tramp)
(add-to-list 'tramp-methods
  '("gcssh"
    (tramp-login-program        "gcloud compute ssh")
    (tramp-login-args           (("%h")))
    (tramp-async-args           (("-q")))
    (tramp-remote-shell         "/bin/sh")
    (tramp-remote-shell-args    ("-c"))
    (tramp-gw-args              (("-o" "GlobalKnownHostsFile=/dev/null")
                                 ("-o" "UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null")
                                 ("-o" "StrictHostKeyChecking=no")))
    (tramp-default-port         22)))

;; ... after which it's as easy as:
;;
;; C-x C-f /gcssh:compute-instance:/path/to/filename.clj

Finding the largest Emacs buffer

I found this somewhere, but forget where …

Approach: sort all buffers by size.

(mapcar (lambda (x)
          (list x (buffer-size x)))
        (cl-sort (buffer-list)
                 (lambda (x y)
                   (< (buffer-size y) (buffer-size x)))))

Emacs reencode buffers with other encoding

  • Use the function revert-buffer-with-coding-system to re-open a buffer in another encoding.
  • Customize the variable file-coding-system-alist to control whether certain files should always be opened with a specific encoding.