Author Archives: jcs

Using Pcase and Name-let for Pattern Matching and Tail Recursion

Posted on 2022-11-27 by jcs

Erik L. Arneson has an interesting post about using functional programming constructs with Elisp. In particular, he considers pattern matching and tail recursion. Tail recursion is, in my estimation, one of the most useful properties a programming language can have. … Continue reading →

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Viewing Exotic Image Files

Posted on 2022-11-26 by jcs

As you know, Emacs can display most of the common image formats such as SVG, JPEG, PNG, and GIF but what about formats, such as webp, that aren’t handled natively by Emacs? Álvaro Ramírez has another quickie that tells us … Continue reading →

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Red Meat Friday: eMacs

Posted on 2022-11-25 by jcs

You guys always jump on me and accuse me of being cantankerous when I go off on a rant like this but, really, it’s too much to bear. I’ve noticed lately that some people are referring to Emacs as “eMacs” … Continue reading →

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macOS As A Unix Workstation

Posted on 2022-11-24 by jcs

Torstein K. Johansen has an interesting post on configuring a Mac to be comfortable for a Linux user. Johansen is a self described “die hard Linux user” but recently had to work on a Mac. Macs are Unix machines but … Continue reading →

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Org Tree Slide

Posted on 2022-11-23 by jcs

Everybody hates slide decks. Jeff Bezos even famously banned them from Amazon. Still, most of us who are called upon to give a presentation will make slides the center of that presentation. There are, of course, dedicated programs like PowerPoint, … Continue reading →

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Using Icons with Mu4e

Posted on 2022-11-22 by jcs

Just a quickie from Álvaro Ramírez. If you’re a Mu4e user and would like to have an email’s status shown as one or more icons instead of a series of comparatively opaque letters but don’t want to deal with all-the-icons, … Continue reading →

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A Conversation with Mickey

Posted on 2022-11-21 by jcs

Syntopikon has an interesting interview with Mickey Petersen, the proprietor of Mastering Emacs and all around Emacs expert and expositor. He’s no stranger to Irreal readers so it’s always nice to see him discuss matters. The last time I remember … Continue reading →

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Replying to a Sender Specific Email Address

Posted on 2022-11-20 by jcs

Sebastian Schulze has an interesting post on handling email To and From addresses. His procedure when supplying an Email address to, say, a Website such as some-site.com is to specify some-site.com@his-domain.com where his-domain.com is his domain. That allows him to … Continue reading →

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Fred Brooks

Posted on 2022-11-19 by jcs

Fred Brooks was a computer scientist who, among other things, worked on the development of OS/360. He’s probably best known for his influential book The Mythical Man-Month, which has itself obtained a mythical status within our industry. The TL;DR of … Continue reading →

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Red Meat Friday: JavaScript

Posted on 2022-11-18 by jcs

With all the Sturm und Drang about Twitter, it’s time for Irreal to provide a little red meat—not about Twitter but about JavaScript: BREAKING: JavaScript has been banned from Twitter for impersonating a real programming language. pic.twitter.com/ukInCxvf1B — Lukas Eder … Continue reading →

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