Author Archives: jcs

Calc Tutorial

Posted on 2019-02-07 by jcs

Longtime Irreal readers with good memories will recall that sometime ago I resolved to get better with Emacs Calc. Although I haven’t written much about it, I have been making progress. It’s now my go-to calculator and I’ve learned all … Continue reading →

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Run Your Life With Emacs

Posted on 2019-02-06 by jcs

Over at the Keyhole Development Blog, Garrett Hopper explains why he runs his life with Emacs. Like many of us, he hates having to switch context when he changes the application he’s using. Each application has its own key bindings … Continue reading →

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Just in Case You Still Thought “Google Is Your Friend”

Posted on 2019-02-05 by jcs

Many years ago, when someone would ask some easily discoverable question, I would respond with “Google is your friend.” I haven’t said that for a long time now because Google most emphatically is not your friend. If you think that’s … Continue reading →

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Org 9.2.1

Posted on 2019-02-04 by jcs

Bastien announces the arrival of a new Org-mode release: #emacs #orgmode 9.2.1, a bugfix release, is out. Enjoy! — Bastien Guerry (@bzg2) February 3, 2019 It’s a bug release so it’s probably worth upgrading even if you don’t track Org … Continue reading →

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Managing Dependencies

Posted on 2019-02-03 by jcs

Russ Cox has an excellent post on managing software dependencies. He begins by describing the problem: we’ve gone from talking about but not implementing code reuse to the wholesale use of packages/libraries/modules that we often don’t know much about. Most … Continue reading →

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Zamansky: Travis-CI

Posted on 2019-02-02 by jcs

Mike Zamansky has a new video up but it’s not one in his Using Emacs Series. Zamansky is doing a miniseries (probably 2 or 3 videos) on GitHub Classroom and how he uses GitHub in his teaching. His first video … Continue reading →

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Using ed

Posted on 2019-02-01 by jcs

About a year and a half ago, I wrote, somewhat disparagingly, about the idea of using the ed editor for every day work. The problem is that ed is a line editor meant for use with teletype-like devices. Because it … Continue reading →

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Glass Panel Keyboards

Posted on 2019-01-31 by jcs

This post may seem Apple-centric but it’s not. Even though it’s Apple that is patenting this idea, it’s the technology itself that I find interesting and want to discuss. According to AppleInsider, Apple has applied for a patent on replacing … Continue reading →

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Howard Abrams’ GTD Workflow

Posted on 2019-01-30 by jcs

Howard Abrams is rethinking his GTD workflow and has written a three part post that describes his evolving scheme. The first part is here; there are links to the next part in each post. The basic idea is that every … Continue reading →

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Zamansky 56: Dictionaries and Thesauri

Posted on 2019-01-29 by jcs

Mike Zamansky has another video up in his Using Emacs Series. This time it’s about dictionary and thesaurus apps for Emacs. Like many of us—or, perhaps, most of us—Zamansky uses Emacs for almost every chore that involves text: he reads … Continue reading →

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