Author Archives: jcs

Read Extended Command Predicate

Posted on 2026-04-06 by jcs

Bozhidar Batsov has a post that mentions how M-x shows a lot of commands many of which make no sense in the current context. This has never bothered me because after inputting a few (fuzzy) letters, the display converges on … Continue reading →

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Repeat Mode

Posted on 2026-04-05 by jcs

As many you know, I was a Vim user for a couple of decades before I found the one true editor. One of the things I miss from Vim is the easy to use repeat command. If you’re in command … Continue reading →

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Congratulations Álvaro

Posted on 2026-04-04 by jcs

Irreal readers can’t help but know who Álvaro Ramírez is, if for no other reason that I’m always blathering on about his Journelly app that is my most used and useful iOS app. But of course, Ramírez has many other … Continue reading →

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Back-To-The-Office Backfires

Posted on 2026-04-03 by jcs

Those of you who have been around for a while know that Irreal strongly supports remote work. It’s obviously good for those employees who want it and Irreal has always claimed it’s good for employers too. Sadly, a combination of … Continue reading →

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Your Commit Messages Should Tell A story

Posted on 2026-04-02 by jcs

Chris Mariana has an interesting post about making Git commit messages with Magit. Well crafted commit messages, he says, can tell a story about your project than can valuable in the future. The secret is in the “well crafted” part. … Continue reading →

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Anju

Posted on 2026-04-01 by jcs

We here at the Irreal bunker belong to the cohort that believes every right thinking person eschews the use of the mouse whenever possible. Still, in our honest moments, we recognize that there are some intelligent, skillful people who do … Continue reading →

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Christian Tietze On Emacs Mistakes

Posted on 2026-03-31 by jcs

In celebration of this month’s Emacs Carnival, Christian Tietze has a post on his mistaken beliefs about Emacs. His “mistakes” were not about his using Emacs in the wrong way. They concerned his mistaken beliefs about Emacs. His first mistaken … Continue reading →

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Lisp Machines!

Posted on 2026-03-30 by jcs

Anyone who’s been around Irreal for a while knows of my fascination with Lisp Machines. Part of my love or Emacs is that it’s (sort of) a reimagining of the Lisp Machines. Sadly, I never had a chance to work … Continue reading →

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Paredit Keybinding Conflicts

Posted on 2026-03-29 by jcs

There are, I suppose, a few Lisp programmers using Emacs who resist paredit but most of the rest of us have long since succumbed to its charms. It can be a bit difficult to get used to but once you … Continue reading →

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Restarting Running Elisp Code

Posted on 2026-03-28 by jcs

One of Lisp’s features that seem like magic to those of us brought up with C-like languages is the ability to change the code of a running process, reload it, and continue running with the new code. The amazing thing … Continue reading →

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