Category Archives: Programming

Emacs Debugger Tip

Posted on 2014-10-08 by jcs

Wilfred Hughes has a tip on debugging Elisp: Emacs tip of the day: if you can't reproduce a bug with edebug, use debug-on-entry instead! Yes, Emacs has multiple debuggers! — Wilfred Hughes (@_wilfredh) October 6, 2014

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Common Lisp format Summary

Posted on 2014-10-08 by jcs

The Common Lisp format function is a bit controversial among some Lispers1. The problem is that the language used by format to specify output strings is un-Lisp like. I’m not one of those people. I like format and feel comfortable … Continue reading →

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October Quicklisp

Posted on 2014-10-07 by jcs

The October Quicklisp is available. Upgrade with the usual (ql:update-dist “quicklisp”)

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Grabbing the Current Browser Tab from Emacs

Posted on 2014-10-06 by jcs

A little while ago, I wrote about grabbing the URL associated with a browser tab from within Emacs. I’ve been using since then and it simplifies things in more ways than I anticipated. Sadly, the method depends on OS X … Continue reading →

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Kernel Source

Posted on 2014-10-04 by jcs

The other day, I wrote about using the BSD Unix sources to learn from the masters. Even though I’ve read through most of those resources, I’m always on the lookout for more. Happily, I’ve come across another great resource, The … Continue reading →

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Generating Random Trees

Posted on 2014-10-01 by jcs

I’ve mentioned Atabey Kaygun’s blog before. He mostly writes short posts on some mathematical algorithm, which he illustrates with Lisp. One such post was about generating random trees of \(n\) nodes in such a way that every possible tree having … Continue reading →

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Emacs Idioms

Posted on 2014-09-30 by jcs

Learning to configure and extend Emacs is pretty easy for those with a modicum of Lisp experience. Much has been written about the shortcomings of Elisp and while those criticisms have merit, it’s easy for a Lisper to become comfortable … Continue reading →

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SBCL 1.2.4 Released

Posted on 2014-09-29 by jcs

Steel Bank Common Lisp 1.2.4 has been released and is available at the usual place. Check the NEWS page for what’s new in this release (mostly some improvements in how certain sequence functions are implemented). As usual, there were no … Continue reading →

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Wilfred Hughes on Macro Systems

Posted on 2014-09-28 by jcs

Wilfred Hughes has an interesting post, Comparitive Macrology, in which he looks at the macro systems of various languages. For each, he implements two macros: A swap macro to exercise hygiene An anaphoric macro to exercise (intentional) variable capture He … Continue reading →

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BSD Unix Repository

Posted on 2014-09-27 by jcs

As I’ve written before, I believe that one of the best ways of becoming a master programmer is to study the work of the masters. One of the best sources for this that I know of is the BSD Unix … Continue reading →

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