Monthly Archives: July 2018

A Q&A with Brian Kernighan

Posted on 2018-07-21 by jcs

If you enjoyed Brian Kernighan’s video on the genesis of the name “grep”, you will probably also enjoy the three-part Q&A with Kernighan in which he discusses programming, C, and C’s successors. Kernighan is personable and a great speaker so … Continue reading →

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Three Emacs Modes for Note Taking

Posted on 2018-07-20 by jcs

Irreal readers can’t help but know that I’m a fanatical Org mode addict. I use it for almost everything that doesn’t involve coding and sometimes, via code blocks, even then. I’m an inveterate data gatherer and note taker and all … Continue reading →

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DHH on Open Offices

Posted on 2018-07-19 by jcs

David Heinemeier Hansson has a nice article on open offices: The open-plan office is a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad idea. He cites the usual research showing that purported gains in interaction and communication just don’t happen and that … Continue reading →

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More YASnippet Templates

Posted on 2018-07-18 by jcs

I’ve mentioned before that I’m a YASnippet user and really like the system. Not everyone agrees but you owe it to yourself to give them a try. If you are a user, you might not be aware, as I wasn’t, … Continue reading →

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Building an Initial Emacs Configuration

Posted on 2018-07-17 by jcs

One of the problems—perhaps the major problem—that a new Emacs user faces is building an initial configuration. One would think that a vanilla install would be a good starting point for a new user but we all know that that … Continue reading →

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Emacs As an Editor

Posted on 2018-07-16 by jcs

Over at the Emacs reddit, honeywhite wonders why anyone would use the Emacs default key bindings. He’s an Emacs user but can’t understand why anyone would prefer the standard Emacs key bindings to one of the Vi emulation modes. As … Continue reading →

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Run a Raw Git Command From Within Magit

Posted on 2018-07-15 by jcs

There isn’t much git work that you can’t do from within Magit but occasionally it’s convenient to call git directly. In another great tip from Wilfred Hughes’ Emacs Command of the Day we have: Want to run a raw git … Continue reading →

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Dired Hacks Redux

Posted on 2018-07-14 by jcs

Back in 2015, I wrote about Fuco1’s dired hacks. It’s a collection of packages that make working with dired more convenient. You can read the original post or take a look at the dired-hacks GitHub repository to see what’s available. … Continue reading →

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Literate Programming with Org Mode

Posted on 2018-07-13 by jcs

Justin Worthe had a nice addition to the articles on literate programming and Org mode. It is, I think, a pretty balanced treatment of the benefits and disadvantages of literate programming. On the one hand you have the usual advantages … Continue reading →

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Things You Can Do With Regular Expressions in Emacs

Posted on 2018-07-12 by jcs

Back in January, John D. Cook wrote an excellent post on the ways you can use regular expressions in Emacs. You’re probably familiar with most of them but there might be a couple of surprises in his list. He looks … Continue reading →

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