Emacs Debugger Tip

Posted on 2014-10-08 by jcs

Wilfred Hughes has a tip on debugging Elisp:

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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 with the language2, probably because of my years cranking out C.

One of the problems with format is that its input language is very comprehensive. You can, for example, specify that a number be output in Roman numerals. Happily, Jean-Philippe Paradis has us covered with his format directive summary. It’s part of his on-going series of articles on the Common Lisp HyperSpec. It’s a nice summary and worth bookmarking for future reference.

Footnotes:

1

For those not familiar with format, it’s much like printf from C, although the formatting language is richer.

2

I’m not a complete libertine, though. I do dislike the loop macro for the same reason given by those who don’t like format: it’s input language is not Lisp.

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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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Xah’s Roundup of Keyboard Articles

Posted on 2014-10-07 by jcs

As I mentioned recently, Xah Lee is obsessed with keyboards and knows a lot about the subject matter. The choice of a keyboard is a lot like the choice of a spouse or boy/girl friend: everyone has their own idea of what the perfect specimen looks like. Lee, as most of you know, has strong opinions on keyboards and many other matters but still provides excellent data on even those keyboards he doesn’t like.

Now Lee has posted a compendium of his keyboard posts. It’s a great resource if you’re trying to decide on a new keyboard. He even has some links to Amazon for some of the keyboards he discusses.

Lee and I agree on very little about keyboards. I like straight (traditional) keyboards while Lee prefers ergonomic keyboards. I have used QWERTY for all of my life and am not about to change now. Lee has gone to the effort of learning Dvorak. We both agree, more or less, on key switches. Even so, I find his articles very interesting and helpful. If you’re in the market for a keyboard or wondering if you should choose QWERTY, Dvorak, or something else, check out his articles. You’re sure to learn something useful.

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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 (specifically AppleScript) so users with other operating systems couldn’t use it.

Recently, I saw this entry on the Google G+ Emacs community that announces the inclusion of a new command to Ren Wenshan’s emacs-moz-controller that grabs the URL of the current Firefox tab. I don’t use Firefox so I haven’t tried it but it seems like it would be an fairly easy way for Firefox users to implement their own version of my jcs-get-link function.

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You Can Trust Us

Posted on 2014-10-05 by jcs

When arguing that they be given some new extraordinary power, governments always say, “You can trust us not to abuse this power.” It always turns out to be a lie. Here, from Britain—a democratic country by any honest person’s definition—is an example. No terrorism. No kidnapped child. No pedophiles. No drug kingpins. Just a corrupt politician.

UPDATE: It occurred to me after I published this post that it has relevance to the caterwauling reaction of law enforcement to Apple’s iOS 8 encryption. On the one hand, the events in Britain show that law enforcement can not, in fact, be trusted not to abuse any capabilities they are given to access our digital lives.

On the other hand, it shows that law enforcement is being a bit disingenuous with all the doomsday talk about not being able to save kidnap victims or stop pedophiles in light of iOS 8 encryption. As the police in Britain demonstrated, it’s perfectly possible to get this information using traditional investigative techniques.

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How to Have Fast Hyper, Super, and Meta Keys

Posted on 2014-10-04 by jcs

Via EmacsRocks:

Seems a bit hardcore but if you’re a good touch typist and have a heavily customized Emacs, this may be just what you need. Of course, Sacha Chua was already doing this three years ago.

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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 UNIX Kernel Source Tour. They’ve got the sources for the Linux, FreeBSD, Univ V7, and 4.3 BSD kernels.

These kernel sources are on line so it’s easy to spend a few minutes looking at one of the files. Did you ever wonder how Unix pipes work? Here’s the V7 implementation. It’s a short file and easy to understand. If you spend a few minutes everyday looking at one of these files, you will soon find yourself understanding how Unix works and how the masters code.

We really do live in a wonderful time. When I started, Unix was a closed source black box. You could read papers and books about it but you couldn’t really examine the code. Now we have an embarrassment of riches.

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Final Pretest for Emacs 24.4

Posted on 2014-10-03 by jcs

Michael Fogleman gives us the heads up.

The long wait is almost over.

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Slightly Obscure Emacs Tips

Posted on 2014-10-03 by jcs

Xah Lee has updated his Emacs Less-known Tips page. It lists tips that Emacs n00bs may not be familiar with. Even more experienced Emacers may learn something new. Well worth a look, especially if you’re a beginner.

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