I just finished the Emacs Lisp intro and am getting my feet wet with customization. I've browsed the Emacs FAQ, the Emacs W32 FAQ, and perused the fine manual for drag and drop information. I am using GNU Emacs 24.5.1 for Windows without Cygwin (etc.).
I would like to update the default drag and drop behavior to open such files in read only mode. Through C-h f I've identified the dnd functions. In particular, dnd-open-file may be relevant. By C-h k and then dragging a file into Emacs, I've identified the function w32-drag-n-drop. Also, within the Reference Manual is a section on drag-and-drop which specifies x-dnd-types-alist.
How do I identify which of these items, if any, needs to be modified?
What is a safe way to modify its behavior?
I cannot find documentation on x-dnd-types-alist. Is it a function? A variable?
Is there a resource I've overlooked which I should be looking at?
Partial answers of a general nature - I can't help with your dnd problems,
but I hope these suggestions will be of some use.
Q2. It's a good idea to have a minimal init file, containing whatever is necessary to initialize an environment for testing. You can them invoke emacs like this:
emacs -q -l /path/to/minimal/init/file
bypassing your initialization file (-q) and loading the minimal init file instead. Then if something blows up, you just kill this emacs instance, and start again (possibly with a modified init file).
Q3. It's a variable (as are all alists). An alist (short for association list) is a list of key-value pairs. You can get the docstring of any variable with
C-h v VARNAME RET
e.g.
C-h v x-dnd-types-alist RET
Q4. If all else fails, the source is available...
I'm new to Clojure and new to Emacs.
Is there an Emacs short-cut to intelligently re-indent the whole file?
if not, is there at least a way to indent selected regions left or right?
I feel like I'm back in the stone age repeatedly pressing the arrows
C-x h selects the entire buffer. C-M-\ reindents the selected region.
Ctrl-x, h (select all) followed by Tab (to indent)
cider-format-buffer command (Since cider 0.9.0)
When you capture data from a sequence like C-u C-c C-e
(cider-eval-last-sexp), the raw data output to your buffer can be
unwieldy to inspect/work with. And the normal code-indenting commands
(mentioned in answers here) don't handle it well.
For handling results from such evaluated expressions, try
cider-format-edn-region.
As a concrete example, have you ever tried reformatting your
~/.lein/profiles.clj? This is pretty hard to do and keep
consistent, until you discover cider-format-edn-region. Take
caution that it will, however, remove any comments.
Use cljfmt for many configurable ways to reformat/reindent. It has an Emacs plugin, but also can be run via lein.
I'm new to Clojure and new to Emacs.
Is there an Emacs short-cut to intelligently re-indent the whole file?
if not, is there at least a way to indent selected regions left or right?
I feel like I'm back in the stone age repeatedly pressing the arrows
C-x h selects the entire buffer. C-M-\ reindents the selected region.
Ctrl-x, h (select all) followed by Tab (to indent)
cider-format-buffer command (Since cider 0.9.0)
When you capture data from a sequence like C-u C-c C-e
(cider-eval-last-sexp), the raw data output to your buffer can be
unwieldy to inspect/work with. And the normal code-indenting commands
(mentioned in answers here) don't handle it well.
For handling results from such evaluated expressions, try
cider-format-edn-region.
As a concrete example, have you ever tried reformatting your
~/.lein/profiles.clj? This is pretty hard to do and keep
consistent, until you discover cider-format-edn-region. Take
caution that it will, however, remove any comments.
Use cljfmt for many configurable ways to reformat/reindent. It has an Emacs plugin, but also can be run via lein.
I have tried emacs on and off for a while now and every time I start emacs, I go through the same routine. Customizing. The first one is binding return to newline-and-indent. (g)Vim does this by default. Showing matching parenthesis is also done by default on (g)Vim. It is grea that I can customize emacs to my heart's content but why doesn't emacs have nice and easy defaults? For reference, I am now using Emacs 23 on a RHEL5 box.
Probably because RMS didn't want it, that and because changing long-standing defaults is just an issue of politics. Like vi, Emacs has a hard-core following and basic changes like these are minefields.
Note: if you saved your customizations, then you wouldn't have to re-do them every time...
To have those nice and easy defaults, install Emacs Starter Kit. It enables by default a bunch of useful and convenient features make even the advanced Emacs users more productive.
Otherwise, as TJ pointed out, Emacs Customization Mode (type M-x customize) allows you to save permanently any of the settings. You can even store them in a separate file from your dotemacs―(setq custom-file "~/.emacs-custom.el")―so you can use it in every computer you work on.
The title of your question doesn't really reflect what your question is (and has been answered by Trey and Torok), but I'll tell you why I like it being bound to just newline: useless whitespace. Say you are nested inside a conditional in a function etc. and hit return a couple times to leave a blank line. The blank line now has a bunch of space chars on it. Yes, you can (and I do) remove trailing whitespace before saving, but I also have visual whitespace mode on and I can see it there taunting me.
Closed. This question is off-topic. It is not currently accepting answers.
Want to improve this question? Update the question so it's on-topic for Stack Overflow.
Closed 10 years ago.
Improve this question
If you had a 10 minute hands-on session to teach someone Emacs, what would you show them?
Start emacs: emacs
...
Quit emacs: C-x C-c
What else would you have them do between starting and quitting Emacs, while you stood behind them?
If I had only 10 minutes, I would not teach them any shortcuts at all. All the common shortcuts are available next to the corresponding commands in the menus; those the users can discover for themselves.
The most important things to teach are those that will enable the users to discover/learn by themselves:
That one can quit Emacs with C-x C-c, or File->Quit. When stuck, one should type C-g, and, if that doesn't work, ESC ESC ESC. [This is probably the single most useful advice to prevent total frustration with Emacs, trust me.]
The tutorial: Help->Emacs Tutorial, or C-h t. [This is not a terribly useful shortcut to remember; given how few times one reads the tutorial over the course of one's life...]
The concept that every keystroke in Emacs is bound to a function, and all that Emacs does is execute functions one after another. That there are more functions than can possibly be bound to keys, and functions without a keystroke can be invoked with M-x function-name.
That one can discover what function a particular key invokes with C-h k [keystroke]. Make the user walk through a few of those (including the amusing fact that typing a letter is not special and just invokes self-insert-command, so if one wanted, one could bind the letter 'z' to send email instead :D)
That one can search for possibly useful functions with C-h a (or M-x apropos-command), e.g. C-h a paragraph shows all the commands to do with paragraphs, including what shortcuts will take one to the end/beginning of a paragraph. And that C-h w command-name will tell you if the command is bound to some keystroke or not. [Make them walk through this to discover what the key for undo is -- usually they'll try C-z and it does something annoying :)]
That you can read detailed documentation about what a function does with M-x describe-function (C-h f). That Emacs has great documentation about most things; and M-x apropos-documentation (C-h d) is a great way of discovering stuff.
That one's settings are stored in .emacs, and that one can glean some things by looking at that file even if one don't understand Emacs Lisp.
That one can usually find all keystrokes that "complete" a particular set of keys by typing C-h after it, e.g. 'C-x C-h' will show all the shortcuts starting with C-x; C-h C-h is particularly useful; C-c C-h is useful for mode-specific commands such as when in java-mode or c++-mode or LaTeX-mode, etc. (Hmm, "modes"...)
That when stuck, one can search on http://www.emacswiki.org/. (Or ask a question in the #emacs IRC channel on Freenode, or post to gnu.emacs.help.)
This should fit in 10 minutes, and it's the most important stuff, I think. I wouldn't overload with too many shortcuts to remember; that's pointless anyway -- if the users know how to discover shortcuts, they'll find out shortcuts for whatever they use most frequently. Do have them write down the names of these commands, though, and also about Emacswiki etc.
The important thing is to show them how powerful Emacs is and how universal its model is (all those jokes about it being an operating system are not just jokes). If you just show a bunch of arcane shortcuts to do things they can already do in other editors, Emacs won't seem worth all the trouble. In the same spirit, I also wholly support Anton Nazarov's answer of showing them what Emacs can do (AucTeX if they use LaTeX, etc.) for their specific purposes. Then they can judge for themselves whether Emacs is worth learning, and learn using all the above.
Show them how to start the tutorial: C-h t
C-x M-c M-butterfly
I'd show the most important for that novice user mode.
For example, when I show Emacs to my friends at the faculty of physics, I show them AucTeX with preview-latex and RefTeX. Also iMaxima is great.
If I have to show Emacs to software developers I show them something like JDEE or Python mode with Ropemacs.
Tetris, tramp and w3m can be used to give the idea that Emacs can do everything :)
Then I'd show how to start the tutorial and give link to EmacsWiki.org
i think you show him how
to open and save files
to kill/switch buffers
to switch/kill/split windows
to select a range.
And tell him about M-x . Tell him he write those steps down somewhere. I think basic navigation can be done using arrow keys. Now this is all he needs.
If he knows about M-x , he can easily find search, replace and other stuff.
When giving emacs examples it's never enough to only give the key binding since that can and does vary. C-x M-c is undefined on my system.
When I start XEmacas, until I press a key it alternates between two screens. One of them has the following:
XEmacs 21.4 (patch 21) "Educational Television" (cygwin, Mule) of Tue Dec 4 2007 on vzell-de
`C-' means the control key,`M-' means the meta key
Information, on-line help:
XEmacs comes with plenty of documentation...
M-? F: read the XEmacs FAQ (a capital F!)
M-? t: read the XEmacs tutorial (also available through the Help menu)
f1: get help on using XEmacs (also available through the Help menu)
M-? i: read the on-line documentation
M-x describe-project: read about the GNU project
M-x about-xemacs: see who's developing XEmacs
I would ask that someone to read it out aloud, make sure they understand what it says and then give them, to use in case of emergency, my cell-phone number and a first-aid kit.
I would show the shortcuts for the most common operations such as:
Save: ctrl-x-s
Save as: ctrl-x-w
Open/find file: Ctrl-f
Undo: ctrl-_
Kill buffer: ctrl-x-k
Switch to buffer: ctrl-b
Fill paragraph: M-q
And copy/cut and paste:
Set marker: ctrl-space
Cut: ctrl-w
Copy: M-w
Cut line: ctrl-k
Paste: ctrl-y
Open a file,
Save a file,
Basic navigation,
Set mark, copy, cut and paste,
Show undo and kill ring,
Show C-g,
Show search and replace,
Split window and move to other window,
Switch to other buffers,
Show Tutorial,
Explain Info,
Show dired to:
open some file,
run a command to compress another file,
open, edit and save the compressed file,
open a directory on a remote host,
open & save some file on the remote host,
copy some file from the remote host.
Open a shell and run some long output command and navigate in the buffer.
Learn to use help C-h C-h
Do the tutorial exercice.
Kill something, and another thing, and a third one, then C-y to yank it, and M-y to cycle the kill ring. Big "Woah" factor, quick and cheap. Then tell them it works in their daily shell.
Navigate in the buffer with the mark ring. C-u C-SPC (space) takes you to where you were before and, repeated, cycles though the 16 last positions, regardless of edit state.
You know when you sheepishly undo things just to get "where you were before" ? There you go.
This is a killer emacs ninja trick. Everybody should know it ASAP.
I think the first thing to ask before trying to teach them something is "what do they want to get out of learning Emacs?" AND, are you trying to sell them on the idea of learning Emacs or are they already committed.
If they are a programmer and are looking for a new development environment, show them ECB, how tags work, etc? If they are looking for a general text editor, show them M-x re-builder. If they are looking to write documents quickly and publish them eventually, show them org-mode with HTML and LaTeX exports.
Besides what had been mentioned already I would also show them M-x global-set-key after having showed M-x in general and M-x apropos.
I would tell them that the point of Emacs is that it is infinitely customizable and that one should personalize it to suit one's preferences. I would tell them to try out the standard key bindings first and the advantages of them showing up in Bash, OS X, etc.
C-g
Copy paste
Split Windows
M-x
Apropos
Describe Key
Describe Command
Open files
Switch Buffers
The language-specific development environment, including the debugger and the REPL.