*scratch* buffer using SLIME - emacs

I realize that SLIME is the Superior Lisp Interaction Mode but I'm wondering if there is a "Lisp Interaction" buffer that works with Common Lisp like the *scratch* buffer works with Emacs Lisp. I.E. hitting C-j at the end of a form will insert the result of that form in the current buffer.
I ask because I find editing the output as needed is easier this way than with the repl.

There is M-xslime-scratchRET though I don't
know what does C-j by default because I use
Paredit.
However C-uC-xC-e does what you want in
both *scratch* and *slime-scratch*.
It is bound to C-x C-e.
(eval-last-sexp EVAL-LAST-SEXP-ARG-INTERNAL)
Evaluate sexp before point; print value in minibuffer.
Interactively, with prefix argument, print output into current buffer.
Truncates long output according to the value of the variables
`eval-expression-print-length' and `eval-expression-print-level'.
(and it's slime-eval-last-expression in the *slime-scratch* buffer)

Binding this function to C-j does the behaviour that I'm looking for:
(defun slime-eval-print-last-sexp ()
(interactive)
(newline)
(insert (cadr (slime-eval `(swank:eval-and-grab-output ,(slime-last-expression)))))
(newline))

Related

How to set a keybinding to create and jump to the next line in emacs?

I have the following code that attempts to create a new line and then jump to it. The idea is that move-end-of-line will jump to the end of the current line, and ["C-m"] would act as return/enter. Yet executing this command gives the error: "wrong number of arguments". How do I fix this?
(global-set-key (kbd "C-.") 'new-line)
(defun new-line ()
(interactive)
(move-end-of-line)
["C-m"]
)
I think you need to read the Emacs & elisp manuals: these questions are pretty easy to answer. Here's one way to do it.
(defun insert-line-after-line (&optional n)
(interactive "p")
(end-of-line 1) ;end of current line
(open-line n) ;open n new lines
(forward-line 1)) ;go to start of first of them
But seriously: Emacs has very extensive self-documentation, it is easy to find out how to do these things.
An option is to record a macro and use that.
M-x kmacro-start-macro
C-e
C-m
M-x kmacro-end-macro
If you don't care about the macro persisting, just run it:
C-x e
But if you want it to persist you would save it:
M-x name-last-kbd-macro new-line
M-x insert-kbd-macro new-line
and paste the output into your initialisation file (with your shortcut definition):
(global-set-key (kbd "C-.") 'new-line)
(fset 'new-line
[end return])
["C-m"] is like the way you specify a key for doing a key binding, but this is not the same as how you programmatically tell Emacs to insert a character into a document. You could use (insert-char ?\^M) (see ref here), but that would result in a literal ^M character (try it; another way to do the same thing interactively is Ctrl-Q followed by Ctrl-M). (insert "\n") seems to be what you're looking for.
Also, the reason you're getting the message "wrong number of arguments" is because (move-end-of-line) requires an argument when called out of interactive context. (move-end-of-line 1) works.
That said, possibly an easier way to achieve the result you're looking for is with the following setting:
(setq next-line-add-newlines t)
This will allow you to just do C-n at the end of the file and not worry about the distinction between moving and inserting.

Evaluating Elisp in emacs

I am an hour new into programming in Emacs lisp. I have a little experience with scheme so I understand the big picture of lisps in general. However, I have only used the "pure functional" subset of scheme and do not know how to do practical tasks.
Write now, I know that C-x C-e will evaluate the code enclosed by the parentheses' by the current cursor position.
I wish to loop from i = 1 to 10 and print the values of i out. How is this done? I tried the following:
(defvar i 1)
(while (< i 11)
(print "i: " i)
(setq i (+ i 1)))
Emacs tells me: invalid function 0.
How do I do this correctly?
Why is emacs telling me invalid function 0
Feel free to give me tips about how to use the scratch buffer (all I know is C-x C-e evaluates) in emacs. Thanks for all the help!
EDIT1: Could someone tell me how to print out sequential values of i using a while loop?
EDIT2: When I evaluate the code, it opens up another tiny buffer showing each value of i one at a time. However, it is not a large buffer and only shows values of i from 13 to 19. When I try to get into that buffer, it closes immediately. How do I "scroll" through that tiny buffer? Note that I use emacs 24.3 through the terminal
EDIT3: I figured out that the tiny buffer is the Messages buffer. Is there a better way to view the output of my elisp code? The Messages buffer is full of other junk from evaluating things in emacs.
First and foremost, enable "Enter debugger on error" from the Options menu now and add (setq debug-on-error t) or (custom-set-variables '(debug-on-error t)) to your ~/.emacs.el.
Then you will get a *Backtrace* buffer on C-x C-e:
Debugger entered--Lisp error: (invalid-function 1)
1(10)
print("i: " 1)
(while (< i 11) (print "i: " i) (setq i (+ i 1)))
eval((while (< i 11) (print "i: " i) (setq i (+ i 1))) nil)
eval-last-sexp-1(nil)
eval-last-sexp(nil)
call-interactively(eval-last-sexp nil nil)
command-execute(eval-last-sexp)
which shows that the error comes from print.
C-h f print RET will tell you why, but the upshot is that you want to use insert instead of print here.
Just as an added note, since you mentioned knowing some scheme -- if you like the interactive REPL that you can use in typical scheme environment, you might like ielm -- I think it probably stands for Interactive Emacs Lisp mode. Not sure. Anyway, M-x ielm RET will open up an emacs lisp REPL. Sometimes it is actually useful -- for example, when you want to inspect the content of a variable with a lot of data in it, ielm will print the whole thing out. Ielm is built in to my Emacs. Not sure when it was added to the standard distribution, but the earliest copyright in the source says 1994, so it is probably in your Emacs.
You can evaluate Emacs-Lisp sexps in *scratch* or in any other buffer in the same mode or (my preference) in mode emacs-lisp-mode.
In *scratch* you need only hit C-j (newline) after a sexp to evaluate it. In an emacs-lisp-mode buffer you can, as you said, use C-x C-e after a sexp. Or you can use M-x evaluate-region after selecting one or more sexps. As always, C-h m in any mode tells you about it, and usually lists important key bindings.
You can also check a global variable value using C-h v SOME-VAR. And you can evaluate any sexp on the fly from the minibuffer, using M-:. For example: M-: (setq foo (+ 42 (length bar)))
Wrt the debugger:
As #sds mentioned, debug-on-error puts you in the debugger when an error is raised. You can also set debug-on-quit and then enter the debugger using C-g to quit (e.g., during a loop).
If you know the function you want to debug, you can use M-x debug-on-entry.
Step through the debugger using d, or skip to the end of a step using c. Use q to quit the debugger.
You can also insert calls to function debug in source code, as debugger entry points: (debug).
The backtrace in the debugger is always more informative if you load the relevant source file e.g., foo.el, instead of the byte-compiled file, e.g., foo.elc. So before you use M-x debug-on-entry use C-h f to find out which file the function is defined in, and then load that file using M-x load-file /path/to/the/file.el.
There is also another debugger, besides debug -- look for edebug in the Elisp manual. Some people prefer edebug; I prefer debug.

A quick way to repeatedly enter a variable name in Emacs?

I was just typing in this sort of code for Nth time:
menu.add_item(spamspamspam, "spamspamspam");
And I'm wondering if there's a faster way to do it.
I'd like a behavior similar to yasnippet's mirrors, except
I don't want to create a snippet: the argument order varies from
project to project and from language to language.
The only thing that's constant is the variable name that needs to be
repeated several times on the same line.
I'd like to type in
menu.add_item($,"")
and with the point between the quotes, call the shortcut and start typing,
and finally exit with C-e.
This seems advantageous to me, since there's zero extra cursor movement.
I have an idea of how to do this, but I'm wondering if it's already done,
or if something better/faster can be done.
UPD The yasnippet way after all.
Thanks to thisirs for the answer. This is indeed the yasnippet code I had initially in mind:
(defun yas-one-line ()
(interactive)
(insert "$")
(let ((snippet
(replace-regexp-in-string
"\\$" "$1"
(substring-no-properties
(delete-and-extract-region
(line-beginning-position)
(line-end-position))))))
(yas/expand-snippet snippet)))
But I'm still hoping to see something better/faster.
yasnippet can actually be used to create a snippet on-the-fly:
(defun yas-one-line ()
(interactive)
(let ((snippet (delete-and-extract-region
(line-beginning-position)
(line-end-position))))
(yas-expand-snippet snippet)))
Now just type:
menu.add_item($1,"$1")
and call yas-one-line. The above snippet is expanded by yasnippet!
You could try
(defvar sm-push-id-last nil)
(defun sm-push-id ()
(interactive)
(if (not sm-push-id-last)
(setq sm-push-id-last (point))
(text-clone-create sm-push-id-last sm-push-id-last
t "\\(?:\\sw\\|\\s_\\)*")
(setq sm-push-id-last nil)))
after which you can do M-x sm-push-id RET , SPC M-x sm-push-id RET toto and that will insert toto, toto. Obviously, this would make more sense if you bind sm-push-id to a convenient key-combo. Also this only works to insert a duplicate pair of identifiers. If you need to insert something else, you'll have to adjust the regexp. Using too lax a regexp means that the clones will tend to overgrow their intended use, so they may become annoying (e.g. you type foo") and not only foo but also ") gets mirrored on the previous copy).
Record a macro. Hit F3 (or possibly C-x (, it depends) to begin recording. Type whatever you want and run whatever commands you need, then hit F4 (or C-x )) to finish. Then hit F4 again the next time you want to run the macro. See chapter 17 of the Emacs manual for more information (C-h i opens the info browser, the Emacs manual is right at the top of the list).
So, for example, you could type the beginning of the line:
menu.add_item(spamspamspam
Then, with point at the end of that line, record this macro:
F3 C-SPC C-left M-w C-e , SPC " C-y " ) ; RET F4
This copies the last word on the line and pastes it back in, but inside of the quotes.

A basic function for emacs

I have never written an emacs function before and was wondering if anyone could help me get started. I would like to have a function that takes a highlighted region parses it (by ",") then evaluates each chunk with another function already built into emacs.
The highlighted code may look something like this: x <- function(w=NULL,y=1,z=20){} (r code), and I would like to scrape out w=NULL, y=1, and z=20 then pass each one a function already included with emacs. Any suggestions on how to get started?
A lisp function is defined using defun (you really should read the elisp intro, it will save you a lot of time - "a pint of sweat saves a gallon of blood").
To turn a mere function into an interactive command (which can be called using M-x or bound to a key), you use interactive.
To pass the region (selection) to the function, you use the "r" code:
(defun my-command (beg end)
"Operate on each word in the region."
(interactive "r")
(mapc #'the-emacs-function-you-want-to-call-on-each-arg
;; split the string on any sequence of spaces and commas
(split-string (buffer-substring-no-properties beg end) "[ ,]+")))
Now, copy the form above to the *scratch* emacs buffer, place the point (cursor) on a function, say, mapc or split-string, then hit C-h f RET and you will see a *Help* buffer explaining what the function does.
You can evaluate the function definition by hitting C-M-x while the point is on it (don't forget to replace the-emacs-function-you-want-to-call-on-each-arg with something meaningful), and then test is by selecting w=NULL,y=1,z=20 and hitting M-x my-command RET.
Incidentally, C-h f my-command RET will now show Operate on each word in the region in the *Help* buffer.

Convert Emacs macro into Elisp

Is there a way to convert an emacs macro into elisp, not like what M-x insert-kbd-macro does, the actual activity becoming elisp statements.
Thanks for your help.
Nope, sorry. There is no trivial way to convert an emacs macro into elisp.
Update: There's been some work on Emacs to start down this path. See this thread as a starting point. It's still not possible (June 2010), but there's activity.
The first reason I can think of is dealing with interactive commands and translating keystrokes into proper arguments for functions.
Think of the following sequence:
C-x b .em TAB RET
This begins the command to switch to a buffer, types three characters, uses TAB completion to complete it and RET to accept. The equivalent lisp for the end result (in an emacs session where the TAB completion is unique) is:
(switch-to-buffer ".emacs")
Thinking of completion, there are also interactions with expansion of all types (dabbrev, hippie-expand, etc.).
A starting point can be M-x edit-last-kbd-macro which (in my case) shows this:
;; Keyboard Macro Editor. Press C-c C-c to finish; press C-x k RET to cancel.
;; Original keys: C-x b .em <tab> RET
Command: last-kbd-macro
Key: none
Macro:
C-x b ;; switch-to-buffer
.em ;; self-insert-command * 3
<tab> ;; pabbrev-expand-maybe
RET ;; newline-and-indent
Which at least gives you some of the function names. But you'll see that RET is labeled as 'newline-and-indent which is incorrect because at the time of the macro execution, the minibuffer is active and the binding is in fact 'minibuffer-complete-and-exit. Similarly, the proper binding for TAB is 'minibuffer-complete.
I made a package that allows pretty much exactly this at https://github.com/Silex/elmacro
It has some quirks but it works pretty well... for example, the following macro:
F3 C-e M-b M-u C-a C-n F4
Generates the following elisp:
(defun upcase-last-word ()
"Change me!"
(interactive)
(move-end-of-line 1)
(backward-word 1)
(upcase-word 1)
(move-beginning-of-line 1)
(next-line 1 1))