I'm a relatively new user to R and Emacs and was wondering if Emacs could automatically correct any R commands that i've typed wrong. I know about the alt-/, but I was more thinking along the lines of if i type read.tale, it corrects it to read.table.
Also, I was using emacs the other day and whenever i typed read.table, it showed the usage options (that bit from the help file) in the bottom bit of the window-the minibuffer?. anyway, its not there now, and i don't know what i did to make it go away.
Thanks for your help
Independently of emacs, you can examine your code with the checkUsage function in the codetools package. For example:
> foo <- function(data){
+ read.tale(data,file='temp.txt')
+ }
> checkUsage(foo)
<anonymous>: no visible global function definition for ´read.tale´
Also, you can emacs autocompletion functions (e.g. hippie-expand or dabbrev-expand) to fill in the rest of recently used function and variable names.
If you aint married to emacs, you should give Komodo edit with sciviews-R / sciviews-K a try.
So far it´s the best auto-completion coding I found for R. At least to me the configuration was much easier than emacs, particularly because of binding problems with my exotic (swiss) keyboard. sciviews-R / Komodo
EDIT: I realize this thread is still being read. So in meantinem I got to give it up for RStudio. It has really become THE editor for everyday use for most people. Nice autocompletion, available on all major OS and a really nice context help. Plus some easy export of pdf graphics and much much more. On top R Studio is easy to install – no need to worry how to fire up R from the editor.
Related
I'm tinkering about switching my IDE to emacs. (I'm still an emacs newbie.)
The problem is that I customized my IDE quite well and I'd regret to leave my helpers behind.
Let me explain:
Shows the current open files/buffers, allows fast switching with a hotkey (C-1, C-2, ...)
Shows the most recent texts on the "clipboard" or inserted by complete (no. 4), text insertable with a hotkey (C-b 1, C-b 2, ...) Last inserted shown in bold, insertable with C-`
The last inserted complete (no. 4) text, insertable with M-`
Autocomplete-ish list, gathered from all open files, regardless of their type with some magical logic. text insertable with a hotkey (M-1, M-2, ...)
I guess emacs has such features, but I'm a visual type I'd like to see what I have available.
Of course actual hotkeys don't matter much, but as you see having all that info visible makes it easy to hit the spot with the least keypresses.
My pain is that there is a plethora of emacs extensions providing various features, checking all seems to take a lifetime.
My question is:
are there any emacs extensions to achieve similar looks and behavour?
as I'm a programmer, which extensions could I take as a base to assemble something like this?
Thanks!
Elaborating a bit more:
I’m a python dev, so most of the code I’m writing is python. Add some HTML JS CSS XML to the picture.
One important thing is that completion needs to work across filetype boundaries, because python / HTML(template) / XML(config) / doctest identifiers are cross-referenced. It’s a huge pain with some IDEs that completion works only for python filetypes.
I have a lot of same named files but in different folders, like init.py, configure.zcml, etc. It seems to be a pain to switch between those by filename.
Better said that’s a list of recently inserted text. To be reused by the fewest keys as possible. Usually when coding I’m reusing the same identifiers/whatever within the same task. So it’s handy to have them listed instead having to retype the starting x chars to get completion again.
Usually best use of this feature is when changing/refactoring code. Like adding one more extra feature and the identifier is needed several times over the place.
TL;DR
Learn keyboard macros. Learn yasnippet.
Autocomplete mode is probably similar to what you have.
Get acquainted with emacs kill-ring before trying to change it, it wants to be your friend. Then you'll know what to look for when you DO want to change it.
Long Version
Shows the current open files/buffers, allows fast switching with a hotkey (C-1, C-2, ...)
You have three options for this.
My personal preference is to have all source files open at all times. So I don't need a visual list of open buffers. Whenever I want to switch to a file I hit C-= (which I've bound to iswitchb-buffer) and type a couple of unique letters. It's common to constantly switch between the same two buffers so I also bound C-backspace to previous-buffer.
Another option I can recommend is tabbar. It's not exactly like your setup, but it displays a list of open buffers (just like webpages in a browser) and it has functions for cycling through the tabs, so it shouldn't be hard to reproduce your C-number key bindings.
You could use speedbar or ecb. They would be the most similar to your current visual configuration, but I'd argue the other options are more efficient.
Shows the most recent texts on the "clipboard" or inserted by complete (no. 4), text insertable with a hotkey (C-b 1, C-b 2, ...) Last inserted shown in bold, insertable with...
I see you've sort of mixed the clipboard with completion history. When it comes to emacs, yasnippet and autocomplete are just so good you're better off going with them for completion (see below).
Emacs clipboard is called the kill-ring. I'm sure you know of C-y and M-y, so you can always recover anything you've cut in the past. Unfortunately, I don't know of any packages that constantly display the kill ring or allow you to yank a specific part of it (though that shouldn't be too hard to write), but at least you know what to search for (kill-ring).
The last inserted complete (no. 4) text, insertable with M-`
I'll be honest, I don't see that much use in this. If you have to repetitively insert text, you should learn keyboard macros. In fact, you should learn keyboard macros anyway, they're the first reason I got hooked to emacs.
Autocomplete-ish list, gathered from all open files, regardless of their type with some magical logic. text insertable with a hotkey (M-1, M-2, ...)
Emacs had many great completion options. In your case, the best one is probably autocomplete-mode. It pops-up completion options (much like your separate completions window), and I think it allows for quick selection of a specific option (like your M-number shortcuts). Also it has several different ways of deciding which completions to offer you (it calls them "sources") and one of them is to gather from all buffers.
In addition to that you have yasnippet, and I couldn't possibly recommend it enough. Seriously. Learning to use it and writing your own snippets will change the way you write code. You'll become a mage whose fingers produce pages of code flowing through your screen in blazing speeds. Use yasnippet!
Once you have it configured, every 3 or 4 keys you press will generate a line (or more) of code for you.
After all that, if you still miss something from your previous editor you'll write it yourself. :-)
Your setup looks exactly like https://github.com/emacsmirror/ecb.
To me at least, since I don't use side-bars:)
You should take a look at the extension speedbar. I have installed this extension, but I rarely use it even for a very large project.
I have autocomplete set up for Emacs, and for elisp, it works perfectly fine. I have it set up to use ctags for completion in C++ files and the suggestions appear as expected. However, it doesn't update suggestions as I type. For example, if I type:
vector<string> s;
s.
it suggests 'at'. However, if I add to it so that it looks like:
vector<string> s;
s.push
the suggestion doesn't update and still displays 'at' as the first suggestion, rather than 'push_back'.
I am an Emacs novice and have virtually no elisp knowledge, and was wondering how I can configure autocomplete so that it updates suggestions for C++ as I type.
in gedit it's possible to define so-called "snippets" for simpler input.
For example, there is a snippet while. This means: If you type while -> (-> stands for tab key). And gedit automatically converts it to the following (including correct indentation):
while (condition){
}
In vim (in conjunction with latex-suite) I saw the following: If you type (, vim inserts just a (. If you type ( a second time, vim automatically converts it to \left( \right).
I found abbrev-mode but this mode doesn't place the cursor properly (i.e. between parentheses or inside the while loop).
I managed to create custom emacs keybindings/macros that do just the same (without having to press the tab key), so I know it's possible.
However, is there already and package where you can define such "snippets" without much effort? Or are there even any serious reasons not to use such things?
See yasnippet. It provides snippets for most major languages, and it is easy to add new ones or modify the old ones.
Yes, yasnippet is probably the way to go. But make sure you learn the major mode you're using for your editing - when writing in LaTeX, learn auctex. Major modes can contain functionality that makes some snippets pointless, and do the same thing even better. So instead of using a begin/end-snippet in a LaTeX buffer, try C-c C-e in auctex. Etc :)
Don't forget abbrev-mode.
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.
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Possible Duplicate:
How to achieve code folding effects in emacs
An excellent feature of Dreamweaver is code folding of any lines of text -- recursively!
It's fantastic, I can fold any text or code, regardless of language. I work with existing systems; I don't edit well-written code or code in one language etc. mostly HTML mixed with god-knows-what. Folding lines makes understanding a lot easier and quicker. Sadly, this is the only feature I like in Dreamweaver.
Is there any code folding for Emacs in a similar aim?
There's folding mode, a minor mode. Unfortunately it's intrusive: you have to manually annotate the folds with specialized comments, which clutter the code when you aren't using the mode (or when sharing code with others who don't use it). A better mode would not change your code to work.
Let me add: there's a duplicate of this that's worth a look: How to achieve code folding effects in Emacs.
hide-show (hs-minor-mode) is a minor mode that will do something like this...
The default key-binding to trigger the folding is C-c # C-c which I find pretty cumbersome. But then I don't use it much, either.
You might want to look up the function set-selective-display and the variable selective-display. Not exactly what you want but it lets you hide lines based on indentation level.
I use fold-dwim.el. From the emacs wiki:
fold-dwim.el is a unified user interface for Emacs folding/outlining modes. It supports folding.el, hideshow.el, outline.el, TeX-fold.el, and nxml-outln.el
You can get it here:
http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/FoldDwim
I have this in my .emacs:
(require 'fold-dwim)
(global-set-key [(C kp-4)] 'fold-dwim-hide-all)
(global-set-key [(C kp-5)] 'fold-dwim-toggle)
(global-set-key [(C kp-6)] 'fold-dwim-show-all)
Keep in mind that you still need to activate hs-minor-mode, folding-mode, etc. but I find it easier to use them this way.
Something else you might look into is nxhtml-mode; it doesn't fold code, but it does highlight mixed code (i.e. HTML and PHP) differently depending on its type. That gives you a similar gain in comprehensibility without the awkwardness of folding-mode. I think that approach is more suited to Emacs anyway, first because code-folding seems like a mouse-oriented idea that doesn't adapt well to the basically keyboard-centric Emacs interface, and second because Emacs eases navigating a large file to an extent that code can stay visible without getting in your way.
If you actually need "something to hide a given region rather than it trying to understand the syntax" (unlike hideshow and other solutions based on parsing) and you "don't want to have to edit [your] code" (unlike folding), then, I assume, you mean you don't want the regions to be persistent between different editing sessions. Then you might use http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/HideRegion to hide user-selected regions...
(But that's strange. The folding minor mode with persistent marks seems to be a far more convenient solution.)