Emacs: getting readable keyboard-macros - emacs

When using insert-kbd-macro to save a named keyboard macro I get "unreadable" Lisp code like
(fset 'ppsql
(lambda (&optional arg) "Keyboard macro." (interactive "p") (kmacro-exec-ring-item (quote ([134217788 134217765 44 return 44 17 10 return 33 134217765 102 102 backspace 114 111 109 return 17 10 102 111 109 backspace backspace 114 111 return 33] 0 "%d")) arg)))
I'd rather have something like the following:
(fset 'move-line-down
[?\C-a ?\C-k delete down ?\C-y return up])
IIRC I used the same method to record, name, and insert both keyboard macros: F3, F4, name-last-kbd-macro.
Is it possible to get the first macro in a readable format?

The keyboard macro functionality in Emacs stands of two modes: macros and kmacros. The former returns the macro in a way you like—the symbol form—, the latter provides the lambda form. So that, if you call name-last-kbd-macro you get a symbol form, if you call kmacro-name-last-macro, you get a lambda form.

Thanks for that!
So the naming of the macro determines the format when inserting?
I've conducted some more experiments and noticed that M-x insert-kbd-macro RET RET would give me the "symbol-form".
Whereas M-x insert-kbd-macro RET pp2sql RET gives the "labmda-form" (after naming with name-last-kbd-macro).
Now I realize that I've all the way used name-last-kbd-macro in my earlier experiments...?

I've never seen the first form. The second form is what I'm used to. Did you try re-recording the first macro to see what happens if you're sure you record, then name, then insert?
The other thing to try is "C-X (", which invokes kmacro-start-macro and "C-X )" kmacro-end-macro, rather than F3/F4,which are doing something extraneous about keeping a counter. Maybe the simpler keyboard macro command will work more straightforwardly.

Related

M-S-<left> not processed as expected

When I start a new emacs in a terminal like so
emacs -nw -Q
I can try to check what a certain keyboard shortcut is bound to by typing C-h k. When I do this for the shortcut M-S-<left> in the *scratch* buffer right after starting Emacs, I get:
<M-left> runs the command left-word (found in global-map), which is an
interactive compiled Lisp function in ‘bindings.el’.
It is bound to <C-left>, <M-left>.
[...]
Note the absence of the "Shift" modifier in the recognized key sequence.
Now, the first instinct would be that the terminal (gnome-terminal in my case) does not produce the correct escape sequence, but it does: typing CTRL-V ALT-SHIFT-left in the terminal (i.e., not in Emacs) produces
^[[1;4D
and typing C-q C-S-<left> inside Emacs inserts the same into the current buffer. (Note that ^[ is a single character, namely ASCII 27 ("Escape").)
Checking input-decode-map reveals the following value (some parts left out (marked as ...) for brevity):
(keymap
(27 keymap ... )
keymap
(keymap
(27 keymap
...
(91 keymap
...
(51 keymap
...
(59 keymap
(51 keymap
...
(68 .
[M-left])
(52 keymap
...
(68 .
[M-S-left])
...)
...)
...)
...))))
Verifying the two key sequences with the following code gives the expected results:
(mapc '(lambda (c) (insert (format "%c" c))) '(27 91 49 59 51 68)) ; ^[[1;3D
(mapc '(lambda (c) (insert (format "%c" c))) '(27 91 49 59 52 68)) ; ^[[1;4D
However, I don't understand why these sequences are embedded in a second-level inner (keymap ...) list?!
It gets weirder.
Back in *scratch*, when I type
M-x local-set-key
and then M-S-<left>, it gets recognized correctly, as the next prompt in the minibuffer reveals:
Set key <M-S-left> locally to command:
If I proceed and provide a random function, say, beginning-of-line, a subsequent invocation of C-h k followed by M-S-<left> then indeed gives:
<M-S-left> runs the command beginning-of-line (found in
lisp-interaction-mode-map), which is an interactive built-in function
in ‘C source code’.
It is bound to <M-S-left>.
[...]
Locally setting M-S-<left> to nil will restore the initial behavior in which C-h k reports M-S-<left> as <M-left>.
What is going on here? Is this a configuration issue, or is it intended behavior, or are some other keymaps involved that transparently add another layer of remapping?
It's a feature.
M-x elisp-index-search RET shift-translation says:
If an input character is upper-case (or has the shift modifier) and
has no key binding, but its lower-case equivalent has one, then
‘read-key-sequence’ converts the character to lower case. Note that
‘lookup-key’ does not perform case conversion in this way.
When reading input results in such a “shift-translation”, Emacs sets
the variable ‘this-command-keys-shift-translated’ to a non-‘nil’ value.
Lisp programs can examine this variable if they need to modify their
behavior when invoked by shift-translated keys. For example, the
function ‘handle-shift-selection’ examines the value of this variable to
determine how to activate or deactivate the region (*note
handle-shift-selection: The Mark.).

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.

Emacs align-regexp on = but not ==

I am working in Haskell and frequently come across code similar to the following:
func i j | i == j = i
| otherwise = j
I want to align on the '=' character using align-regexp but don't have the elisp knowhow. I have tried just doing " = " without the quotes, but this inserts an unwanted space character before each '='. I have found a proposed solution here but I can't seem to get that to do anything at all.
Please help me write a function or hard-coded macro that will allow me to set a keybinding for this.
C-u M-x align-regexp RET \(\s-*\) = RET 1 RET 0 RET n
(n.b. there's a space after the '=', but it's not very obvious.)
Which is to say...
Use a prefix argument to tell align-regexp to ask you for more parameters than it does by default.
See C-h f align-regexp and C-h v align-rules-list for details, but in short:
\(\s-*\) is the default 'group' for deletion/expansion. We append our pattern to the end of that: ' = '. (Note that \s- is Emacs regexp syntax for whitespace.)
1 simply refers to parenthesised group 1 (as above). This is the default.
0 for the spacing to use between the two parts of the line. By default this is 1, and is why you were ending up with an additional space.
n to not align any subsequent pattern matches after the first in each line.
edit: Actually, the Q&A you linked to is near identical, and works fine for me on Emacs 23.2.1, so this is a duplicate, but to continue and answer the key-binding aspect:
You can bind that (or any) sequence via keyboard macros. Here's the end result, which you can probably just add to your init file, although I recommend you go through the process yourself. Use whatever you like in place of C-c a for the key. C-c (letter) and F5-F9 are reserved for end-users to bind as they please, so one of those will be safe from being clobbered by a mode's keymap.
(global-set-key (kbd "C-c a") (lambda (&optional arg) "Keyboard macro." (interactive "p") (kmacro-exec-ring-item (quote ([21 134217848 97 108 105 103 110 45 114 101 103 101 120 112 return 32 61 32 return return backspace 48 return 110] 0 "%d")) arg)))
I did that by:
selecting the text.
F3 to start recording.
performing the align-regexp as above (being careful to type everything verbatim, and not use minibuffer history or yanking).1
F4 to stop recording.
C-x C-k n align-single-equals RET to give the macro a name
M-x insert-kbd-macro RET align-single-equals RET to get the lisp.
Wrapping the (lambda) expression with (global-set-key) to bind it. (Although you could also use the (fset 'align-single-equals ...) code as provided, and then bind the key to that symbol.
1 If you make a mistake when recording a complicated macro, don't fret — Emacs provides a really good macro editor which you can use to fix any mistakes after you finish recording (just type C-x C-k e), so you don't need to be perfect.
edit 2: May as well add an example of a function, as per comments.
(defun my-align-single-equals ()
"Align on a single equals sign (with a space either side)."
(interactive)
(align-regexp
(region-beginning) (region-end)
"\\(\\s-*\\) = " 1 0 nil))
(global-set-key (kbd "C-c a") 'my-align-single-equals)

How do I bind a key to "the function represented by the following key sequence"?

I'm just starting to learn emacs (woohoo!) and I've been mucking around in my .emacs quite happily. Unfortunately, I don't know Lisp yet, so I'm having issues with the basics.
I've already remapped a few keys until I fix my muscle memory:
(global-set-key (kbd "<f9>") 'recompile)
That's fine. But how can I tell a key to 'simulate pressing several keys'? For instance, I don't know, make <f1> do the same as C-u 2 C-x } (widen buffer by two chars).
One way is to look up that C-x } calls shrink-window-horizontally, and do some sort of lambda thing. This is of course the neat and elegant way (how do you do this?). But surely there's a way to define <f1> to send the keystrokes C-u 2 C-x }?
Sure there is, and it's the obvious way:
(global-set-key (kbd "<f1>") (kbd "C-u 2 C-x }"))
For anything long-term, I would recommend the approach shown by seh, as that will naturally be more robust in most situations. It requires a little more work and know-how, of course, but it's all worthwhile :)
angus' approach is like a cut-down version of the keyboard macros feature that gives Emacs its name (and slightly simpler to use than macros for the example in question). You should definitely be aware of macros, however -- they can be exceedingly useful, and for anything more complicated it quickly becomes far easier to record one dynamically than to write out all the individual keys manually.
Here's the summary I wrote myself of the most important bits:
;;;; * Keyboard macros
;; C-x ( or F3 Begin recording.
;; F3 Insert counter (if recording has already commenced).
;; C-u <n> C-x ( or F3 Begin recording with an initial counter value <n>.
;; C-x ) or F4 End recording.
;; C-u <n> C-x ) or F4 End recording, then execute the macro <n>-1 times.
;; C-x e or F4 Execute the last recorded keyboard macro.
;; e or F4 Additional e or F4 presses repeat the macro.
;; C-u <n> C-x e or F4 Execute the last recorded keyboard macro <n> times.
;; C-x C-k r Apply the last macro to each line of the region.
;; C-x C-k e Edit a keyboard macro (RET for most recent).
;; C-x C-k b Set a key-binding.
;;
;; If you find yourself using lots of macros, you can even name them
;; for later use, and save them to your init file.
;; M-x name-last-kbd-macro RET (name) RET
;; M-x insert-kbd-macro RET (name) RET
;;
;; For more documentation:
;; C-h k C-x (
;; M-: (info "(emacs) Keyboard Macros") RET
If we play with the example from the question, you'll see how some of these things tie together...
To begin with, you can define the macro with F3C-u2C-x}F4
You could then bind it temporarily to F1 with C-xC-kbF1 (actually that's not true if F1 is currently a prefix key for an existing keymap, as typing it interactively will simply prompt for the remainder. You can circumvent this in code with (global-set-key (kbd "<f1>") ...), but I would suggest sticking to the reserved bindings).
If you then use describe-key (C-hk) to examine what is bound to that key, Emacs will show you a (lambda) expression which you could copy to your init file if you so wished.
Alternatively, you could name the macro and ask Emacs to insert the code into the current buffer:
M-x name-last-kbd-macro RET (name) RET
M-x insert-kbd-macro RETRET
This code will look different to the lambda expression shown by describe-key, but if you evaluate the inserted macro, you'll see the equivalence. You can likewise show that the (kbd "...") expression also evaluates to the same value, and therefore these are all just alternative ways of doing the same thing.
(You can use the *scratch* buffer to evaluate the code by moving point after the end of the expression, and either typing C-xC-e to show the value in the minibuffer, or C-j to insert the value into the buffer).
Note that the 'inserted' code uses fset to assign the macro to a symbol. You could bind the macro to a key either by executing the (fset) and then assigning that symbol to a key with (global-set-key), or you could ignore the (fset) and simply assign the macro value directly. This, of course, is directly equivalent to angus' answer.
Edit: I've just noticed that there's a kmacro-name-last-macro function bound to C-xC-kn which is nearly identical in form to name-last-kbd-macro, but which generates the lambda expression form seen when using kmacro-bind-to-key (C-xC-kb) and describe-key.
I'll use shrink-window-horizontally as the example function, but you can generalize the idea to any bindings you'd like to define.
If you want to use two as the default amount to shrink the window, rather than one, try the following:
(global-set-key [f9]
(lambda (&optional n)
(interactive "P")
(shrink-window-horizontally (or n 2))))
That binds the F9 key to an interactive function accepting a prefix argument. If you just press F9, you'll pass no argument, which summons the default value of 2, as the parameter n will receive nil as an argument. However, if you press, say, C-u 10 F9, you'll pass ten as the argument for n. This allows you to use your binding more flexibly.
general-simulate-key from general.el works better (in my case a sequence with popups and changing keymaps that I couldn't get to work with macros): https://github.com/noctuid/general.el#simulating-keypresses

Emacs: adding 1 to every number made of 2 digits inside a marked region

Imagine I've got the following in a text file opened under Emacs:
some 34
word 30
another 38
thing 59
to 39
say 10
here 47
and I want to turn into this, adding 1 to every number made of 2 digits:
some 35
word 31
another 39
thing 60
to 40
say 11
here 48
(this is a short example, my actual need is on a much bigger list, not my call)
How can I do this from Emacs?
I don't mind calling some external Perl/sed/whatever magic as long as the call is made directly from Emacs and operates only on the marked region I want.
How would you automate this from Emacs?
I think the answer I'm thinking of consist in calling shell-command-on-region and replace the region by the output... But I'm not sure as to how to concretely do this.
This can be solved by using the command query-replace-regexp (bound to C-M-%):
C-M-%
\b[0-9][0-9]\b
return
\,(1+ \#&)
The expression that follows \, would be evaluated as a Lisp expression, the result of which used as the replacement string. In the Lisp expression, \#& would be replaced by the matched string, interpreted as a number.
By default, this works on the whole document, starting from the cursor. To have this work on the region, there are several posibilities:
If transient-mark-mode is turned on, you just need to select the region normally (using point and mark);
If for some reason you don't like transient-mark-mode, you may use narrow-to-region to restrict the changes to a specific region: select a region using point and mark, C-x n n to narrow, perform query-replace-regexp as described above, and finally C-x n w to widen. (Thanks to Justin Smith for this hint.)
Use the mouse to select the region.
See section Regexp Replacement of the Emacs Manual for more details.
Emacs' column editing mode is what you need.
Activate it typing M-x cua-mode.
Go to the beginning of the rectangle (leave cursor on character 3) and press C-RET.
Go to the end of the rectangle (leave cursor on character 7). You will be operating on the highlighted region.
Now press M-i which increments all values in the region.
You're done.! remove dead ImageShack links
It doesn't protect against 99->100.
(defun add-1-to-2-digits (b e)
"add 1 to every 2 digit number in the region"
(interactive "r")
(goto-char b)
(while (re-search-forward "\\b[0-9][0-9]\\b" e t)
(replace-match (number-to-string (+ 1 (string-to-int (match-string 0)))))))
Oh, and it operates on the region. If you want the entire file, then you replace b and e with (point-min) and nil.
Moderately tested; use M-: and issue the following command:
(while (re-search-forward "\\<[0-9][0-9]\\>" nil t) (let ((x (match-string 0))) (delete-backward-char 2) (insert (format "%d" (1+ (string-to-int x))))))
I managed to get it working in a different way using the following (my awk-fu ain't strong so it probably can be done in a simpler way):
C-u M-x shell-command-on-region RET awk '$2>=0&&$2<=99 {$2++} {print}' RET
but I lost my indentation in the process : )
Seeing all these answers, I can't help but have a lot of respect for Emacs...