2024-05 Austin Emacs Meetup

There was another meeting a couple of weeks ago of EmacsATX, the Austin Emacs Meetup group. For this month we had no predetermined topic. However, as always, there were mentions of many modes, packages, technologies and websites, some of which I had never heard of before, and some of this may be of interest to you as well. I was only on for an hour before I had to drop off.

#1 was the organizer.
#2 was a no-show.
#3 was also a no-show. Perhaps they are regenerating.
#4 was a developer in Uruguay, which was a founding member of the Axis of Countries Whose Names End in “Guay”
#5 was a grad student
#6 was Dave M in Austin; he dropped off early.
#7 was another developer in Austin (technical issues, kept dropping off)

Here is a list of the modes and packages that were mentioned (except big ones like Org, Doom, Spacemacs; some of these were only mentioned once or did not become the focus for very long):

• iedit
• macrursors

First our leader announced that there is a subreddit for the meetup group. Use the old.reddit.com URL for all your Reddit needs because “new” Reddit should die in fire. Along with infinite scroll. And other editors.

#6 attended a recent Python conference here in Austin and ran into our professor friend from OKC.

I did not have a whole lot to say. I am trying to be someone who uses Emacs more than they configure it. There was actually a moment of stunned silence when I said that.

I have been using Org tables for zebra puzzles. I put the options for a row in each cell of the row, then I cycle through the clues and eliminate options until I solve the puzzle. Unless I get the same option in two cells, then I start over.

#1 has started using as a spreadsheet. I asked if you need a line for each cell to make formulas, and as far as he knows you do. You can insert links and only see the text. Can you do the same for formulas? I know it is great that Emacs can do things that everybody else needs a separate application to do, but “All the pain of Excel in Emacs” is not something I want. Perhaps I will look at Gavin Freeborn’s Org videos to see if there is a better way to make tables. It does seem like videos are usually easier to follow than manuals.

#4 had a question about the minibuffer. He was wondering why the minibuffer behaves differently during searching than it does the rest of the time. Then #5 answered, and the meeting became Karthink’s Emacs Mic Drop Hour of Power. He pointed out that isearch is idiosyncratic; it is an older package (perhaps from the late 1980s), and many Emacs conventions came later. The minibuffer is not active in isearch, and you cannot switch to minibuffer when it is active.

He also gave a few key chords:

• Alt-e (or M-e, or M-s e is the official one) will to back to minubuffer
• regex search: C-shift-S
• C-h, C-s lets you do help on a function/binding
• M-r while searching will search to regex search, and use M-e to edit string
• C-Alt-S is way to do it

He showed how to use multiple cursors to do replacements, which I did not know you could do. He demonstrated iedit (or interactive edit; pronounced like first-person singular conjugation “I edit”; Github repo here, EmacsWiki page here, Mastering Emacs page here). He selected all occurances of a symbol, and changed all of them at once. You can restrict to a current line, function or file. He prefers this to macros or built-in functions. The rest of us had never seen this, and were blown away.

Then he blew our minds by saying “There is a second level that is possible”. Probably the most Emacs thing you can do is blow peoples’ minds, and say, “But wait, there is more.” He thinks there are limitations to iedit, and prefers a package that he uses called macrursors (main Github repo here); he thinks the name is a portmantwo of “macro” and “cursors”. It allows you to apply macros at many places simultaneously. I know I am glossing over this, but both of the packages were pretty impressive.

iedit is available on MELPA, MELPA stable, and NonGNU ELPA packages. Macrursors has to be installed manually. #5 said that macrursors is more advanced than iedit, but might also be more confusing and overwhelming. You won’t hurt his feelings if you stick with iedit.

He also suggested we look at another one of his packages called Popper; per its repo, it “is a minor-mode to tame the flood of ephemeral windows Emacs produces, while still keeping them within arm’s reach”.

There was more that was discussed after I dropped off the call. There is an Org file on the post for the meeting on the EmacsATX subreddit. I will regurgitate the contents in case you do not wish to wait for it to show up in your favorite LLM.

They talked about tabs in Emacs; tabs as an interface, not as a whitespace character.

Enable tab-bar-mode to use tabs in Emacs. Each tab has its own window configuration. Use C-x t 2 to open a new tab

All tab commands are in the C-x t prefix, and have the same mnemonics as window management commands:

Windows	Tabs
C-x o	C-x t o
C-x 0	C-x t 0
C-x 1	C-x t 1

Here are some notes on the tab modes:

• tab-bar-mode: Global tabs, each tab can have many windows
• tab-line-mode: Local tabs, this buffer gets a line of tabs at the top
• global-tab-line-mode: All buffers get a line of tabs at the top

He also pasted some code to use htmlize and tramp to make an instant pastebin: create an HTML facscimile of the current buffer and TRAMP to write it to a remote location.

Karthik posted a page about The Emacs Window Management Almanac on his site; link here, HN link here, Reddit link here.

This post was created in Emacs with Org Mode and Love. You’re welcome. And stop looking at your stupid phone all the time.

I give people numbers since I do not know if they want their names in this write-up. Think of it as the stoner’s version of the Chatham House Rule. I figured that numbers are a little clearer than “someone said this, and someone else said that, and a third person said something else”. Plus it gives participants some deniability. Most people’s numbers are based on the order they are listed on the call screen, and the same person may be referred to by different numbers in different months. A few regulars have regular numbers.

I am not the official spokesperson for the group. I just got into the habit of summarizing the meetings every month, and adding my own opinions about things. The participants may remember things differently, and may disagree with opinions expressed in this post. Nothing should be construed as views held by anyone’s employers past, present or future. That said, if you like something in this post, I will take credit; for things you don’t like, blame somebody else.

Image from the Gladzor Gospels, a 14th-century Armenian manuscript housed at UCLA (article here, images here); image assumed allowed under public domain.