There was another meeting a week ago of EmacsATX, the Austin Emacs Meetup group. For this month we had no predetermined topic. 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. This post also includes my opinions and commentary beyond what was discussed at the meeting.
My connection had some issues, and there were several moments when I had trouble understanding what the then-presenter was saying; I did not feel like interrupting and disrupting the flow of the meeting. I do not recall any Cyloning when we used WebEx, but it happens to me on Jitsi all the time. One of the other attendees in Texas mentioned in the chat that they were also experiencing problems when someone was sharing.
Since the organizer (our usual Attendee #1) did not show up, I introduced myself, and then asked the other attendees to say something about themselves.
#2 was a developer in the Dallas area.
#3 was again a no show.
#4 was a developer in Indianapolis working remotely for company that makes banking apps.
#5 was a first-time attendee in Dallas. I think he was also new to Emacs.
#6 was Mr Mic Drop in California.
#7 was a woman in Colorado. She start using vim in 2010, and eventually say the light. loving org mode, tried different things, org closest to what she wants, not a programmer
#8 was our electrical engineer in College Station, and a user of terminal editors for 15 years.
The professor from OKC popped in and out a few times. He said he was also having connection issues.
There were not too many modes and packages mentioned outside of Org and Doom. A lot of the meeting was taken up by advice, non-Western languages, and screenshares that I did not understand. Perhaps other members will chime in with comments on the EmacsATX subreddit.
Someone (I think #5) asked the Doom users how often their config broke. #7 said usually something is broken. #2 uses Doom, and he shared his screen and gave a demo. There was a lot of Cyloning, so some of it I did not catch.
#2 talked about advising functions. This is “advice” in the sense of adding functionality to a program’s existing function. Since #2 uses Doom, he uses the defadvice macro. #6 suggested using the built-in macro define-advice, since it works the same way. Doom’s defadvice calls a built-in function called advice-add. And if I am reading the code correctly, define-advice also calls advice-add.
The conversation turned to using non-Western languages in Emacs. #7 brought this topic ip. Maybe #7 works for the UN or the CIA, or this is just her hobby. I am a monoglot, so some of this was a complete mystery to me. As long as nobody talks about vim, I am okay with it.
Most of the language talk was about Devanagari. She and #6 (who speaks Hindi) shared thoughts. They both shared their screens, but even if there was no Cyloning I would not have understood most of it. At one point #6 would type the name of a letter using Latin letters, and Emacs would transform it into a Devanagari letter. He mentioned that he alternates between the input methods devanagari-inscript and devanagari-itrans. You can get the input methods that are included with your Emacs install by typing C-\ or Mx- toggle-input-method. They mentioned ISO 15919.
#5 asked about Chinese, but #7 had not worked with Chinese too much. #5 mentioned the input methods Cangjie and Wubi. When I typed M-x toggle-input-method into Emacs, and then typed chinese, there were 25 options. None of the names matched the input methods listed on the Chanjie and Wubi pages.
Maybe the Emacs APAC talks about this stuff on a regular basis. They used to keep notes for their meetings, but they have not posted any new notes since 2021
There is a chapter in the Emacs manual on international character support. You can find a list of input methods in Emacs here.
I asked #5 if he uses Spacemacs, Doom, Prelude or a more vanilla config. He said he tends to use a more vanilla config. He asked for the elevator pitch for Doom. #2 shared his screen, and again I could not make all of it out. But at one point he did say that you do not have to use the vim bindings to use Doom.
Someone asked about regex builders in the chat. #6 posted this reply:
pcre package with pcre-to-elisp, or else the rx macro. I use the rx macro, works well inside re-builder M-x re-builder, then C-c TAB and choose rx
I plan on looking into the Casual package for regex. Maybe I will look into all of them. They all look interesting.
At one point someone (I think #5) said they are starting to find all the key chords overwhelming. I did not say anything at the time. I think you only have to know a few chords, maybe a dozen or so (see posts here and here; common Emacs chord list here). I use IDO (manual here) and smex (Github page, Emacswiki page). You type M-x $STRING and Emacs will display possible matches in the minibuffer. One disadvantage is you have to learn the function names for a new mode or package. Sometimes you can just type M-x $MODE_NAME and you will get some of the mode’s functions. Or you can use describe-key: type M-x describe-key then enter the chord, and Emacs will tell you what function that chord is mapped to. Usually a function’s name describe what it does, although org-ctrl-c-ctrl-c is one notable exception.
Granted, having an Emacs user demonstrate Emacs with just keychords is a lot more impressive. But I do not want to keep a lot of chords in my head. After a while it all blends together.
I might stop using smex. It have not been updated for a few years. The unofficial successor is amx. I think amx uses ido-completing-read-plus in addition to plain IDO, so you need both. When I tried Prelude, I tried Ivy and Selectrum. I think both of them list the option vertically, and cause the minibuffer to expand upwards, which I did not like.
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 Ms. Ludwig II 3, a 12th-century Gospel manuscript housed at the Getty Museum, also found on Wikimedia, allowed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.