IDE tools for maintaining Emacs Lisp programs (Org in particular)

IDE tools for maintaining Emacs Lisp programs (Org in particular)

[Sebastien Vauban]

Hello,

This is a bit OT, but I'd be interested by learning how to get a better
environment for editing ELisp code.

Currently, the only friends I have are ElDoc and C-h f/v for navigation to
symbol definitions. This is rather primitive, isn't it?

When I see what CEDET and ECB seem to offer -- though I'm not using them, not
coding in C/C++, etc. -- , I'm quite jealous.

Questions that I have:

- Do you use TAGS?
- If yes, why don't we make TAGS from within the Makefile?
- If yes, which ones: Emacs-style TAGS, Exuberant Ctags, GNU GLOBAL tags?
- What do you use to jump from the point where a symbol is used to the point
  where a symbol is defined (other than using C-h f/v)?
- How do you return to your previous location?
- Are you able to use CEDET/ECB for Emacs Lisp?
- Are you willing to share extract of your interesting configuration scraps?

Best regards,
  Seb

-- 
Sebastien Vauban

Re: IDE tools for maintaining Emacs Lisp programs (Org in particular)

[Bastien]

Hi Sébastien,

"Sebastien Vauban"
<wxhgmqzgwmuf-geNee64TY+gS+FvcfC7Uqw@public.gmane.org> writes:

> This is a bit OT, but I'd be interested by learning how to get a better
> environment for editing ELisp code.
>
> Currently, the only friends I have are ElDoc and C-h f/v for navigation to
> symbol definitions. This is rather primitive, isn't it?

Well, I don't use eldoc (I should.)  
My setup is also quite primitive.

> When I see what CEDET and ECB seem to offer -- though I'm not using them, not
> coding in C/C++, etc. -- , I'm quite jealous.
>
> Questions that I have:
>
> - Do you use TAGS?

No.

> - If yes, why don't we make TAGS from within the Makefile?
> - If yes, which ones: Emacs-style TAGS, Exuberant Ctags, GNU GLOBAL tags?
> - What do you use to jump from the point where a symbol is used to the point
>   where a symbol is defined (other than using C-h f/v)?

I use registers a lot.  I register the point, the window configuration,
I register chunks of text, etc.

I also use ElScreen, which implements tabs for Emacs:
http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/EmacsLispScreen

I could not actually live without ElScreen and I can't wait to use
something native.

> - How do you return to your previous location?

Usual commands (C-x C-x) and registers.

> - Are you able to use CEDET/ECB for Emacs Lisp?

No.

> - Are you willing to share extract of your interesting configuration
> - scraps?

Configuration is like hair: with age, you somehow become minimalist :)

Besides using register-list.el¹, I don't have any particular setup.
Sorry I can't help more!  Looking forward reading other answers...

Best,

¹ http://lumiere.ens.fr/~guerry/u/register-list.el

-- 
 Bastien

Re: IDE tools for maintaining Emacs Lisp programs (Org in particular)

[Jambunathan K]

For all practical purposes, I find this be sufficient.

(global-set-key (kbd "C-c f")
		(lambda ()
		  (interactive)
		  (require 'finder)
		  (let ((thing (intern (thing-at-point 'symbol))))
		    (if (functionp thing)
			(find-function thing)
		      (find-variable thing)))))

Put your cursor on a variable or a function, C-c f and you are staring
right at the definition of the variable or function.  For this to work,
the library defining the function or variable should already be loaded.

-- 

Re: IDE tools for maintaining Emacs Lisp programs (Org in particular)

[Jambunathan K]

Jambunathan K <kjambunathan@gmail.com> writes:

> For all practical purposes, I find this be sufficient.
>
> (global-set-key (kbd "C-c f")
> 		(lambda ()
> 		  (interactive)
> 		  (require 'finder)
> 		  (let ((thing (intern (thing-at-point 'symbol))))
> 		    (if (functionp thing)
> 			(find-function thing)
> 		      (find-variable thing)))))
>
> Put your cursor on a variable or a function, C-c f and you are staring
> right at the definition of the variable or function.  For this to work,
> the library defining the function or variable should already be
> loaded.

Just discovered this from find-func.el

(require 'find-func)
(find-function-setup-keys)

will install the below keymap for you.

It would have been more practical if these functions, made a decision of
whether some symbol is a function or a variable automatically.  There is
also this C-x K.

,----
| (defun find-function-setup-keys ()
|   "Define some key bindings for the find-function family of functions."
|   (define-key ctl-x-map "F" 'find-function)
|   (define-key ctl-x-4-map "F" 'find-function-other-window)
|   (define-key ctl-x-5-map "F" 'find-function-other-frame)
|   (define-key ctl-x-map "K" 'find-function-on-key)
|   (define-key ctl-x-map "V" 'find-variable)
|   (define-key ctl-x-4-map "V" 'find-variable-other-window)
|   (define-key ctl-x-5-map "V" 'find-variable-other-frame))
`----

-- 

Re: IDE tools for maintaining Emacs Lisp programs (Org in particular)

[Eric Schulte]

Jambunathan K <kjambunathan@gmail.com> writes:

> Jambunathan K <kjambunathan@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> For all practical purposes, I find this be sufficient.
>>
>> (global-set-key (kbd "C-c f")
>> 		(lambda ()
>> 		  (interactive)
>> 		  (require 'finder)
>> 		  (let ((thing (intern (thing-at-point 'symbol))))
>> 		    (if (functionp thing)
>> 			(find-function thing)
>> 		      (find-variable thing)))))
>>
>> Put your cursor on a variable or a function, C-c f and you are staring
>> right at the definition of the variable or function.  For this to work,
>> the library defining the function or variable should already be
>> loaded.
>
> Just discovered this from find-func.el
>
> (require 'find-func)
> (find-function-setup-keys)
>
> will install the below keymap for you.
>

Thanks for pointing this out, I have a feeling the find-func
functionality will quickly become core to my elisp file navigation.

To answer the original question, I also tend towards a minimal setup.  I
do all of my editing directly in elisp source files, and I don't use
tags or etags or anything like that.

I use the describe-function and describe-variable help functions with
tab completion *very* frequently to find functions and variables
relevant to my current task, and to then jump to their source.

When drilling into either a bug or unfamiliar functionality I find
edebug invaluable.  Evaluating functions with a prefix argument "C-u
eval-defun" instruments them for interactive step-by-step evaluation
with edebug.

Also, I highly recommend both paredit and the sexp-edit operations
(kill-sexp, paredit-backward-up, paredit-forward, etc...) to anyone
working on any lisp source code.

-- 
Eric Schulte
http://cs.unm.edu/~eschulte/