Home : Emacs tips : rgr-hacks

This is a subset of my personal collection of hacks and tweaks; by default, not all of it is enabled.

Table of Contents

1. Emacs hacks for bootcamp
   1. Table of Contents
   2. Installation
   3. Using rgr-abbrev-completion to save typing
   4. Mouse commands
   5. Useful commands in html-helper-mode
      1. Additional rgr-html-hacks commands
      2. More html-helper-mode documentation

1. Download the file rgr-hacks-1.3.tar.gz into your home directory. (Clicking on the link should be sufficient to accomplish this.)

2. Untar this into your ~/emacs directory. In a shell, do the following:

          cd
          gunzip < rgr-hacks-1.3.tar.gz | tar xf -
          

   This creates an ~/emacs directory, if one does not already exist.

3. Install the sample .emacs file in your home directory.

          mv emacs/dot-emacs.el .emacs
          

   (Don't forget the dot in ".emacs"!)

   -- Or --

   If you already have a .emacs file, you may prefer to append the new stuff:

          cat emacs/dot-emacs.el >> .emacs
          

4. Start a new emacs, and you should have it. Find a .html file using C-x C-f to test it (an empty file is fine); the mode line (in inverse video near the bottom) should say

          --:** foo.html              (HTML helper Fill)--L3--All--------
          

   or something similar.

In the mean time, I got used to a package on the Symbolics Lisp Machine that had the best features of both, plus some extras. When I stopped being able to use Lisp Machines, I hacked a version (from memory) for emacs that I called rgr-abbrev-completion. It currently has the following features:

• Names are learned automatically whenever you read in a file in a syntax that rgr-abbrev-completion knows about. Currently supported language modes are emacs-lisp-mode, lisp-mode, makefile-mode, and c-mode. (tcl-mode is also supported if you use rgr-tcl-mode-hook.)
• Names available for completion are also learned as you type, so they are not limited to definition names.
• Names can be completed normally (by specifying prefixes), or by specifying abbreviations (e.g. "rtmh" or "rtm" for "rgr-tcl-mode-hook".) The abbreviations are constructed automatically from initial letters as names are learned.
• In order to avoid confusion, completion is invoked explicitly; I bind it to f4 because this is easy to type.
• Abbreviations need not be unique. The first f4 inserts the most used abbreviation, and subsequent f4 invocations cycle through the other possibilities in order from most to least used.
• Completion names and their usage frequencies can also be saved to disk and restored on restart, so that useful names are not immediately forgotten.

Commands:

• f4 (rgr-insert-symbol-abbreviation) -- attempt to complete the name before point. Must have at least three characters. Repeated invocations will attempt to complete more of the name (for traditional completion) or cycle through the possibilities from most to least used (for abbreviations).
• M-x rgr-install-abbrev-completion --
• M-x rgr-install-weekly-completion-cycle --

[finish. -- rgr, 7-Oct-99.]

Mouse commands

• M-mouse-1 (rgr-mouse-edit-thing) -- finds the source files for the thing under the mouse.
  • If it looks like a pathname (i.e. starts with '.', '/', or '~', or has a host: prefix followed by one of these three characters), then do C-x C-f on it. (Relative pathnames are interpreted relative to the filename of the buffer in which you clicked.)
  • If it looks like a Common Lisp or emacs Lisp symbol, then do M-. (find-tag) on it.
  • If it looks like a file URL (i.e. starts with "ftp:" or "file:"), then it converts the URL to an ange-ftp file name and uses C-x C-f on it.
  • If it looks like a World Wide Web URL (i.e. starts with "http:", etc.), then it brings up the page in Netscape. (Although it is possible to teach it to bring up a page in other browsers, I have not written the code to do so.)
  Whatever it is (unless it gets viewed in Netscape), it is found in the current window, regardless of where you click.
• C-down-mouse-1 (rgr-mouse-mark-text-down) -- sets the mark or copies text to kill ring. If clicked in a single spot, sets the mark there. If clicked in one spot and dragged to and released at another, copies the intervening text to the kill ring. The click and release points may be in either order, and need not even be in the same window, as long as they are in the same buffer (which need not be the same as the current buffer).
• C-mouse-2 (rgr-mouse-insert-thing) -- Insert the thing under the mouse at point. Sets the mark to the beginning of the insertion, and leaves point at the end. If clicked after the end of a line, inserts the whole line, else inserts the word or expression clicked on. This works between windows/buffers, including the minibuffer, and does not change the current buffer.

Setting up:

[finish. -- rgr, 8-Nov-99.]

Useful commands in html-helper-mode

The main function html-helper-mode provides is a menu and keybindings for the HTML tags one inserts when writing HTML documents. Selecting the menu item or typing the key sequence for a command inserts the corresponding tag and places point in the right place. If a prefix argument is supplied, the tags is instead wrapped around the region. Alternately, one can type in part of the tag and complete it with M-TAB. (Personally, I don't use either, much; I type it all the hard way because I find going back and forth to fill in the template to be annoying.)

There is also code for indentation, timestamps, skeletons for new documents, and lots of other neat features.

Commands:

• M-RET (tempo-template-html-paragraph) inserts a <p> tag.
• M-TAB (tempo-complete-tag) completes the tag name before point.
• M-C-b (tempo-forward-mark) goes to the previous template mark in an inserted HTML template. (But I don't use HTML templates, so I restore the default binding of M-C-b to backward-sexp).
• M-C-f (tempo-backward-mark) goes to the next template mark in an inserted HTML template. (But I don't use HTML templates, so I restore the default binding of M-C-f to forward-sexp).

  Inserting entities:
  These are those &foo; things; see ASCII - ISO 8859-1 Table with HTML Entity Names for a description and list of names and encodings.

• C-c < (tempo-template-html-less-than) inserts the entity for "<".
• C-c > (tempo-template-html-greater-than) inserts the entity for ">".
• C-c & (tempo-template-html-ampersand) inserts the entity for "&".
• C-c SPC (tempo-template-html-nonbreaking-space) inserts the entity for " " (a hard space).
• C-c - (tempo-template-html-soft-hyphen) inserts the entity for "­" (normally not displayed, but may be turned into a hyphen by line wrapping).
• C-c @ (tempo-template-html-copyright) inserts the entity for "©" (the copyright symbol).
• C-c $ (tempo-template-html-registered) inserts the entity for "®" (the registered trademark symbol).
• C-c " (tempo-template-html-quotation-mark) inserts the entity for '"' (a quotation mark).
• C-c # (tempo-template-html-ascii-code) inserts "&#;", with the cursor positioned before the ";", which specifies an entity by its decimal internal encoding.

  Text markup (physical presentation):
  Typing these inserts matching start/end tags with the cursor positioned between them; with a numeric argument, tags are put around the region.

• C-c C-p f (tempo-template-html-fixed)
• C-c C-p b (tempo-template-html-bold)
• C-c C-p i (tempo-template-html-italic)
• C-c C-p u (tempo-template-html-underline)
• C-c C-p s (tempo-template-html-strikethru

  Text markup (logical presentation):

• C-c C-s p (tempo-template-html-preformatted)
• C-c C-s s (tempo-template-html-strong)
• C-c C-s e (tempo-template-html-emphasized)
• C-c C-s a (tempo-template-html-address)
• C-c C-s d (tempo-template-html-definition)
• C-c C-s v (tempo-template-html-variable)
• C-c C-s k (tempo-template-html-keyboard-input)
• C-c C-s r (tempo-template-html-citation)
• C-c C-s x (tempo-template-html-sample)
• C-c C-s c (tempo-template-html-code)
• C-c C-s b (tempo-template-html-blockquote)

  Headings:
  Typing these inserts matching start/end tags with the cursor positioned between them.

• C-c C-t 1 (tempo-template-html-header-1)
• C-c C-t 2 (tempo-template-html-header-2)
• C-c C-t 3 (tempo-template-html-header-3)
• C-c C-t 4 (tempo-template-html-header-4)
• C-c C-t 5 (tempo-template-html-header-5)
• C-c C-t 6 (tempo-template-html-header-6)

  Links ("anchors"):

• C-c C-a l (tempo-template-html-hyperlink)
• C-c C-a n (tempo-template-html-link-target)

  Miscellaneous tags:

• C-c RET (tempo-template-html-line-break) inserts a <br> tag.
• C-c = (tempo-template-horizontal-rule) inserts an <hr> tag.
• C-c C-z v (browse-url-of-file)
• C-c C-z t (html-helper-insert-timestamp-delimiter-at-point)

  Images:

• C-c TAB t (tempo-template-html-image-with-alternate-text)
• C-c TAB e (tempo-template-html-aligned-image-with-alt.-text)
• C-c TAB i (tempo-template-html-image)
• C-c TAB a (tempo-template-html-aligned-image)

;; Install html-helper-mode.
(setq auto-mode-alist (cons '("\\.html$" . html-helper-mode) auto-mode-alist))
;; Add my HTML code hacks: check tag nesting (C-c n), make table of contents
;; (C-c t), check href's (C-c h c), paragraph motion, markup motion (C-c C-f,
;; C-c C-b, C-c C-k), and much more.  (Only need to do this once, so these are
;; on html-helper-load-hook.)
(add-hook 'html-helper-load-hook 'rgr-html-define-commands)
(add-hook 'html-helper-load-hook 'rgr-html-fix-regexps)
;; This has some per-buffer stuff (and is therefore on html-helper-mode-hook).
;; -- rgr, 19-Mar-96.
(add-hook 'html-helper-mode-hook 'rgr-html-helper-mode-hook)

Markup commands: These operate on nested <foo>..</foo> constructs.

• C-c C-f (rgr-html-forward-markup) -- move forward past markup (M-C-f equivalent for HTML).
• C-c C-b (rgr-html-backward-markup) -- move backward past markup (M-C-b equivalent for HTML).
• C-c C-u (rgr-html-backward-up-markup) -- move backward out of the current markup (M-C-u equivalent for HTML).
• C-c C-l (rgr-html-forward-li) -- moves forward to the next <li> tag of the current list (i.e. ignoring any <li> items within nested lists). If there aren't any, this just leaves you after the last list close tag. This needs a special command because people almost never use </li> tags.
• C-c / (rgr-html-close-markup) -- insert a close tag for the last open tag; a numeric argument closes the last N tags.
• C-c C-k (rgr-html-kill-markup) -- kill markup (M-C-k equivalent for HTML).
• C-c n (rgr-html-check-tag-nesting) -- check HTML tags for nesting errors. If any are found, they are put in a buffer which is viewed in the other window, and you can use C-x ` to step through them, as for the M-x grep command.
• TAB (html-helper-indent-command) -- indent the current line prettily. (html-helper-mode implements this, but rgr-html-hacks fixes some bugs.)
• M-C-q (rgr-html-indent-markup) -- indent all markup lines.

Anchor checking commands:

• c-c h c (rgr-html-check-buffer-hrefs) -- check for href's to undefined pages/tags. if any are found, they are put in a buffer which is viewed in the other window, as with c-c n, and you can use c-x ` to step through them.
• c-c h f (rgr-html-fix-buffer-hrefs) -- like c-c h c, but offers to replace an undefined reference to one in another file, if it knows of any of the same name (see C-c a u and C-c a f). Can't handle offsite references.
• C-c h d (rgr-html-check-directory-hrefs) -- checks references to undefined anchors in the current buffer, like C-c h c, but also checks everything in the same directory that is reachable from the current buffer, and lists all files in that directory that are not reachable from the current buffer.
• C-c a u (rgr-html-update-buffer-anchors) -- learns the anchor names (the "foo" in "<a name=foo>") of the current buffer, for possible use by C-c h f.
• C-c a f (rgr-html-flush-file-anchors) -- forgets the current buffer's anchor names.

Heading commands:

• M-x rgr-html-add-heading-anchors RET -- add anchors to all headings that do not already have them.
• M-x rgr-html-increment-buffer-heading-nesting RET -- increment or decrement the nesting level of headings in the buffer, e.g. changing <h1> to <h2>, <h2> to <h3>, etc. By default, the depth is increased by one, but this can be changed with a prefix argument, which can be negative to decrease the nesting depth.
• M-x rgr-html-increment-region-heading-nesting RET -- increment or decrement the nesting level of headings in the buffer, as by M-x rgr-html-increment-region-heading-nesting.

Miscellaneous commands:

• M-} (rgr-html-forward-paragraph) -- moves forward to the end of the HTML paragraph. With arg N, do it N times; a negative arg -N means move backward N paragraphs. See the online documentation (using C-h f) for details of how an "HTML paragraph" is defined.
• M-{ (rgr-html-backward-paragraph) -- moves backward to the start of the HTML paragraph. With arg N, do it N times; a negative arg -N means move forward N paragraphs.
• M-q (rgr-html-fill-paragraph) -- fills text in the paragraph defined by doing M-{ and M-} from point.
• C-c t (rgr-html-make-toc) -- inserts a nested table of contents generated from <h#></h#> lines. If this is the first invocation in this buffer, this command inserts at point, and you will be asked to confirm this. Otherwise, the previous TOC is replaced with a new one. If an anchor definition (i.e. "<a name=foo>") appears on the previous line, it will be used to hyperlink the section names. (The TOC at the top of this document is an example.) If given a numeric argument, the items are generated within nested <ul> forms; otherwise, they are within <ol> forms.

If you don't mind shelling out the money (or already have a copy), the O'Reilly emacs offerings describe html-helper-mode, albeit briefly.