Code faster by extending Emacs EVIL text object

I use EVIL text object a lot. For example, press vi( to select the code snippet inside parenthesis.

I could also press vib to do exactly same thing as vi( because below code in EVIL's evil-maps.el,

(define-key evil-outer-text-objects-map "b" 'evil-a-paren)
(define-key evil-inner-text-objects-map "b" 'evil-inner-paren)

As a full stack web developer, I often need select the snippet inside "[]", "{}", "()", "<>". So I prefer using vig to replace vi[, vi{, vi(, and vi<.

Here is my new text object,

(defun my-evil-paren-range (count beg end type inclusive)
  "Get minimum range of paren text object.
COUNT, BEG, END, TYPE is used.  If INCLUSIVE is t, the text object is inclusive."
  (let* ((parens '("()" "[]" "{}" "<>"))
         range
         found-range)
    (dolist (p parens)
      (condition-case nil
          (setq range (evil-select-paren (aref p 0) (aref p 1) beg end type count inclusive))
        (error nil))
      (when range
        (cond
         (found-range
          (when (< (- (nth 1 range) (nth 0 range))
                   (- (nth 1 found-range) (nth 0 found-range)))
            (setf (nth 0 found-range) (nth 0 range))
            (setf (nth 1 found-range) (nth 1 range))))
         (t
          (setq found-range range)))))
    found-range))

(evil-define-text-object my-evil-a-paren (count &optional beg end type)
  "Select a paren."
  :extend-selection t
  (my-evil-paren-range count beg end type t))

(evil-define-text-object my-evil-inner-paren (count &optional beg end type)
  "Select 'inner' paren."
  :extend-selection nil
  (my-evil-paren-range count beg end type nil))

(define-key evil-inner-text-objects-map "g" #'my-evil-inner-paren)
(define-key evil-outer-text-objects-map "g" #'my-evil-a-paren)

In above code,

  • my-evil-paren-range returns the minimum range of text objects "[", "{", "(", and "<".
  • EVIL api evil-define-text-object is used to define a text object whose range is returned by my-evil-paren-range
  • In evil-outer-text-objects-map the text object shortcut "g" is defined

As you can see, understanding my personal workflow and knowing a bit Lisp does make me code faster.

豉汁蒸排骨

  • 一把豆豉洗净
  • 葱段
  • 一点点盐
  • 一勺淀粉
  • 几滴鱼露
  • 少许料酒
  • 少许蚝油
  • 少许白糖
  • 用手搅拌腌制半小时
  • 挑出排骨,不要豆豉
  • 第二次加淀粉搅拌,表面浇上花生油
  • 撒红辣椒点缀
  • 蒸15分钟, 上盘撒葱花

Youtube视频

视频备份

小结:

  • 如用大排做原料,需要用榔头敲松再切小块

萝卜丝饼

  • 半个白萝卜刮丝, 15秒沸水烫一下过冷水去萝卜生味.略挤干萝卜丝水分
  • 一小把粉丝焯水1分钟切碎
  • 一红辣椒或1/4红色大辣椒(主要是增色,辣味可选)切碎
  • 泡好的干虾仁切小颗粒
  • 萝卜丝打散,放入粉丝红辣椒虾仁,1小勺生姜泥,1/2小勺五香粉,1/2小勺白胡椒粉,最后葱花放在上面
  • 油2大勺烧至冒烟泼在葱花上(激发其香味)
  • 蚝油1.5小勺,香油1/2小勺,1/4小勺盐搅拌

发面煎饼略.

Youtube视频

小结,

  • 我以中东面饼代替中国煎饼

蓝莓山药

  • 山药洗净蒸15分钟, 去皮切片(或条块)
  • 蓝莓酱加少量炼乳(增加奶香味,可选)蜂蜜搅拌,浇于山药上

youtube视频 视频备份

小鸡炖蘑菇

  • 把榛蘑(honey mushroom)根部和脏的部分去掉,洗净,温水泡30分钟,沥干待用;粉条用清水泡软备用
  • 鸡清洗干净,切核桃块,易入味
  • 油热后放葱(半两)姜(半两)花椒(25粒),大料(两朵) 炒香,放鸡肉小火炒4或5分钟.
  • 放入少许酱油(不要盖住蘑菇味), 一只鸡一两酱油.
  • 蘑菇水小火40分钟
  • 下蘑菇小火20分钟
  • 加盐调口
  • 下粉条, 少许鸡精, 5分钟
  • 大火略收干水分

要点:

  • 油多一点热一点,把鸡肉煎表面金黄
  • 鸡肉块不要太小,否则煮久了肉都散掉了
    • 不要加料酒,会掩盖鸡肉和蘑菇的香味
  • 粉条口感很好.商业版不放粉条因为粉条15分钟后会变形,很难看
  • 我又加了青豆,10分钟就熟了,煮太久会变黄
  • 粉条要看种类,火锅用粉条特别耐煮,小火要15分钟才能熟,可以早放,普通粉条早放会融化沾锅底
  • 粉条也可以换成腐竹,豆腐泡
  • 蘑菇水至少一大碗(1升),这样一小时后正好
  • 还加了少许胡萝卜片,少许生菜,生菜最后5分钟加

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Show files by date in SOME Emacs dired buffer

It's as simple as modify dired-actual-switches in dired-mode-hook.

Minimum setup,

(defvar my-dired-new-file-first-dirs
  '("bt/finished/$"
    "bt/torrents?/$"
    "documents?/$"
    "music/$"
    "downloads?/$")
  "Dired directory patterns where newest files are on the top.")

(defun my-dired-mode-hook-setup ()
  "Set up Dired."
  (when (cl-find-if (lambda (regexp)
                      (let ((case-fold-search t))
                        (string-match regexp default-directory)))
                my-dired-new-file-first-dirs)
    (setq dired-actual-switches "-lat")))
(add-hook 'dired-mode-hook 'my-dired-mode-hook-setup)

Here is my real world setup.

How to use EMMS effectively

First thing is to set up emms.

I could simply enable all the emms features in one line,

(with-eval-after-load 'emms (emms-all))

But above setup makes filtering tracks very slow because it's too heavy weight.

So I use below setup,

(with-eval-after-load 'emms
  ;; minimum setup is more robust
  (emms-minimalistic)

  ;; `emms-info-native' supports mp3,flac and requires NO cli tools
  (unless (memq 'emms-info-native emms-info-functions)
    (require 'emms-info-native)
    (push 'emms-info-native emms-info-functions))

  ;; extract track info when loading the playlist
  (push 'emms-info-initialize-track emms-track-initialize-functions)

  ;; I also use emms to manage tv shows, so I use mplayer only
  (setq emms-player-list '(emms-player-mplayer)))

Play mp3&flac in "~/Dropbox/music",

(defun my-music ()
  "My music."
  (interactive)
  (emms-stop)
  (when (bufferp emms-playlist-buffer-name)
    (kill-buffer emms-playlist-buffer-name))
  (emms-play-directory-tree "~/Dropbox/music")
  (emms-shuffle)
  (emms-next))

Sometimes I need focus on challenge programming tasks and emms should play only Mozart&Bach.

(defvar my-emms-playlist-filter-keyword "mozart|bach"
  "Keyword to filter tracks in emms playlist.
Space in the keyword matches any characters.
 \"|\" means OR operator in regexp.")

(defun my-strip-path (path strip-count)
  "Strip PATH with STRIP-COUNT."
  (let* ((i (1- (length path)))
         str)
    (while (and (> strip-count 0)
                (> i 0))
      (when (= (aref path i) ?/)
        (setq strip-count (1- strip-count)))
      (setq i (1- i)))
    (setq str (if (= 0 strip-count) (substring path (1+ i)) path))
    (replace-regexp-in-string "^/" "" str)))

(defun my-emms-track-description (track)
  "Description of TRACK."
  (let ((desc (emms-track-simple-description track))
        (type (emms-track-type track)))
    (when (eq 'file type)
      (setq desc (my-strip-path desc 2)))
    desc))

(defvar my-emms-track-regexp-function #'my-emms-track-regexp-internal
  "Get regexp to search track.")

(defun my-emms-track-regexp-internal (keyword)
  "Convert KEYWORD into regexp for matching tracks."
  (let* ((re (replace-regexp-in-string "|" "\\\\|" keyword)))
    (setq re (replace-regexp-in-string " +" ".*" re))))

(defun my-emms-track-match-p (track keyword)
  "Test if TRACK's information match KEYWORD."
  (let* ((case-fold-search t)
         (regexp (funcall my-emms-track-regexp-function keyword))
         s)
    (or (string-match regexp (emms-track-force-description track))
        (and (setq s (emms-track-get track 'info-genre)) (string-match regexp s))
        (and (setq s (emms-track-get track 'info-title)) (string-match regexp s))
        (and (setq s (emms-track-get track 'info-album)) (string-match regexp s))
        (and (setq s (emms-track-get track 'info-composer)) (string-match regexp s))
        (and (setq s (emms-track-get track 'info-artist)) (string-match regexp s)))))

(defun my-emms-show ()
  "Show information of current track."
  (interactive)
  (let* ((emms-track-description-function (lambda (track)
                                            (let ((composer (emms-track-get track 'info-composer))
                                                  (artist (emms-track-get track 'info-artist)))
                                              (concat (if composer (format "%s(C) => " composer))
                                                      (if artist (format "%s(A) => " artist))
                                                      (my-emms-track-description track))))))
    (emms-show)))

(defun my-emms-playlist-filter (&optional input-p)
  "Filter tracks in emms playlist.
If INPUT-P is t, `my-emms-playlist-random-track-keyword' is input by user."
  (interactive "P")
  ;; shuffle the playlist
  (when input-p
    (setq my-emms-playlist-filter-keyword
          (read-string "Keyword to filter tracks in playlist: ")))
  (with-current-buffer emms-playlist-buffer-name
    (goto-char (point-min))
    (let* ((case-fold-search t)
           track)
      (while (setq track (emms-playlist-track-at))
        (cond
         ((my-emms-track-match-p track my-emms-playlist-filter-keyword)
          (forward-line 1))
         (t
          (emms-playlist-mode-kill-track))))))

  (emms-random)
  ;; show current track info
  (my-emms-show))

As you can see, a little EMMS api knowledge could go a long way.

If you want to study EMMS API by practice, run M-x emms-playlist-mode-go, then M-x eval-expression RETURN (emms-playlist-track-at) to get the information of the track at point.

Here is my real world emms setup where you can see below code,

(defvar my-emms-track-regexp-function
  (lambda (str)
    ;; can search track with Chinese information
    (my-emms-track-regexp-internal (my-extended-regexp str)))
  "Get regexp to search track.")

So I can use Pinyin to search track's Chinese information. I don't know any other multimedia manager can do the same thing.

Add live demo to emacs package

Emacs package developers sometimes need add live demo to her/his project.

The requirement came from my discussion with pyim's developer.

With all the linting and unit tests running for ages, he still need a quick way to test if the package actually works on Emacs 25 (and other Emacs versions). I totally agree with him because my own projects have similar problems.

A live demo built into the project is very useful for developers and testers.

Besides, a live demo could help users. They try the new package with no hassle. They don't modify their own emacs configuration to try the new package.

So I figured out a simple solution. The best part is that any packages could use this solution with minimum change if their CI script is already set up.

In a package's CI script, Emacs is running in batch mode (with "–batch" option). What I suggest is add another Makefile task runemacs which is very similar to the original CI task. But in this task, the "–batch" options is removed.

See the solution I added for find-file-in-project,

diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 9005ca4..8f7a8ae 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -1,7 +1,8 @@
 SHELL = /bin/sh
 EMACS ?= emacs
 PROFILER =
-EMACS_BATCH_OPTS=--batch -Q -l find-file-in-project.el
+EMACS_GENERIC_OPTS=-Q -L . -L deps/ivy-0.13.4
+EMACS_BATCH_OPTS:=--batch $(EMACS_GENERIC_OPTS)
 RM = @rm -rf

 .PHONY: test clean test compile
@@ -18,3 +19,8 @@ compile: clean
 # Run tests.
 test: compile
    @$(EMACS) $(EMACS_BATCH_OPTS) -l tests/ffip-tests.el
+
+runemacs:
+   @mkdir -p deps;
+   @if [ ! -f deps/ivy-0.13.4/ivy.el ]; then curl -L https://stable.melpa.org/packages/ivy-0.13.4.tar | tar x -C deps/; fi;
+   @$(EMACS) $(EMACS_GENERIC_OPTS) --load ./tests/emacs-init.el
diff --git a/tests/emacs-init.el b/tests/emacs-init.el
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a4df068
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/emacs-init.el
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+(require 'find-file-in-project)
+(require 'ivy)
+(ivy-mode 1)
+(setq ffip-match-path-instead-of-filename t)
+(run-with-idle-timer
+ 1
+ nil
+ (lambda ()
+   (erase-buffer)
+   (goto-char (point-min))
+   (insert
+    ";; Setup of this demo,\n"
+    "(setq ffip-match-path-instead-of-filename t)\n\n\n"
+    ";; Run \"M-x find-file-in-project-by-selected\" and input search keyword \"el\" or \"tests\".\n\n\n"
+    ";; Move cursor above below paths and run \"M-x find-file-in-project-at-point\",\n\n"
+    ";;   tests/ffip-tests.el ; open file directly \n"
+    ";;   find-file-in-project.el:50 ; open file and jump to line 50\n")))

Similar solution is also used in pyim, it's one liner in shell to test it in Emacs 25,

EMACS=/home/cb/what-ever-path/25.1/bin/emacs make runemacs

凉拌苦瓜

做法:

  • 一个大苦瓜洗净后去掉瓜瓤和苦瓜的白色部分,将片好的苦瓜斜刀切成细丝
  • 一个尖辣椒和大葱斜切丝(辣椒不用去籽),将蒜末(3或4个蒜瓣),生抽,糖,盐,醋,香油混合均匀制成碗汁备用
  • 锅内做水,水开后放入一小勺盐和少许油。下入苦瓜丝焯烫约15秒
  • 盛出苦瓜丝迅速用水冲凉后控干水分。放上红椒丝和葱丝,淋上调好的汁搅拌均匀即可
  • 喜欢辣椒的可以放些辣椒油搅拌均匀,不喜欢的可以不放

小结:

  • 开水烫过苦瓜变色了
  • 尖辣椒和蒜的味道出来了

下次用台湾阿基师的方法改进.

  • 苦瓜(白色比绿色苦味淡一点)去馅,里面薄膜也要刮掉以去苦味
  • 斜切片,一个技巧是用刮皮的刀可以切更薄的片,用盐抓一下,浸水去苦味(是否这样营养也损失了?).之后浸入冰块变脆
  • 调汁.鲜味酱油和净水比例1:5,加少许柴鱼粉(可用鸡精代替),滴入两块柠檬的汁(柠檬的香味和酸味可以掩盖苦味)
  • 将汁浇在苦瓜上,洒一些烤干的白芝麻

蒸茄盒

  • 两个茄子选软且颜色深,去皮.抹盐再冲掉(为了避免表面变黑),切茄盒
  • 葱姜末,料酒,肉米,全蛋,少许盐鸡精,花椒水三勺,二合一酱油20克,加淀粉适量(不用太多,2~3勺)锁住水分.搅拌制作成馅(口感类似午餐肉)
  • 茄盒加入馅,摆盘后洒三分口盐(盐引出茄子的汁),大火蒸15分钟,洒红绿尖椒末,蒸一分钟
  • 浇上酱油,加葱丝香菜,呲热油(速度要快)

视频: 在家炸茄盒太麻烦?试试茄盒这么做,从里到外软嫩咸香,鲜味十足 视频备份