Free Software

This tip comes form the gnus mailing list from almost two years ago. I re-discover it today because, after writing a long email for a mailing list, I needed to change my original reply to a wide reply.

This is as easy as this:

Keybinding: `C-c C-f w'

Description: Insert `To' and `Cc' headers as if you were doing a wide reply even if the message was not made for a wide reply first.

The link for the original message is here

Well, long time without a single release... What happen with the release candidate? or even with my pretty schedule for the 0.2 version? Keep reading :)

After re-reading the book "Producing Open Source Software", I got from Google last year, I realized that I was introducing too few new features for a new release. My original plan was to introduce a new feature per release... but that's not all that funny :). So I created a branch on the git repository to start to work on a real feature: the plugin system

What's new then? the plugin system basically is done, the notification is now a plugin (so if you don't like the pop-ups, is now easier than ever to disable them), a real logging system has been implemented (using python standard-library facilities) and a few other little things.

What's the catch? Well, the code is still alpha, but I decided to push my branch to the public repository for anybody to see it. I'm thinking in using threads for the plugins, so a bad plugin doesn't kill everybody. The documentation is missing, the Makefile doesn't work with this version at all, and there are some rough edges.

If you want to take a look at the branch, here is the link.

This is an off-topic post. I don't like to do OT, but this is the first and last post from my brand new math category to be posted also as an Emacs entry. A little bit of math doesn't hurt.

Have you ever wonder why does really mean the e constant? You know, besides the number 2.7182828? Well, I've found the best explanation here.

I've always loved math. Don't get me wrong, I'm pursuing a Computer Science BA degree, but there are some fundamental math concepts that I don't fully understand altought I use them. I used to be more insistent but I've somewhat lost that interest over the years. To try to revert this I'm starting this new "math" category on my blog.

If you have ever read the emacs-help mailing list, I'm sure you have seen this picture:

That ASCII-art box is great for many things, specially when used to describe a function, variable or key. The necesary package is boxquote. And to have all its power at your fingertips, a snippet for your .emacs

;;;_. boxquote

(require 'boxquote)

(global-set-key (kbd "C-c b y")   'boxquote-yank)
(global-set-key (kbd "C-c b r")   'boxquote-region)         
(global-set-key (kbd "C-c b u")   'boxquote-unbox-region)
(global-set-key (kbd "C-c b t")   'boxquote-title)          
(global-set-key (kbd "C-c b i")   'boxquote-insert-file) 
(global-set-key (kbd "C-c b k")   'boxquote-kill) 
(global-set-key (kbd "C-c b s")   'boxquote-shell-command)
 
(global-set-key (kbd "C-c b b")   'boxquote-buffer)
(global-set-key (kbd "C-c b p")   'boxquote-paragraph) 
(global-set-key (kbd "C-c b n")   'boxquote-narrow-to-boxquote)

(global-set-key (kbd "C-c b w")   'boxquote-where-is) 
(global-set-key (kbd "C-c b d f") 'boxquote-describe-function)
(global-set-key (kbd "C-c b d k") 'boxquote-describe-key)
(global-set-key (kbd "C-c b d v") 'boxquote-describe-variable)

Here is the link to the gmane archive of the original message.

Update: while reading this wiki entry I found that you need to quote your alias only if you are writing it directly on the prompt. On the alias file you don't quote anything. In fact, you don't need to modify the alias file by hand because emacs writes it for any alias you define on the prompt.

(This is mostly a personal note but it may be useful to somebody else)

I'm not sure that everybody knows (the manual version I have doesn't mencion it) but to configure an alias for eshell is as easy as this:

On the .eshell/alias file just add

  alias ls ls -la $*

This is a taken from this blog post. You can read there a more lispy way of doing it.

Also, take a look at this interesting this wiki entry

A quick update. I missed the schedule by some days, but here is the release candidate for the 0.2 version.

• Fixed bug #4
• New TODO file, with ideas for new features. If you want to help and don't know where to start this is for you

Grab it while it's hot!

With this entry a new category for emacs related posts will begin here. Bits from emacs.help are tips and tricks found while reading the emacs.help mailing list

Well, this tips is how to use su inside eshell

From the post: "...Doing su or sudo su does not work like you expect. This works under the normal shell (M-x shell). I am su:ing quite much ..." If you have tried, using su inside eshell is quite paintful, and doesn't work very well. But, come on, there should be a way of doing it, right?

From the reply: "...Tramp 2.1 supports it. Try "cd/sudo::" in eshell..." And that's it! you have a fully functional 'suded' eshell with completition available.

Wow!, Now it's time for a second beta release. The changes with the previous release are:

• New translations: it (thanks to giacomomargarito) and sk (thanks to shamotj)
• A new HACKING file.

I didn't expect to have translations so fast, and I have to apology because I didn't followed the issue tracker too close (I didn't configured the alerts). I hope the new HACKING file will make life easier to anybody who wants to contribute.

Here is the link for the new tarball

Warning: This is a beta version, it may kill eat your dog and steal your wallet. If you find a bug, please report it at our bug tracker

Today I've made available for testing the 0.2_beta release of gmail-sentinel. Among the new features we have:

• Ability to see all the new messages through the notification pop-up. Now gmail-sentinel features buttons on the notification itself so you can move forward and backwards to see all messages.
• A "open" button that launches the configured browser and opens the selected messages. Your message one-click away
• Other minor things...

If everything goes ok, I'll have a RC by Monday and a final 0.2 release by next monday. There will be no new features until 0.2 release, just bug fixes.

Here is the mandatory screenshot:

I'm glad to announce the first (yet alpha) release of GoogleMail Sentinel (gmail-sentinel).

From it's homepage: "GoogleMail Sentinel is a mail notifier for Google Mail (Gmail) that creates an icon in your Taskbar and features popup alerts when there's new mail in your GoogleMail (Gmail) account".

It's not yet ready for mass consumption but it's good enough for casual testing. And if you write python and want an easy project to start coding this is a great one. Very simple, few lines of code and a helpful upstream ;)

gmail-sentinel is my first publicly released piece of code that I wrote to scratch a personal itch. Although is not the first time I write some code, it's the first time I'm managing every single aspect of the process (finding hosting, writing an entry to freshmeat, etc.)