New Emacs 23 W/ Xft And Cjk Support!, Full packages, PIM-suite, Newbie docs Options

[ZDevil]

Add a new screenshot:

Now GtkTerm2 runs with a better font (notice the letter "m" in the old and the new screencaps).
Just edit ~/.gtkterm2rc
Change terminalFont= Terminal 12 to something like
terminalFont= Lucida Console 14 or terminalFont= Bitstream Vera Sans Mono 14.

Seems SCIM fully works in this version of Emacs! No tampering with the commands or setting within Emacs is needed.
Buffer can be saved and loaded properly.

 emacs5.png ( 32.17K ) Number of downloads: 72


Tonight I will go build a lighter version without x and gtk. Will package separately if there is a noticeable size difference.

[ZDevil]

[UPDATED]

Here are the packages. Please test. Have fun!

Again (!), please change the filenames from emacs_base... to emacs-base... and so on.

I have done some update and (minor) adjustments of some of the packages. Please see this post for details.

emacs-base: This is the minimal install.

 emacs_base_23.0.0.1_armv5tel.ipk ( 5.83MB ) Number of downloads: 128


emacs-extra: Some important addons. Recommended.

 emacs_extra_23.0.0.1_armv5tel.ipk ( 1.49MB ) Number of downloads: 57


emacs-lisp: Big bunch of elisp files (.el and .elc).

 emacs_lisp_23.0.0.1_armv5tel.ipk ( 8.1MB ) Number of downloads: 56


emacs-leim: Many input methods for various international character scripts. CJK supported.

 emacs_leim_23.0.0.1_armv5tel.ipk ( 2.76MB ) Number of downloads: 48


emacs-doc: tutorials, man pages, info pages [New: info pages are added.]

 emacs_doc_23.0.0.1_armv5tel.ipk ( 3.74MB ) Number of downloads: 50


emacs-lisp-source: Source files (.gz of the uncompiled .el elisp codes) of the byte-compiled .elc files in the emacs-lisp package.

 emacs_lisp_source_23.0.0.1_armv5tel.ipk ( 9.8MB ) Number of downloads: 55


This post has been edited by ZDevil: Mar 17 2007, 10:39 AM

[ZDevil]

I've got a question:

In both my build and pgas' 21.4a, there are two emacs binaries, emacs and emacs-2x.x.x, both having the same size and running the same way. Can anyone tell me if they are actually identical and only one of these is enough? If so I will take it out and that will trim down the size of the base package tremendously.

Now studying two wonderfully well-written guides to using Planner Mode and doing GTD:

GTD with Emacs PlannerMode

Just another GTD hacker

Will start using Planner Mode for a few days. If things go well, I will write a short and simple enough non-geek How-to for newbies.

[tanjian2]

I've got a question:

In both my build and pgas' 21.4a, there are two emacs binaries, emacs and emacs-2x.x.x, both having the same size and running the same way. Can anyone tell me if they are actually identical and only one of these is enough? If so I will take it out and that will trim down the size of the base package tremendously. 

Now studying two wonderfully well-written guides to using Planner Mode and doing GTD:

GTD with Emacs PlannerMode

Just another GTD hacker

Will start using Planner Mode for a few days. If things go well, I will write a short and simple enough non-geek How-to for newbies.

I can't remember exactly why u get 2 binaries, they are exactly the same (according to diff). Usually you would install emacs-2...... and then create a link to emacs - that way users can install different versions and just link to the binary as required.

Thanks again for compiling this - I am just lazy and haven't bothered setting up a compile environment (even as easy as meanie has made it). Perhaps I could ask what all you installed in order to be able to compile it?

[ZDevil]

I didn't do anything special but just make. What I don't understand here is the emacs binary in both my and pgas' packages is not a link to emacs-2x.x.x and shows the same attributes as the later. I repackaged emacs-base by removing the "emacs" binary and then make a symlink to "emacs-23.0.0". The package turns out to be of the same size. Perhaps I am mistaken here. What do you think?

As for the compiling environment, I didn't do anything special but create some symlinks of glib-2.0, pango-1.0, gtk-2.0 to the include dir of the compiler. Meanie told me there is nothing wrong with the compiler, but seems to be the case that somehow the emacs source doesn't use PKGCONFIG to locate the right headers (strange isn't it for such a venerable app in *nix).

By the way, I'm now building another version without X and GTK support. Will upload it here later tonight.

[tanjian2]

I didn't do anything special but just make. What I don't understand here is the emacs binary in both my and pgas' packages is not a link to emacs-2x.x.x and shows the same attributes as the later. I repackaged emacs-base by removing the "emacs" binary and then make a symlink to "emacs-23.0.0". The package turns out to be of the same size. Perhaps I am mistaken here. What do you think?

As for the compiling environment, I didn't do anything special but create some symlinks of glib-2.0, pango-1.0, gtk-2.0 to the include dir of the compiler. Meanie told me there is nothing wrong with the compiler, but seems to be the case that somehow the emacs source doesn't use PKGCONFIG to locate the right headers (strange isn't it for such a venerable app in *nix).

By the way, I'm now building another version without X and GTK support. Will upload it here later tonight. 

Packages are made up of compressed tarballs, I suspect that a smart compressor would hopefully compress two copies of the same data down to the equivalent of 1 compressed copy, then just link the two filenames to that one compressed copy. Thats an educated guess.

Thanks for the build info - must try and build a few apps myself. Emacs is indeed venerable - so much so that it pre-dates most of all the recent stuff by a long margin . Emacs is pretty much an OS on its own. But magically we can have all its power on a lowly Zaurus - I for one thinks pretty impressive.

Of to read the Planner stuff again ... looked at it a year ago but never got started - have used Kopi for the last while, have it syncing with Kopi on my Fedora 4 desktop so mostly happy. But new toys... The X11 and GTK is what I really wanted since PGAs version had font issues.

Thanks again - hope you get what you had hoped for from emacs.

[ZDevil]

[Update]
The binaries are not in any way smaller when compiled without X and GTK. So just use the uploaded package.

One more question: I found that there are both the source .el (and in this version most got compressed into tarball when make install) and the byte-compiled .elc. For the .el, it seems they are not compiled into .elc; but the tarballs have their corresponding compiled .elc.
What's the use of those compressed source .el when we already have the .elc? Is it necessary to keep the .gz in the package (actually I leave them out in my emacs-lisp package) ?

[pgas]

The package turns out to be of the same size. Perhaps I am mistaken here. What do you think?

the two are hard linked

What's the use of those compressed source .el when we already have the .elc? Is it necessary to keep the .gz in the package (actually I leave them out in my emacs-lisp package) ?

emacs doesn't need the source .el (gzipped for saving space) to run.

The sources are usefull when you start learning elisp, and want to have a peak at the source to understand the functions better, or when you want to write a function that does slightly the same thing as an existing one.

So, you can put the .el.gz in an optional package, (debian does that for instance providing the .elc in the emacs package and the .el in a separate optional one), you should add the ones that are not byte compiled together with the .elc.

The fact that the .el also exist as .el.gz is probably because the build script gzip every .el files for simplicity.

One thing that you want to put in the base package is the etc/DOC-23.... file
it is required to get the documentation on a function defined in C.
(C-h f function RET)

[ZDevil]

I see. I almost forget what hardlink is about....
Actually I already include those uncompiled .el together with all the .elc in the emacs-lisp package.
I will upload the optional .gz source package (containing the source .el which are already compiled into .elc in the emacs-lisp package) and add the etc/DOC-23 to the base package as well.
Please go on finding faults with the build, because it's such a huge and all-rounded (mini-OS feel as the other post says) app. When there is no more clitches in 2 or 3 days then I will put them up in the "New Package Announcement".

[ZDevil]

A small tip to greatly boost the speed of Emacs with CJK support:

1) Install my new GTKTerm2 package here
2) If you install Emacs on memory card (i guess most people do), and have space in the internal flash, then move the emacs binary from the card to /usr/bin
3) Run "emacs -nw -color"

Now Emacs launches much faster (in my case < 5 sec).

Another update:
I will upload the source .el of the byte compiled elisp codes soon.
I am compiling and packaging a Planner Mode suite (Muse + Planner + Remember + BBDB). Will upload them here too shortly.

This post has been edited by ZDevil: Mar 16 2007, 03:15 AM

[ZDevil]

Hi, another question:

I have compiled a "PIM suite" for Emacs, which includes Muse, BBDB, Remember and Planner modes (a common yet powerful combo), plus a sample .emac config script. Everything works like a charm. With the emacs binary moved to the internal flash (mine is C1000) and run under GTKTerm2, i manage to set up a very sweet and speedy PIM environment.

Now here is a question about installation.

According to the documentation, these files are better put in ~/elisp. I've tried other locations, such as the usual /usr/share/emacs/23.0.0/lisp/ , but that doesn't seem to work.

I have tried this: first ipkg copies the files to somewhere (e.g. /tmp) and then moves them to ~/elisp through a postinst (which also checks for ~/elisp and creates one if necessary), the installation goes well, but since the files are moved to a different location than the original one in the first place "ipkg remove" will fail to remove the files in the new location (~/elisp ) in this case.

So I wonder if anyone can provide a nice install script or an installation method so that the files will go directly to ~/elisp.

I am no expert of packaging so could any veteran enlighten me here? Thanks!

[ZDevil]

After a second thought, perhaps it's not such a bad idea to put up a package here first for testing. So here it is.

Emacs-PIM-Suite
This package is a collection of the most popular modes for PIM (and GTD) under Emacs. You'll get:
-- Muse: wiki functionality
-- BBDB: database handling, particularly useful for contacts
-- Remember: cool reminder tools
-- Planner: the gold of PIM & GTD in Emacs!

Apart from BBDB (the latest stable 2.35 (January 30, 2007)), Muse, Remember and Planner are all from the "latest" (no dates given by the official sites) developmental sources to minimize issues with the latest Emacs 23.

To be consistent, I put all the files under /usr/share/emacs/23.0.0/lisp/, where all other modes live, and symlink them to $HOME/elisp/ (the directory will be automatically created if nonexisting during installation).

New! emacs-pim-suite_1.2_armv5tel.ipk : A trimmed down version of 1.0 (7.5M --> 3.9M). Paths permissions fixed for non-root users.
Also rename to emacs-pim-suite_1.2_armv5tel before installing.

 emacs_pim_suite_1.2_armv5tel.ipk ( 928.73K ) Number of downloads: 46


(Both 1.0 and 1.1 have been deleted)


*************************
Short Notes on Getting Started (Very rough; to be revised soon; for newbies only!)

Configuration:
I add a sample config file in /usr/share/emacs/23.0.0/etc/emacs-config.
You simply need to rename it as ".emacs" and put it in $HOME/
No tweaking is needed.
DON'T ponder on the grand technicality or philosophy of Emacs. Just dive in.
Attached here is a duplicate in case some newbies should mess up the setting.

 emacs_config.txt ( 902bytes ) Number of downloads: 106


Short demo
*** This demo will show how to do simple day-in and day-out GTD with Emacs, and it will take only a couple of minutes. ***

#1 Open a terminal session (for CJK users I strongly recommend GTKTerm2)

#2 First, create a working directory to save your tasks and projects. Try "mkdir plans" in your HOME directory. From now on all saved tasks and projects will go there.

#3 Run "emacs -nw -color"

#4 Now you see the very first Emacs display. You may take a quick look at the brief help info there.

#5 Look at the small window frame at the bottom. This is where you issue commands.

#6 Start Planner Mode by pressing "Alt-x plan RET" [= Press Alt AND x, then type plan, then hit [ENTER])

#7 Create a task: "Ctrl-c Ctrl-t"

#8 Planner then asks you for the Task Description. Write something such as Test Emacs 23 package & report in OE forum Then [ENTER]

#9 A nice calendar will pop up in the top frame. Choose a Date. Hit [Enter] for today

#10 Assign a Page for the task, to use a GTD format, enter something like Packaging @Zaurus (Project[space]Context). Hit [Enter] again.

#11 So now you understand how to add a task in 3 simple steps: Create -> Date -> Page

#12 Now try to add a couple more tasks by repeating the 3 simple steps.

#13 Mark a task as completed by moving the cursor IN the task name, then "Ctrl-x Ctrk-c". Notice the change.

 emacs_pim1.png ( 34.15K ) Number of downloads: 56


#14 You can access all the tasks related to the same Project or Context by move the cursor on it ("Packaging" and "@Zaurus" in our example), then hit [Enter]

#15 To exit Emacs, use "Ctrl-x Ctrl-c"

#16 By now you may get a feel of how to do simple things with Emacs (Planner Mode). To know more, enter Emacs again, start your adventure by "Ctrl-h t" (the Tutorial -- requires the "emacs-doc" package) or check out the following wonderful tutorials:

Cool references for Planner Mode

Clair Ching's newbie guide to planner mode! Very nice!
http://eclair.bizhat.com/emacs/plannernewbie.html
http://eclair.bizhat.com/emacs/plannerscreen1.html
http://eclair.bizhat.com/emacs/plannerscreen2.html

Sacha Chua's page (the former maintainer of planner.el), with lots of practical and insightful tips:
http://sacha.free.net.ph/notebook/wiki/PlannerMode.php

PlannerMode QuickStart
http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki/PlannerModeQuickStart


Enjoy and good luck!


*********************************

(I am just a very beginner of Emacs and will keep exploring it)
(Perhaps I will prepare a few short step-by-step demos later)
(Definitely I will start playing NetHack in Emacs someday. This is something I will put next in my Schedule in Planner ... )

This post has been edited by ZDevil: Mar 17 2007, 10:34 AM

[ZDevil]

nethack-el is here! http://www.nongnu.org/nethack-el/

Oh, no! .... i can't .... get hooked .... on this ....that .... soon ........

[ZDevil]

[EDITED]

Updated the pim-suite package. The first 1.0 contains everything (Makefiles, .el, other docs). This new one only retain the byte-compiled .elc (faster codes) and a few uncompiled .el (original codes), together with the READMEs for each mode. Size goes down from 7.5M to 3.9M now.

(emacs-pim-suite 1.1 deleted; please use 1.2 above)

----

Fixed directory execute permissions for non-root users. Version 1.2 is in the post above.
Those who are root users are NOT affected.

This post has been edited by ZDevil: Mar 17 2007, 10:33 AM

[zi99y]

ZDevil, this is great, I've never cracked the hard surface of Emacs before, but now I see it is a pretty amazing bit of software. Still just trying to learn how it all works thanks to your helpful posts.

One thing to point out: you must create ~/plans not ~/Plans or planner will give errors.

Also the PIM suite will not work if you are not root because the permissions are set to drwxr--r-- you will need grant execute to the following folders:

/usr/share/emacs/23.0.0/lisp/bbdb
/usr/share/emacs/23.0.0/lisp/remember
/usr/share/emacs/23.0.0/lisp/muse
/usr/share/emacs/23.0.0/lisp/planner