Questions from a newguy
Chris writes: My problems with whitespace are that 1) I have no control over it -- I don't ever want to hit Tab and have nothing happen, 2) I don't know how to customize it, and 3) it looks like Emacs is not saving tabs as tabs (even though I thought I told it to), so that I can't pleasantly edit files that have been touched by Emacs. I'm not looking for quick fixes / code samples here; I'm willing to do some work, but I'm having a hard time getting started. By the way, Gnu sells a Introduction to Emacs Lisp Programming (I think), that's only available online. I can get by in Lisp, and I've read the online reference manual, but it's a little dry. Indentation of Java source code is handled by an Emacs package called cc-mode. cc-mode is very powerful but not very user friendly. If you're really serious about using Emacs to do software development, you'll need to make the effort to master cc-mode. Start by studying the cc-mode documentation that comes with Emacs. All cc-mode indentation options are settable via Lisp variables. If you can write a setq statement, you know all the Lisp you need to know to use cc-mode. Better yet, use Emacs' customize-variable command to avoid writing any Lisp. Finally, you should make a practise of including your .emacs file when asking for help. An .emacs file tells a would-be helper what you really told Emacs as opposed to what you thought you told Emacs. - Paul
Questions from a newguy
Hi all, I'm a Java et al coder who'd like to give emacs a shot. After 10+ years if never really loving my development environment, I finally grasp what's possible with emacs, and it seems that if I commit to it my IDE can be as good as I feel like making it. I have 3 main goals in the immediate future: 1) To make emacs a little friendlier for Java, C++, text, PHP, etc. In many cases this means making it more like Textpad, which is my current choice and is quite good off the shelf but of course isn't as flexible 2) To get my cash-strapped software team off of Textpad and using emacs (this is quite related to 1), and then extending it for our needs (JBoss/EJBs mostly) 3) To get good at this stuff and help out with the effort. Right now, there are a couple of things preventing me from comfortably coding in Java with emacs. One is file navigation; the other is control of whitespace. For file navigation, I really miss good ol' Ctrl-Tab. KDE seems to eat Ctrl-Tab, but if had some idea on how to make something similar happen I'd be pleased. I seem to remember some help on this previously (maybe on this list!), and as I recall some clever manipulation of the buffer list is necessary for satisfactory results. My problems with whitespace are that 1) I have no control over it -- I don't ever want to hit Tab and have nothing happen, 2) I don't know how to customize it, and 3) it looks like Emacs is not saving tabs as tabs (even though I thought I told it to), so that I can't pleasantly edit files that have been touched by Emacs. I'm not looking for quick fixes / code samples here; I'm willing to do some work, but I'm having a hard time getting started. By the way, Gnu sells a Introduction to Emacs Lisp Programming (I think), that's only available online. I can get by in Lisp, and I've read the online reference manual, but it's a little dry. Thanks all! These aren't JDE questions in some cases, but frankly in the months I've been lurking, I've just been very impressed with the list. Keep up the good work! - C
Re: Questions from a newguy
I think groups.google.com can answer most of these questions. If not, try http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl For example, I know people have implemented Ctrl-Tab for emacs. Tab questions are puzzling for emacs newbies and are asked a lot on usenet, so groups.google.com will help there as well. Good luck, if you really are stuck on something, I'm sure either here (if it relates to JDE) or the emacs newsgroups (for general emacs questions) can help. Chris [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Hi all, I'm a Java et al coder who'd like to give emacs a shot. After 10+ years if never really loving my development environment, I finally grasp what's possible with emacs, and it seems that if I commit to it my IDE can be as good as I feel like making it. I have 3 main goals in the immediate future: 1) To make emacs a little friendlier for Java, C++, text, PHP, etc. In many cases this means making it more like Textpad, which is my current choice and is quite good off the shelf but of course isn't as flexible 2) To get my cash-strapped software team off of Textpad and using emacs (this is quite related to 1), and then extending it for our needs (JBoss/EJBs mostly) 3) To get good at this stuff and help out with the effort. Right now, there are a couple of things preventing me from comfortably coding in Java with emacs. One is file navigation; the other is control of whitespace. For file navigation, I really miss good ol' Ctrl-Tab. KDE seems to eat Ctrl-Tab, but if had some idea on how to make something similar happen I'd be pleased. I seem to remember some help on this previously (maybe on this list!), and as I recall some clever manipulation of the buffer list is necessary for satisfactory results. My problems with whitespace are that 1) I have no control over it -- I don't ever want to hit Tab and have nothing happen, 2) I don't know how to customize it, and 3) it looks like Emacs is not saving tabs as tabs (even though I thought I told it to), so that I can't pleasantly edit files that have been touched by Emacs. I'm not looking for quick fixes / code samples here; I'm willing to do some work, but I'm having a hard time getting started. By the way, Gnu sells a Introduction to Emacs Lisp Programming (I think), that's only available online. I can get by in Lisp, and I've read the online reference manual, but it's a little dry. Thanks all! These aren't JDE questions in some cases, but frankly in the months I've been lurking, I've just been very impressed with the list. Keep up the good work! - C
