From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: jadamson@partners.org (Joel J. Adamson) Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: newbie elisp help ?? Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2007 10:09:08 -0400 Organization: Harvard University Message-ID: <87y7gbh8qj.fsf@W0053328.mgh.harvard.edu> References: <87k5rwimrm.fsf@W0053328.mgh.harvard.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1187275275 8010 80.91.229.12 (16 Aug 2007 14:41:15 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2007 14:41:15 +0000 (UTC) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Thu Aug 16 16:41:13 2007 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1ILgX9-0003pV-Qd for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Thu, 16 Aug 2007 16:41:12 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1ILgX9-0002OM-Cw for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Thu, 16 Aug 2007 10:41:11 -0400 Original-Lines: 51 Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: w0053328.mgh.harvard.edu Original-Path: shelby.stanford.edu!newsfeed.stanford.edu!postnews.google.com!news1.google.com!border1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!news-out.spamkiller.net!prop4-west.newsfeeds.com!news-in2.spamkiller.net!news.purdue.edu!purdue!news.harvard.edu!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help Original-X-Trace: plato.harvard.edu 1187273401 20071 132.183.29.121 (16 Aug 2007 14:10:01 GMT) Original-X-Complaints-To: news@plato.harvard.edu Original-NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2007 14:10:01 +0000 (UTC) User-Agent: Gnus/5.11 (Gnus v5.11) Emacs/22.1 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:DYVQgLTC5lXJ00Gd1rvUV4M+hdk= Original-Xref: shelby.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:151043 X-Original-Bytes: 3131 X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:46616 Archived-At: William Case writes: > 4. I wanted to avoid the need for variable arguments, parameters > and hooks by writing a simple set of functions where I could > copy and manually substitute ';' and '#' for '/* */' commenting > out symbols. Hooks, buffer/file names, etc. might come later. I understand completely all your desires to learn: I'm doing the same thing myself. To accomplish 4, I suggest checking out ESS, which is a set of major modes for various statistical applications. It's mostly aimed at R, however I use it for Stata; it has all the different comment syntaxes worked out. I've only recently discovered the sh-mode has the ability to stick in complete templates for whiles, fors and conditionals --- it's pretty cool. > 5. I did not ask for advice on the emacs mailing list lightly. I > did my due diligence with manuals, info, wiki, archives, google > and trial and error. I thought that after several hours of > frustration it would be appropriate to ask for guidance. > > My understanding was that this emacs mailing list is for beginners and > experienced people alike. No problem: your post just reminded me of all the times I've thought of doing similar things and discovered that (a) Emacs already does what I want or (b) there's a much simpler way to do it that does not involve any Lisp. This is somewhat of a shame, since I am always trying to find a reason to learn more Lisp (right now I'm studying Scheme more than Emacs Lisp). Unfortunately much of the time Emacs already does what I want and I have no reason to learn: DAMN YOU EMACS LISP DEVELOPERS AND YOUR EXCELLENT PRODUCTS AND EXTENSIONS! YOU'RE RUINING IT FOR THE REST OF US! Have a nice day, Joel -- Joel J. Adamson Biostatistician Pediatric Psychopharmacology Research Unit Massachusetts General Hospital Boston, MA 02114 (617) 643-1432 (303) 880-3109 "It can be interesting to study ancient philosophy, but more as a kind of accident report than to teach you anything useful." --Paul Graham http://www.paulgraham.com/raq.html