Line indents to middle when editing init.el: what the heck is happening?

Line indents to middle when editing init.el: what the heck is happening?

[Tom Browder]

I am in the process of getting a usable Emacs init.el file going after many
years of using XEmacs.

I am using list-packages for package installation and have installed
perl6-mode and friends. I have managed to get Perl 6 indentation
spacing the way I want it, and text buffers behave okay for now (but I will
have question later).

However, when editing init.el and I hit a carriage return, on the new line
the caret jumps to the middle of the window on the same line!

Any ideas or advice?

Thanks.

Best,

-Tom

Re: Line indents to middle when editing init.el: what the heck is happening?

[Alexis]

Tom Browder <tom.browder@gmail.com> writes:

> However, when editing init.el and I hit a carriage return, on 
> the new line the caret jumps to the middle of the window on the 
> same line!
>
> Any ideas or advice?

Does this happen from emacs -Q? And could you provide some sample 
text demonstrating the context in which this behaviour occurs? Off 
the top of my head, it reminds me of the standard behaviour when 
one is using a single ';' to indicate ELisp comments.


Alexis.

Re: Line indents to middle when editing init.el: what the heck is happening?

[Tom Browder]

On Tuesday, January 26, 2016, Alexis <flexibeast@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Tom Browder <tom.browder@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> However, when editing init.el and I hit a carriage return, on the new
>> line the caret jumps to the middle of the window on the same line!
>> Any ideas or advice?
>
> Does this happen from emacs -Q? And could you provide some sample text
> demonstrating the context in which this behaviour occurs? Off the top of my
> head, it reminds me of the standard behaviour when one is using a single
> ';' to indicate ELisp

comments.


Ah, I am using a single semicolon!  I have never heard of that behavior
before, and I don't remember seeing that in XEmacs (but I started with an
extensive init.el from one of the daddy rabbits which may be the reason).

I'll see if a double-semicolon changes the behavior. BTW, do you know how
to change that behavior?

Thanks, Alexis.

Cheers!

-Tom

Re: Line indents to middle when editing init.el: what the heck is happening?

[Alexis]

Tom Browder <tom.browder@gmail.com> writes:

> Ah, I am using a single semicolon!  I have never heard of that 
> behavior before, and I don't remember seeing that in XEmacs (but 
> I started with an extensive init.el from one of the daddy 
> rabbits which may be the reason).

It's part of the GNU Emacs coding conventions / recommendations; 
cf.  this section of GNU Emacs Lisp Reference Manual:

https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/elisp/Comment-Tips.html#Comment-Tips

> I'll see if a double-semicolon changes the behavior. BTW, do you 
> know how to change that behavior?

Well, in terms of which column a single-semicolon comment will be 
aligned to, you can set the value of the variable 
`comment-column`.

Afaik, to change how single-semicolon comments behave overall, 
you'd need to modify the variable `comment-indent-function` to 
point to a function that behaves the way you want (e.g. a modified 
version of the function `comment-indent-default`).

> Thanks, Alexis.

You're welcome. :-)


Alexis.

Re: Line indents to middle when editing init.el: what the heck is happening?

[Tom Browder]

On Fri, Jan 29, 2016 at 10:43 PM, Alexis <flexibeast@gmail.com> wrote:
> It's part of the GNU Emacs coding conventions / recommendations; cf.  this
> section of GNU Emacs Lisp Reference Manual:
>
> https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/elisp/Comment-Tips.html#Comment-Tips

Great link, Alexis.  Changing my comments to leading double-semis
cured the problem.  I'm going to follow the recommended convention as
best I can.

Thanks a heap!

Cheers!

-Tom