category - emacs :: Sacha Chua

Assumed audience: People who have lots of HTML files used as input for a static site generator, might need to do a batch operation on them, and are open to doing that with Emacs Lisp. Which might just be me, but who knows? =)

HTML defines a hierarchy of headings going from <h1> to <h6>, which comes in especially handy when people are navigating with a screenreader or converting web pages to Org Mode. I think search engines might use them to get a sense of the page's structure, too. On my blog, the hierarchy usually goes like this:

<h1>: site title,
<h2>: blog post titles, since I put multiple blog posts on the main page and category pages (ex: blogging)
<h3>: blog post's subheadings, if any
<h4>: I rarely need subsubheadings in my main blog posts, but they're there just in case

While fiddling with my blog's CSS so that I could try this fluid type scale, I realized that the subheadings in my exported blog entries started at <h2> instead of <h3>. This meant that the outline was this:

Site title
- Blog post 1
- Subheading 1
- Subheading 2
- Blog post 2
- Subheading 1
- Subheading 2
- Blog post 3

I wanted the outline to be this:

Site title
- Blog post 1
  - Subheading 1
  - Subheading 2
- Blog post 2
  - Subheading 1
  - Subheading 2
- Blog post 3

This was because I hadn't changed org-html-toplevel-hlevel during my 11ty export process. To solve this for new posts, I added a new option org-11ty-toplevel-hlevel that defaults to 3 in ox-11ty.el, re-exported one of my long blog posts to test it, and confirmed that my headings now started at <h3>.

I still had all my old HTML files with the wrong levels of headings. I wrote some Emacs Lisp to shift the headings downwards (h5 to h6, h4 to h5, h3 to h4, h2 to h3) in a file if it had an <h2> in it. Regular expressions are usually not a good idea when it comes to HTML because there might be exceptions, but I figured it was a pretty small and low-risk change, so I decided not to use the full XML/DOM parsing functions. I saved all the blog posts under version control just in case I messed things up. Here's my function:

(defun my-html-shift-headings (filename)
  "Shift heading tags in FILENAME."
  (interactive "FFile: ")
  (let ((case-fold-search t)) ; make the search case-insensitive
    (with-temp-buffer
      (insert-file-contents filename)
      (goto-char (point-min))
      ;; Only modify the files where we have an h2
      (when (or (search-forward "<h2" nil t)
                (search-forward "</h2>" nil t))
        (goto-char (point-min))
        ;; Handle both opening and closing tags
        (while (re-search-forward "<\\(/\\)?h\\([2-5]\\)\\>" nil t)
          (let* ((closing-tag (match-string 1))
                 (heading-level (string-to-number (match-string 2)))
                 (new-level (1+ heading-level)))
            (replace-match (concat "<" closing-tag "h" (number-to-string new-level)))))
        (write-file filename)
        filename))))

Running it on all the source HTML files in specific subdirectories was easy with directory-files-recursively.

(dolist (dir '("~/proj/static-blog/blog"
               "~/proj/static-blog/content"))
  (mapc 'my-html-shift-headings
        (directory-files-recursively
         dir
         "\\.html\\'")))

Then I could just rebuild my blog and get all the right heading levels. Spot-checks with Inspect Element show that the headings now have the right tags, and org-web-tools-read-url-as-org now picks up the right hierarchy for the page.

Correcting the input files was easier and more efficient than modifying my 11ty template engine to shift the heading levels whenever I build my site (probably by defining a preprocessor). I could've written a NodeJS script to do that kind of file manipulation, but writing it in Emacs Lisp matched how I might think of doing it interactively. Using Emacs Lisp was also easy to test on one or two files, check the list of files matched by directory-files-recursively, and then run it on everything.

Going forward, the new org-11ty-toplevel-hlevel variable should properly modify the behaviour of Org's HTML export to get the headings at the right level. We'll see!

You can e-mail me at sacha@sachachua.com.

2025-03-31 Emacs news

Mar 31, 2025| emacs, emacs-news

Emacs 30:
- TAONAW - Emacs and Org Mode: Emacs 30.1 so far
Help wanted:
- Show your post-command-hook contents to help Emacs core
Upcoming events (iCal file, Org):
- Emacs Paris: S: Emacs workshop in Paris (online) https://emacs-doctor.com/ Tue Apr 1 0830 America/Vancouver - 1030 America/Chicago - 1130 America/Toronto - 1530 Etc/GMT - 1730 Europe/Berlin - 2100 Asia/Kolkata - 2330 Asia/Singapore
- EmacsATX: Emacs Social https://www.meetup.com/emacsatx/events/306712497/ Wed Apr 2 1600 America/Vancouver - 1800 America/Chicago - 1900 America/Toronto - 2300 Etc/GMT – Thu Apr 3 0100 Europe/Berlin - 0430 Asia/Kolkata - 0700 Asia/Singapore
- M-x Research: TBA https://m-x-research.github.io/ Fri Apr 4 0800 America/Vancouver - 1000 America/Chicago - 1100 America/Toronto - 1500 Etc/GMT - 1700 Europe/Berlin - 2030 Asia/Kolkata - 2300 Asia/Singapore
- Atelier Emacs Montpellier (in person) https://lebib.org/date/atelier-emacs Fri Apr 11 1800 Europe/Paris
Beginner:
- Waclena, K. (2024) Use GNU Emacs (HTML, PDF, or ePub) (@barocio@techhub.social)
- Installing and testing out Emacs for the first time, as a Neovim user With Joshua Blais (1 hour video)
Emacs configuration:
- Emacs Redux: Speed up Emacs Startup by Tweaking the GC Settings (Irreal)
- Matt Maguire: Ergonomic Emacs
- Rahul Juliato: Emacs Solo: A Surprise System Crafters Live Demo (HN)
Emacs Lisp:
- Emacs Introspection and Debugging (@dliden@fosstodon.org)
- Get Emacs Packages from the Emacswiki with a Script (02:45)
- Ep636 emacs lisp, change bracket type, design of function arguments (01:16:25)
Appearance:
- Tip: pulsar-mode, pulsar-recenter-center
- Emacs: Increase text size and adjust window width proportionally. — paste.sr.ht (@jasalt@fosstodon.org)
- James Cherti: Emacs: persist-text-scale.el – Persist and Restore the Text Scale for All Buffers (Github, Reddit)
- Marie K. Ekeberg: Emacs Quick Tip - Smoother scrolling (Irreal)
- Amit Patel: Emacs Tree-sitter custom highlighting, part 3
Org Mode:
- The TAB Key in Org Mode, Reimagined (Reddit)
- Sacha Chua: Org Mode: Cutting the current list item (including nested lists) with a speed command
- trevdev/org-invoice-table: A clocktable for Emacs org-mode that helps you invoice clients - Codeberg.org (@trevdev@fosstodon.org)
- TIL you can combine full-text search and tag-matching in the Org agenda
- Useful library for printing a simplified AST for an org file abstract syntax tree
- How to contribute patches to Org
- Import, export, and integration:
- Org development:
Denote:
- Protesilaos Stavrou: Emacs: Denote ‘query links’ (links that trigger a search)
- Protesilaos Stavrou: Emacs: ‘denote-journal’ integration with ‘M-x calendar’
- Jack Baty: Using the Obsidian Web Clipper with Denote
Completion:
- Activate superword mode in the Emacs Minibuffer #coding #programming (01:07) treat symbols (ex: example_symbol as words)
- [ANN] repeat-fu for repeating multi-command "edits" now available on MELPA (Reddit)
- Emacs company-mode タイピングが楽になる！！ (無音) (01:50)
Coding:
- magit-blame-color-by-age: color-code magit-blame headers by their age
Math:
- "Simple Emacs Spreadsheet" a.k.a SES (Reddit)
Web:
- Srijan Choudhary: 2025-03-24-002
Mail, news, and chat:
- Jack Baty: Mu4e transient menu
- Gnus for Noobs: Mail and News in Emacs - System Crafters Live! (01:40:19)
- Listful Andrew: Atomizer — Make Atom feeds for your site (Emacs package)
- mastodon.el 2.0.0: encrypted auth tokens, fixes, cycling images (@mousebot@todon.nl)
- Sacha Chua: mastodon.el: Collect handles in clipboard (Emacs kill ring)
- Sacha Chua: mastodon.el: Copy toot content as Org Mode
- Benjamin Slade: Trials and Visions of Internet Relay Chat
Evil mode:
- 왜 C-d 키를 눌러 스크롤하면 절반 이상이 넘을까? - (emacsian ohyecloudy) (@ohyecloudy@mastodon.social) - evil and scrolling
Multimedia:
- Emacs lisp function to update exif data in film scans | Baty.net (@jbaty@social.lol)
- chordpro-mode.el v2.5.0 release (Reddit
- fretboard.el – guitar fretboard visualization tool for Emacs (Reddit, HN)
AI:
- Ten Dollar Adventure Blog - Automating Interactive Fiction Logic Generation with LLMs in Emacs HN
- James Dyer: Ollama-Buddy 0.9.11: Experimental ChatGPT Integration, Customizable Streaming and Texinfo documentation
- Accidentally writing an Emacs Package - fabric-gpt
- Ollama Buddy - Same prompt to 10 models (multishot) #emacs #ollama (01:27)
Community:
- Ramin Honary: Emacs fulfills the UNIX Philosophy (overview) (@amoroso@fosstodon.org)
- Emacs for Everything (@fnat@social.coop, Reddit)
Other:
- My new Emacs (and Ruby) based Static Site Generator (@mms@mastodon.bsd.cafe)
- James Cherti: Emacs: bufferfile.el – Delete or rename buffer file names with their associated buffers (Github, Reddit)
- James Cherti: Emacs: stripspace.el – Automatically Remove Trailing Whitespace Before Saving a Buffer, with an Option to Preserve the Cursor Column
- trope-mode
- Emacs Macros: All You Need to Know #coding #programming (15:37) - keyboard macros
- Clojure visual-tools 32- Workflow Demos 6: old-school tools, REPL, Emacs, Org-mode, AI, MCP, & more (01:51:40)
Emacs development:
- emacs-devel: A few explanations. I wonder where a good place to link to these would be; not quite news, but might be good to keep findable since emacs-devel search can be challenging
  - Why replace-region-contents is being deprecated
  - Why there's no built-in function to check if a variable has been changed (helpful has helpful–original-value-differs-p)
  - Why unintern has a mandatory argument
- Don't obsolete the command replace-buffer-contents
- Merge remote-tracking branch 'origin/scratch/replace-region-contents'
- (replace-region-contents): Improve and promote (bug#76313)
- Enhance 'icomplete-vertical-mode' customization options.
- New function 'hash-table-contains-p'
- New minor mode: `electric-block-comment-mode'
- New Eldoc function `eldoc-show-help-at-pt'
- Add major mode for highlighting npmrc files (Bug#77138)
- Help find-function find methods defined inside macros
- Further amendments of child frame handling and documentation
- * lisp/treesit-x.el: New file.
New packages:
- citar-org-node: Citar integration with org-node (MELPA)
- denote-regexp: Compose regexps to match Denote files (MELPA)
- forge-llm: LLM integration for generating PR descriptions in Forge (MELPA)
- magit-ido: Support using Ido in Magit (MELPA)
- org-invoice-table: Invoicing table formatter for org-mode (MELPA)
- repeat-fu: Minor mode to repeat typing or commands (MELPA)
- stripspace: Auto remove trailing whitespace and restore column (MELPA)

Links from reddit.com/r/emacs, r/orgmode, r/spacemacs, r/planetemacs, Mastodon #emacs, Bluesky #emacs, Hacker News, lobste.rs, programming.dev, lemmy.world, lemmy.ml, planet.emacslife.com, YouTube, the Emacs NEWS file, Emacs Calendar, and emacs-devel. Thanks to Andrés Ramírez for emacs-devel links. Do you have an Emacs-related link or announcement? Please e-mail me at sacha@sachachua.com. Thank you!

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You can comment on Mastodon or e-mail me at sacha@sachachua.com.

Org Mode: Cutting the current list item (including nested lists) with a speed command

Mar 29, 2025| emacs, org

Defining shortcuts in org-speed-commands is handy because you can use these single-key shortcuts at the beginning of a subtree. With a little modification, they'll also work at the beginning of list items.

(defun my-org-use-speed-commands-for-headings-and-lists ()
  "Activate speed commands on list items too."
  (or (and (looking-at org-outline-regexp) (looking-back "^\**" nil))
      (save-excursion (and (looking-at (org-item-re)) (looking-back "^[ \t]*" nil)))))
(setq org-use-speed-commands 'my-org-use-speed-commands-for-headings-and-lists)

I want k to be an org-speed-commands that cuts the current subtree or list item. This is handy when I'm cleaning up the Mastodon toots in my weekly review or getting rid of outline items that I no longer need. By default, k is mapped to org-cut-subtree, but it's easy to override.

(defun my-org-cut-subtree-or-list-item (&optional n)
  "Cut current subtree or list item."
  (cond
   ((and (looking-at org-outline-regexp) (looking-back "^\**" nil))
    (org-cut-subtree n))
   ((looking-at (org-item-re))
    (kill-region (org-beginning-of-item) (org-end-of-item)))))
(with-eval-after-load 'org
  (setf (alist-get "k" org-speed-commands nil nil #'string=)
        #'my-org-cut-subtree-or-list-item))

So now, if I put my cursor before "1." below and press k:

- this
  1. is a
    - nested
  2. list
- with levels

it will turn into:

this
1. list
with levels

You can find out a little more about Org Mode speed commands in the Org manual: (info "(org) Speed Keys").

This is part of my Emacs configuration.

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You can e-mail me at sacha@sachachua.com.

Categories: geek » emacs