With an awesome development environment like my customized Emacs, however, I can easily juggle multiple source trees. Here’s the macro I wrote to make setting this up much easier:
(defmacro sacha/file-cache-setup-tree (prefix shortcut directories)
"Set up the file-cache tree for PREFIX using the keyboard SHORTCUT.
DIRECTORIES should be a list of directory names."
`(let ((file-cache-alist nil)
(directories ,directories))
(file-cache-clear-cache)
(while directories
(file-cache-add-directory-using-find (car directories))
(setq directories (cdr directories)))
(setq ,(intern (concat "sacha/file-cache-" prefix "-alist")) file-cache-alist)
(defun ,(intern (concat "sacha/file-cache-ido-find-" prefix)) ()
(interactive)
(let ((file-cache-alist ,(intern (concat "sacha/file-cache-" prefix "-alist"))))
(call-interactively 'file-cache-ido-find-file)))
(global-set-key (kbd ,shortcut)
(quote ,(intern (concat "sacha/file-cache-ido-find-" prefix))))))
With that, I can use the following to map C-c p to finding files in my personal directories:
(sacha/file-cache-setup-tree
"personal"
"C-c p"
'("/var/www/html/drupal"
"~/elisp"
"~/personal"))
I’ve also set up keyboard shortcuts for the other trees I’m working on.
You’ll need file-cache, ido, and probably something like this:
(require 'filecache)
(require 'ido)
(defun file-cache-ido-find-file (file)
"Using ido, interactively open file from file cache'.
First select a file, matched using ido-switch-buffer against the contents
in `file-cache-alist'. If the file exist in more than one
directory, select directory. Lastly the file is opened."
(interactive (list (file-cache-ido-read "File: "
(mapcar
(lambda (x)
(car x))
file-cache-alist))))
(let* ((record (assoc file file-cache-alist)))
(find-file
(expand-file-name
file
(if (= (length record) 2)
(car (cdr record))
(file-cache-ido-read
(format "Find %s in dir: " file) (cdr record)))))))
(defun file-cache-ido-read (prompt choices)
(let ((ido-make-buffer-list-hook
(lambda ()
(setq ido-temp-list choices))))
(ido-read-buffer prompt)))
(add-to-list 'file-cache-filter-regexps "docs/html")
(add-to-list 'file-cache-filter-regexps "\\.svn-base$")
(add-to-list 'file-cache-filter-regexps "\\.dump$")
You can e-mail me at sacha@sachachua.com.
]]>Update 2014-05-13: The original code is for BBDB version 2. Thomas Morgan sent this update which makes it work with BBDB version 3 – see below.
I like starting my e-mail with a short salutation such as “Hello, Mike!”, “Hello, Michael”, or “Hello, Mikong!”, but it can be hard to remember which nicknames people prefer to use, and calling someone by the wrong name is a bit of a faux pas. Sometimes people sign e-mail with their preferred name, but what if you haven’t sent e-mail to or received e-mail from someone in a while? In this project, you’ll learn how to set up my BBDB to remember people’s nicknames for you using a custom “nick” field, and to use those nicknames when replying to messages in Gnus or composing messages from my BBDB.
The nickname code worked so well that I started thinking of what else I could customize. It was easy to go from nicknames to personalized salutations. This hack started because one of my friends is from Romania, so I thought I’d greet her in Romanian with “Salut, Letitia!” instead of just “Hello, Letitia!”. The code in this project uses a “hello” field to store these salutations in your BBDB.
To set up personalized nicknames and salutations, add the following code to your ~/.emacs:
For BBDB v2
(defvar wicked/gnus-nick-threshold 5 "*Number of people to stop greeting individually. Nil means always greet individually.") ;; (1) (defvar wicked/bbdb-hello-string "Hello, %s!" "Format string for hello. Example: \"Hello, %s!\"") (defvar wicked/bbdb-hello-all-string "Hello, all!" "String for hello when there are many people. Example: \"Hello, all!\"") (defvar wicked/bbdb-nick-field 'nick "Symbol name for nickname field in BBDB.") (defvar wicked/bbdb-salutation-field 'hello "Symbol name for salutation field in BBDB.") (defun wicked/gnus-add-nick-to-message () "Inserts \"Hello, NICK!\" in messages based on the recipient's nick field." (interactive) (save-excursion (let* ((bbdb-get-addresses-headers ;; (2) (list (assoc 'recipients bbdb-get-addresses-headers))) (recipients (bbdb-get-addresses nil gnus-ignored-from-addresses 'gnus-fetch-field)) recipient nicks rec net salutations) (goto-char (point-min)) (when (re-search-forward "--text follows this line--" nil t) (forward-line 1) (if (and wicked/gnus-nick-threshold (>= (length recipients) wicked/gnus-nick-threshold)) (insert wicked/bbdb-hello-all-string "\n\n") ;; (3) (while recipients (setq recipient (car (cddr (car recipients)))) (setq net (nth 1 recipient)) (setq rec (car (bbdb-search (bbdb-records) nil nil net))) (cond ((null rec) ;; (4) (add-to-list 'nicks (car recipient))) ((bbdb-record-getprop rec wicked/bbdb-salutation-field) ;; (5) (add-to-list 'salutations (bbdb-record-getprop rec wicked/bbdb-salutation-field))) ((bbdb-record-getprop rec wicked/bbdb-nick-field) ;; (6) (add-to-list 'nicks (bbdb-record-getprop rec wicked/bbdb-nick-field))) (t (bbdb-record-name rec))) ;; (7) (setq recipients (cdr recipients)))) (when nicks ;; (8) (insert (format wicked/bbdb-hello-string (mapconcat 'identity (nreverse nicks) ", ")) " ")) (when salutations ;; (9) (insert (mapconcat 'identity salutations " "))) (when (or nicks salutations) (insert "\n\n"))))) (goto-char (point-min))) (defadvice gnus-post-news (after wicked/bbdb activate) "Insert nicknames or custom salutations." (wicked/gnus-add-nick-to-message)) (defadvice gnus-msg-mail (after wicked/bbdb activate) "Insert nicknames or custom salutations." (wicked/gnus-add-nick-to-message)) (defadvice gnus-summary-reply (after wicked/bbdb activate) "Insert nicknames or custom salutations." (wicked/gnus-add-nick-to-message))
For BBDB v3
;; This version is for BBDBv3 - thanks, Thomas! (defvar wicked/gnus-nick-threshold 5 "*Number of people to stop greeting individually. Nil means always greet individually.") ;; (1) (defvar wicked/bbdb-hello-string "Hello, %s!" "Format string for hello. Example: \"Hello, %s!\"") (defvar wicked/bbdb-hello-all-string "Hello, all!" "String for hello when there are many people. Example: \"Hello, all!\"") (defvar wicked/bbdb-nick-field 'nick "Symbol name for nickname field in BBDB.") (defvar wicked/bbdb-salutation-field 'hello "Symbol name for salutation field in BBDB.") (defun wicked/gnus-add-nick-to-message () "Inserts \"Hello, NICK!\" in messages based on the recipient's nick field." (interactive) (let ((recipients (bbdb-get-address-components)) recipient nicks rec net salutations) (goto-char (point-min)) (when (re-search-forward "--text follows this line--" nil t) (forward-line 1) (if (and wicked/gnus-nick-threshold (>= (length recipients) wicked/gnus-nick-threshold)) (insert wicked/bbdb-hello-all-string "\n\n") ;; (3) (while recipients (setq recipient (car recipients)) (setq net (nth 1 recipient)) (setq rec (car (bbdb-search (bbdb-records) nil nil net))) (cond ((null rec) ;; (4) (add-to-list 'nicks (car recipient))) ((bbdb-record-xfield rec wicked/bbdb-salutation-field) ;; (5) (add-to-list 'salutations (bbdb-record-xfield rec wicked/bbdb-salutation-field))) ((bbdb-record-xfield rec wicked/bbdb-nick-field) ;; (6) (add-to-list 'nicks (bbdb-record-xfield rec wicked/bbdb-nick-field))) (t (add-to-list 'nicks (car (split-string (bbdb-record-name rec)))))) ;; (7) (setq recipients (cdr recipients)))) (when nicks ;; (8) (insert (format wicked/bbdb-hello-string (mapconcat 'identity (nreverse nicks) ", ")) " ")) (when salutations ;; (9) (insert (mapconcat 'identity salutations " "))) (when (or nicks salutations) (insert "\n\n"))))) (defadvice gnus-post-news (after wicked/bbdb activate) "Insert nicknames or custom salutations." (wicked/gnus-add-nick-to-message)) (defadvice gnus-msg-mail (after wicked/bbdb activate) "Insert nicknames or custom salutations." (wicked/gnus-add-nick-to-message)) (defadvice gnus-summary-reply (after wicked/bbdb activate) "Insert nicknames or custom salutations." (wicked/gnus-add-nick-to-message))
After you add this code, you can store personalized nicknames and salutations in your BBDB. Nicknames and salutations will be looked up using people’s e-mail addresses. While in the *BBDB* buffer, you can type C-o (bbdb-insert-new-field) to add a field to the current record. Add a nick field with the person’s nickname, or a hello field with a custom salutation. When you compose a message to or reply to a message from that person, the salutation or nickname will be included. If no nickname can be found, the recipient’s name will be used instead.
A number of variables can be used to modify the behavior of this code(1). For example, you may or may not want to greet 20 people individually. The default value of wicked/gnus-nick-threshold is to greet up to four people individually, and greet more people collectively. If you always want to greet people individually, add (setq wicked/gnus-nick-threshold nil) to your ~/.emacs. If you want to change the strings used to greet people individually or collectively, change wicked/bbdb-hello-string and wicked/bbdb-hello-all-string. If you want to store the data into different fields, change wicked/bbdb-nick-field and wicked/bbdb-salutation-field, but note that old data will not be automatically copied to the new fields.
Here’s how the code works. First, it retrieves the list of addresses from the header(2). If there are more addresses than wicked/gnus-nick-threshold, then wicked/bbdb-hello-all-string is used to greet everyone. If not, each recipient address is looked up. If the recipient cannot be found in your BBDB, then the recipient’s name or e-mail address is used(4). If there is a personalized salutation, it is used(5). If there is a nickname, it is used(6). If the person has a record but neither salutation or nickname, then the name of the record is used(7). After all recipients have been processed, the names are added to the message(8), followed by the salutations(9). This function is added to the different Gnus message-posting functions, so it should be called whenever you compose or reply to messages.
You can view 4 comments or e-mail me at sacha@sachachua.com.
]]>I hadn’t realized just how much I missed my Big Brother Database until today. Three networking events packed into one week meant that I hadn’t set aside enough time for follow up, and I felt my memories of the conversations getting a little hazy. Fortunately I’d taken some notes on my Palm, but I knew I had to get it into some kind of contact management system quickly, and Gmail Contacts just wasn’t compelling enough for me. So it’s back to Emacs, plain text files, and a surprisingly sophisticated contact manager.
I also promised to do some work on the book today, so everything dovetailed nicely.
The following bit of code helps me filter displayed contacts to show only the people I haven’t contacted since a certain date. This is handy for remembering to keep in touch with old friends, for example. Or at least it would be handy if I used it more often and if I actually sent the letters that pile up in my e-mail drafts and my snail mail outbox… but at least it’s a step in the right direction.
If you want to know who you have or haven’t talked to in a while, you need to do two things. First, you need to keep track of when you talked to people. Second, you need to generate reports.
To be able to quickly add contact notes to BBDB records, add the following to your ~/.emacs:
(define-key bbdb-mode-map
"z" 'wicked/bbdb-ping-bbdb-record)
(
defun
wicked/bbdb-ping-bbdb-record (bbdb-record text
&optional date regrind)
"Adds a note for today to the current BBDB record.
Call with a prefix to specify date.
BBDB-RECORD is the record to modify (default: current).
TEXT is the note to add for DATE.
If REGRIND is non-nil, redisplay the BBDB record."
(interactive (list (bbdb-current-record t)
(read-string
"Notes: ")
;;
Reading date - more powerful with Planner, but we'll make do if necessary
(
if (
featurep '
planner)
(
if current-prefix-arg (planner-read-date) (planner-today))
(
if current-prefix-arg
(read-string
"Date (YYYY.MM.DD): ")
(format-time-string
"%Y.%m.%d")))
t))
(bbdb-record-putprop bbdb-record
'contact
(concat date
": " text
"\n"
(or (bbdb-record-getprop bbdb-record 'contact))))
(
if regrind
(
save-excursion
(set-buffer bbdb-buffer-name)
(bbdb-redisplay-one-record bbdb-record)))
nil)
You can then use
If you met a number of people at an event in the past and you have Planner installed and loaded, you can use planner-timewarp to set the effective date to another date. To return to today, use M-x planner-timewarp nil.
To automatically add a datestamped copy of sent e-mail subjects to people’s BBDB records, add the following to your ~/.gnus:
(
defun
wicked/message-add-subject-to-bbdb-record ()
"Add datestamped subject note for each person this message has been sent to."
(
let* ((subject (concat (format-time-string
"%Y.%m.%d")
": E-mail: " (message-fetch-field
"Subject")
"\n"))
(bbdb-get-addresses-headers
(list (assoc 'recipients bbdb-get-addresses-headers)))
records)
(setq records
(bbdb-update-records
(bbdb-get-addresses nil gnus-ignored-from-addresses 'gnus-fetch-field)
nil nil))
(mapc (
lambda (rec)
(bbdb-record-putprop rec
'contact
(concat subject
(or
(bbdb-record-getprop rec 'contact)
""))))
records)))
(add-hook 'message-send-hook 'wicked/message-add-subject-to-bbdb-record)
Now that you have the data, how can you use it to filter? Add the following to your ~/.emacs:
(
defun
wicked/bbdb-show-only-no-contact-since (date
&optional reverse records)
"Show only people who haven't been pinged since DATE or at all.
If REVERSE is non-nil, show only the people you've contacted on or since DATE.
Call with a prefix argument to show only people you've contacted on or since DATE."
(interactive (list
(
if (
featurep '
planner)
(planner-read-date)
(read-string
"Date (YYYY.MM.DD): "))
current-prefix-arg (or bbdb-records (bbdb-records))))
(
let (new-records
last-match
timestamp
omit
notes)
(
while records
;;
Find the latest date mentioned in the entry
(
let ((timestamp (wicked/bbdb-last-date
(
if (vectorp (car records))
(car records)
(caar records)))))
(
if (
if reverse
;;
Keep if contact is >= date
(null (string< timestamp date))
;;
Keep if date > contact
(string> date timestamp))
(add-to-list 'new-records (
if (vectorp (car records))
(car records)
(caar records)) t)))
(setq records (cdr records)))
(bbdb-display-records new-records)))
(
defun
wicked/bbdb-last-date (rec)
"Return the most recent date for REC or nil if none.
Dates should be in the form YYYY.MM.DD. The first date in the
notes field and the first date in the contact field are used, so
dates should be in reverse chronological order."
(
let* ((wicked/date-regexp
"\\<
\\
(
[1-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]
\\
)
\\.
\\
(
[0-9][0-9]?
\\
)
\\.
\\
(
[0-9][0-9]?
\\
)
\\>")
;;
Get the first date mentioned in the notes field
(notes-date
(or (and (string-match wicked/date-regexp (or (bbdb-record-notes rec)
""))
(match-string 0 (or (bbdb-record-notes rec)
"")))
"0000.00.00"))
;;
Get the first date mentioned in the contact field
(contact-date
(or (and (string-match wicked/date-regexp (or (bbdb-record-getprop rec 'contact)
""))
(match-string 0 (or (bbdb-record-getprop rec 'contact)
"")))
"0000.00.00")))
;;
Compare the two dates
(or (
if (string< notes-date contact-date) contact-date notes-date)
"0000.00.00")))
To generate a report, use M-x wicked/bbdb-show-only-no-contact-since and specify the date. These functions are much easier to use with Planner’s date-handling functions. Planner can read dates like “-1” (yesterday), “-7fri” (seven Fridays ago), “2” (the second of this month), “1.2” (January 2 in this year), and “2007.01.02” (January 2, 2007).
You can also flip the filter by using the universal prefix argument (\{\{C-u M-x wicked/bbdb-show-only-no-contact-since\}\}) to show only the people you’ve contacted since a certain date. This is good for knowing the size of your active network. Because the filter works on displayed records, you can combine it to find all the people you talked to last year but not this year. You can also combine it with other filters to find all the people you’ve marked as friends, but who you haven’t talked to in three months. Then you can send a personalized e-mail or make a phone list, and get back in touch. And that’s how you keep track of your contact dates!
You can e-mail me at sacha@sachachua.com.
]]>
(defun sacha/gnus-personalize-signature ()
"Personalizes signature based on BBDB signature field.
BBDB signature field should be a lambda expression.
First person with a custom signature field gets used."
(let* ((bbdb-get-addresses-headers
(list (assoc 'recipients bbdb-get-addresses-headers)))
(records (bbdb-update-records
(bbdb-get-addresses
nil
gnus-ignored-from-addresses 'gnus-fetch-field)
nil
nil))
signature)
(while (and records (not signature))
(when (bbdb-record-getprop (car records) 'signature)
(setq signature
(eval (read (bbdb-record-getprop (car records)
'signature)))))
(setq records (cdr records)))
(or signature t)))
(setq-default message-signature 'sacha/gnus-personalize-signature)
So then all I have to do is add the following field to his record:
signature: (concat "Sacha Chua - Emacs geek
What crazy idea can I help you hack next?
Random Emacs symbol: "
(sacha/random-tagline
"~/.taglines.random-emacs-symbols"))
Emacs. One crazy idea at a time. Now I can use this to select random
information, like my favorite networking books or a list of my
upcoming events…
Random Emacs symbol: sort-coding-systems-predicate – Variable: If non-nil, a predicate function to sort coding systems.
You can view 1 comment or e-mail me at sacha@sachachua.com.
]]>Actually. Hmm.
(progn (apropos ".") (write-file "~/.taglines.random-emacs-symbols") (delete-matching-lines "Plist") (delete-matching-lines "not documented") (replace-regexp "\n " " - " nil) (delete-non-matching-lines " - "))
Et voila! Random Emacs taglines together with the code:
(defun sacha/random-tagline (&optional file)
"Return a random tagline and put it in the kill ring."
(interactive)
(with-current-buffer (find-file-noselect (or file "~/.taglines"))
(goto-char (random (point-max)))
(let ((string
(buffer-substring (line-beginning-position)
(line-end-position))))
(kill-new string)
string)))
(defadvice remember (after sacha-tagline activate)
"Add random tagline."
(save-excursion
(goto-char (point-max))
(insert "\n\nRandom Emacs symbol: "
(sacha/random-tagline "~/.taglines.random-emacs-symbols")
"\n\n")))))
Random Emacs symbol: eshell-remove-entries – Function: From PATH, remove all of the given FILES, perhaps interactively.
You can e-mail me at sacha@sachachua.com.
]]>
(defun sacha/bbdb (string elidep)
"Display all entries in the BBDB matching the regexp STRING
in either the name(s), company, network address, or notes.
Prioritize non-note matches."
(interactive
(list (bbdb-search-prompt "Search records %m regexp: ")
current-prefix-arg))
(let* ((bbdb-display-layout (bbdb-grovel-elide-arg elidep))
(notes (cons '* string))
(records-top
(bbdb-search (bbdb-records) string string string nil
nil))
(records
(bbdb-search (bbdb-records) string string string notes
nil))
temp)
(setq temp records-top)
(while temp
(setq records (delete (car temp) records))
(setq temp (cdr temp)))
(if (or records-top records)
(bbdb-display-records (append
records-top
records))
;; we could use error here, but it's not really an error.
(message "No records matching '%s'" string))))
(defalias 'bbdb 'sacha/bbdb)
You can e-mail me at sacha@sachachua.com.
]]>
(defvar sacha/bbdb-rapid-serial-visualization-delay
1
"*Number of seconds to wait between records.
Set to 0 to wait for input.")
(defun sacha/bbdb-rapid-serial-visualization ()
"Breeze through everyone's name and notes."
(interactive)
(window-configuration-to-register ?a)
;; Copy the currently visible records
(let ((records bbdb-records)
(default-size (face-attribute 'default :height))
(new-size 400)
(continue t))
(set-face-attribute 'default nil :height new-size)
(pop-to-buffer (get-buffer-create "BBDB-Serial"))
(delete-other-windows)
(while (and records continue)
(insert (bbdb-record-name (caar records))
"\n\n"
(or (car (bbdb-record-net (caar records))) "No e-mail")
"\n\n"
(or (bbdb-record-notes (caar records)) "")
(make-string 50 ?\n))
(goto-char (point-min))
(sit-for sacha/bbdb-rapid-serial-visualization-delay)
(setq records (cdr records)))
(set-face-attribute 'default nil :height default-size)
(when continue
(jump-to-register ?a))))
You can e-mail me at sacha@sachachua.com.
]]>