Thanks to Philip Stark for organizing an Emacs Hangout that’s more conducive to European timezones! Here’s the video and the notes.

You can add more comments on the event page. For more about upcoming Hangouts, check out our Google+ page.

Show notes (times might need a little adjustment):

• 0:00:03 Introductions!
• 0:03:03 A couple of Emacs semi-newbies =)
• 0:03:52 Java and C# language support (autocomplete, refactoring, etc.); bridging the gap between Emacs and the runtime (Unity, Android, etc.). Batch mode for the latter. OmniSharp actually went pretty darn well this time around!
• 0:06:10 OmniSharp demo
• 0:06:13 https://github.com/MmmCurry/.emacs.d/
• 0:07:23 OmniSharp + company config, demo of completion. Includes API. Jump to definition as well.
• 0:10:59 Cool refactoring stuff. Ex: intelligent rename. Watch out for bugs. Still neat!
• 0:12:30 MS Visual Studio Code seems to run on the same backend =)
• 0:13:18 OmniSharp background info
• 0:14:53 New participant, working out the tech issues
• 0:16:28 Java? Haven’t looked into it much yet, lower priority. Pain point: Eclipse project build chain. eclim? May give it a second chance.
• 0:19:37 Wishlist: batch mode Unity for headless testing?
• 0:20:05 Emacs and Python – working through the Google Code Jam problems. C-c C-c to execute code in the REPL, so much fun. Suggestion: org-babel blocks? =)
• 0:21:37 Discussion about Scala and Ensime. Ooh, Ensime does Java too. Neat!
• 0:22:49 New to Emacs Lisp. Discovering things and implementing them – good enough, but not well-polished. Writing. Helm, etc. So many things to learn! Balancing studying the Emacs Lisp intro and manual, and discovering things day to day.
• 0:25:00 Separate Lisp file loading for experimental stuff.
• 0:25:30 Woodnotes guide? http://therandymon.com/woodnotes/emacs-for-writers/emacs-for-writers.html
• 0:26:32 Emacs StackExchange, Reddit.com/r/emacs, Planet Emacsen
• 0:29:17 Spacemacs, packaged defaults. Learning with index cards. Learning curve. Emacs community is obsessed with documentation. Phenomenal! =)
• 0:34:23 Documented conventions, nicely-designed keybindings etc. for Spacemacs
• 0:35:50 Spacemacs setup asks you which tradition you want to follow
• 0:36:46 nerdtree replacement – neotree
• 0:37:27 Goal is to not rely on Spacemacs, but for it to be a stepping-stone / scaffold
• 0:38:30 Differences between Linux window managers; simplified workflows
• 0:40:24 Looking at configuration frameworks piecemeal, learning workflows
• 0:43:05 Discoverability is a big issue. helm-c-yasnippet has helm-yas-complete, helm-yas-create-snippet-on-region . Can be configured to display the keys. (setq helm-yas-display-key-on-candidate t) Has additional actions if you TAB.
• 0:50:24 Hydra demo. Ex: moving lines up and down. Hydra for Helm?
• 0:57:25 Lispy-mnemonic
• 1:02:58 Usability
• 1:05:30 Lispy-mnemonic workflow – minor mode
• 1:06:15 back-to-indentation and restoring the binding in Lispy
• 1:07:36 org-timer and meeting notes
• 1:08:14 Make timestamps better! =)
• 1:10:53 Cognitive overhead of new IDEs. Ex: SublimeText C-d marks a thing (Emacs equivalent: expand-region)? More organic, flexible commands versus specific ones, staying within your mental model.
• 1:13:00 multiple-cursors, transpose-chars versus backward-kill-word.
• 1:17:30 helm-swoop
• 1:21:06 micro-optimizations, command-log-mode, keyfreq, mc/mark-all-like-this(-dwim), guru-mode
• 1:26:06 Dealing with Eclipse wizards, things that shift you out of your mental model. Discussion of Helm and Ido. Also, helm-show-kill-ring.
• 1:31:59 Hydra and leader keys.
• 1:32:31 Dan’s intro. Figuring out workflow. Export Org Mode to HTML. Yasnippet for HTML5 declarations? Org Mode publishing project support (org) Publishing options
• 1:37:20 Magit, git-timemachine, git-gutter-fringe, git-wip (for committing work in progress each time you save; https://github.com/bartman/git-wip), git-wip-timemachine (forked git-wip, https://github.com/itsjeyd/git-wip-timemachine)
• 1:41:44 undo-tree
• 1:42:57 git-messenger
• 1:43:48 C-x v g, vc-annotate, colour-coding
• 1:45:13 Emacs load times, profiling
• 1:47:59 markdown and flycheck not finding an external command, checking the *Messages* buffer

Text chat:

Thanks, everyone!

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We chatted about packages, packaging, databases, and the upcoming Emacs conference.

Event page: https://plus.google.com/events/c3igul0rj6cfc1qbcar91lrcj0s

What’s this Emacs Hangout thing about? This is an informal way for Emacs geeks to get together and swap tips/notes/questions. You can find the previous Hangouts or sign up for the mailing list at https://sachachua.com/blog/tag/emacs-hangout/ .

Upcoming Emacs Hangouts:

Emacs Lisp Development Tips with John Wiegley
April 28, 2015 Tue 4:00 PM Toronto time (8 PM GMT)

Emacs Hangout
April 30, 2015, at 2 PM Toronto time (6 PM GMT, 8 PM CET):

Want to find out about upcoming hangouts? You can sign up for notifications at http://eepurl.com/bbi-Ir or follow the Emacs conferences and hangouts page.

Timestamps are approximate since I was a little distracted. =)

• 0:25:14 8:26 PM whoops, forgot to keep track of stuff. Before this: conversation about Unity/C#/etc. in Emacs; Spacemacs
• 0:26:33 Howard demonstrates literate database queries with a remote SQL server. SSH tunnel + –protocol=tcp
• 0:28:55 Naming the results of queries and then using them in a different calculation
• 0:30:39 Hmm, might be a good technique for exploring old databases
• 0:31:13 sx.el – StackExchange client
• 0:34:16 howdoi-emacs
• 0:34:57 sx setup, sx-tab-all-questions
• 0:35:59 hydra sample use cases: opening files and directories, changing the quotation of strings, mode switching
• 0:37:30 clone indirect buffers
• 0:39:35 Cask
• 0:43:27 use-package
• 0:44:57 paradox
• 0:49:11 packages
• 0:56:02 Emacs conference stuff
• 1:05:11 weird Emacs things =)
• 1:07:43 Next up: literate config (Dylan, Sean)
• 1:13:19 wrapped up

Text chat and links:

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We chatted about Org coolness and workflows; learning Emacs and deliberate practice; speech recognition; alternate layouts.

Event page: https://plus.google.com/events/cbj3rg26d8j9ifaiff5uq00ncr4

What’s this Emacs Hangout thing about? This is an informal way for Emacs geeks to get together and swap tips/notes/questions. You can find the previous Hangouts or sign up for the mailing list at https://sachachua.com/blog/tag/emacs-hangout/ . The next Emacs Hangout will be on April 15, 2015, at 8 PM Toronto time (12 midnight GMT): https://plus.google.com/events/c3igul0rj6cfc1qbcar91lrcj0s Want to get notified about upcoming hangouts? You can sign up for notifications at http://eepurl.com/bbi-Ir .

Experimenting with org-timer. Times are approximate, despite the seeming precision. =)

• 0:00:12 Intros
• 0:04:22 Howard – Prettify Your Quotation Marks
• 0:06:37 Org Mode Spreadsheets
• 0:12:44 org-aggregate
• 0:12:50 summing up tables
• 0:15:38 Hiding things from export with :PRIVATE: .. :END:
• 0:16:30 Navigation
• 0:17:10 Relative line numbers
• 0:19:32 Org prettiness: org-bullets
• 0:20:51 EMagicians Starter Kit
• 0:26:23 More table stuff
• 0:27:32 Org Mode workflows, reasons to use Org
• 0:28:16 Org to replace Markdown, executable code samples, etc. Literate programming. Attachments.
• 0:29:34 Org tables
• 0:30:11 Literate programming, technical notes
• 0:30:49 Links
• 0:31:54 Keeping all your notes, reference information, and so forth
• 0:32:25 As a simple database
• 0:34:59 Leo’s demo: Org task management, scheduling, linking, refiling, org-pomodoro (with sound and tweaks) and time reporting
• 0:44:47 clock reports, clocktable
• 0:46:09 C-u org-refile
• 0:47:53 tagging strategies (prefixes, @ for contexts, etc.), search
• 0:49:45 using org-drill
• 0:51:19 scheduling vs using agendas
• 0:51:34 org-habits for visualizing consistency
• 0:54:34 erc and other IRC clients
• 0:55:20 devices
• 0:56:47 Other apps like Wunderlist – tasks to synchronize; work/home separation
• 0:59:44 org-trello – close, but no cigar
• 1:00:26 orgzly
• 1:01:44 MobileOrg =( hasn’t been updated in a long time, etc.
• 1:03:15 org-timer, meeting notes, colouring neato
• 1:05:37 spacemacs as a way for Vi converts to try Emacs out
• 1:06:47 keybindings – rebind lots, or not? a few frequently used ones? ErgoEmacs?
• 1:10:23 hydra, key-chord, prefixes, see Sacha’s config for making key-chord more specific
• 1:12:52 pair-programming? tmux and different modes?
• 1:13:09 httpd, impatient-mode, multi-tty?
• 1:18:04 deliberate practice and learning new things
• 1:18:41 putting new things in a temporary section (1 month)
• 1:19:02 reading blog posts (ex: planet.emacsen.org), reading configs, doc.norang.ca/org-mode.html
• 1:21:29 cheat sheet
• 1:22:14 another vote for a staging area (experimental.el)
• 1:24:35 blogging is awesome, org2blog, etc.
• 1:28:59 edebug is a great way to explore how things work
• 1:31:39 watching over people’s shoulders when it comes to Emacs; Hangouts, virtual conference? Moderators are helpful. Handing a virtual microphone out – moderator names someone who can then check in, ask the question, etc. monitoring comments. (Could use help reaching out to speakers, organizing schedule, etc.)
• 1:34:55 Speech interface: less navigation, just commands. Better speech integration – requires C, or can be done with Emacs Lisp? What you’re operating on is different. Intent (what has to happen) vs action (what to do), audio wizards with contextual grammar. Pretty far out still. Translating dictation-friendly names to code-friendly names and vice versa.
• 1:42:02 Quick wins: accelerators, focusing on intent
• 1:44:19 Context
• 1:46:03 LaTeX for math notes? Export to LaTeX or HTML with images, inline images. LyX if you need WYSIWYG? Snippets can help you work at a higher level (instead of memorizing a lot)
• 1:48:52 Alternative keyboard layouts and keybindings; also, typing less (abbreviations, expansions, thinking, etc.), Kinesis
• 1:53:57 Speech recognition. Saying things again instead of editing.
• 1:58:06 Suggestions – more Org workflows, chatting leading up to the next Hangout, asking for help

Text chat:

In which we talked about Hydra (0:11), Helm (0:22), packages (0:25), Quelpa/quse-package (0:29), EWW (0:30), Org Mode (0:40), global-flycheck-mode (0:51), widget, TRAMP (1:15), conferences/hangouts (1:26), more Hydra (1:28), Emacs Lisp (1:32), command-history (1:35), Emacs (1:38), plans for getting better (1:44), latexmk (1:49), and other things. (Times are approximate.)

Other questions/comments:

• Not a question, but I just learned about command-history. Which is a great way to whip up a function. I’m amazed that I just discovered it. – Jonathan Hill
• I saw something in 24.4 change log about a notification system. Could that maybe solve your problem? – Mitchell Hunter
• On Air viewers cannot see Sasha due to Sridhar presenting. – Marc Tamsky
• Anyone using tabs? – Levi Strope

The next Emacs Hangout will be on March 18, 2015, at 8 PM Toronto time (12 midnight GMT) https://plus.google.com/u/0/events/cbj3rg26d8j9ifaiff5uq00ncr4

Want to get notified about upcoming hangouts? You can sign up for notifications at http://eepurl.com/bbi-Ir . We’ll experiment with starting off with a mini-workshop/demo of Org tasks and agenda (or maybe Helm, if that’s more interesting).

Text chat:

WELL. That was odd. Somehow the Google universe bifurcated and I spent the first forty minutes awkwardly talking to myself (braindumping Emacs tips) while the rest of the people in the Emacs hangout (1) wondered about my non-existence, and (2) got on with a great conversation about Emacs. I even did the “Hey, can folks hear me?” sort of thing and since some people were in the text chat and confirmed there were technical issues, I assumed that (a) we were talking about the same technical issues, and (b) many of them were inaudible because of said technical issues (or because they were at work, or whatever). The test audio played fine on my end, and the microphone sound levels looked fine too. I could see the group chat and everything. When it finally occurred to me to refresh my screen (which I had hesitated to do because that might end the session for everyone), I finally joined.

BIG THANK YOU to all the Emacs geeks who shrugged at my absence and carried on chatting. =)

Anyway. Fortunately, the recording is actually from their side of the parallel universe, and my interminable, horribly embarrassing blathering is lost forever. (I hope.) I mistakenly clipped it before, but it should be back to normal now.

Here it is.

http://youtu.be/c6abq9Wv9Wk

Let’s get Emacs Hangouts sorted out for February and March. I think I can avoid technical debacles like this if I schedule something where I know at least one other person will turn up a little early and help me with a tech check. If you volunteer, we can pick a time that matches you. (Yay!) Leave a comment or e-mail me at sacha@sachachua.com . =)

Also, since mailing lists can be useful, here’s one for Emacs Hangout announcements. You’ll get an e-mail to the Google+ Event when we figure out date/time, and another reminder the day before the event. Sign up at http://eepurl.com/bbi-Ir

We've been organizing these Emacs Hangouts as an informal way for folks to get together and swap tips/notes/questions. You can find the previous Hangouts at https://sachachua.com/blog/tag/emacs-hangout/ . In this hangout, we shared tips on Emacs configuration, literate programming, remote access, autocompletion, and web development. And then Jonathan Arkell blew our minds with, well, his mind, demonstrating how he got Mindwave working with Emacs and Org Mode. The next one is scheduled for Jan 9, 2015 (Friday) at 7 PM Toronto time (12 AM GMT) – https://plus.google.com/events/cv3ub5ue6k3fluku7e2rfac161o . Want a different time? Feel free to set up an Emacs Hangout, or contact me (sacha@sachachua.com) and we'll coordinate something.

Chat, links:

Thanks to Cameron Desautels for hosting this one! =D I totally like Emacs Hangouts. We should have more of them.

• tips for showing people how awesome magit is: partial staging, history browsing, diff viewing and jumping to the source file
• org-present, org-babel, org inline images, source code highlighting
• themes
• magit new version, dealing with problems, history browsing, subcommands (:), remoting (M), interactive rebase (E), new features, Wazzup – shows you branch differences (w)
• magit workflows, customization (ex: full-screen), fun with bisecting
• use-package, delaying configuration
• Dvorak, keyboard customization
• evil-mode
• selective display – folds everything beyond an indentation depth
• managing large screens – folding, follow mode, etc.
• projectile-mode
• flx ido
• ace-jump-mode – binding to C-0
• Emacs on Mac OS X, terminal Emacs, sharing clipboard (pbcopy)
• binding things to C-number; M-number, prefix arguments

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