Are there any good sources out there for how to write good Emacs Lisp
that don't make the assumption that you don't know Lisp in general? I
ask because there seems to be quite a lot of Emacs Lisp knowledge out
there that's part of it's extensive library of Lisp functions, but the
tutorial stuff I've found spends a lot more time talking about what a
cons is and what lambda means than it does about how to actually use
the Emacsy parts if you already have a decent handle on the Lispy
parts.
TIA,
Pillsy
Pillsy wrote:
> Are there any good sources out there for how to write good Emacs Lisp
> that don't make the assumption that you don't know Lisp in general? I
> ask because there seems to be quite a lot of Emacs Lisp knowledge out
> there that's part of it's extensive library of Lisp functions, but the
> tutorial stuff I've found spends a lot more time talking about what a
> cons is and what lambda means than it does about how to actually use
> the Emacsy parts if you already have a decent handle on the Lispy
> parts.
I find that the GNU [elisp][1] manual makes a fine, concise starting
point for things that are "built-in" concepts. Over the years, I have
only found it more clear when re-reading definitions as the descriptions
are actually presented in a somewhat plausible, causal order (not to by
underestimated in Nelson's nightmare).
For a quick example, let's say I wanted to write some elisp to grab text
around the point. By some magic process (waves hands), I figure out
that the Emacs [buffers][2] abstraction maintains the relevant
information. Then reading, following links, eval on variations: it *is*
Lisp after all.
The best source is, of course, the source where [the "point" is live][3]
in Emacs, i.e. it is interactive. There are a whole slew of CL
constructs implemented in elisp macros, so I tend to gravitate towards
the code that uses these symbols.
Hope this might help somewhat,
[1]:http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/elisp-manual/
[2]:http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/elisp-manual/html_mono/elisp.html#Buffers
[3]:http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/elisp-manual/html_mono/elisp.html#Point
--
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