Hello everybody, basically I'm writing here since I cannot make my python.el work (a major mode for writing python with emacs), but I would also like to share my user experience and tell you what I think an emacs mode should do, why do I like them and hopefully have some feedbacks to see if I misunderstood/underestimate something.
== 1) my python.el doesn't behave very well == I learnt somewhere http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/PythonMode that there are two major emacs mode for python around: python-mode.el and python.el. Asking my Emacs 22.3.1 about the variable load-path issuing 'C-h v load-path RET I see that /usr/share/emacs/22.3/lisp/progmodes is in that path; there I find a file named python.elc which I assume to be some kind of emacs lisp bytecode since is pretty much unreadable. So I searched the web for a plain version of it, finding that the feature I use more, i.e. sending a line of a text file to the python buffer for evaluation (see below), correspond to the key sequence \C-c\C-c (well, it's python-send-buffer, so maybe not a single line but the whole buffer; the closest to my needs, anyway). However: I open my Emacs, issue M-x python-mode, then M-x run-python to have the interpreter in a second buffer, I type something in the first buffer and then C-c C-c, but nothing happens. Am I missing something? Do I have any hope of having some sort of send-line-to-python-buffer function working? == 2) How do I use emacs modes for interpreted languages == Please note that what follows is just the personal perspective of an unexperienced user. Syntax highlighting is a great thing, but is not as critical to me as the feature I describe below. When I work with interpreted languages, I really hate doing it in the shell; after 20 commands I easily lose control on what happens and on which definitions are around. I use Emacs instead, so that I can have two buffers; in the first I type my expressions, in the second I evaluate them using some key bindings so that I can easily send the text from the first buffer to the second one line by line. In this way I can easily refactor my code, and eventually package it in a script if I like. Usually after a while the intepreter buffer is a big mess, so I restart it but my code is safe and sound in the first buffer. To do so, I don't really need a major mode, I admit; I just need to put the following code in my .emacs: (fset 'send-line-other-window [?\C-a ?\C- ?\C-e ?M-w right ?C-x ?o ?C-y return ?\C-x ?o]) (global-set-key [f11] 'send-line-other-window) Then I open emacs, C-x 2 to have a second buffer, C-x o to switch to it and M-x shell to run bash in it. Then, in the case of python, I run "python" in the bash buffer. Then I type my code in the first and with F11 I send lines to the interpreter. But since i like to do it The Right Way, I would like to let the python-mode worry about this... Sorry if this is just a bunch of obvious thoughts to most of you. Regards, Giovanni -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list