Anyone use ELSE minor-mode in Emacs?

[Christian Seberino]

Peter
                                                                                
Hello! Thank you very much for your detailed reply to my
comp.lang.python post about ELSE.  I downloaded the
else-mode.el file and was able to load it.  I'm having problems
getting the Python template file loaded (Python.lse).
                                                                                
Can I put this in my home directory and/or specify the path
to it instead of placing it somewhere else?  Can I load
it from Emacs myself??
                                                                                
Also, Python doesn't have as much junk as C to type.
Is ELSE still useful in Python since Python has no
braces, semicolons, etc. that one needs to automate?
                                                                                
Chris
--
_______________________________________
                                                                                
Christian Seberino, Ph.D.
SPAWAR Systems Center San Diego
_______________________________________




"Peter Milliken" <peterm at resmed.com.au> wrote in message news:<D7LBb.228$CR5.10316 at nnrp1.ozemail.com.au>...
> I use it - but then I'm the author :-)
> 
> I am hopeful that the "time to learn it" is very short. Probably the
> quickest way to get to learn it is to use the "tokens" i.e. enable the
> else-mode minor mode in a .py file and type in "def" and then run the
> else-expand-placeholder command (C-c / e - this key encoding is "forced" on
> Emacs minor mode authors by Emacs expansion conventions - I use F3
> personally :-)). and you should get the appropriate code structure.
> Similarly, type in "classC-c / e" and you'll get a class structure.
> 
> Then just "expand" every "placeholder" until you start to get a feel for
> where it leads. If you stick with just the "tokens" at first, then you'll
> quickly get an idea of what ELSE can do. Using "placeholders" follows fairly
> naturally from token expansions.
> 
> If you don't want to handle the menus etc of using placeholders straight off
> the bat then that's no problem, just type directly into a placeholder and it
> will disappear and get out of your face :-)
> 
> Once you have used it for a while and (hopefully :-)) find it useful, then
> perhaps venture into the users manual. I hope I have laid it out reasonably
> well, so you can focus in on the areas that interest you.
> 
> Please do not stay with the minor mode key-bindings as the idea of ELSE is
> to reduce typing - having to type C-c / x all the time where "x" is "e, p,
> n, or k" defeats the entire purpose - but those are the "rules" for minor
> mode creators in Emacs :-) That is why the ELSE manual recommends that one
> of the first priorities is the creating of a convenient key-binding. I use:
> 
> F3 - else-expand-placeholder
> F4 - else-next-placeholder
> F5 - else-previous-placeholder
> F6 - else-kill-placeholder
> 
> I have a version of else-mode.el that has a command else-show-tokens - this
> is useful to quickly see what "tokens" are available for expansion using
> this mechanism. At the moment with the current released version of ELSE, you
> have to browse the individual language file to see what strings are defined
> as tokens. Token definitions are always at the end of the file, BTW :-) Let
> me know if you want a copy of that version - I am behind a firewall at work,
> so updating the web-site always has to wait for when I have the time to get
> on the Internet at home - something that can take weeks to do sometimes :-)
> 
> As a general rule, any "keyword" is defined as a token i.e. return, if, def,
> try, while etc etc - try them to see what you get :-) It is very easy to
> define your own "tokens" (shortcuts for want of a better term), the manual
> describes all of this or you could just look at the language template files
> for examples.
> 
> 
> As for what it does for me - it saves me typing (use it properly and your
> main coding experience is the entry of variable names etc) and with more
> syntactically strict languages such as C etc it saves me having to type in
> {}'s and ;'s :-) If you use ELSE for a language like C then you never get a
> compiler error saying you have missed a } or a ; - surely a big time saving
> :-)
> 
> The whole idea behind ELSE is to save typing - which means higher
> productivity and allows the programmer to focus on the problem at hand -
> writing a program to meet a need. The programmer shouldn't be distracted
> from the job at hand worrying about whether they got the language syntax
> correct or not :-)
> 
> Hope this helps,
> 
> Peter
> 
> 
> "Christian Seberino" <seberino at spawar.navy.mil> wrote in message
> news:bf23f78f.0312091603.f91c1e7 at posting.google.com...
> > I am looking at the ELSE home page and trying to figure out if I should
> > invest the time to learn about the ELSE minor mode for Emacs.
> >
> > Is there any programmer out there using ELSE that is getting great
> > benefit from it?
> >
> > What does ELSE minor-mode for Emacs do that is so great for you?
> >
> > Chris