Weekly Tips, Tricks, &c. Thread

This is a thread for smaller, miscellaneous items that might not warrant a full post on their own. [See this search for previous "Weekly Tips, Tricks, &c." Threads.](https://www.reddit.com/r/emacs/search?q=Weekly+tips&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) Don't feel constrained in regards to what you post, just keep your post vaguely, generally on the topic of emacs.

[I Recently discovered engine-mode.](https://github.com/DiamondBond/emacs/blob/master/config.org#initialize-engine-mode)

I little advice I use in org-mode to auto load org-babel modules only when needed. ``` (defadvice org-babel-execute-src-block (around load-language nil activate) "Load ob-{language} only when needed." (let ((lang (org-element-property :language (org-element-at-point)))) (when (or (string= lang "bash") (string= lang "sh")) (setq lang "shell")) (unless (cdr (assoc (intern lang) org-babel-load-languages)) (add-to-list 'org-babel-load-languages (cons (intern lang) t)) (org-babel-do-load-languages 'org-babel-load-languages org-babel-load-languages)) ad-do-it)) ``` Saves me some time and speeds up loading org-mode as a nice bonus. P.S. Speaking of speeding up the loading of org-mode I found out that setting this before loading it helps a lot. Obviously one should modify it to include used modules/back-ends: ``` (setq org-modules nil org-export-backends '(html))) ```

Is there a way to keep a queue of window configurations? Suppose I have two files open side by side and then want to switch to just one window for a different file. I would like to be able to swap back and forth between the two window configurations their respective files open.

Tab-bar-mode does this. You can turn off tab visibility and just move between different window configurations.

I came up with this "delete-windows-dwim" kind of command and use it all the time. Maybe someone else will find it useful. I usually use Emacs with two windows side-by-side, but occasionally other I'll open a third window, or a side window will pop up. When I want to get rid of these extra windows, I'll use this: ;; These first two are helper functions (defun my-delete-side-windows () "Delete all side windows." (dolist (win (window-list)) (when (window-parameter win 'window-side) (delete-window win)))) ;; Uses -any from dash.el (defun my--has-side-window-p () "Return non-nil if there is currently at least one side window being displayed." (-any? (lambda (win) (window-parameter win 'window-side)) (window-list))) ;; This is the main command (defun my-delete-other-windows () "If there are any side windows, delete all of them. Otherwise, if there are only two windows, delete the non-selected one. Otherwise, delete all but two windows." (interactive) (if (my--has-side-window-p) (my-delete-side-windows) (let ((windows (window-list))) (if (<= (length windows) 2) (delete-other-windows) (dolist (win (cddr windows)) (delete-window win)))))) I bind `my-delete-other-windows` to `C-\`. Then I just press it until I've deleted the windows that I want to (first side windows, then all but two windows, then all but the current window).

I use `org-store-link` and `org-insert-link-global` globally to have `org-mode` links in arbitrary buffers and [orglink](https://github.com/tarsius/orglink) to activate them, i. e. add the same text properties, as `org-mode` does. It's pretty obvious, but I've just recently realized I can now also use `org-toggle-link-display` globally to hide or show parts of link text.

I have an Org file I use to tangle out consistent engine/webjump definitions to Emacs, browsers and browser extensions, and my WM (StumpWM) -- anywhere it makes sense to. By "consistent" I mean not just the same URL template but also the same keybinding (if anything comparable is available; engine offers the `:key` option) and the same results browser override (ditto, `:browser`).

And have a look at desktop-save-mode...

About `outline-minor-mode` in `python-mode`. Does anyone have a good logic for `outline-regex` to avoid it getting keywords like "if" or "for" inside the docstring?

How about registers? You can bind keys 1 through 9 Although there's no next and previous register command. I wrote some code to do this a while back. Not sure if I still have it...

Ah yes I’ve played with registers before. I would love to see the code if you find it. No worries if you can’t find it!

I took a stab at re-formatting that for you: (defadvice org-babel-execute-src-block (around load-language nil activate) "Load ob-{language} only when needed." (let ((lang (org-element-property :language (org-element-at-point)))) (when (or (string= lang "bash") (string= lang "sh")) (setq lang "shell")) (unless (cdr (assoc (intern lang) org-babel-load-languages)) (add-to-list 'org-babel-load-languages (cons (intern lang) t)) (org-babel-do-load-languages 'org-babel-load-languages org-babel-load-languages)) ad-do-it))

I use these two helper functions to calculate something quickly using [Calculator](https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/calc/index.html). Sometimes I use crux-eval-and-replace or embark-eval-replace to evaluate S-expressions. ``` (defun calc-eval-selection (beg end) "Evaluate region from BEG to END using 'calc-eval' appending results." (interactive "r") (let ((results (calc-eval (buffer-substring-no-properties beg end) " = "))) (goto-char end) (insert (format " = %s" results)))) (defun calc-eval-and-replace (beg end) "Evaluate region from BEG to END using 'calc-eval' replacing region with results." (interactive "r") (let ((results (calc-eval (buffer-substring-no-properties beg end) " = "))) (delete-region beg end) (goto-char beg) (insert results))) ```

Hey all, I'm trying to setup a keybinding on the minibuffer to open the selected entry in another window. For example: if I call \`find-file\` and select a file in the listing then press <C-v> I'd like to open as if it wash \`find-file-other-window\`, is that possible? I'm currently using vertico+embark and I know I can call the embark map but that would require more keystrokes.

> I'm currently using vertico+embark and I know I can call the embark map but that would require more keystrokes. That would require _one_ more keystroke. :) But if you want to avoid even that keystroke: Option 1: Use a keyboard macro! This is by far the easiest way. If your binding for `embark-act` is, say, `C-.`, then you can use: (define-key minibuffer-local-map (kbd "C-v") (kbd "C-. o")) Option 2: Define a command reusing some Embark facilities: (defun find-current-target-other-window () (interactive) (embark--act #'find-file-other-window (car (embark--targets)))) (define-key minibuffer-local-map (kbd "C-v") #'find-current-target-other-window) I wrote about this here on r/emacs [last year](https://www.reddit.com/r/emacs/comments/pac8kp/comment/ha3xx9j/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3), with a bit of discussion of other options and what Embark buys you here.

winner-mode could help you

Is the `geo:` URI defined in orgmode links? I found [this](https://list.orgmode.org/87k4m57z7x.fsf@kotik.lan/#t) in the mailing list, but I couldn't find it any official repos

Here's my take on a similar thing. Obviously quite opinionated: ```elisp (defun +close-dwim () "Be clever and close the right thing." (interactive) (cond ;; these kill *another* thing, not the current ;; minibuffer ((minibufferp) (minibuffer-keyboard-quit)) ;; flycheck ((bound-and-true-p +flycheck-error-list-visible-p) (+flycheck-toggle-error-list)) ;; org-roam backlinks (we could just use bound-and-true-p) ((and (fboundp '+org-roam-visible-p) (fboundp 'org-roam-buffer-deactivate) (+org-roam-visible-p)) (org-roam-buffer-deactivate)) ;; these kill *this* thing ;; split ((> (count-windows) 1) (if (bound-and-true-p evil-mode) (evil-window-delete) (delete-window))) ;; tab-bar ((and (bound-and-true-p tab-bar-mode) (> (length (tab-bar-tabs)) 1)) ;; we don't use +tab-bar-close-tab as it doesn't actually remove the tab in ;; question, only the buffer (tab-bar-close-tab)) ;; centaur tabs ((and (bound-and-true-p centaur-tabs-mode) (> (length (centaur-tabs-tabs (centaur-tabs-current-tabset))) 1)) (kill-buffer)) ;; atomic-chrome ((bound-and-true-p atomic-chrome-edit-mode) (atomic-chrome-close-current-buffer)) ;; workspaces ((and (fboundp '+workspace-list-names) (> (length (+workspace-list-names)) 1)) (+workspace/close-window-or-workspace)) ;; frame (t (delete-frame)))) ```

Hello! Newbie here. Can anyone point me toward a package that would put a buffer in a persistent sidebar? I’m thinking a sidebar like treemacs, but I can specify the content to be displayed (say, a file that acts like a table of contents).

sounds like the included 'speedbar': Mx-speedbar (or from the menu: Options>show/hide>speedbar)

`my-delete-side-windows` can be replaced with the built-in `window-toggle-side-windows`.

I've started working with Unreal, and it has stuff like UCLASS(<some stuff>) [Normal line of C++]; How do I get emacs to treat those special declarations like they're terminated with a semicolon? (The compiler will complain if I put a semicolon there myself, and it would be at odds with how everyone else is coding anyway.)