How to build an editor with Emacs Lisp - 07 Basic Loops

eval-defun is not what you say it is

Thanks for your feedback, That was what I understood from the docs. What do you have in mind?

Try it

I did actually. Would you mind sharing your thoughts ? I think there is a misunderstanding here

Ok, if `eval-defun` executes all top-level forms in a buffer, then what does `eval-buffer` do?

* \`eval-buffer\` "Execute the accessible portion of current buffer as Lisp code." * \`eval-defun\` "Evaluate the top-level form containing point, or after point" \^\^ from the docs :)

Dude rewatch your own video

I just did. I don't know what you are referring to. It seems right to me and based on docs right. I appreciate you taking the time but could you be more specific and clear?

You say in the video that eval-defun runs all top level forms. It doesn't.

Thank you. But i didn't say "run". I said it evaluates top level forms. That aligns with the docstring of the function. :)

Be nice!

Haven't seen the video tbh, but the distinction being pointed out might be that it doesn't evaluate "all" top level forms, just the one the point is currently in

Exactly

Which is to say it evaluates top-level forms.

Very nice! I'll watch the series to freshen up my elisp.

Cheers, I'll try my best

Your wording makes it seem like it evaluates the whole buffer

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@lxsameer thanks for the mention; you pronounced my name perfectly @3:16 you are saying "you can automatically evaluate *all* the top level functions, you have in your buffer", which indeed how one would describe the behavior of `eval-buffer`, not `eval-defun`, as /u/licht1nstein pointed it out. @3:28 "with one function, re-evaluate all the function definitions or other top-level definitions you have" also sounds like as if you were describing eval-buffer. @3:45 "it's a great way to evaluate top-level functions ... top-level expressions" this one sounds correct I think the problem here is that instead of "all the top-level functions", you should have said "any top-level function", to indicate, that only a single function is evaluated by eval-defun. You should have demonstrated how eval-defun works, though and mention its default C-M-x shortcut too. That would have cleared things up :) But, hey, practice makes the master, so keep on doing these videos and keep on incorporating feedback!

Hey friend, Thanks for the feedback, I'll make sure to point the mistake and the correction in the next episode. ;)

Thanks for taking the time to explain it all in such detail.

it has just occurred to me this morning, that the built-in ielm REPL would be better for these kind of tutorial videos, because past evaluation results and printed messages would stay on the screen. ielm also allows you to select a buffer as the target of the evaluation, so you can demonstrate editing commands/functions too.

I thought about ielm tbh. One of the key points that I wanted to implicitly demonstrate is that as a user we can literally evaluate elisp expressions anywhere. But I think an episode on ielm would be pretty useful as well.