using ido-completing-read to get input from users

Lately, ido is my shortcut to many commands that I used to execute in shell. It's great to have a flexible matching with autocompletion, inside your development environment. The function to call from your elisp code is ido-completing-read which has the following signature:

(ido-completing-read PROMPT CHOICES &optional PREDICATE REQUIRE-MATCH
INITIAL-INPUT HIST DEF INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD)

Let's see an example of using ido to collect a parameter from the user. I have my favourite streaming radios stored in pls or asx files, and this little function allows me to type M-x radio RET to listen any of those.

 (defun radio ()
   (interactive)
   (let ((filename
         (ido-completing-read "which radio?: "
                              (directory-files
                               "/home/rgrau/bin/radios/"
                               nil
                               "\\.pls$\\|\\.asx$"))))
     (async-shell-command
      (concat "mplayer -playlist /home/rgrau/bin/radios/" filename) "*mplayer*" )
     (message "choosen: %s" filename)))

Now you can easily port many commands you used to run on terminal to be executed inside your favourite editor.


EDIT: A copypasta fail made this post appear like without body in planet emacsen. sorry :(

a neat ruby idiom

[rgrau] guys, I just learned a new idiom  
[rgrau] (@foo ||= []) << bar  
[michal] :)  
[rgrau] It's not crystal clear, but I like it  
[rgrau] my perl background damaged my brain beyond repair
[jakub] rgrau: idiom or idiot?
[rgrau] you pick
[jakub] ok, done
[rgrau] I know which one you picked  
[jakub] u r smart
[rgrau] u idiom
[rgrau] that log goes to my blog inside ruby section

'symbols, :symbols and ':symbols

The other day, hacking a kind of project manager for emacs (YES. Another one) which I will explain in a future post, I bumped in a couple of wtfs, that turned out to be my own mental fuckup, not an elisp wtf.

Let's dissect plist-get with different kinds of atoms as keys, and try to explain why they work or they don't. Little schemer style.

(plist-get '('directory ":fdsa" 'irc "channel") 'directory) ; nil

Why? The whole plist is is quoted, being a literal list, so if there's no need to re-quote it again.

(plist-get (list 'directory ":fdsa" 'irc "channel") 'directory) ; ":fdsa"

Why? We built the list with the list constructor, so we have to quote the symbol directory. because we want a simbol.

(plist-get '(:directory ":fdsa" 'irc "channel") 'directory) ; nil

Why? :directory is a different symbol from 'directory, and the whole thing is quoted.

(plist-get (list :directory ":fdsa" 'irc "channel") 'directory) ; nil

Why? the plist is not a literal, but again. :directory and 'directory are different things

(plist-get (list :directory ":fdsa" 'irc "channel") :directory) ; ":fdsa"

You see?

(plist-get '(:directory ":fdsa" 'irc "channel") :directory) ; ":fdsa"

And this is again correct. Makes sense, no?

Then, the relation between :foo and 'foo is none, but (eq :foo ':foo) is t.

emacs taking to much memory?

[p1] my emacs takes up more memory than firefox, hm

[rgrau] open more firefox tabs

[p3] install more extensions

I love #emacs help style :)

If you are planning to change jobs in the programmers' world, make sure you read some of these articles. They all have very good points about what the authors think you should consider when looking for your _next_ job.

If you're not looking for a job, I'd recommend skim through them also.

They make a lot of good points IMHO, but I'll let you read them by yourself.

• http://matt.aimonetti.net/posts/2012/11/14/engineers-suck-at-finding-right-jobs/ 
• http://thecodist.com/article/what_programmers_want_is_less_stupid_and_more_programming 
• http://michaelochurch.wordpress.com/2012/10/30/what-programmers-want/
• http://coolinsights.blogspot.com.es/2011_01_01_archive.html 

HTTP status codes explained in IRC

*p1 is sending GET request since 2001
[p1] and still no response
[p2] 422
[p3] ETOOLONGTIMEOUT
[p3] malformed bitch
[p3] ah no, unprocessable
[p1] i don't do that sick stuff
[p3] unprocessable bitch
[p1] girls quite often reply with 403
[p1] if it doesn't help, they go 404
[p1] some even try 300 to their friend which is very pathetic
[p3] trying to DDOS

VPNs explained in IRC

[p1] meth. I've told you
[p2] lovely
[p2] it's like a VPN
[p2] you're comunicating where others just see noise
[p3] lol
[p3] that's a great quote
[p2] the guys from the other side of the vpn told it to me