Leo and Emacs

This chapter several topics relating to the Emacs editor.

Contents

• Leo and Emacs
  • Controlling Leo from Emacs using Pymacs
  • Functions in leoPymacs.py
  • The minibuffer

Controlling Leo from Emacs using Pymacs

Leo’s leoPymacs module is a simple ‘server’ for the pymacs package. Using pymacs and leoPymacs, elisp scripts in Emacs can open .leo files and execute Python scripts as if they were executed inside Leo. In particular, such scripts can use Leo’s predefined c, g and p variables. Thus, Python scripts running in Emacs can:

• Open any .leo file.
• Access any part of the outline.
• Change any part of the outline, including external files,
• Save .leo files.
• Execute any Leo script.

In short, you can now do from Emacs anything that you can do with Leo scripting inside Leo.

Here are step-by-step instructions for executing Python scripts in Emacs:

Step 1. Install pymacs

The pymacs installation instructions should be clear enough. A clarification is needed about two-way communication between Python and lisp scripts: in truth, Python scripts can call the Pymacs.lisp function only if the Python script was invoked from emacs. Otherwise, calling Pymacs.lisp will hang the process making the call. For example, executing the following script as an ordinary Leo script will hang Leo:

from Pymacs import lisp
print lisp("""2+2""") # Hangs

Step 2. Load the leoPymacs module from Emacs, creating a hidden Leo application

From inside Emacs, you load Leo’s leoPymacs module as follows:

(pymacs-load "leoPymacs" "leo-")

The call to pymacs-load is similar to ‘import leoPymacs as leo-‘ in Python. The side effect of pymacs-load is to define the elisp function leo-x for every top-level function x in leoPymacs.py, namely leo-dump, leo-get-app, leo-get-g, leo-get-script-result, leo-init, leo-open and leo-run-script. The first call to any of these functions creates a hidden Leo application in which .leo files may be loaded, modified and saved, and in which Leo scripts may be executed. This hidden Leo application uses Leo’s nullGui class as its gui, so Leo commands and Leo scripts that require a fully functional gui will not work as expected in the hidden Leo application. Steps 3 and 4 tell how to use this hidden Leo application.

pymacs-load works like a Python reload, so you can redefine leoPymacs.py while Emacs is running. However, calling pymacs-load destroys the old hidden Leo application and creates a new one, so typically you would want to call pymacs-load only once per Emacs session. Like this:

(setq reload nil) ; change nil to t to force a reload.

(if (or reload (not (boundp 'leoPymacs)))
    (setq leoPymacs (pymacs-load "leoPymacs" "leo-"))
    (message "leoPymacs already loaded")
)

Step 3. From Emacs, open .leo files

Once we have loaded the leoPymacs module we can open a .leo file as follows:

(setq c (leo-open fileName))

This binds the elisp c variable to the Leo commander created by opening fileName. fileName should be the full path to a .leo file. In the next step we will use this c variable to execute Leo scripts in the context of an open Leo outline.

Sometimes we want to execute a Leo script before opening any Leo commanders. For example, we might want to compute the fileName passed to leo-open. leo-run-script allows the c argument to be nil, in which case leo-run-script creates a dummy commander in which to run the script. For example, the following script calls g.os_path_join and g.os_path_abspath:

(setq script "g.app.scriptResult =
    g.os_path_abspath(g.os_path_join(
        g.app.loadDir,'..','test','ut.leo'))"
)

(setq fileName (leo-run-script nil script))

leo-run-script returns the value of g.app.scriptResult As shown above, Python scripts may set g.app.scriptResult to indicate their result. elisp scripts can also get g.app.scriptResult using leo-script-result. Note that the Python script may span multiple lines.

Step 4. From Emacs, execute Leo (Python) scripts

From emacs we can execute a Python script as if it were executed in an open Leo outline. Suppose aLeoScript is an elisp string containing a Leo (Python) script. We can execute that script in the hidden Leo application as follows:

(leo-run-script c aLeoScript)

For example:

(setq c (leo-open fileName)
(csetq script "print 'c',c,'h',c.p.h")
(leo-run-script c script)

Putting this all together, we get:

; Step 1: load leoPymacs if it has not already been loaded.
(setq reload nil)
(if (or reload (not (boundp 'leoPymacs)))
    (setq leoPymacs (pymacs-load "leoPymacs" "leo-"))
    (message "leoPymacs already loaded")
)

; Step 2: compute the path to leo/test/ut.leo using a Leo script.
(setq script
    "g.app.scriptResult = g.os_path_abspath(
        g.os_path_join(g.app.loadDir,'..','test','ut.leo'))"
)
(setq fileName (leo-run-script nil script))

; Step 3: execute a script in ut.leo.
(setq c (leo-open fileName))
(setq script "print 'c',c.shortFileName() ,'current:',c.p.h")
(leo-run-script c script)

Functions in leoPymacs.py

The leoPymacs module is intended to be called from Emacs using pymacs. It contains the following top-level functions:

• get_app()

  Returns the hidden app created by the leoPymacs.init function.

• dump(anyPythonObject)

  Returns str(repr(anyPythonObject)).

• get_g()

  Returns the leoGlobals module of the hidden app created by the leoPymacs.init function.

• get_script_result()

  Returns g.app.scriptResult, where g.app is the hidden app.

• init() Calls leo.run(pymacs=True) to create a hidden Leo application. Later calls to open can open hidden Leo outlines that can be accessed via runScript.

• open(fileName)

  Opens the .leo file given by fileName. fileName must be the full path to a .leo file. Returns the commander of the open Leo outline, or None if the outline could not be opened.

• run_script(c,script,p=None)

  Executes a script in the context of a commander c returned by the leoPymacs.open. c may be None, in which case a dummy commander is created in which to run the script. In the executed script, p is set to c.p if no p argument is specified. Returns g.app.scriptResult, where g.app is the hidden app.

The minibuffer

Leo’s mini-buffer is a text area at the bottom of the body pane. You use Leo’s minibuffer like the Emacs mini-buffer to invoke commands by their so-called long name. The following commands affect the minibuffer:

• full-command: (default shortcut: Alt-x) Puts the focus in the minibuffer. Type a full command name, then hit <Return> to execute the command. Tab completion works, but not yet for file names.
• quick-command-mode: (default shortcut: Alt-x) Like Emacs Control-C. This mode is defined in leoSettings.leo. It is useful for commonly-used commands.
• universal-argument: (default shortcut: Alt-u) Like Emacs Ctrl-u. Adds a repeat count for later command. Ctrl-u 999 a adds 999 a’s.
• keyboard-quit: (default shortcut: Ctrl-g) Exits any minibuffer mode and puts the focus in the body pane.

For example, to print a list of all commands type Alt-X print-commands <Return>.