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[[!meta title="The True Frownies are the Friends We Made Along the Way: An Anecdote of Emacs's Malleability"]]
[[!meta copyright="Copyright © 2021 Case Duckworth"]]
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# The True Frownies are the Friends We Made Along the Way: An Anecdote of Emacs's Malleability
Case Duckworth

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Emacs is well-known for being extremely flexible, programmable, and
extensible; in fact, that's probably the biggest reason it's still
being used after 40+ years of existence, and even has enough clout to
generate an entire conference in its name.  In this medium-length
presentation, I will add another point to the data set proving Emacs's
abilities, by narrating the latest package I made, \`frowny.el\`, from
its conception to its current, nearly-completed state.

I wrote frowny.el to scratch someone else's itch as a joke on IRC, but
it has been called "pretty useful, for a joke package."  I feel like
that encapsulates the spirit of Emacs and that's why I want to present
on this topic.

Along the way, I'll discuss just a little of my own history of Emacs,
and why I feel it's a great tool for non-technical users to sink their
teeth into.

## Speaker information

- Name pronunciation: /keɪs ˈdʌkwə(ɹ)θ/ (CASE DUCK-worth)
- Prounouns: he/him
- Homepage: <https://www.acdw.net>
- Preferred contact info: [email](mailto:acdw@acdw.net)
- Links:
  - <https://breadpunk.club>, a shared unix server about bread
  - [my Mastodon account](https://writing.exchange/@acdw) (though I'm moving to
[tiny.tilde.website](https://tiny.tilde.website/@acdw) ... soon™)

# Discussion

-   How do we obtain frowny.el?
    -   A: Please check <https://github.com/duckwork/frowny.el>
-   What was the funniest time a frown emerged from unintended code?
    Or any similar occurrence.
    -   A: I frown a lot when I\'m problem solving ;)
-   What packages you used for writing?
    -   A: I just use org-mode for its markup. If you mean the
        presentation, I think\... org-present?
-   You wrote the package quite fast. Would you say you knew what
    you were going to program before you did it? Or was it iterative
    process? 
    -   A: pretty iterative, but very fast b/c it\'s a small project
        space!
-   from chat (Cairn): do you have a personal site?
    -   A: <https://www.acdw.net>
-   not related to the talk, but on a different note: I like the
    emacs background image used in the video stream. is it available
    somewhere for download? :-)
    -   A: <https://emacsconf.org/i/emacsconf-logo1-256.png> (nervous
        laugh)
- Why host it on GitHub? or codeberg.org, or sr.ht, or (non-)GNU savannah, or your own server
- Does frowny work with ;)

- Compulsively C-q anything electric. Don't need a hook when you've got one in your brain.
- TBH you should transform it into a patch for electric-pair-mode
- So I want to contribute to Emacs, but I don't know enough elisp. Perhaps I could contribute some documentation? But I have no idea what that would be...
- From the speaker: i'd love to hear more about licensing, basically i don't care how my stuff is used at all


Feedback:

- These kinds of talks are real fun, great job!
- For real though, I love the path you took to get to where you are. It's super relatable and I've loved hearing about it.
- These ‘how I got suckered into programming emacs by [hilariously trivial thing]’ are always fun.
- frowny.el shows how writing a package can help learn things---all sorts of things to consider and lots of "aha!" moments

Links:

-   <https://breadpunk.club>
-   /r/emacs - <https://old.reddit.com/r/emacs>
-   Planet Emacs - <https://planet.emacslife.com>
-   HISTORY.org - <https://github.com/duckwork/frowny.el/blob/main/HISTORY.org>
-   <https://github.com/duckwork/frowny.el>


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