-I'm Sacha Chua, and here are -
-ten Emacs News highlights for 2021. -
-If you want to follow the links, -
-check out the wiki page at -
-https://emacsconf.org/2021/talks/news/ . -
-1. The Emacs developers are currently -
-working on Emacs 28.1, -
-which will be the next major release. -
-Native compilation should -
-make everything way faster, -
-and emoji support will probably -
-make things more fun. 😎👍 -
-John Wiegley will share more Emacs 28 details -
-in his update, so check out his talk. -
-Andrea Corallo's giving a talk -
-on native compilation too. -
-2. -
-Org mode is now at version 9.5. -
-New features include -
-a library for managing citations, -
-asynchronous session support -
-for code blocks, -
-and better control -
-of your agenda's appearance. -
-If you've been getting your Org packages -
-from Org ELPA, -
-you can update your configuration -
-to get Org from GNU ELPA -
-and org-contrib from NonGNU ELPA. -
-The new release of the Org Roam package -
-should be a faster and more consistent way -
-to use Org to manage a knowledgebase, -
-and org-roam-ui looks pretty snazzy. -
-The best way to keep up with Org changes -
-is to check out the blog This Month in Org. -
-3. -
-New Magit major release! -
-Jonas Bernoulli has split some functionality -
-into other packages so that -
-Emacs Lisp developers can use them, such as -
-magit-section, transient, and forge. -
-Here's an example of using magit-section -
-to manage groups of buffers. -
-You can learn more about Transient -
-in the talk on self-describing -
-smart domain-specific languages or DSLs. -
-4. -
-In terms of smaller packages, there's been -
-a lot of activity around completion. -
-Karthik has a great diagram, -
-and Prot explains how things work together. -
-I think the idea is that instead of having -
-one large completion system -
-like Helm or Icicles, you can choose -
-a few different, smaller packages -
-and configure them to work together. -
-If you're curious about this, -
-you might start with either selectrum -
-or vertico, which are both completion interfaces, -
-add marginalia for more information, -
-and try consult for many useful -
-completing commands. -
-There are so many options, -
-so it might be useful to check out -
-some discussions. -
-5. -
-Embark is usually mentioned as part of -
-that group of packages, -
-but it's well worth looking into -
-even if you use a different system. -
-Embark lets you have context-sensitive shortcuts -
-that work on things in buffers, minibuffers, -
-and even collections of things. -
-You can also use it -
-when you start doing one command -
-and then decide to do a different one instead. -
-For more ideas, check out -
-Fifteen Ways to Use Embark. -
-6. -
-Now that there are Emacs Lisp bindings -
-for tree-sitter, we can work more easily -
-with the structure of code instead of -
-just using regular expressions. -
-Check out the talk -
-on Tree-edit and structural editing -
-to learn more. -
-You can use tree-sitter for -
-intelligent snippets that get information -
-from the code around them, -
-editing Lisp expressions, -
-and navigating text objects in Evil mode. -
-(That's when Emacs is pretending to be Vi.) -
-Dynamic modules help us add more to Emacs -
-than Emacs Lisp easily offers, -
-such as structural editing in OCaml -
-and using Rust to figure out parentheses -
-and indentation for Lisp. -
-If you're curious, -
-check out the talk on -
-Extending Emacs in Rust with Dynamic Modules. -
-7. -
-Collaborative editing is now much easier -
-since the CRDT package is in GNU ELPA. -
-It allows multiple people to edit -
-the same file over the network, -
-using their own Emacs. -
-This means you can keep your own config -
-and keybindings, yay! -
-Watch the Emacs Research Group talk -
-for an example of how several people -
-used it to work together. -
-8. -
-In case you're still under the impression -
-that Emacs is just a text editor, -
-some folks have been working on -
-pretty neat graphical experiments. -
-These OpenGL bindings for Emacs Lisp -
-use an embedded xwidget, -
-while other prototypes use the SVG support -
-that's built into Emacs -
-for Gantt charts, -
-scribbles, -
-and even diagrams. -
-The color-picker from that one -
-looks particularly useful for CSS. -
-If you want to play around with adding SVGs -
-to your files and interfaces, -
-svg-icon -
-and svg-lib -
-might be good places to start. (Reddit) -
-Of course, there's always a place -
-for ASCII art, -
-especially with the new boxy package -
-that you can use for org files, -
-imenu navigation, -
-and even things in real life. -
-9. -
-There have been a lot of great posts, videos, -
-and livestreams about Emacs this year. -
-In addition to the ones -
-from System Crafters, -
-Emacs Elements, -
-and Protesilaos, -
-John Kitchin -
-and Mike Zamansky -
-are back, hooray! -
-And Marcin Borkowski has just finished -
-writing an intermediate textbook -
-Emacs Lisp, too! -
-10. -
-Lastly, if you want to chat -
-with other Emacs folks -
-and get help on Emacs, Org mode, -
-or other topics, -
-the #emacs and #org-mode -
-Internet Relay Chat or IRC channels -
-are now on the libera.chat network -
-instead of Freenode. -
-If you'd like to add something I've missed, -
-please add them to the wiki page, -
-or e-mail me at sacha@sachachua.com . -
-That's all for this quick review. -
-Enjoy the rest of EmacsConf 2021! -- cgit v1.2.3