editWithEmacs.spoon

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#+STARTUP: showall #+TITLE: Edit with emacs Everywhere #+OPTIONS: ^:nil

• Introduction

This module allows editing with Emacs anywhere in OS X.

See this demo: [[https://youtu.be/jYUKYpXL6rI]]

In any text field in any application, one can summon Emacs to edit text:

1. User is in a non-Emacs application, and presses the bound keys (see below).
2. Emacs opens a buffer for editing.
3. User edits buffer via Emacs.
4. User presses =C-c C-c=, sending the Emacs buffer back to the originating application window.

• Installation

** Hammerspoon

Install Hammerspoon, either from their instructions or via Homebrew (e.g., brew install hammerspoon).

Place this repository’s folder inside the =~/.hammerspoon/Spoons= directory such that you have the following:

#+begin_src sh ~/.hammerspoon/Spoons/editWithEmacs.spoon #+end_src

Note, the =.spoon= extension is important.

Modify your =~/.hammerspoon/init.lua= and add:

#+begin_src lua -- Optional configuration of beginEditShellCommand spoon.editWithEmacs.openEditorShellCommand = "EDITOR -e '(hammerspoon-edit-begin)'"

hs.loadSpoon("editWithEmacs") if spoon.editWithEmacs then local bindings = { edit_selection = { {"alt"}, "1"}, edit_all = { {"alt"}, "2"} }
spoon.editWithEmacs:bindHotkeys(bindings) end

#+end_src

** Emacs

Load the =hammerspoon.el= file in Emacs.

#+begin_src emacs-lisp :lexical no (load "~/.hammerspoon/Spoons/editWithEmacs.spoon/hammerspoon.el") #+end_src

• Testing installation

To test if you Hammerspoon works from Emacs, call =hammerspoon-test= (e.g., =M-x hammerspoon-test=).

• How to use

With the above keybindings, when you press =Cmd= + =Alt= + =Ctrl= + =e=, Hammerspoon will copy the content of the current application’s focus, open an Emacs buffer, and paste those contents into the buffer. You then edit the that Emacs buffer and press =C-c C-c= to send that back to the originating window.

If you press =Shift= + =Cmd= + =Alt= + =Ctrl= + =e=, Hammerspoon cuts the current selected text, and pastes that into the buffer. When you finish editing, Hammerspoon will paste the content of the buffer; which will replace the selected text.

• Limitations

• This method is non-reentrant. This means you can only edit one field at a time. You do not need to send the text back to the text-field. You can use edit-with-emacs again without any undesirable effect.
• It is currently sending commands directly to emacs via the keyboard. Thus, emacs should be ready to accept commands
• If something goes wrong and the text does not appear, you can retrieve it from emacs. Switch to the _hs_edit buffer and you will see the text you were editing. This buffer will be reused

• Bugs/fixes?

• Please open an issue/pull-request