Customizing Leo

This chapter discusses how to customize Leo using the plugins and other means. See Using settings for a description of how to change Leo’s settings.

Using settings

Leo stores options in @settings trees, outlines whose headline is @settings. When opening a .leo file, Leo looks for @settings trees not only in the outline being opened but also in various leoSettings.leo files. This scheme allows for the following kinds of settings:

• Per-installation or per-machine settings.

• Per-user settings.

• Per-folder settings.

• Per-file settings.

There are four kinds of settings files:

1. Default settings files, named leoSettings.leo. Although they can be used in other ways, they typically contain default settings.

2. Personal settings files, named myLeoSettings.leo. They provide a way of ensuring that your customized settings are not altered when updating Leo from git or while installing a new version of Leo. The myLeoSettings.leo file acts much like Python’s site-customize.py file. myLeoSettings.leo will never be part of any Leo distribution, and it will never exist in Leo’s cvs repository. This solution is much better than trying to update leoSettings.leo with scripts.

3. Machine settings files, named LeoSettings.leo (note the capital ‘L’), and appearing in a unique directory.

4. Theme files. These are .leo files containing stylesheets and other appearance-related settings.

The following sections describe the kinds of nodes in @settings trees.

Configuration directories

Settings files can be found in the following directories:

• homeDir, the HOME/.leo directory. HOME is given by Python’s HOME environment variable, or by os.expanduser('~') if no HOME environment variable exists.

• configDir, Leo’s configuration directory: leo/config.

• machineDir, the HOME/.leo/MACHINE directory. MACHINE is given by Python’s HOSTNAME environment variable, or by Python’s COMPUTERNAME environment variable if there is no HOSTNAME variable, or by the value returned by socket.gethostname() if neither environment variable exists.

• localDir, the directory containing the .leo file being loaded.

Leo reports in the Log pane window on startup and when opening .leo files what HOME dir is used and which settings files are read.

Search order for settings files

When reading a .leo file, Leo looks for settings in default settings files first, then settings in personal settings files, and finally settings in local settings files. The exact search order is:

First: Default settings files:

configDir/leoSettings.leo
homeDir/leoSettings.leo
localDir/leoSettings.leo

Second: Personal settings files:

configDir/myLeoSettings.leo
homeDir/myLeoSettings.leo
homeDir/<machine-name>LeoSettings.leo (note capitalization)
localDir/myLeoSettings.leo

Last: Local settings files: the file being loaded.

Settings that appear later in this list override settings that appear earlier in this list. This happens on a setting-by-setting basis, not on a file-by-file basis. In other words, each individual setting overrides only the corresponding setting in previously-read files. Reading a setting file does not reset all previous settings. Note that the same file might appear several times in the search list. Leo detects such duplicate file names and only loads each settings file once. Leo remembers all the settings in settings files and does not reread those settings when reading another .leo file.

Caution: This search order offers almost too much flexibility. This can be confusing, even for power users. It’s important to choose the “simplest configuration scheme that could possibly work”. Something like:

• Use a single leoSettings.leo file for installation-wide defaults.

• Use a single myLeoSettings.leo files for personal defaults.

• Use local settings sparingly.

Note: it is good style to limit settings placed in myLeoSettings.leo to those settings that differ from default settings.

Safe rules for local settings

You should use special care when placing default or personal settings files in local directories, that is, directories other than homeDir, configDir or machineDir. In particular, the value of localDir can change when Leo reads additional files. This can result in Leo finding new default and personal settings files. The values of these newly-read settings files will, as always, override any previously-read settings.

Let us say that a setting is volatile if it is different from a default setting. Let us say that settings file A.leo covers settings file if B.leo if all volatile settings in B.leo occur in A.leo. With these definitions, the safe rule for placing settings files in local directories is:

Settings files in local directories should
cover all other settings files.

Following this rule will ensure that the per-directory defaults specified in the local settings file will take precedence over all previously-read default and personal settings files. Ignore this principle at your peril.

Organizer nodes

Organizer nodes have headlines that do no start with @. Organizer nodes may be inserted freely without changing the meaning of an @setting tree.

@ignore and @if nodes

Leo ignores any subtree of an @settings tree whose headline starts with @ignore.

You can use several other kinds of nodes to cause Leo to ignore parts of an @settings tree:

• @if <expression>

  A node whose headline starts with @if expression acts like an organizer node if the expression evaluates to True, otherwise acts like an @ignore node. If the expression is empty the body text should contain a script that will be evaluated (in an empty context).

• @ifplatform <platform-name>

  Same as @if sys.platform == "platform-name" except that it isn’t necessary to import sys.

• @ifhostname *hostA,!hostB*

  Evaluates to True if and only if: h=g.computeMachineName(); h==hostA and h!=hostB. The ! version allows matching to every machine name except the given one to allow differing settings on only a few machines.

Simple settings nodes

Simple settings nodes have headlines of the form @<type> name = val. These settings set the value of name to val, with the indicated type:

<type>          Valid values
------          ------------
@bool           True, False, 0, 1
@color          A Qt color name or value, such as 'red' or 'xf2fddff'
                (without the quotes)
@directory      A path to a directory
@float          A floating point number of the form nn.ff.
@int            An integer
@ints[list]     An integer (must be one of the ints in the list).
                Example: @ints meaningOfLife[0,42,666]=42
@keys[name]     Gives a name to a set of bindings.
                (For the Check Bindings script in leoSettings.leo.)
@path           A path to a directory or file
@ratio          A floating point number between 0.0 and 1.0, inclusive.
@string         A string
@strings[list]  A string (must be one of the strings in the list).
                Example: @strings tk_relief['flat','groove','raised']='groove'

Note: For a list of Tk color specifiers see:

• http://www.tcl.tk/man/tcl8.4/TkCmd/colors.htm

• http://www.tcl.tk/man/tcl8.4/TkLib/GetColor.htm

Important: you can use the show-colors command to guide you in making these settings.

Complex settings nodes

Complex settings nodes have headlines of the form @<type> description:

@<type>             Valid values
-------             ------------
@buttons            Child @button nodes create global buttons.
@commands           Child @command nodes create global buttons.
@command-history    Body is a list of commands pre-loaded into history list.
@data               Body is a list of strings, one per line.
@enabled-plugins    Body is a list of enabled plugins.
@font               Body is a font description.
@menus              Child @menu and @item nodes create menus and menu items.
@menuat             Child @menu and @item nodes modify menu trees
                    created by @menus.
@mode [name]        Body is a list of shortcut specifiers.
@recentfiles        Body is a list of file paths.
@shortcuts          Body is a list of shortcut specifies.

Complex nodes specify settings in their body text. See the following sections for details.

@buttons

An @buttons tree in a settings file defines global buttons that are created in the icon area of all .leo files. All @button nodes in the @commands tree create global buttons. All @button nodes outside the commands tree create buttons local to the settings file.

@commands

An @commands tree in a settings file defines global commands. All @command nodes in the @commands tree create global commands. All @command nodes outside the @commands tree create commands local to the settings file.

@command-history

The body text contains a list of commands, one per line, to be preloaded into Leo’s command history. You access command history using the up and down arrow keys in Leo’s minibuffer.

@data

The body text contains a list of strings, one per line. Lines starting with # are ignored.

@enabled-plugins

The body text of the @enabled-plugins node contains a list of enabled plugins, one per line. Comment lines starting with ‘#’ are ignored. Leo loads plugins in the order they appear. Important: Leo handles @enabled-plugins nodes a differently from other kinds of settings. To avoid confusion, please read the following carefully.

As always, Leo looks for @enabled-plugins nodes in settings files in the order specified by Search order for settings files. Leo will enable all plugins found in the @enabled-plugins node it finds last in the search order. Leo does not enable plugins found in any other @enabled-plugins node. In particular, you can not specify a list of default plugins by placing that list in a settings file that appears early in the search list. Instead, the last @enabled-plugins node found in the search list specifies all and only the plugins that will be enabled.

Let us distinguish two different situations. First, what Leo does when loading a file, say x.leo. Second, what Leo does when loading a second file, say y.leo, from x.leo. When loading the first .leo file, Leo enables plugins from the @enabled-plugins node it finds last in the search order. But after plugins have already been loaded and enabled, there is no way to disable previously loaded-and-enabled plugins. But local settings files can enable additional plugins.

To avoid confusion, I highly recommend following another kind of safe rule. We say that an @enabled-plugin node in file A.leo covers an @enabled-plugin node in file B.leo if all plugins specified in B’s @enabled-plugins node appear A’s @enabled-plugins node. The safe rule for plugins is:

@enabled-plugin nodes in settings files in local directories
should cover @enabled-plugins nodes in all other settings files.

@font

The body text contains a list of settings for a font. For example:

body_text_font_family = Courier New
body_text_font_size = None
body_text_font_slant = None
body_text_font_weight = None

Note: you can use the show-fonts command to guide you in making these settings.

@menuat

@menuat modifies the menu tree created by @menus. This allows settings in myLeoSettings.leo to change menus without copying the entire menu tree from leoSettings.leo. This ensures you don’t miss out when new things are added in the @menus in leoSettings.leo, as you would if you replaced the @menus in leoSettings.leo with one in myLeoSettings.leo.

@menuat should occur in a @settings tree, but not as a descendant of a @menus tree. Its children are @menu and @item nodes as for the @menu setting.

The @menuat setting has 2-3 parameters in its head text:

@menuat <path> <action> [clipboard]

The path argument specifies a target in the menu tree as defined by @menus and modified by earlier @menuat settings. The path takes the form:

/entry1/entry2/entry3

Each entry is the cleaned name of a menu or item. Cleaned names are a name with all text except a-z and 0-9 removed and upper case letters converted to lower case. For example, specify:

Outline->Move->Move Down

as:

/outline/move/movedown

The action argument specifies what the menu item does. There are 5 available actions:

• before: Insert items and sub menus immediately before the target.

• after: Insert items and sub menus immediately after the target.

• append: Append items and sub menus at the end of the target menu or item.

• cut: Remove the target from the menu tree and save it to an internal clipboard.

• copy: Copy the target to an internal clipboard. Descendants of the @menuat setting are ignored.

The cut and copy arguments ignore descendants of the @menuat setting .

The optional clipboard argument modifies the action of the before, after, and append actions. By default these actions insert the menus and items supplied as descendants of the @menuat setting. If you specify “clipboard” (without the quotes) as the source, the contents of the clipboard from a previous cut or copy action will be used instead.

@menus

Leo creates its menus from the @menu, @item and @popup nodes in the @menus tree. Within @menus trees, @menu nodes create menus and @item nodes create menu items.

The menu name always follows @menu. If the menu name is ‘Plugins’, Leo will create the Plugins menu and populate the menu by calling the create-optional-menus hook. This creates the Plugins menu as usual. Nested @menu nodes define submenus.

The command name follows @item. If the body text of an @item node exists, this body text is the menu name. Otherwise, the menu name is the command name. However, if the command name starts with a *, hyphens are removed from the menu name. Menu names and command names may contain a single ampersand (&). If present, the following character is underlined in the name. If the command name in an @item node is just a hyphen (-), the item represents a menu separator.

@popup <widget-name> creates a popup menu for use by the contextmenu.py plugin. The children of this node should be @menu and @item nodes, used as with @menus.

@mode

Leo allows you to specify input modes. You enter mode x with the enter-x-mode command. The purpose of a mode is to create different bindings for keys within a mode. Often plain keys are useful in input modes.

You can specify modes with @mode nodes in leoSettings.leo. @mode nodes work just like @shortcuts nodes, but in addition they have the side effect of creating the enter-<mode name>-mode command.

The form of this node is:

@mode <mode name>

The body text contains a list of shortcut specifiers. @mode nodes work just like @shortcuts nodes, but in addition they have the side effect of creating the enter-<mode name>-mode command.

Notes:

• You can exit any mode using the keyboard-quit (Control-g) command. This is the only binding that is automatically created in each mode. All other bindings must be specified in the @mode node. In particular, the bindings specified in @shortcuts nodes are not in effect in mode (again, except for the keyboard-quit binding).

• Leo supports something akin to tab completion within modes: if you type a key that isn’t bound in a mode a ‘Mode’ tab will appear in the log pane. This tab shows all the keys that you can type and the commands to which they are bound. The mode-help command does the same thing.

• @shortcuts nodes specify the bindings for what might be called the ‘top-level’ mode. These are the bindings in effect when no internal state is present, for example, just after executing the keyboard-quit command.

• The top_level_unbound_key_action setting determines what happens to unbound keys in the top-level mode. Leo ignores unbound keys in all other modes. The possibilities are ‘insert’, ‘replace’ and ‘ignore’.

• The set-insert-mode, set-overwrite-mode and set-ignore-mode commands alter what happens to unbound keys in the top-level mode.

• If the @mode headline contains ::, everything following the :: is the mode prompt. For example:

  @mode abc :: xyz
  

Creates the enter-abc-mode command, but the prompt for the command is xyz.

With all these options it should be possible to emulate the keyboard behavior of any other editor.

@rclick

For each @button node, Leo adds right-click menu items for:

• @rclick nodes directly following the @button.

• @rclick nodes that are children of the @button node, provided that the @button node has no @others directive.

Standard rclick items: Leo adds two standard right-click menu items for each @button node: Remove Button and Goto Script. Leo adds the indicator text only to buttons that contain right-click menu items in addition to these two standard right-click menu items.

The headline of the @rclick node gives the menu title. The body contains a Leo script to execute when the user selects the menu item.

Related Setting:

@string mod_scripting_subtext = ▼

This setting specifies indicator text that indicates that an @button button has right-click menu items created by @rclick nodes.

Unicode chars like ▼, ▾ and … are typical choices for this text.

@recentfiles

The body text contains a list of paths of recently opened files, one path per line. Leo writes the list of recent files to .leoRecentFiles.txt in Leo’s config directory, again one file per line.

@shortcuts

The body text contains a list of shortcut specifiers.

Customizing the rst3 command

This section explains how to use user filters to alter the output of the rst3 command.

Background

The rst3 command converts @rst trees containing reStructuredText (rST) or Sphinx markup to an intermediate string. Depending on user options, rst3 will:

• write the intermediate string to an intermediate file.

• send the intermediate string to docutils for conversion to HTML, PDF, LaTeX, etc.

User filters

Plugins or scripts may define two functions: a headline filter and a body filter:

• rst3 calls the body filter for all nodes except descendants of @rst-ignore or @rst-ignore-tree nodes.

• rst3 calls the headline filter for all nodes except:

  rst-no-head nodes or
  descendants of @rst-ignore or @rst-ignore-tree nodes.
  

• plugins or scripts register filters as follows:

  c.rstCommands.register_body_filter(body_filter)
  c.rstCommands.register_headline_filter(headline_filter)
  

• The signature of all filters is filter-name (c, p) where c and p are defined as usual.

Example filters

Do-nothing filters would be defined like this:

def body_filter(c, p):
    return p.b

def headline_filter(c, p):
    return p.h

The following filters would simulate the frequently-requested “half clone” feature. That is, within any @rst tree, the following filters would skip the children of all clones:

def has_cloned_parent(c, p):
    """Return True if p has a cloned parent within the @rst tree."""
    root = c.rstCommands.root  # The @rst node.
    p = p.parent()
    while p and p != root:
        if p.isCloned():
            return True
        p.moveToParent()
    return False

def body_filter(c, p):
    return '' if has_cloned_parent(c, p) else p.b

def headline_filter(c, p):
    return '' if has_cloned_parent(c, p) else p.h

Folks, this might send a shiver down your spine. Both filters ignore all descendants of clones in the @rst tree. We have the effect of half clones, with no changes to Leo’s core!

Note: has_cloned_parent stops the scan at the @rst node itself, ensuring that the rst3 command includes “top-level” clones themselves.

See leo/plugins/example_rst_filter.py for a complete example.

Filters can do practically anything

Filters can use the data in p.b, p.h, p.u, or p.gnx, but filters are not limited to the data in p. The has_cloned_parent filter shows that filters can access:

• Any ancestor or descendant of node p.

• Any data accessible from c, that is, all the data in the outline, including cached data!

Indeed, has_cloned_parent gets the current @rst node using root = c.rstCommands.root.

Moreover, filters can define special conventions, including:

• Special-format comments embedded in p.b,

• Special-purpose headlines.

Summary

Plugins and scripts can define headline and body filters that alter the intermediate string.

The leo/plugins/example_rst_filter.py plugin shows how to set up plugins that define custom filters.

Filters have easy access to all data within the outline, including:

• c.rstCommands.root, the @rst node containing p.

• All ancestors or descendants of p.

• All data contained anywhere in the outline.

The example filters shown above simulate the often-requested “half clone” feature.

Theme files

A theme file is a .leo file containing appearance-related settings. The leo/themes folder contains several examples.

The open-theme-file command will show you the effect of a theme file without changing Leo in any way.

To enable a theme, put the following setting in myLeoSettings.leo:

@string theme-name = <name of theme file>

Important: When using themes, it’s best to disable all other theme-related settings in myLeoSettings.leo.

Leo looks for the named .leo file in the following order:

~  (The users home directory)
~/themes
~/.leo
~/.leo/themes
leo/themes

Theme files should contain three settings that describe the theme:

@bool color_theme_is_dark # True for dark themes
@string color_theme = name # Used to find icons
@string theme_name # Used to find other graphics elements.

Input modes

Leo now allows you to specify input modes. You enter mode x with the enter-x-mode command. The purpose of a mode is to create different bindings for keys within a mode. Often plain keys are useful in input modes.

You can specify modes with @mode nodes in leoSettings.leo. @mode nodes work just like @shortcuts nodes, but in addition they have the side effect of creating the enter-<mode name>-mode command.

Notes:

• You can exit any mode using the keyboard-quit (Control-g) command. This is the only binding that is automatically created in each mode. All other bindings must be specified in the @mode node. In particular, the bindings specified in @shortcuts nodes are not in effect in mode (again, except for the keyboard-quit binding).

• Leo supports something akin to tab completion within modes: if you type a key that isn’t bound in a mode a ‘Mode’ tab will appear in the log pane. This tab shows all the keys that you can type and the commands to which they are bound. The mode-help command does the same thing.

• @shortcuts nodes specify the bindings for what might be called the ‘top-level’ mode. These are the bindings in effect when no internal state is present, for example, just after executing the keyboard-quit command.

• The top_level_unbound_key_action setting determines what happens to unbound keys in the top-level mode. Leo ignores unbound keys in all other modes. The possibilities are ‘insert’, ‘replace’ and ‘ignore’.

• The set-insert-mode, set-overwrite-mode and set-ignore-mode commands alter what happens to unbound keys in the top-level mode.

• If the @mode headline contains ::, everything following the :: is the mode prompt. For example:

  @mode abc :: xyz
  

Creates the enter-abc-mode command, but the prompt for the command is xyz.

With all these options it should be possible to emulate the keyboard behavior of any other editor.

uA’s: extensible attribues of nodes

Leo’s .leo file format is extensible. The basis for extending .leo files are the v.unknownAttributes ivars of vnodes, also know as user attributes, uA’s for short. Leo translates between uA’s and xml attributes in the corresponding <v> elements in .leo files. Plugins may also use v.tempAttributes ivars to hold temporary information that will not be written to the .leo file. These two ivars are called attribute ivars.

Attribute ivars must be Python dictionaries, whose keys are names of plugins and whose values are other dictionaries, called inner dictionaries, for exclusive use of each plugin.

The v.u Python property allows plugins to get and set v.unknownAttributes easily:

d = v.u # gets uA (the outer dict) for v
v.u = d # sets uA (the outer dict) for v

For example:

plugin_name = 'xyzzy'
d = v.u # Get the outer dict.
inner_d = d.get(plugin_name,{}) # Get the inner dict.
inner_d ['duration']= 5
inner_d ['notes'] "This is a note."
d [plugin_name] = inner_d
v.u = d

No corresponding Python properties exist for v.tempAttributes, so the corresponding example would be:

plugin_name = 'xyzzy'
# Get the outer dict.
if hasattr(p.v,'tempAttributes'): d = p.v.tempAttributes
else: d = {}
inner_d = d.get(plugin_name,{}) # Get the inner dict.
inner_d ['duration'] = 5
inner_d ['notes'] = "This is a note."
d [plugin_name] = inner_d
p.v.tempAttributes = d

Important: All members of inner dictionaries should be picklable: Leo uses Python’s Pickle module to encode all values in these dictionaries. Leo will discard any attributes that can not be pickled. This should not be a major problem to plugins. For example, instead of putting a tnode into these dictionaries, a plugin could put the tnode’s gnx (a string) in the dictionary.

Note: Leo does not pickle members of inner dictionaries whose name (key) starts with str_. The values of such members should be a Python string. This convention allows strings to appear in .leo files in a more readable format.

Here is how Leo associates uA’s with <v> elements in .leo files:

• Native xml attributes are the attributes of <v> elements that are known (treated specially) by Leo’s read/write code. The native attributes of <v> elements are a, t, vtag, tnodeList, marks, expanded, and descendentTnodeUnknownAttributes. All other attributes of <v> and <t> elements are foreign xml attributes.

• When reading a .leo file, Leo will create v.unknownAttributes ivars for any vnode whose corresponding <v> or <t> element contains a foreign xml attribute.

• When writing a .leo file, Leo will write foreign xml attributes in <v> elements if the corresponding vnode contains an unknownAttributes ivar.

• Leo performs the usual xml escapes on these strings when reading or writing the unknownAttributes ivars.

Decluttering headlines

Decluttering replaces controls custom formatting of headlines, including:

• Hiding or changing headline text,

• Adding icons to headlines,

• Changing the styling of headlines.

Decluttering is inactive when you are editing a headline.

Decluttering is completely optional. To enable decluttering, use:

@bool tree-declutter = True

Decluttering is controlled by decluttering rulesets. You specify decluttering rulesets in the body text of:

@data tree-declutter-patterns

As usual with @data nodes:

• Blank lines and lines starting with # are ignored.

• You may organize the text of the @data node using child nodes.

Each ruleset consists of a list of lines:

• The first line is a rule line, containing a find pattern.

• The second line is a replacement line.

• The ruleset ends with zero or more style lines.

Find patterns are regular expressions. Decluttering affects only those headlines that match a rule pattern.

The following section shows some example rulesets. Later sections discuss decluttering commands, patterns and styles in more detail.

Examples

Here are some examples of decluttering rulesets:

# Hide org-mode tags and bold the headline.
RULE :([\w_@]+:)+\s*$
REPLACE-HEAD
WEIGHT Bold

# Replace @clean with an icon
RULE ^@clean (.*)
REPLACE \1
ICON file_icons/file_clean.png

# Show the last part of long filenames
RULE ^.{1,1000}([/\\])(.{25})
REPLACE …\1\2

Rule & replacement lines

All rulesets start with a rule line of the form:

RULE <regular expression>

The ruleset matches a headline if and only if the regular expression matches. Matches can start anywhere in the headline. Leo first attempts to a match using re.match. If that doesn’t work, Leo tries re.search.

A replacement line must follow the rule line. Here are the valid forms:

REPLACE <substitution expression>
REPLACE-HEAD
REPLACE-TAIL
REPLACE-REST

• REPLACE replaces the headline by the value of the substitution expression. For example:

  REPLACE \1
  

  matches replaces the headline by the first matched regex group.

• REPLACE-HEAD replaces replace the headline by the text that precedes the matched text.

• REPLACE-TAIL replaces the headline by the text that follows the matched text.

• REPLACE-REST replaces the headline by everything except the matched text.

Style lines

Leo applies style lines only if they appear in a ruleset that matches a headline. Style lines do the following…

Add an icon to the headline:

ICON path/to/icon

Set the background or foreground color to a color number or names:

BG #FF8800
FG @solarized-magenta

Set the font to a given font name:

Font Times

Set the font size in pixels (PX) or points (PT):

PX 40
PT 16

Enable or disable italics:

ITALIC 0
ITALIC 1

Set the font weight to one of Light, Normal, DemiBold, Bold, Black:

WEIGHT DemiBold

Translating Leo’s menus and messages

It is easy to translate Leo’s menu strings: simply create an @menus tree in leoSettings.leo or myLeoSettings.leo that contains the translated menu names.

New in Leo 4.4.8: Leo now contains support for translating messages sent to Leo’s log:

• Rather than using an _ function to denote strings to be translated, Leo’s g.es and g.es_print functions translate “odd” (first, third, fifth) arguments, leaving “even” arguments untranslated. Keyword arguments, color, newline, etc. are never translated.

• All calls to g.es and g.es_print in Leo’s core follow this convention.

• g.translateString does the actual translation using Python’s gettext module.

• You can use the script in the node @button print g.es stats in scripts.leo to create catalogs of all scripts that need to be translated. Such catalogs are used by Python’s gettext module. (This script was also used to check that the proper arguments to g.es and g.es_print were translated.)