Leo and Emacs, including org mode

This chapter several topics relating to the Emacs editor.

Leo vs org mode

Leo and Emacs org mode share similar goals. Org mode has many strengths related to non-programming tasks:

  • Drawers: visible, pure text, easily extensible uA’s.

  • Agendas and tables.

  • In-pane rendering of Latex and special symbols.

  • Support for multiple source languages, including shell scripts, C, etc.

  • Code blocks, with arguments.

  • Result blocks.

But org mode is unsuitable for software development. Org mode’s code block syntax:

#+NAME: <name>
#+BEGIN_SRC <language> <switches> <header arguments>
    <body>
#+END_SRC

would be unbearable in source files.

More generally, org mode lacks the following Leonine features:

  • Automatic tangling when saving files.

  • Automatic untangling when loading files.

  • @others

  • Importers for programming languages.

  • Clones and especially Leo’s clone-find commands.

  • A full Python API and DOM, including generators.

  • @command, @button.

Leo’s is based on technologies missing from org mode:

  • Clones require that outlines be Directed Acyclic Graphs.

  • Leo updates @clean trees using an algorithm that could not be duplicated in org mode.

  • Leo’s outlines are true Python objects, with unique, persistent identities.

In contrast, org mode is completely text oriented:

  • Org mode’s API is limited to parsing body text.

  • Org mode simulates a DOM with text filters.

Using org-mode (.org) files in Leo

Leo can automatically import and export Emacs org-mode (.org) files. Nodes like:

@auto-org-mode <path to .org file>

or equivalently:

@auto-org <path to .org file>

import the org-mode file as a Leo outline.

These nodes work like other @auto nodes: when Leo loads an outline, Leo reads the .org file into the @auto-org-mode tree. When Leo writes an outline, Leo writes any @auto-org-mode tree back to the org-mode file.

After creating an @auto-org-mode node by hand, be sure to use Leo’s refresh-from-disk command to populate the node. Do this before saving the .leo file. If you try to save an empty @auto-org-mode node Leo will warn you that you are about to overwrite the file.

The refresh-from-disk command creates an @auto-org-mode node whose children represent the contents of the external .org file. Leo does not write the @auto-org-mode node itself. This allows you to put Leo directives in the node.

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

A note about two-way communication between Python and lisp scripts: 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 leoPymacs, 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 this Python code:

import leoPymacs as leo-'

pymacs-load defines 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
leo-run-script

Each of these creates a hidden Leo application that can load, change or save .leo files. This hidde application can also execute Leonine scripts.

This hidden Leo application uses Leo’s “null” gui. Leo commands and Leo scripts that use Leo’s “qt” gui will not work as expected.

pymacs-load works like a Python reload, so you can redefine leoPymacs.py while Emacs is running. However, calling pymacs-load creates a new Leo application, 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. open .leo files from emacs

We can now open a .leo file as follows:

(setq c (leo-open fileName))

This call binds the elisp c variable to the newly-opened Leo commander. fileName should be the full path to a .leo file. The c argument may be nil. If so, leo-run-script creates a dummy commander for 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 return their results by setting g.app.scriptResult. elisp scripts may get g.app.scriptResult using leo-script-result.

Step 4. Execute Leonine scripts from emacs

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>.