Update your package search url as melpa.milkbox.net is now melpa.org

It's been a couple of days but the url has changed to melpa.org. You may need to change your .emacs file  from ("melpa" . "http://melpa.milkbox.net/packages/") to ("melpa" . "http://melpa.org/packages/")

Emacs 24.4 released

Well, here's the official release mail on Emacs 24.4.  The Windows versions aren't out yet but will turn up in a few days.

Emacs 24.4 release candidate 1

Looks like Emacs release candidate is out and that the official release will come in a few days.  In related news, Alexander Shukaev has posted on the help-gnu-emacs mailing lists about providing precompiled Emacs versions along with the DLLs for Windows.  It may save time for those of you who need specific features that are not compiled into the official release.  You should direct your queries to Alexander, on the list, I think, if you need any clarifications.

Emacs fourth pretest released

Missed the announcement but the fourth pretest is now available for testing.

Emacs Third Pretest Released

A bit late in posting about it but here is official pretest  release announcement. The Windows binaries take a bit of time to appear if you can't see it already.

Editor wars redux in the mainstream press

From a post on comp.emacs, here's an article on slate comparing Emacs and Vi. Doesn't say anything new to people familiar to Emacs and Vi.  Just that it's there at all in some minor mainstream press.

Emacs Second Pretest Released

Emacs pretest 24.3.91 has been released.  The binaries can be found at the usual places or you can check the links on the right.

Traditional May 1st Release of Gnus, Ma Gnus v0.11 is out

Sorry for the delayed posting but Ma Gnus V0.11 is released.  You can get it by

git clone http://git.gnus.org/gnus.git && cd gnus && git checkout m0-11
or download the release from http://git.gnus.org/cgit/gnus.git/snapshot/gnus-m0-11.zip

Emacs 24.4 first pretest released

From the emacs-devel list, the first emacs pretest is out for testing.  Please do take it for a spin.  The Win binaries will come in a few days.

Some interesting Emacs threads and LaTeX news

C K Kashyap posited some new requirements on code folding and there were a number of interesting responses culminating with a link to HideRegion.  You probably should stick to hide-show or OutlineMode and venture into these solutions only if there is a use case that is not met by hide-show. :)

Did you forget to enable auto-fill while writing text?  No worries, you can fix the written text with a simple C-x h M-q .

Have some file and project management stuff that you want Emacs to handle?  Here's a thread on what one user would like to see as project management that he wants emacs to do some heavy lifting. Might be worth your time to check it out.

BTW, there's a new site pgfplots.net for fantastic LaTeX plotting by the LaTeX guru Stefan Kottwitz.  You should check it out and contribute your pgfplots to it.

PGF 3.0 Released

After a long time, a new version of pgf is out as made out in the announcement from CTAN.  Looks like they've got some massive changes in it.  It's already in the MiKTeX distribution, so you just need to update it.

Some of the things that I found interesting are


 - A Syntax for Graphs: There is now a new simple syntax for specifying
   graphs, borrowed from the GraphViz program. It makes it easy
   to specify graphs and especially trees in a convenient manner.

 - Graph Drawing Algorithms: TikZ now comes with a large and powerful
   system for computing the positions of nodes of graphs automatically
   (you need LuaTeX for this, though).

 - Data Visualization: There is now an alternative to pgfplots as part
   of the standard TikZ installation for creating plots. While pgfplots
   is still the more mature system, the new data visualization system
   comes with some interesting new ideas.

 - Driver Support: Support for all mayor backend drivers has been
   improved. A new, cool thing is the support for dvisvgm, which
   allows you to create powerful SVG graphics directly from TeX,
   including the text.

More Bits and Bobs on Emacs and Gnus

Apparently  BBDB v3 doesn't integrate automagically with Gnus.  Glyn Millington has kindly posted his BBDB and Gnus configuration information if you face a similar issue. If image scrolling in Emacs is a bit jittery for you, then the suggestion to disable fringes might help as posted henry atting.  If you're wondering whether Gnus supports IMAP and can use some of the Gmail features as seen on the web, then the Gnus configuration and tips from W. Greenhouse might be of use to you.  

You might even get to like Gnus even, I dare say.

Emacs in the cloud and other news

Lars has decided to dive in and develop cloud features for Gnus(and that puts paid to the idea that Gnus isn't cutting edge).  Lars had originally outlined his thoughts here and here's the discussion on the approach.  He's already committed a few changes into the gnus repository.

On the Emacs 24.4 release date perennial question, well, it's not very soon.

A new blog post and some discussion on must have Emacs extensions can be found here and here.  Not all of them have links to the software.

On storing text in the kill ring discussion, here's a method to store the Messages in the echo area in the kill ring.

Ma Gnus v0.9 is released

Lars just released Ma Gnus v0.9 which is mostly a bugfix release.  This will be the one that will get shipped with Emacs 24.4.

ESS R integration with Win32 Emacs

I've had R installed for quite some time and I thought I'd give ESS a spin with it.  Turns out, I just had to do this to get it working on Win 7.

(setq load-path (cons "c:/gnu/elisp/R/ESS/lisp" load-path))
(require 'ess-site)
(setq-default inferior-R-program-name "C:\\R\\R-2.15.1\\bin\\x64\\Rterm.exe")

And I could invoke R from Emacs and send code to the inferior process to execute.   However, I do get the following messages which I'm not sure why it turns up.

Finding all versions of R on your system...

Sorry, no version of R could be found on your system.

Anyone know why it happens?

Emacs Relationship Advice!

In the long running debate started off by Eric S Raymond that is currently churning on the emacs lists about bzr vs Git, there's this gem from David Kastrup.


Women start with vi in the hope it will change, men with Emacs in the hope it will stay the same.  Both are disappointed.

Made my day.  Keeled over laughing.  For some reason, it reminded me of Erik Naggum.