[Python-Dev] Any Emacs tips for core developers?

[glyph at divmod.com]

To say I "use" emacs would be an understatement.  I *live* in emacs.

On 04:32 pm, jflatow at northwestern.edu wrote:
>I recently upgraded to the emacs 22.1/python.el which I tried *really*
>hard to use, but eventually ended up installing python-mode again.
>There are a number of problems in the emacs lisp that I was able to
>get around, but eventually the bugginess overcame my will:
>*R, RE, and RET (i.e. the keystroke shift-r) were bound to commands in
>the major mode (meaning you couldn't type an R without triggering
>python-send-string). You can comment out this line in python.el to get
>around this:

Personally, I have been using GNU Emacs's new python mode since I 
discovered it, and I've never encountered any of the bugs you just 
described.  (Perhaps you are describing bugs that arise from trying to 
use it with XEmacs?)  I have, however, found that it is *less* buggy in 
certain circumstances; it seems to indent parentheses correctly in more 
circumstances, and it isn't confused by triple-quoted strings.  It also 
has functioning support for which-func-mode which python-mode.el doesn't 
seem to (a hack which displays the current scope on the modeline, which 
is very helpful for long classes: I can just glance down and see 
"FooBarBaz.bozBuz()" rather than needing to hit "C-M-r ^class"

As always, YMMV.

Also, I use twisted-dev.el for all of my Python development.  I don't 
think I'll ever be able to go back to F9 doing anything but running 
tests for the current buffer.  Apparently there's a "ctypes-dev" based 
on those hacks in the main Python repository which basically does the 
same thing.  (I'd also strongly recommend binding F5 to 'next-error'. 
It makes hopping around in the error stack nice and easy.)

Finally, for you Ubuntu developers, I'm also using the the pre-release 
XFT GNU emacs, which is very pretty.  So far, despite stern and dire 
warnings, it has had no stability issues:

    http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki/XftGnuEmacs

Look for the "PPA" deb lines there, and you get a nicely prepackaged, 
policy-compliant version of emacs with no need to build anything 
yourself.

(I've also got a personal collection of hacks that, if anyone likes 
TextMate-style "snippets", I'll email you.  It does stuff like turning 
""" into """\n(indent)\n"""\n and "class " into "class (cursor 
here):\n"""\n(indent)\n"""\n(indent)\n". I haven't cleaned it up for a 
public release since a lot of people seem to think that automatically 
inserting text is pretty obnoxious and I just don't have the energy for 
that debate.)