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This is Info file ../info/hyperbole.info, produced by Makeinfo-1.63 from the input file hyperbole.texi. File: hyperbole.info, Node: Operating Menus, Next: Entering Arguments, Prev: Window Configurations, Up: Using Hyperbole Operating Menus =============== Under InfoDock, XEmacs, and Emacs 19, pulldown and popup menus are available to invoke Hyperbole commands, including those from the rolodex and the outliner. These menus operate like any other X window menus. Use the Quit command on the Hyperbole menubar menu to get rid of the menu if you do not need it. Invoking Hyperbole again will add the menu back to the menubar. This section discusses only the specialized "Hyperbole menus" that appear in the minibuffer and that work with all Emacs versions. Hyperbole menu items may be selected from either the keyboard or via mouse clicks. When used with the keyboard, they provide rapid command access similar to key bindings. The top level menu is invoked from a key given in your `hsite.el' file (by default, {`C-h h'}) or via an Action Key press in a location with no other action defined. The menu will appear in the minibuffer and should look mostly like so: Hy> Act Butfile/ Doc/ Ebut/ Gbut/ Hist Ibut/ Msg/ Otl/ Rolo/ Win/ The above menu items can be summarized as follows: *Act* Perform the action associated with any button at point or prompt for the name of an explicit button to activate if point is not on one. *Butfile/* Display a local or global file of buttons, providing easy access. `HYPB' for a local button file and `~/.hyperb/HYPB' for your global file. These are good places to start your button creation testing. *Ebut/* All explicit button commands. *Doc/* Hyperbole documentation quick access. Contains Types/ submenu for documentation on Hyperbole implicit button and action types. *Gbut/* All global button commands. Global buttons are accessed by name rather than by direct selection. *Hist* Jumps back to last position in button traversal history. *Ibut/* All implicit button commands. *Msg/* Hyperbole-specific mail and news messaging support commands. Use this to send mail to the Hyperbole discussion list or to add/modify your entry on a Hyperbole mail list. *Otl/* Autonumbered, structured outliner and hyper-node manager commands. *Note Outliner::. *Rolo/* Hierarchical, multi-file rolodex lookup and edit commands. *Note Rolodex::. *Win/* Window configuration management such as adding and restoring window configurations by name. *Note Window Configurations::. All menu items are selected via the first character of their names (letter case does not matter) or via a press of the Action Key. "/" at the end of an item name indicates that it brings up a sub-menu. A press of the Assist Key on an item displays help for the item, including the action that it performs. While a menu is active, to re-activate the top-level Hyperbole menu, you must use {`C-t'}. This allows you to browse the submenus and then return to the top. You can quit without selecting an item by using {`q'}. {`C-g'} aborts whether you are at a menu prompt or any other Hyperbole prompt. File: hyperbole.info, Node: Entering Arguments, Next: Working with Explicit Buttons, Prev: Operating Menus, Up: Using Hyperbole Entering Arguments ================== Many Hyperbole commands prompt you for arguments. The standard Hyperbole user interface has an extensive core of argument types that it recognizes. Whenever Hyperbole is prompting you for an argument, it knows the type that it needs and provides some error checking to help you get it right. More importantly, it allows you to press the Action Key within an entity that you want to use as an argument and it will grab the appropriate thing and show it to you at the input prompt within the minibuffer. If you press the Action Key again at the same point (click with a mouse) on the same thing again, it accepts the entity as the argument and moves on. Thus, a double click registers a desired argument. Double-quoted strings, pathnames, mail messages, Info nodes, dired listings, buffers, numbers, completion items and so forth are all recognized at appropriate times. All of the argument types mentioned in the documentation for the Emacs Lisp `(interactive)' function are recognized. Experiment a little and you will quickly get used to this direct selection technique. Wherever possible, standard Emacs completion is offered, see *Note Completion: (emacs)Completion. Remember to use {`?'} to see what your possibilities for an argument are. Once you have a list of possible completions on screen, you can double click the Action Key on any one to enter it as the argument. File: hyperbole.info, Node: Working with Explicit Buttons, Next: Outliner, Prev: Entering Arguments, Up: Using Hyperbole Working with Explicit Buttons ============================= Explicit buttons provide the building blocks for creating personal or organizational hypertext networks with Hyperbole. This section summarizes the user-level operations available for managing these buttons. * Menu: * Creation:: * Renaming:: * Deletion:: * Modification:: * Location:: * Button Files:: * Buttons in Mail:: * Buttons in News:: File: hyperbole.info, Node: Creation, Next: Renaming, Prev: Working with Explicit Buttons, Up: Working with Explicit Buttons Creation -------- * Menu: * Drags:: via Smart Mouse Key Drags * Menus:: via Hyperbole Menus File: hyperbole.info, Node: Drags, Next: Menus, Prev: Creation, Up: Creation via Smart Mouse Key Drags ......................... The most efficient way to create an explicit button interactively is to use the mouse Action Key to drag from a button source window to a window showing its link referent. More specifically, you should split your current Emacs frame into two windows: one which contains the point at which you want a button to be inserted and another which shows the point to which you want to link. Depress the mouse Action Key at the point at which the button should be inserted, drag to the other window and release it at the point of the link referent. The process becomes quite simple with a little practice. (*Note via Hyperbole Menus: Menus, for a more detailed explanation of the explicit button creation process.) Hyperbole uses the link referent context to determine the type of link to make. If there are a few different types of links which are applicable from the context, you will be prompted with a list of the types. Simply use the Action Key or the first letter of the link type to select one of the type names and to finish the link creation. Hyperbole will then insert explicit button delimiters around the button label and will display a message in the minibuffer indicating both the button name and its action/link type. If you run Emacs under a window system, you can emulate an Action Key drag from the keyboard by: hitting {`M-o'}, the `hkey-operate' command, at the button source location, moving to the link destination, e.g. with {`C-x o'}, and then hitting {`M-o'} again. This simulates a depress and then release of the Action Key. {`C-u M-o'} emulates drags of the Assist Key. This will not work when Hyperbole is run from a dumb terminal Emacs session since drag actions are not supported without a window system. File: hyperbole.info, Node: Menus, Prev: Drags, Up: Creation via Hyperbole Menus ................... You can alternatively use the Hyperbole menus to create explicit buttons. First, mark a short region of text in any fashion allowed by GNU Emacs and then select the Hyperbole menu item sequence, Ebut/Create. You will be prompted for the button's label with the marked region as the default. If you accept the default and enter the rest of the information you are prompted for, the button will be created within the current buffer and Hyperbole will surround the marked region with explicit button delimiters to indicate success. If you do not mark a region before invoking the button create command, you will be prompted for both a label and a target buffer for the button and the delimited label text will be inserted into the target buffer after a successful button creation. After Hyperbole has the button label and its target buffer, it will prompt you for an action type for the button. Use the {`?'} completion help key to see the available types. The type selected determines any following values for which you will be prompted. If a previous button with the same label exists in the same buffer, Hyperbole will add an "instance number" to the label when it adds the delimiters so that the name is unique. Thus, you don't have to worry about accidental button name conflicts. If you want the same button to appear in multiple places within the buffer, just enter the label again and delimit it yourself. Hyperbole will interpret all occurrences of the same delimited label within a buffer as the same button. If you create link buttons using the Hyperbole menus, the best technique is to place on screen both the source buffer for the button and the buffer to which it will link. Mark the region of text to use for your button label, invoke the button create command from the menu, choose an action type which begins with `link-to-' and then use the direct selection techniques mentioned in *Note Entering Arguments::, to select the link referent. File: hyperbole.info, Node: Renaming, Next: Deletion, Prev: Creation, Up: Working with Explicit Buttons Renaming -------- Once an explicit button has been created, its label text must be treated specially. Any inter-word spacing within the label may be freely changed, as may happen when a paragraph is refilled. But a special command must be invoked to rename it. The rename command operates in two different ways. If point is within a button label when it is invoked, it will tell you to edit the button label and then invoke the rename command again. The second invocation will actually rename the button. If instead the command is originally invoked outside of any explicit button, it will prompt for the button label to replace and the label to replace it with and then will perform the rename. All occurrences of the same button in the buffer will be renamed, so you need locate only one occurrence of the button. The rename command may be invoked from the Hyperbole menu via Ebut/Rename. A faster method is to use a key bound to the `hui:ebut-rename' command. Your site installation may include such a key. `C-h w hui:ebut-rename RTN' should show you any key it is on. If no key binding has been established or if you prefer one of your own, simply bind it within your `~/.emacs' file. We recommend the {`C-c C-r'} key, as in: `(global-set-key "\C-c\C-r" 'hui:ebut-rename)'. File: hyperbole.info, Node: Deletion, Next: Modification, Prev: Renaming, Up: Working with Explicit Buttons Deletion -------- Ebut/Delete works similarly to the Rename command but deletes the selected button. The button's delimiters are removed to confirm the delete. If the delete command is invoked with a prefix argument, then both the button label and the delimiters are removed as confirmation. Presently there is no way to recover a deleted button; it must be recreated. Therefore, the HUI:EBUT-DELETE-CONFIRM-P variable is true by default, causing Hyperbole to require confirmation before interactively deleting explicit buttons. Set it to nil if you prefer no confirmation. File: hyperbole.info, Node: Modification, Next: Location, Prev: Deletion, Up: Working with Explicit Buttons Modification ------------ Ebut/Modify prompts you with each of the elements from the button's data list and allows you to modify each in turn. There is a quicker way to modify explicit link buttons. Simply drag with the mouse Action Key from within the button label to a link destination in a different window, just as you would when creating a new button with a mouse drag. Remember that drags may also be emulated from the keyboard. *Note Creation::. File: hyperbole.info, Node: Location, Next: Button Files, Prev: Modification, Up: Working with Explicit Buttons Location -------- The Ebut/Help menu can be used to summarize a single explicit button or all such buttons within a single buffer. The buttons summarized may then be activated directly from the summary. Ebut/Help/BufferButs summarizes the explicit buttons in the order in which they appear in the buffer. Ebut/Help/CurrentBut summarizes only the button at point. Ebut/Help/OrderedButs summarizes the buttons in alphabetical order. All of these summary commands eliminate duplicate instances of buttons from their help displays. Ebut/Search prompts for a search pattern and searches across all the locations in which you have previously created explicit buttons. It asks you whether to match to any part of a button label or only complete labels. It then displays a list of button matches with a single line of surrounding context from their sources. Any button in the match list may be activated as usual. An Action Key press on the surrounding context jumps to the associated source line or a press on the filename preceding the matches jumps to the file without selecting a particular line. There are presently no user-level facilities for globally locating buttons created by others or for searching on particular button attributes. File: hyperbole.info, Node: Button Files, Next: Buttons in Mail, Prev: Location, Up: Working with Explicit Buttons Button Files ------------ It is often convenient to create lists of buttons that can be used as menus to provide centralized access to distributed information pools or for other purposes. These files can serve as useful roadmaps to help efficiently guide a user through both unfamiliar and highly familiar information spaces. Files that are created specifically for this purpose, we call "button files". The Hyperbole menu system provides quick access to two types of these button files: personal and directory-specific, through the ButFile menu. (The variable, HBMAP:FILENAME, contains the base name of these standard button files. Its standard value is `HYPB'.) A personal button file may serve as a user's own roadmap to frequently used resources. Selection of the ButFile/PersonalFile menu item displays this file for editing. The default personal button file is stored within the directory given by the HBMAP:DIR-USER variable whose standard value is `~/.hyperb'. The standard Hyperbole configuration also appends all global buttons to the end of this file, one per line, as they are created. So you can edit or annotate them within the file. A directory-specific button file may exist for each file system directory. Such files are useful for explaining the contents of directories and pointing readers to particular highlights within the directories. Selection of the ButFile/DirFile menu item displays the button file for the current directory; this provides an easy means of updating this file when working on a file within the same directory. If you want to view some other directory-specific button file, simply use the normal Emacs file finding commands. One might suggest that menu quick access be provided for group-specific and site-specific button files. Instead, link buttons to such things should be placed at the top of your personal button file. This provides a more flexible means of quick access. File: hyperbole.info, Node: Buttons in Mail, Next: Buttons in News, Prev: Button Files, Up: Working with Explicit Buttons Buttons in Mail --------------- Hyperbole allows the embedding of buttons within electronic mail messages that are composed in Emacs with the standard `(mail)' command, normally bound to {`C-x m'} or with other Emacs-based mail composing functions. An enhanced mail reader can then be used to activate the buttons within messages just like any other buttons. Hyperbole automatically supports the Rmail, see *Note Rmail: (emacs)Rmail, VM, see *Note Introduction: (vm)Introduction, and MH-e mail readers. Button inclusion and activation within USENET news articles is also supported in the same fashion via the GNUS news reader, see *Note Introduction: (gnus)Introduction, if available at your site. (The `hmail.el' file provides a generalized interface that can be used to hook in other mail or news readers if the necessary interface functions are written.) All explicit buttons to be mailed must be created within the outgoing message buffer. There is no present support for including text from other buffers or files which contain explicit buttons, except for the ability to yank the contents of a message being replied to, together with all of its buttons, via the `(mail-yank-original)' command bound to {`C-c C-y'}. From a user's perspective, buttons are created in precisely the same way as in any other buffer. They also appear just like any other buttons to both the message sender and the reader who uses the Hyperbole enhanced readers. Button operation may be tested any time before a message is sent. A person who does not use Hyperbole enhanced mail readers can still send messages with embedded buttons since mail composing is independent of any mail reader choice. Hyperbole buttons embedded within received mail messages act just like any other buttons. The mail does not contain any of the action type definitions used by the buttons, so the receiver must have these or she will receive an error when she activates the buttons. Buttons which appear in message *Subject* lines are copied to summary buffers whenever such summaries are generated. Thus, they may be activated from either the message or summary buffers. Nothing bad will happen if a mail message with explicit buttons is sent to a non-Hyperbole user. The user will simply see the text of the message followed by a series of lines of button data at its end. Hyperbole mail users never see this data in its raw form. In order to alert readers of your mail messages that you can utilize Hyperbole mail buttons, the system automatically inserts a comment into each mail message that you compose to announce this fact. The variable, SMAIL:COMMENT controls this behavior. See its documentation for technical details. By default, it produces a message of the form: Comments: Hyperbole mail buttons accepted, vX.XX. where the X's indicate your Hyperbole version number. You can cut this out of particular messages before you send them. If you don't want any message at all, add the following to your `~/.emacs' file before the point at which you load Hyperbole. `(setq smail:comment nil)' A final mail-related facility provided by Hyperbole is the ability to save a pointer to a received mail message by creating an explicit button with a `link-to-mail' action type. When prompted for the mail message to link to, if you press the Action Key on an Rmail message, the appropriate parameter will be copied to the argument prompt, as described in *Note Entering Arguments::. File: hyperbole.info, Node: Buttons in News, Prev: Buttons in Mail, Up: Working with Explicit Buttons Buttons in News --------------- Explicit buttons may be embedded within outgoing USENET news articles and may be activated from news articles that are being read. This support is available for the GNUS news reader. It is enabled by default within `hsite.el' by autoloading the `hgnus.el' file. All Hyperbole support should work just as it does when reading or sending mail. *Note Buttons in Mail::. When reading news, buttons which appear in message *Subject* lines may be activated within the GNUS subject buffer as well as the article buffer. When posting news, the *post-news* buffer is used for outgoing news articles rather than the *mail* buffer. Remember that the articles you post do not contain the action type definitions used by the buttons, so the receiver must have these or she will receive an error when he activates the buttons. You should also keep in mind that most USENET readers will not be using Hyperbole, so if they receive a news article containing explicit buttons, they will wonder what the button data at the end of the message is. You should therefore limit distribution of such messages. For example, if most people at your site read news with GNUS and use Hyperbole, it would be reasonable to embed buttons in postings to local newsgroups. In order to alert readers of your postings that you can utilize Hyperbole mail buttons embedded within personal replies, the system automatically inserts the same comment that is included within mail messages to announce this fact. *Note Buttons in Mail::, for details and an explanation of how to turn this feature off. File: hyperbole.info, Node: Outliner, Next: Rolodex, Prev: Working with Explicit Buttons, Up: Using Hyperbole Outliner Operation ================== The Hyperbole outliner produces structured, autonumbered documents composed of hierarchies of cells. Each cell has two identifiers, a relative autonumber indicating its present position within the outline and a permanent identifier suitable for use within hyperlink references to the cell. The outliner only works under GNU Emacs version 19 or higher and XEmacs version 19.9 or higher. You can tell whether you are running a version of Emacs which supports the outliner by hitting {`C-h h'} to display the Hyperbole menu. If you see an `Otl/' entry in the menu, then the outliner is available. Otherwise, the outliner does not work with your version of Emacs, so this section of the manual will not be of interest to you. The outliner is not yet fully documented within this manual. Full documentation will be available with version 4 of Hyperbole, after the outliner has been through user testing. In the mean time, a brief explanation of the outliner is offered within the `EXAMPLE.kotl' file. This is an actual outline file that explains basic operational details of the outliner. Use the `Otl/Example' menu entry to display this file. *Note Outliner Keys::, for a full summary of the key bindings and commands available in the outliner. You can create and experiment with outline files by editing a file with the `.kotl' suffix. `.kot' will also work for DOS/Windows-impaired users. The outliner menu, *Note Outliner Menu::, also contains a `Create' item. * Menu: * Outliner Menu:: * Outliner History:: File: hyperbole.info, Node: Outliner Menu, Next: Outliner History, Prev: Outliner, Up: Outliner Outliner Menu ------------- The Otl/ menu entry on the Hyperbole top-level menu provides access to a number of major outliner commands: Menu Item Command Description ==================================================================== All kotl-mode:show-all Expand all cells Below kotl-mode:hide-sublevels Hide cells deeper than a level Create kfile:find Edit or create an outline Example <sample outliner file> Show self-descriptive example Hide kotl-mode:hide-tree Hide tree with root at point Info <outliner documentation> Show outliner manual section Kill kotl-mode:kill-tree Kill the current tree Link klink:create Create a link to another cell Overview kotl-mode:overview Show first line of each cell Show kotl-mode:show-tree Show tree with root at point Top kotl-mode:top-cells Collapse to top-level cells View kfile:view View an outline read-only ==================================================================== File: hyperbole.info, Node: Outliner History, Prev: Outliner Menu, Up: Outliner Outliner History ---------------- Much of the Hyperbole outliner design is based upon concepts pioneered in the NLS/AUGMENT system, `[Eng84a]'. AUGMENT treated buffers as a hierarchical set of nodes, called statements; for example, each paragraph in a document would be treated as a node, with its own address. The system could rapidly change the view of a buffer by collapsing, expanding, clipping, filtering or reordering these nodes. These facilities aided greatly in idea structuring and cross-referencing. Hyperbole version 4 will extend the outliner with AUGMENT-style flexible views. Links will be able to specify not only a referent but also the view style to use when displaying the referent. This view capability will allow fine control over the presentation of information displayed by Hyperbole buttons. File: hyperbole.info, Node: Rolodex, Prev: Outliner, Up: Using Hyperbole Rolodex Operation ================= Hyperbole includes a complete, advanced rolodex system, Wrolo, for convenient management of hierarchical, record-oriented information. Hyperbole buttons may be included within rolodex records and then manually activated whenever their records are retrieved. See the description at the top of the `wrolo.el' file for details on programmatic interfacing to the rolodex. The following subsections explain use and basic customization of the rolodex. * Menu: * Rolo Concepts:: * Rolo Menu:: * Rolo Keys:: * Rolo Settings:: File: hyperbole.info, Node: Rolo Concepts, Next: Rolo Menu, Prev: Rolodex, Up: Rolodex Rolo Concepts ------------- The rolodex manages and searches rolodex files. A "rolodex file" consists of an optional header which starts and ends with a line of equal signs (at least three equal signs starting at the beginning of a line), followed by any non-negative number of rolodex records. You must manually add a header to any rolodex file if you want it to have one. Here is an example of a simple rolodex file. ================================================================== PERSONAL ROLODEX <Last-Name>, <First> <Co/Categ> <Email> W<Work#> F<Fax#> ================================================================== * Smith, John Motorola <js@mot.com> W2001 F1892 We call rolodex records, "entries". Entries begin with a delimiter, some number of `*' characters at the beginning of a line. Entries may be arranged in a hierarchy, where child entries begin with one more `*' character than do their parents. Top level entries begin with a single `*'. Beyond this initial delimiter, entries are completely free-form text. It is best to use a "lastname, firstname" format, however, when adding contact entries into a rolodex. Then the rolodex system will automatically keep your entries alphabetized. Any search done on the rolodex scans the full text of each entry. During a search, the rolodex file header separator lines and anything in between are appended to the buffer of matched entries before any entries are retrieved from the file. Whenever an entry is matched, it and all of its descendant entries are retrieved. If your Emacs version supports textual highlighting, each search match is highlighted for quick, visual location. For example, a search on "Company" could retrieve the following: ================================================================== COMPANY ROLODEX ================================================================== * Company ** Manager *** Underlings Thus, searching for Company retrieves all listed employees. Searching for Manager turns up all Underlings. File: hyperbole.info, Node: Rolo Menu, Next: Rolo Keys, Prev: Rolo Concepts, Up: Rolodex Rolo Menu --------- The Rolo/ menu entry on the Hyperbole top-level menu provides the user interface to the rolodex. The rolo menu provides access to the following commands: Menu Item Command Description ==================================================================== Add rolo-add Adds a rolodex entry Display rolo-display-matches Displays last matches again Edit rolo-edit Edits an existing rolodex entry Info Displays Rolodex manual entry Kill rolo-kill Removes an entry from the rolodex Order rolo-sort Sorts all levels in rolodex RegexFind rolo-grep Finds all entries containing a regular expression StringFind rolo-fgrep Finds all entries containing a string WordFind rolo-word Finds all entries containing a string of whole words Yank rolo-yank Inserts first matching rolodex entry at point ==================================================================== A prefix argument used with either of the find commands listed above limits the search to a maximum number of matches given by the argument. The search is terminated whenever that number of matches is found. For any of the above commands that prompt for a name, you may use the form parent/child to locate a child entry below a parent entry. So for a rolodex which looked like so: * Company ** Manager *** Underlings You could edit the Underlings entry by identifying it as Company/Manager/Underlings. Do not use this hierarchical notation in search expressions since the whole rolodex will be searched anyway. Thus, "Underlings" as a search pattern will find an entry containing "Underlings" at any level in a hierarchy, like so: *** Underlings File: hyperbole.info, Node: Rolo Keys, Next: Rolo Settings, Prev: Rolo Menu, Up: Rolodex Rolo Keys --------- After a rolodex search is performed, point is left in the "rolodex match buffer", `*Rolodex*', which uses `wrolo-mode' to simplify browsing many rolodex matches. Press {`?'} when in the match buffer for a summary of available keys. If your Emacs version supports textual highlighting, each search match is highlighted for quick, visual location. {TAB} moves point forward to successive spans of text which match the search expression. {`M-TAB'} or {`r'} moves point backward to earlier matches. These keys allow you to quickly find the matching entry of most interest to you if your search expression failed to narrow the matches sufficiently. Single key outlining commands are also available for browsing matches. If your search matches a large number of entries, use {`t'} to get a top-level overview of all the entries. Each entry is collapsed so that only its first line shows. Press {`s'} to show (expand) the entry at point. Use {`h'} to hide (collapse) the entry again. Press {`a'} to expand all entries in the buffer. Many other keys are defined to help you move through matching entries. `b' Move to the previous entry at the same level as the current entry. `f' Move to the next entry at the same level as the current entry. `n' Move to the next entry at any level. `p' Move to the previous entry at any level. `u' Move the the previous entry one level up. `.' `<' Move to the beginning of the buffer. `,' `>' Move to the end of the buffer. `DEL' Scroll backward a windowful. `SPC' Scroll forward a windowful. Once you have found an entry of interest and you want to remove the rolodex match buffer, use {`q'} to quit. This will restore your current frame to its state prior to the rolodex search. File: hyperbole.info, Node: Rolo Settings, Prev: Rolo Keys, Up: Rolodex Rolo Settings ------------- If textual highlighting is available in your Emacs on your current display type, the rolodex uses the value of ROLO-HIGHLIGHT-FACE as the face to use to highlight search matches. The buffers containing the rolodex files are not killed after a search on the assumption that another search is likely to follow within this Emacs session. You may wish to change this behavior with the following setting: `(setq rolo-kill-buffers-after-use t)'. After an entry is killed, the modified rolodex file is automatically saved. If you would rather always save files yourself, use this setting: `(setq rolo-save-buffers-after-use nil)'. When adding an entry from within a buffer containing a mail message, the rolodex add function will extract the sender's name and e-mail address and prompt you with the name as a default. If you accept it, it will enter the name and the email address using the format given by the ROLO-EMAIL-FORMAT variable. See its documentation if you want to change its value. The files used in any rolodex search are given by the ROLO-FILE-LIST variable, whose default value is `("~/.rolodex.otl")', so that searches initially scan only your personal rolodex. Any entries added to this list should be file pathnames. If a file in the list does not exist or is not readable, it is skipped. Files are searched in the order in which they appear in the list. In general, you should leave your personal rolodex file as the first entry in the list, since this is the only file to which the rolo menu Add command adds entries. The rolodex entry start delimiter is given by the regular expression variable, ROLO-ENTRY-REGEXP, whose default value is "^\*+". A rolodex file may begin with an optional header section which is copied to the match display buffer whenever any matches are found during a search. The start and end lines of this header are controlled by the regular expression variable, ROLO-HDR-REGEXP, whose default value is "^===". This allows lines of all equal signs to visually separate matching entries from multiple files retrieved from a single search. File: hyperbole.info, Node: Developing with Hyperbole, Next: Glossary, Prev: Using Hyperbole, Up: Top Developing with Hyperbole ************************* This chapter is only for people who are familiar with Emacs Lisp and wish to extend Hyperbole, customize Hyperbole or develop other systems using Hyperbole as a base. * Menu: * Hook Variables:: * Creating Types:: * Explicit Button Technicalities:: * Encapsulating Systems:: * Embedding Hyperbole:: File: hyperbole.info, Node: Hook Variables, Next: Creating Types, Prev: Developing with Hyperbole, Up: Developing with Hyperbole Hook Variables ============== Hyperbole provides a number of hook variables that allow you to adjust its basic operations to meet your own needs, without requiring you to change the code for those operations. We find it best to always set the value of hook variables either to nil or to a list of function names of no arguments, each of which will be called in sequence when the hook is triggered. Given the name of a function, a Hyperbole hook variable triggered within that function has the same name as the function with a `-hook' appended. Hyperbole provides the following hook variables: HYPERB:INIT-HOOK For customization at Hyperbole initialization time. Use this to load any personal Hyperbole type definitions you might have. It is run after Hyperbole support code is loaded but before Hyperbole session initializations take place. ACTION:ACT-HOOK Run before each Hyperbole button activation. The variable HBUT:CURRENT contains the button to be activated when this is run. EBUT:CREATE-HOOK To add to the Hyperbole explicit button creation process. EBUT:DELETE-HOOK To add to the Hyperbole explicit button deletion process. EBUT:MODIFY-HOOK Executed when an explicit button's attributes are modified. HIBTYPES:BEGIN-LOAD-HOOK Executed prior to loading of standard Hyperbole implicit button types. Used to load site-specific low priority implicit button types since lowest priority ibtypes are loaded first. HIBTYPES:END-LOAD-HOOK Executed after loading of standard Hyperbole implicit button types. Used to load site-specific high priority implicit button types since highest priority ibtypes are loaded last. HTYPE:CREATE-HOOK Executed when a Hyperbole type (e.g. action type or implicit button type) is added to the environment. HTYPE:DELETE-HOOK Executed when a type is deleted from the environment. KOTL-MODE-HOOK Executed when a Koutline is created or read in or when kotl-mode is invoked. Hyperbole also makes use of a number of external Emacs hook variables. FIND-FILE-HOOKS This is called whenever a file is read into a GNU Emacs buffer. Hyperbole uses it to highlight any buttons within files when run under any NEXTSTEP or X window system-based versions of GNU Emacs. WRITE-FILE-HOOKS This is called whenever a GNU Emacs buffer is written to a file. Hyperbole uses it to save any modified button data associated with the file's directory. Hyperbole mail and news facilities also utilize a number of external hook variables. These hide button data and highlight buttons if possible. See the various support files for details. File: hyperbole.info, Node: Creating Types, Next: Explicit Button Technicalities, Prev: Hook Variables, Up: Developing with Hyperbole Creating Types ============== To define or redefine a single Hyperbole type, you may either: * move your Emacs point to within the type definition and use {`C-M-x'} `(eval-defun)' (only works in Emacs Lisp mode); * or move your point to the end of the last line of the type definition and use {`C-x C-e'} `(eval-last-sexp)' (works in most modes). The functions from the `htype' class may be applied to any Hyperbole types, if needed. The following subsections explain the specifics of Hyperbole type definitions which are beyond standard practice for Emacs Lisp programming. See the definitions of the standard types in `hactypes.el' and `hibtypes.el' for examples. * Menu: * Action Types:: * Implicit Button Types:: File: hyperbole.info, Node: Action Types, Next: Implicit Button Types, Prev: Creating Types, Up: Creating Types Action Types ------------ New forms of explicit buttons may be created by adding new action types to a Hyperbole environment. The file, `hactypes.el', provides many examples of working action types. An action type is created, i.e. loaded into the Hyperbole environment, with the `(defact)' function (which is an alias for `(actype:create)'). The calling signature for this function is given in its documentation; it is the same as that of `(defun)' except that a documentation string is required. (An interactive calling form is also required if the action type has formal parameters and is to be used in explicit button definitions. Implicit buttons never use an action type's interactive form. It is good practice to include an interactive form since the type creator cannot know how users may choose to apply the type.) An action type's parameters are used differently than those of a function being called. Its interactive calling form is used when an explicit button is created to prompt for type-specific button attributes. The rest of its body is used when a button with that action type is activated. Then the button attributes together with the action type body are used to form an action that is executed in response to the button activation. The action's result is returned to the action caller unless it returns nil, in which case t is returned to the caller to ensure that it registers the performance of the action. An action type body may perform any computation using Emacs Lisp and Hyperbole functions. The interactive calling form for an action type is of the same form as that of a regular Emacs Lisp function definition (see the documentation for the Emacs Lisp `(interactive)' form). It may additionally use Hyperbole command character extensions when the form is given as a string. Each such extension character *must* be preceded by a plus sign, `+', in order to be recognized since such characters may also have standard interactive form meanings. The present Hyperbole extension characters are: *+I* Prompts for an existing Info node name and file. *+K* Prompts for an existing kcell identifier, either a full outline level identifier or a permanent idstamp. *+M* Prompts for a mail message date and the file name it resides in. The mail parameters prompted for by this character code are likely to change in the future. *+V* Prompts for a Hyperbole view specification. Not yet available for use. Arguments are read by the functions in Hyperbole's `hargs' class, rather than the standard Lisp `read' functions, in order to allow direct selection of arguments via the Action Key. If an action type create is successful, the symbol that Hyperbole uses internally to reference the type is returned. `Nil' is returned on failure so that you may test whether or not the operation succeeds. Once you have defined an action type within your present Hyperbole environment, you can create new explicit buttons which use it. There is no explicit button type beyond its action type, so no further work is necessary. Call `(actype:delete)' to remove an action type from a Hyperbole environment. It takes a single parameter which should be the same type symbol used in the type definition call (not the Hyperbole symbol returned by the call). File: hyperbole.info, Node: Implicit Button Types, Prev: Action Types, Up: Creating Types Implicit Button Types --------------------- An implicit button type is created or loaded via the `(defib)' function (which is an alias for `(ibtype:create)'). The calling signature for this function is given in its documentation; it is the same as that of `(defun)', but with a number of constraints. The parameter list should always be empty since no parameters will be used. A documentation string is required. The type's body follows this. The body of an implicit button type is a predicate which determines whether or not point is within an implicit button of the type. If not, the predicate returns `nil'. If so, it may optionally setup to flash the button and then perform one or more actions. A call of the form: `(ibut:label-set label start-pos end-pos)' is used to setup the button flashing, if desired. This is then typically immediately followed by an action invocation of the form: `(hact 'actype &rest actype-arguments)'. It is imperative that all actions (non-predicate code) be invoked through the `(hact)' function rather than directly or your ibtypes will not work properly. (Hyperbole first tests to see if any ibtype matches the current context before activating any type, so it ensures that `(hact)' calls are disabled during this testing.) Any action types used may be created before or after the implicit button type definition but obviously should be defined before any implicit buttons of the given type are activated; an error will result, otherwise. If an implicit button type create is successful, the symbol that Hyperbole uses internally to reference the type is returned. `Nil' is returned on failure so that you may test whether or not the operation succeeds. Implicit button type names and action type names may be the same without any conflict. In fact, such naming is encouraged when an implicit button type is the exclusive user of an action type. Call `(ibtype:delete)' to remove an implicit button type from a Hyperbole environment. It takes a single parameter which should be the same type symbol used in the type definition call (not the Hyperbole symbol returned by the call). This will not delete the action type used by the implicit button; that must be done separately. By default, a request for help on an implicit button will display the button's attributes in the same manner as is done for explicit buttons. For some implicit button types, other forms of help will be more appropriate. If an Emacs Lisp function is defined whose name is formed from the concatenation of the type name followed by `:help', e.g. `my-ibtype:help', it is used to respond to requests for help on buttons of that type. Any such function should take a single argument of an implicit button construct. (This is what `(ibut:at-p)' returns when point is within an implicit button context.) The button may be queried for its attributes using functions from the `hbut' and `hattr' classes. See the `hib-kbd.el' file for an example of a custom help function. File: hyperbole.info, Node: Explicit Button Technicalities, Next: Encapsulating Systems, Prev: Creating Types, Up: Developing with Hyperbole Explicit Button Technicalities ============================== * Menu: * Button Label Normalization:: * Operational and Storage Formats:: * Programmatic Button Creation:: File: hyperbole.info, Node: Button Label Normalization, Next: Operational and Storage Formats, Prev: Explicit Button Technicalities, Up: Explicit Button Technicalities Button Label Normalization -------------------------- Hyperbole uses a normalized form of button labels called button keys (or label keys) for all internal operations. See the documentation for the function `(hbut:label-to-key)' for details of the normalization process. The normalized form permits Hyperbole to recognize buttons that are the same but whose labels appear different from one another, due to text formatting conventions. For example, all of the following would be recognized as the same button. <(fake button)> <( fake button)> Pam> <(fake Pam> button)> ;; <(fake ;; button)> /* <( fake */ /* button )> */ The last three examples demonstrate how Hyperbole ignores common fill prefix patterns that happen to fall within the middle of a button label that spans multiple lines. As long as such buttons are selected with point at a location within the label's first line, the button will be recognized. The variable HBUT:FILL-PREFIX-REGEXPS holds the list of fill prefixes recognized when embedded within button labels. All such prefixes are recognized (one per button label), regardless of the setting of the GNU Emacs variable, FILL-PREFIX, so no user intervention is required. File: hyperbole.info, Node: Operational and Storage Formats, Next: Programmatic Button Creation, Prev: Button Label Normalization, Up: Explicit Button Technicalities Operational and Storage Formats ------------------------------- Hyperbole uses a terse format to store explicit buttons and a more meaningful one to show users and to manipulate during editing. The terse format consists solely of button attribute values whereas the edit format includes an attribute name with each attribute value. A button in edit format consists of a Lisp symbol together with its attribute list which holds the attribute names and values. In this way, buttons may be passed along from function to function simply by passing the symbol to which the button is attached. Most functions utilize the pre-defined HBUT:CURRENT symbol by default to store and retrieve the last encountered button in edit format. The `hbdata' class handles the terse, stored format. The `hbut', `ebut', and `ibut' classes work with the name/value format. This separation permits the wholesale replacement of the storage manager with another, with any interface changes hidden from any Hyperbole client programming. File: hyperbole.info, Node: Programmatic Button Creation, Prev: Operational and Storage Formats, Up: Explicit Button Technicalities Programmatic Button Creation ---------------------------- A common need when developing with Hyperbole is the ability to create or modify explicit buttons without user interaction. For example, an application might require the addition of an explicit summary button to a file for each new mail message a user reads that contains a set of keywords. The user could then check the summary file and jump to desired messages quickly. The Hyperbole class `ebut' supports programmatic access to explicit buttons. See it within the `hbut.el' file for full details. The documentation for `(ebut:create)' explains the set of attributes settings necessary to create an explicit button. For operations over the whole set of buttons within the visible (non-narrowed) portion of a buffer, use the `(ebut:map)' function. File: hyperbole.info, Node: Encapsulating Systems, Next: Embedding Hyperbole, Prev: Explicit Button Technicalities, Up: Developing with Hyperbole Encapsulating Systems ===================== A powerful use of implicit button types is to provide a Hyperbole-based interface to external systems. The basic idea is to interpret patterns within the application's displays as implicit buttons. See the `hsys-*' files for examples of how to do this.