Can't start ansys-mode due to error

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I did the following:
1. Copied the four .el files to /home/igurin/Ansys/utility/ansys-mode/
2. Created a new file called start-ansys-mode.el in the same directory with the 
following contents:

(add-to-list 'load-path "/home/igurin/Ansys/utility/ansys-mode")
(add-to-list 'auto-mode-alist '("\\.mac\\'" . ansys-mode))
(add-to-list 'auto-mode-alist '("\\.dat\\'" . ansys-mode))
(add-to-list 'auto-mode-alist '("\\.inp\\'" . ansys-mode))
(autoload 'ansys-mode "ansys-mode" nil t)

3. Selected the entirety of start-ansys-mode.el and did (M-x eval-region RET)
4. Went to a short sample buffer in the same session and did (M-x ansys-mode 
RET)

I get the following in the minibuffer:
"Symbol's value as variable is void: insert-pair-alist"

System configuration:
ANSYS mode version 13.0.1
Emacs version 21.4.1
Red Hat Enterprise Linux version 5

Original issue reported on code.google.com by iiv...@gmail.com on 22 Feb 2012 at 11:56

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Sorry for the problem and thank you very much for the detailed report! :-)

I'm also (still) working under RHEL 5 and there is unfortunately a very ancient 
Emacs version installed.  It was released 7 years ago!  Could you please 
install or compile a newer version?  It will save you some hassle.

If not please comment out (like below) the paragraph in ansys-mode.el 
(beginning with line 410) for a start.

;(add-to-list 'insert-pair-alist '(?\* ?\*))
;(add-to-list 'insert-pair-alist '(?\$ ?\$))
;(add-to-list 'insert-pair-alist '(?\% ?\%))

> 3. Selected the entirety of start-ansys-mode.el and did (M-x eval-region RET)

By the way, it should be enough to type

  M-x load-file start-ansys-mode.el

Original comment by dieter.wilhelm@gmail.com on 23 Feb 2012 at 3:51

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Original comment by dieter.wilhelm@gmail.com on 23 Feb 2012 at 4:12

• Changed state: Accepted
• Added labels: OpSys-All, Usability

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I actually solved the immediate problem by inserting the following line before 
line 410:

(defvar insert-pair-alist nil)

This gives me the same result as just commenting out the three lines.  
Ansys-mode now starts without error, but it doesn't behave as expected.  I'm 
attaching a screenshot.

(To be precise, my buffers appear the same when I change from one version of 
ansys-mode.el to the other, execute start-ansys-mode.el, and reapply M-x 
ansys-mode).

Original comment by iiv...@gmail.com on 24 Feb 2012 at 5:43

Attachments:

• ansys-mode-results.PNG

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Thanks again for trying ansys-mode.

> (defvar insert-pair-alist nil)

OK :-)

> (To be precise, my buffers appear the same when I change from one version of 
ansys-mode.el to the other, execute start-ansys-mode.el, and reapply M-x 
ansys-mode).

I'm sorry, I do not get what you want to achieve and why ansys-mode isn't 
behaving as expected.  But I realized that also something nasty is happening.  
Please have a look at the Emacs mode line.  You'll see (angular) brackets 
around the mode specification (here: (Ansys)) and tis is a sign that you're in 
"recursive edit mode", i.e. that you're doing commands within a command.  Maybe 
that is the reason something unexpected is happening?

By the way, the different version of ansys-mode doesn't differ so much visually 
from each other (i.e. the highlighting/fontlocking).  There are new features 
and the latest Ansys keywords though...

Original comment by dieter.wilhelm@gmail.com on 24 Feb 2012 at 6:09

• Added labels: Type-Other
• Removed labels: Type-Defect

[GoogleCodeExporter]

OK, let me be clear.  I'm comparing the appearance of my fontification.mac to 
the example here:
http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/AnsysMode

There are two syntax highlighting elements missing: the *MSG block and variable 
names.  (It highlights the left-hand sides of assignment statements, but 
doesn't catch the names of the variables when they occur later in the code.)  
Also, I get the standard right-click context menu instead of the fancy one on 
EmacsWiki.  (Or at least I think it's the standard one... I never actually use 
it.)

I did notice the brackets in the mode window, but I didn't understand what they 
meant.  When I get back to the office, I'll try to understand why it's going 
into recursive edit mode.  It sounds like it might explain why only the basic 
features are loading.

Original comment by iiv...@gmail.com on 26 Feb 2012 at 6:02

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Variable names are only highlighted dynamically when you are in level 2 AND 
have evaluated

(setq ansys-dynamic-highlighting-flag t)

please have a look in default_el.

And what you can see on EmacsWiki is the ripped off GTK menu and not the 
RMB-menu. You'll get it with the gtk version of Emacs.

Original comment by dieter.wilhelm@gmail.com on 27 Feb 2012 at 9:46

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I made conditional test around the insert-pair-alist block which gave the error 
message with Emacs21.

Original comment by dieter.wilhelm@gmail.com on 10 Mar 2012 at 6:39

• Changed state: Fixed

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Referring to your comment 5 about the *MSG block:

The multiline highlighting is somewhat brittle, please use M-g M-g to improve 
the highlighting of such a block, for me it worked in Emacs21.4

Original comment by dieter.wilhelm@gmail.com on 16 Mar 2012 at 5:45

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Thank you for the files,

First remark: In your start-ansys-mode.el you've

  (add-to-list 'load-path "/home/igurin/Ansys/utility/ansys-mode")

then there is no need to for the complete path to all the .el files in 
ansys-mode-ig.el.  No error but just to be complete.

Second remark: please change all occurrences of

   (line-number-at-pos)

with the number

 1

(or some other integer) in ansys-mode-ig.el and put there an empty function 
declaration

   (defun assoc-string (a b c) nil)

at the beginning, then ansys-mode should start at least without an error and 
most functionality -- including the autoloading -- should be preserved within 
Emacs 21.4.  :-)

Hope this helps & have fun with Ansys mode

   Dieter

P. S. please try also the "debugging" mode, where you run the Ansys interpreter 
within Emacs, you can send single lines or whole sections to the interpreter 
and your are even able to check the result visually!

Original comment by dieter.wilhelm@gmail.com on 23 Mar 2012 at 3:50