To install, add the following to your init.el:
(add-to-list 'load-path "~/path-to/gnu-apl-mode")
(require 'gnu-apl-mode)You can then start the APL interaction using M-x gnu-apl.
This package requires certain features of GNU APL that was implemented
as of version 1.2. In partciular, it takes advantage of a command line
option called --emacs which enables certain features that are used
by this mode. If your version of GNU APL is too old, you will get an
error message saying that the --emacs flag is not understood.
This application contains a native part that is compiled into a shared
library that is loaded by GNU APL. The source code for this library
can be found in the directory native.
GNU APL ships with this library, but if you are using a newer version
of this Emacs mode, it may cause compatibility problems between the
native module and the Emacs Lisp code. If this happens, you need to
compile the module yourself and install it in the lib/apl directory
where GNU APL is installed.
This mode provides two different ways to input APL characters. The first is part of the mode itself, and implements the full GNU APL keymap, when the "super" key is active.
If your keyboard does not have a super key (I highly recommend that
you map one, for example the otherwise useless windows key), you can
also use the APL-Z mode. Simply press C-\ and choose APL-Z. This
will provide the same keymap, but prefixed by ".". Pressing dot twice
will output a dot on its own.
By default, the keyboard help buffer is opened whenever the GNU APL
interactive mode is started. If you do not want this behaviour, set
the variable gnu-apl-show-keymap-on-startup to nil. This value can
be customised using M-x customize-variable.
Some operating systems (in particular, Fedora) does not ship with fonts that contain all the nescessary APL symbols. One free font that contains all symbols and also looks good is GNU Free Mono. It can be downloaded here: https://www.gnu.org/software/freefont/
Usually, one wants to use a different font for APL buffers. This mode
includes a face called gnu-apl-default which is used in various
places, such as the help buffers. However, it's not currently enabled
by default in the interactive session, nor in APL buffers.
If you want to enable this, add the following to your
~/.emacs.d/init.el:
(defun em-gnu-apl-init ()
(setq buffer-face-mode-face 'gnu-apl-default)
(buffer-face-mode))
(add-hook 'gnu-apl-interactive-mode-hook 'em-gnu-apl-init)
(add-hook 'gnu-apl-mode-hook 'em-gnu-apl-init)This enables buffer-face-mode with the chosen font when an APL
buffer is opened.
This may be changed to be the default in a future version.
Sometimes the default keyboard layout may not be enough, for example
for Dvorak users. In this case it can be customised by redefining 2
variables: gnu-apl--symbols, which is a list of triplets: character
name, APL symbol and a corresponding key in the current keyboard
layout.
To customise displayed keyboard help it is necessary to redefine the
gnu-apl-keymap-template variable to match the physical keyboard. For
example the old macbook's keyboard with the Dvorak layout could look
like this:
(setq gnu-apl-keymap-template"
╔════╦════╦════╦════╦════╦════╦════╦════╦════╦════╦════╦════╦════╦═════════╗
║ ±∇ ║ !∇ ║ @∇ ║ #∇ ║ $∇ ║ %∇ ║ ^∇ ║ &∇ ║ *∇ ║ (∇ ║ )∇ ║ _∇ ║ +∇ ║ ║
║ §∇ ║ 1∇ ║ 2∇ ║ 3∇ ║ 4∇ ║ 5∇ ║ 6∇ ║ 7∇ ║ 8∇ ║ 9∇ ║ 0∇ ║ -∇ ║ =∇ ║ BACKSP ║
╠════╩══╦═╩══╦═╩══╦═╩══╦═╩══╦═╩══╦═╩══╦═╩══╦═╩══╦═╩══╦═╩══╦═╩══╦═╩══╦══════╣
║ ║ \"∇ ║ <∇ ║ >∇ ║ P∇ ║ Y∇ ║ F∇ ║ G∇ ║ C∇ ║ R∇ ║ L∇ ║ ?∇ ║ +∇ ║ RET ║
║ TAB ║ '∇ ║ ,∇ ║ .∇ ║ p∇ ║ y∇ ║ f∇ ║ g∇ ║ c∇ ║ r∇ ║ l∇ ║ /∇ ║ =∇ ║ ║
╠═══════╩═╦══╩═╦══╩═╦══╩═╦══╩═╦══╩═╦══╩═╦══╩═╦══╩═╦══╩═╦══╩═╦══╩═╦══╩═╗ ║
║ (CAPS ║ A∇ ║ O∇ ║ E∇ ║ U∇ ║ I∇ ║ D∇ ║ H∇ ║ T∇ ║ N∇ ║ S∇ ║ _∇ ║ |∇ ║ ║
║ LOCK) ║ a∇ ║ o∇ ║ e∇ ║ u∇ ║ i∇ ║ d∇ ║ h∇ ║ t∇ ║ n∇ ║ s∇ ║ -∇ ║ \\∇ ║ ║
╠════════╦╩═══╦╩═══╦╩═══╦╩═══╦╩═══╦╩═══╦╩═══╦╩═══╦╩═══╦╩═══╦╩═══╦╩════╩════╣
║ ║ ~∇ ║ Z∇ ║ X∇ ║ C∇ ║ V∇ ║ B∇ ║ N∇ ║ M∇ ║ <∇ ║ >∇ ║ ?∇ ║ ║
║ SHIFT ║ `∇ ║ z∇ ║ x∇ ║ c∇ ║ v∇ ║ b∇ ║ n∇ ║ m∇ ║ ,∇ ║ .∇ ║ /∇ ║ SHIFT ║
╚════════╩════╩════╩════╩════╩════╩════╩════╩════╩════╩════╩════╩══════════╝")Note that both of these variable shall be set before loading the
gnu-apl-mode. In order for changes in gnu-apl--symbols to take
place one better to restart Emacs; for gnu-apl-keymap-template it is
enough to just hide/show keyboard help.