I made my first emacs package to add links in plain text messages
reddit / emacs

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Qwarctick · 2022-09-21 09:51

Link : [https://github.com/PhilippeNoel1/message-
links.el](https://github.com/PhilippeNoel1/message-links.el)

This is my first emacs package and my first contribution on github. So
any comments for improvement are welcome :)

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ideasman_42 · 2022-09-21 10:30

Hey nice idea for a package, I'd like to use it when writing commit
logs, where I use this style of links. I didn't try the package yet
but looks like it could be handy, suggestions:

- A way to select a region, detect and URL's, move all links after
`---links---`.

- Support for not requiring `--links---`, simply detect block of
`[#]:` prefixed lines, add one when none are found.

- Why limit of 9 links?

- Ability to start links at 0'th.

- A way to tweak spacing? Or a format string `[1]: link`.

- Note, `search-forward` should be wrapped in `(save-match-data ...)`
so as not to modify the users match-data.

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Qwarctick · 2022-09-21 10:57

Many thanks for your feedback. Obviously the package is subject to
improvement:

>A way to select a region, detect and URL's, move all links after
---links---.

Don't know how to do this now, but it could be a real improvement.

>Support for not requiring --links---, simply detect block of \[#\]:
prefixed lines, add one when none are found.

I tried but I preferred to start simply with a "tag" that would
separate the real message from the links

>Why limit of 9 links?

That's an error in the regex. I will change it.

>Ability to start links at 0'th.
>
>A way to tweak spacing? Or a format string \[1\]: link.

Good idea, and it's not difficult to add.

>Note, search-forward should be wrapped in (save-match-data ...) so as
not to modify the users match-data.

TIL this. Thanks

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ideasman_42 · 2022-09-21 12:27

> Support for not requiring --links---, simply detect block of [#]:
prefixed lines, add one when none are found.
> I tried but I preferred to start simply with a "tag" that would
separate the real message from the links

This is an important feature for me (as in, I wouldn't use this
package if it required `--links---`), would you accept a pull request
to optionally not use this? (if it's set to an empty string auto-
detect, for e.g.).

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Qwarctick · 2022-09-21 12:39

Of course yes.
The idea was to look for the header (\`---links---\`) and to consider
the \[#\] blocks afterwards. I was afraid to take into account the
\[#\] blocks which were not concerned.
In fact, it is possible to take into account ALL the \[#\] blocks of
the mail, get the biggest one, add and generate the new entry

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ideasman_42 · 2022-09-21 13:03

I don't think detecting lines starting with `[#]: ` is likely to back-
fire, and if someone is really concerned about this possability they
can always use `---links---` marker.

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doolio_ · 2022-09-21 13:11

The grammar for the docstring for `message-links-add-link` is
incorrect. Plus I think you are supposed to upcase the parameter in
the docstring.

Edit: the autoload cookie should also be on the line before that which
you wish autoloaded.

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github-alphapapa · 2022-09-21 18:43

Another option is to write emails in Org with the package `org-msg`,
having them exported to plain text with org-export, which formats them
similarly.

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Qwarctick · 2022-09-21 18:47

Ah! Didn't know about that.

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JoshuaOC · 2022-09-21 18:57

Super job! Looks great :)

I point this out only for your information, there is a similar built-
in package. `footnote.el`, you can have a go with `M-x footnote-mode`.

But it's somewhat more compl

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Qwarctick · 2022-09-21 20:22

Gosh ... Didn't know. \`footnote.el\` has the same goal but does it
better.

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Qwarctick · 2022-09-22 09:31

>Ability to start links at 0'th.

Done

>Why limit of 9 links?

Fixed

>Support for not requiring --links---, simply detect block of \[#\]:
prefixed lines, add one when none are found.

Done

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Qwarctick · 2022-09-22 09:32

Thanks, I fixed it :)

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ideasman_42 · 2022-09-23 07:27

Great, I've submitted some PR's and plan some other changes (mainly to
be able to extract links and auto-insert them - if you don't get to it
first).