magit-section for creating an interface
reddit / emacs

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Alric-Rahl · 2022-10-23 15:11

I've been tinkering with making simple interfaces with `transient` and
`tabulated-list-mode`, things like a list of scripts with some
information on them as columns, and key bindings/transients to edit,
lint or execute them. While this is nice, for something more elaborate
`tabulated-list-mode` is not enough. I am trying to get a view
inspired by `magit`'s status buffer, so I thought I could use `magit-
section` for this. However, I couldn't find any guides on how to make
something with it, and I am not savy enough to extract the exact usage
from the `magit` code (I did try).

So my question is, does anyone have any guides or any simple elisp
code that I can use for reference to create a new derived mode out of
`magit-section`?

Edit: Fixed formatting.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
akirakom · 2022-10-23 16:58

The best example I've seen so far is taxy-magit-section.  It uses cl-
labels to handle nested structures using recursion.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Alric-Rahl · 2022-10-24 13:56

Thanks! It looks at least easier than `magit` to go over. I wonder if
trying to create something from scratch over the `special-mode` basic
mode would be easier than understanding an existing code base.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
abrochard · 2022-10-24 15:59

I remember trying to figure it out too in the past and getting
confused. I put together some of my old notes in a quick gist. It's
not 100% working but maybe it'll help.

​

[https://gist.github.com/abrochard/4b3858e155fa76697058673866f55d2f](h
ttps://gist.github.com/abrochard/4b3858e155fa76697058673866f55d2f)

----------------------------------------------------------------------
github-alphapapa · 2022-10-24 16:36

As Akira said, `taxy-magit-section` is designed to do exactly this.

I'd recommend looking at this example application and modifying it to
suit your needs:
https://github.com/alphapapa/taxy.el/blob/master/examples/bookmarky.el

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Alric-Rahl · 2022-10-24 21:38

This looks so helpful, I will give it a shot asap!

----------------------------------------------------------------------
abrochard · 2022-10-24 21:39

Good luck! I'd be curious to learn what you'll find

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Alric-Rahl · 2022-10-24 21:43

Oh, so `taxy` is kinda like an extra layer built on top of `magit-
section` to make it easier to use to build things?

----------------------------------------------------------------------
github-alphapapa · 2022-10-27 20:04

`taxy` is not a layer on top of `magit-section`, but it offers a
library to use `magit-section` to render `taxy`-based structures.  See
https://github.com/alphapapa/taxy.el