hoowl:~$ ls posts/
Elisp: Splicing conditional argument lists to pass to function calls
by Hanno on Aug 03, 2022.
The special marker ,@ in Elisp allows to splice an evaluated value into a quoted list while keeping the level of the “injected” elements the same as other elements on the resulting list. Curious over why that is nice and how to use it? Read More…
Tags: elisp
Emacs: Salutation auto-complete for mail
by Hanno on Jul 25, 2022.
Properly greeting the recipients of a mail with a single keystroke? No more embarrassing typos in unfamiliar names? Yes please! Read More…
Getting started writing interactive fiction with Inform7 on the command line
by Hanno on Apr 30, 2022.
Inform is a suite of programs for authoring interactive fiction (IF) and Inform7 specifically an intriguing programming language that very much resembles the natural English language. In this post, I go through how to install Inform, create a project from scratch and build it into a publishable IF story – all from the command line! Read More…
Shrinking an SD card image using Linux shell commands
by Hanno on Oct 09, 2021.
If you ever find yourself wanting to down-size an existing SD card image you dumped from a Raspberry Pi installation, here are some tips on how to do this using off-the-shelf command-line tools. Read More…
Tags: raspberrypi, linux
Managing calendar events in Emacs
by Hanno on Sep 17, 2021.
Using elisp as duct tape, I can now import, edit and create new calendar events
on my CalDAV server from Emacs using the command-line tools khal and
vdirsyncer. This led to my very first Emacs package: khalel. Read More…
Tags: emacs, pim, programming, lisp
Goodbye file-format woes: Using Pandoc to export LaTeX documents to word processors
by Hanno on Apr 14, 2021.
Pandoc is an amazing tool that can convert from and to many, if not most of the common formats used for documents. Have markdown but want LibreOffice ODT? HTML but need org-mode? Pandoc can handle it with results that usually look astonishing in every detail. Today, I put it to a difficult challenge: a paper written in LaTeX with figures, formulas and references – but a colleague really, really wants MS Word. Pandoc saves the day (and me from using MS Word)! Read More…
Confessions of a data sink
by Hanno on Jan 31, 2021.
It has been a little over a year since I created my Mastodon account and half a year for my blog. Time for a personal reflection why it took me 25 years online to create an online identity. Read More…
Auto-inserting .gitignore (and license) templates in Emacs
by Hanno on Nov 23, 2020.
When you are using Emacs with the Doom-Emacs configuration, you might have
noticed that you are being offered a couple of templates to select from whenever
you are visiting certain types of file for the first time: your brand new file
will be pre-populated from the template you pick. That is really quite
convenient, and I especially enjoy that for files such as the special
.gitignore file that tells git what files should not be considered relevant
for the repository. As I typically work with repositories holding different
types of code (and sometimes mixes thereof), this is really practical! Read More…
The Day I Started Worrying and Deleted Google
by Hanno on Sep 13, 2020.
Google aka Alphabet Inc. is deeply entangled in our digital infrastructure and makes money by selling access to the data it collects this way. Deleting my account with them seemed like a very good start into a more self-determined digital life. Read More…
Finding the right and open font for me
by Hanno on Aug 30, 2020.
I have been looking into a more suitable font choice for my blog. While my original and rather spontaneous choice, Mozilla’s “Fira”, is clean-looking it was a bit too smooth for my taste. I am looking for a calm font with a hint more serifs and a dash of charm. And, of course, without any restrictive license or the need to embed scripts or CSS hosted elsewhere. Read More…
Tags: blog
Revising history: How to clean a git project prior to publication
by Hanno on Jul 27, 2020.
How to use git and git-filter-repo to investigate and deep-clean a git
repository from any unwanted files, passwords or outdated author information –
super useful when one unexpectedly decides to share that little private project
with the world after all! Read More…
Tags: git, programming
How to keep a lossless digital music library with lossy mirror in a few lines of bash
by Hanno on Jun 13, 2020.
Using a short script, I mirror my flac music library into mp3 files making it easier to carry around with me. Read More…
Tags: scripts
New Blog and On Blogging with Emacs
by Hanno on Jun 13, 2020.
Emacs is great, and I have even begun to learn its native language recently:
elisp. Within Emacs, org-mode is a fantastic tool for notekeeping, literate
programming and generally organizing one’s life.
So now it is driving this blog as well :) Read More…