distel -- Distributed Emacs Lisp for Erlang.
------------------------------------------------------------

Distel is a library for Emacs<->Erlang communication, plus a suite of
tools built on top of it, such as a debugger front-end. It works by
using the Erlang distribution protocol to connect Emacs with regular
Erlang nodes, turning it into a very convenient user-interface
toolkit.

After the INSTALL procedure, you will have an extended Erlang mode any
time you edit erlang files. You can see that this is enabled from the
mode-line string "Erlang EXT", instead of just "Erlang". To see the
available commands, use `describe-mode' (C-h m), which describes all
the currently activated modes. Near the bottom of its output you will
find this description:

  Extensions to erlang-mode for communicating with a running Erlang node.

These commands generally communicate with an Erlang node. The first
time you use one, you will be prompted for the name of the node to
use.

Here's a subset of the available commands. Use `describe-mode' (C-h m)
on any Distel buffer when you want to know what commands are
available.

C-c C-d n - set the erlang node name
C-c C-d g - upload the distel modules to the erlang node

M-/       - Complete a module or remote function name.
M-.       - Jump from a function call to its definition.
M-,       - Jump back from a function definition (multi-level).
C-c C-d : - Evaluate an erlang expression from the minibuffer.
C-c C-d f - Refactor expressions in the region as a new function.
C-c C-d F - Find a module.
C-c C-d i - Toggle debug interpretping of the module.
C-c C-d b - Toggle a debugger breakpoint at the current line.
C-c C-d p - Profile (with fprof) an expression from the minibuffer.
C-c C-d L - Reload an Erlang module.
C-c C-d r - Reload all Erlang modules that are out of date.
C-c C-d w - Who calls function under point.
C-c C-d H - Show the html documentation for a function.
C-c C-d Z - Show the signature for a function.

To get more information about a particular command, use "C-h k"
followed by the command's key sequence. For general information about
Emacs' online help, use "C-h ?".

If you want to write new commands of your own, the programmer's manual
tells you how. You can make a postscript copy with "make postscript",
or an Info version with "make info" and "make info_install".

For more background about the "Session" commands, have a look in
README.ie-session.

Hope you enjoy, and please send hacks or feedback to luke@bluetail.com(*)!

PS: The "dynamic TAGS" with M-. and M-, is the coolest bit to get
started with!

Compatibility notes:

  The profiler front end requires >= R8B (to get fprof)
  The debugger front end requires >= R8B-1

  Distel itself is not formally tested, but it has enough savvy users
that it'll typically run on the last 2 versions of Erlang and Emacs
(as of 2008 OTP R11/R12 and Emacs 21/22).

(*) Luke Gorrie is unfortunately no longer involved with Distel, and
Blutail no longer exists...
  there is of course the distel-hackers mailing list;
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/distel-hackers

  and the issue tracker at google;
http://code.google.com/p/distel

FAQ
1. Can't handle event closed in state  derl-recv-challenge-ack

this is what you get if the erlang node and the distel node disagree
one what cookie to use.

Use (in erl)
 erlang:get_cookie()
and (in emacs)
 M-x erl-get-cookie
to check the cookies.

This file aims to describe what the distel-ie package is.

The 'ie' suffix is an acronym for "Interactive Erlang".

The original idea was to create something like the *scratch* buffer in emacs,
where you can play around with the language: define functions see how things
work etc. So in short, distel-ie is a shell with the unique feature of allowing
 for functions to be defined.

Example:

Start a distel-ie session by doing : M-x erl-ie-session, or, if you run the
distel extension minor mode: C-c C-d s

now type (without quotes) :

"sista(W) -> lists:last(W)."

mark this region and press C-M-x, the function sista/1 is now defined and ready
to be used from the session. You can try and call this function:

"sista([1, 2, 3, distel_rocks])."

Again, mark this region and press C-M-x, the result should come as no surprise
:-)


KEYBINDINGS:

These keybindings are available when you run the distel extension minor mode

C-c C-d s : Makes a session buffer the current buffer, if no session exists,
            it creates a new one.

C-M-x     : Evaluates the marked region. If the marked region contains a
            function definition, the function is defined. The result of the
            evaluation is returned on the minibuffer or in a new buffer.

C-u C-M-x : Same as above, but the results ends up in the session buffer.

C-c C-d r : Copies the marked region (in a file buffer) to the session buffer.
            If no session exists, a session is created.

C-c C-d c : Same as above but copies an entire buffer.



THINGS NOT WORKING/TODO:

- Evaluating a region containing more than one function definition is not
  working.

- It would be nice to not having to mark the region yourself,
  erlang-mark-function or similar would be convenient, but is currently not
  a viable option. ("fun(X) ->\nlists:last(X)\nend." is not marking the
  correct region).


Comments and suggestions are welcome,

email_the_author() -> lists:reverse("ei.lu@nillaw.divad").