Talk:BugzillaWorkflowImprovements:FlowChart B
From MozillaWiki
- Q. Out of curiousity how did you generate that flow chart? Did you do the ascii chart by hand?
-
Some simple Emacs techniques eased some of the work.
[Emacs command syntax:
- C-x means Ctrl-x. C-x is a prefix key for eXtended commands.
- M-x means Meta-x [Alt-x on windows keyboards]. Meta-x allows you to type the name of an extended command.
- C-c means Ctrl-c. C-c is a prefix key for special modes like picture-mode. (type carefully: x is next to c, and C-x C-c saves buffers and exits emacs).
- M-Sh-> means hold both meta (alt) and shift key while typing > key.
]
1. Emacs picture-mode can be useful: it is like overwrite-mode, but you can pick what direction the cursor moves after typing each visible character so it is easier to type lines.
M-x picture-mode
Once in picture mode, do
C-h m
for mode help.
Note: some commands have (parenthesized variant behavior) if given numeric argument:
C-u command
2. In picture mode, you can save/yank rectangles of text to kill ring:
C-space to set mark at one corner.
Navigate to opposite corner.
C-c C-k.
Yank it back from kill ring overwriting with C-c C-y.
Yang it back from kill ring inserting with C-u C-c C-y
(C-u adds a numeric arg 4).
3. Also, can use temporary macros to insert or delete columns of text (exit picture-mode first: C-c C-c).
Example: to insert two spaces and |, backup 3 characters, next line:
define macro: C-x ( <space> <space> | C-b C-b C-b C-n C-x )
execute macro: C-x e [release control key before typing e]
use numeric prefix to execute macro multiple times:
execute macro 10 times: C-1 C-0 C-x e
execute macro 16 times: C-u C-u c-x e
4. To replace all tabs with spaces:
navigate to top of buffer: M-Sh-<
set mark: c-space
navigate to bottom of buffer: M-Sh->
untabify region: M-x untabify
