DESCRIPTION =========== Sepia is a set of features to make Emacs a better tool for Perl development, including: * an interactive prompt (REPL) for evaluating code; * cross-referencing to find and navigate between function and variable definitions and uses; * variable- and function-name completion based on this Xref database. * eldoc support to echo function arguments in the minibuffer * functions to simplify POD browsing with Emacs-w3m I find Emacs as a software development environment preferable to many modern IDEs, particularly when using a richly-supported language like Lisp or Emacs Lisp. Sepia is my attempt to give Perl a similar degree of support "in the Emacs way," which represents 40 years' collective experience of the software development community. I have therefore tried throughout to use or mimic existing Emacs functionality, rather than to create something new. INSTALLATION ============ 1) run "perl Makefile.PL; make; make install" 2) optionally, install the Emacs-w3m and tree-widget packages: http://emacs-w3m.namazu.org/ http://emhacks.sf.net/ 3) put the elisp files somewhere Emacs will find them. RUNNING ======= In Emacs, type M-x load-library sepia M-x sepia-init This will give you an Xref database for the EPL process, and start the REPL. Note that you should do this before opening a Perl file, since Sepia needs to install some hooks on `cperl-mode-hook'. Probably the most useful part of the package is the cross-reference facility. In a Perl buffer with Sepia enabled, type C-h f sepia-init to get a list of functions using it. In general, the functions will look up zero or more source locations, then allow you to cycle through them with "M-x sepia-next". With a prefix argument, the functions will instead display a grep-mode buffer listing all the hits, from which you can then navigate. TODO ==== * (Easy) Use module, file, and line number to refine queries on the Perl side. * (Hard) Use module, file, and line number to filter results on the Emacs side. * (Medium) Clean up Perl side. * (Hard) Merge with B::Xref. * (Medium) Better documentation for Elisp side. BUGS ==== * Emacs may display a "not enough arguments for format string" error. This is probably caused by some code passing a string containing a "%" as the first argument to `format', either in but I haven't tracked it down yet. * Function definition lines may all go completely wrong. Rebuilding the Xref database fixes this. * The cursor may miss by several lines when jumping to a definition. This is hard to fix -- Perl doesn't give exact line numbers for sub defs, so we have to do some minor adjustment and regex-searching, neither of which is flawless. * `sepia-var-assigns' doesn't work yet -- don't use it. CREDITS ======= Sepia would never have been possible without Software Libre, as many key components have been stolen and adapted from other packages: * generic-repl is taken from Slime; * Devel::Xref is taken from B::Xref; * sepia-w3m is taken from w3m-perldoc;