Wilfred/refine

interactive value editing in emacs lisp

Source code at GitHub https://github.com/Wilfred/refine

{
  "createdAt": "2016-04-10T13:47:45Z",
  "defaultBranch": "master",
  "description": "interactive value editing in emacs lisp",
  "fullName": "Wilfred/refine",
  "homepage": "",
  "language": "Emacs Lisp",
  "name": "refine",
  "pushedAt": "2024-09-14T06:34:15Z",
  "stargazersCount": 86,
  "topics": [],
  "updatedAt": "2024-12-15T23:17:29Z",
  "url": "https://github.com/Wilfred/refine"
}

Refine

inspect and modify elisp variables

Refine provides a convenient UI for editing variables. Refine is not for editing files, but for changing elisp variables, particularly lists.

Table of Contents

Refine

Usage examples

![edit_hook]!(edit_hook.gif)

Refine is great for editing large lists, such as hooks. In the above example, I insert and edit values in prog-mode-hook.

![kill_ring]!(kill_ring.gif)

Refine is also a valuable debugging tool. In this example, I reorder items in the kill-ring so I paste the value I want.

Limitations

Refine deliberately modifies values in place. This is useful if you’re working with a list that’s shared between multiple variables, such as font-lock-defaults.

In some cases, this isn’t possible (e.g. inserting into an empty list). In these cases, refine will overwrite your variable.

Keybindings

Editing:

command	binding
`refine-edit`	`e` or `RET`
`refine-cycle`	`c`
`refine-insert`	`i`
`refine-insert-after`	`a`
`refine-delete`	`k`
`refine-move-forward`	`s` or `<M-up>`
`refine-move-backward`	`w` or `<M-down>`

Moving around:

command	binding
`refine-next`	`n`
`refine-previous`	`p`

Buffer commands:

command	binding
`refine-update`	`g`
`kill-this-buffer`	`q`

Installation

Install from MELPA (recommended), or add refine.el to load-path.

Tests

You can run tests inside Emacs by just opening the test files and doing M-x eval-buffer M-x ert RET t RET.

Alternatively, you can run the test from a shell:

$ cask install
$ cask exec ert-runner

Note that refine has had infinite loop bugs during development, so you may need to press Ctrl-C if tests don’t terminate.

counsel-set-variable (part of ivy) is also an excellent way of editing variables in Emacs.

edit-list provides list editing in a very similar style to refine. It doesn’t edit in-place, nor work as well for hooks, but does provide an elegant, Emacsy UI.