News

To commemorate a quarter century of Brf-mode, Line Marking has been re-implemented using Emacs' non-contiguous region support rather than using Brf-mode's classic point-moving implementation. This allows more precise matching of Brief's Line Marking behaviour.

The new implementation requires Gnu Emacs 24.4 and there may be some Emacs commands that don't treat the Line Marked region correctly (although I haven't found any so far). The classic method has the advantage of working in all versions of Emacs and all commands that work with the region behave correctly (as the Line Marked region is the real region).

The classic implementation is currently the default, but the new method can be enabled via Customize. The new method will likely become the default in future.

Brf-mode

Brf-mode adds functionality from the legendary programmer's editor Brief to Emacs.

This package is not an emulation of Brief (there are plenty of those already), but rather provides an accurate implementation in Emacs of specific features that I miss from Brief.

The emphasis is on accurately implementing these features in Emacs rather than doing what Brief emulations tend to do, which is mapping the Brief key-sequences to somewhat similar functions in Emacs.

The provided features are:

Line-mode cut and paste
Column-mode cut and paste
Fully reversible paging and scrolling
Temporary bookmarks
Cursor motion undo
Easy window management

They have been implemented in an Emacs-style. This means the functions respond to prefix args and where they override Emacs functions, they live on the Emacs key bindings as well as the original Brief keys.

Moreover, functionality has been extended to those parts of Emacs that were never part of Brief. For example, text cut/copied in line or column-mode can be saved/recalled in registers.

Some functionality was neither part of Brief nor Emacs (for example List Bookmarks) and the mode generally uses the prefix C-c C-b for such commands.

Brf-mode puts a Brf sub-menu under Edit. In keeping with Brief's minimalist ethos, the menu only houses these more difficult to access commands and also has links to preferences, help, the manual and project website.

There are a few small, deliberate differences from the original Brief behaviour, which are discussed here: Differences From Brief.

Setup

Installation

Installation from MELPA

The easiest way to install Brf-mode is to install the brf package from MELPA:

Make sure melpa is in your package archives list.
M-x package-install brf
If use-package is installed you can automatically install & load the elisp package by adding the following form to your startup file:
```
(use-package brf
  :ensure t)
```

Manual Installation

Brf-mode can be installed manually if desired:

Download the package to a directory and add it to your load-path:
```
(add-to-list 'load-path <install directory>)
```

Install the Info manual:

$ cd <install directory>
$ install-info brf-mode.info

(add-to-list 'Info-directory-list <install directory>)

Enable Brf-mode

Enable Brf-mode by doing one of the following:

Via Customize.
Adding code to your startup file:
```
(brf-mode)
```

As part of the use-package form:

(use-package brf
  ...
  :custom
  (brf-mode t))

(use-package brf
  ...
  :init
  (brf-mode))

Choosing "Enable Brf-mode" from the "Brf" menu, which toggles the mode on or off for the current session.

Customisation

M-x customize-group brf

Options

Customisable options are:
1. Enable Brf-mode.
2. Enable Cursor Motion Undo.
3. Bookmark Face.
4. Bookmark Number face (when shown in Fringe).
5. Mode-line string (including hiding).
6. Mark enclosing SEXP by default in Lisp modes rather than the current line.
7. Use new Line Marking implementation.

Key mapping

Default key mappings can be changed by modifying brf-mode-map in the mode hook.

As an example, here's what I'm using myself:

;; Adjust the brf-mode keymap to put the otherwise shadowed M-<letter> keys on a C-c prefix
(add-hook 'brf-mode-hook
          (lambda ()
            (define-key brf-mode-map "\C-cm" 'back-to-indentation) ; Shadowed by M-m
            (define-key brf-mode-map "\C-cl" 'downcase-word)       ; Shadowed by M-l
            (define-key brf-mode-map "\C-cu" 'upcase-word)         ; Shadowed by M-u
            (define-key brf-mode-map "\C-cc" 'capitalize-word)))   ; Shadowed by M-c

Alternatively with use-package:

(use-package brf
  ...
  :bind (:map brf-mode-map
              ("C-c m" . back-to-indentation)
              ("C-c l" . downcase-word)
              ("C-c u" . upcase-word)
              ("C-c c" . capitalize-word)))

Dependencies

Brf-mode doesn't have any hard dependencies, but installing the following optional packages enables some extra capabilities:

fringe-helper: When installed, bookmark numbers show in the fringe. Installing Brf-mode via package-install automatically installs fringe-helper.
pkg-info: When installed, (brf-version) shows the package version as well as the Brf-mode version.

Compatibility

The MELPA package (Brf-mode version "v1.16-MELPA" onward) requires Gnu Emacs 24.3, due to the requirements of being a package.

Earlier versions of Brf-mode will however work on older versions of Gnu Emacs and also on XEmacs:

Use "v1.16" for Gnu Emacs versions 21 -> 24.2.
Use "v1.08" for XEmacs and Gnu Emacs 20 & earlier.

These and any other versions can be download from the Brf-mode website and installed manually.

Brf-mode is fully functional in text mode Emacs - bookmark numbers and tooltips are the only missing features.

Features

Line and Column Mode Cut and Paste

Mark regions by whole line or column.
If no region is marked, the copy and kill commands operate on the current line.
Yanked text is inserted in line or column mode, if that's how it was marked.
Text in Line or Column mode can be stored and recalled from registers, as well as the kill-ring.

Key	Action
M-l	Start line marking
M-c	Start column marking
M-m	Start character marking
M-a	Start character marking
kp-add	Copy Line or Region
M-w	Copy Line or Region
kp-subtract	Kill Line or Region
C-w	Kill Line or Region
insert	Yank
C-y	Yank
M-y	Yank Pop

C-c C-b C-w	Copy to Register
C-c C-b C-y	Insert Register

M-d	Delete Line
delete	Delete Region or Char

RET	Newline and Indent
C-j	Newline
C-RET	Open New Line
Tab	Indent

Reversible Paging and Scrolling

Paging and scrolling respect relative screen row and absolute column.
Paging up and then down again returns point to the same original position.

Key	Action
next	page-down
C-v	page-down
prior	page-up
M-v	page-up
M-down	scroll-down
M-up	scroll-up
home	Beginning of Line/Page/Buffer
end	End of Line/Page/Buffer

Temporary Bookmarks

10 bookmarks can be set and navigated between.
They can also be moved and deleted.
They are temporary in the sense they don't persist between invocations of Emacs.
As an extension to Brief, bookmark lines are highlighted in colour. This is customisable.
If the package fringe-helper is installed, the bookmark number is put in the fringe (which otherwise shows as a tooltip).
Bookmarks can be listed & chosen from a menu, see below. This is also an extension to Brief.
Other extensions are a command to allocate the next free bookmark and one to delete all bookmarks.

Key	Action
M-0 to M-9	Drop bookmark 0-9 at point
With prefix arg C-u	Removes bookmark.
M-=	Goto Next Bookmark
M-kp-add	Goto Next Bookmark
M-kp-subtract	Goto Previous Bookmark
M--	Goto Previous Bookmark
M-j	Jump-to-Bookmark

C-c C-b C-k	Delete All Bookmarks
C-c C-b C-l	List Bookmarks
C-c C-b C-n	Goto Next Bookmark
C-c C-b C-p	Goto Previous Bookmark
C-c C-b =	Allocate Next Free Bookmark at Point

List Bookmarks

Invoke the List Bookmarks menu with C-c C-b C-l.
This allows you to view and manage all the current bookmarks.

key	Action
RET	Jump to bookmark at point
SPC	Jump to bookmark at point
d	Delete bookmark at point
k	Delete All bookmarks

down	Move point down
up	Move point up
<	Move to start of buffer
>	Move to end of buffer

?	Help
h	Describe Mode
q	Quit

Cursor Motion Undo

Cursor motion, without any buffer changes, is recorded as an undo-able (& redo-able) action.
This works with both built-in Emacs Undo and also with the Redo.el & Redo+.el packages. I haven't tested it with the plethora of other Undo packages - it should work, but you never know!
It is turned off by default (unlike in Brief), but can be enabled by customising option brf-undo-enable.

Key	Action
kp-multiply	Undo
M-u	Undo
M-r	Redo (if `redo` or `redo+` installed).

Easy Window Management

Create, Switch, Resize and Delete arbitrary windows with simple keystrokes.

Key	Action
S- [up, down, right, left]	Switch to Window in Direction
f1 [up, down, right, left]	Switch to window in Direction
f2 [up, down, right, left]	Resize Window in Direction
M-f2	Zoom Window
f3 [up, down, right, left]	Create Window in Direction
f4 [up, down, right, left]	Delete Window in Direction
C-f4	Delete Current Window
S-f4	Delete Other Windows

Differences From Brief

Inclusive Mark (Alt-m)

"Inclusive" character marking in Brief includes the character under the cursor, whereas in Brf-mode (and Emacs in general) the marked region stops on the character before the cursor. This behaviour is actually Brief's "Non-inclusive Mark" (Alt-a) and is the only kind supported in Brf-mode. I don't think it makes any practical difference and so "Inclusive Mark" has not been implemented in Brf-mode.
Window Resizing (F2)

When resizing a window in Brief, the user has to hit Enter to end resizing and all other keys are ignored. In Brf-mode, any key or click that is not a cursor key ends resizing, which I personally think is better.
Backspace behaviour while marking (⌫)

Hitting backspace (⌫) in Brf-mode (and Emacs in general) kills the active region, which I believe is the modern expectation. In Brief, backspace while marking deletes the previous character and adjusts the marked area to encompass the change. In general, any buffer modifications terminate marking in Brf-mode & Emacs, whereas Brief adjusts the marked area.

Known Issues

Please report any issues at the Brf-mode website bug tracker.

These are the known issues:

XEmacs Compatibility

Current versions of Brf-mode no longer work on XEmacs. It's likely to be possible to fix the compatibility issues, but given the demise of XEmacs I don't have any plans to do this.

Anyone wanting to run Brf-mode on XEmacs should install an older version of Brf-mode, as described in Compatibility.

emacsmirror / brf