XEmacs tip: Add a Webpage entry for BibTeX

A useful BibTeX entry to have is that for BibTeX. The first step is to install the urlbst package. Then, to have the entry play nicely with the BibTeX autocompletion features in XEmacs, add the below code to the file init.el.

(defun my-bibtex-hook ()
(setq bibtex-mode-user-optional-fields '("location" "issn"))
(setq bibtex-entry-field-alist
(cons
'("Webpage" ((("url" "The URL of the page")
("title" "The title of the resource"))
(("author" "The author of the webpage")
("editor" "The editor/maintainer of the webpage")
("year" "Year of publication of the page")
("month" "Month of publication of the page")
("lastchecked" "Date when you last verified the page was there")
("note" "Remarks to be put at the end of the entry"))))
bibtex-entry-field-alist)))
(add-hook 'bibtex-mode-hook 'my-bibtex-hook)

XEmacs tip: Customise the mode based on file extensions

While most of the default modes based file extensions are sensible, it is good to know how to override the defaults.

The following code added to the file init.el will change the mode loading such that files with the extensions .l (the default is lisp-mode) and .vvp (an extension is not known by XEmacs) are loaded with the c++-mode.

(setq auto-mode-alist
(append
'(("\\.l$" . c++-mode)
("\\.vvp$" . c++-mode))
auto-mode-alist))

XEmacs tip: disable overwrite by INS key

It's easy to accidently go into overwrite mode by accidently hitting the Insert key. To prevent this, it is possible to remap the key by adding the following line to the file .xemacs/init.el.

(global-set-key [insert] "")



Interesting election results in Québec

I just noticed an interesting trend in the election results for the ridings in Québec. In everycase where the incumbent lost, there's a fixed pattern. Where a Liberal lost, the riding went to the BQ. Where a BQ lost, the riding went to a Conservative (except for one that went to an independant).

Is there a reasonable interpretation? I think it can be summed up in two points.

1. Discontent in Québec with regard to the ad scandal resulted in a movement against the federal government to the seperatists.
2. Those who are shifting away from seperatism to federalism are siding with the Conservatives.
   

At least, that's my take on the Québec results.

Information source (cbc.ca/canadavotes)

First photos from Montpellier

The lake near my apartment, originally uploaded by smithco.

The first photos from my adventure in France are up on Flickr!

link to the set http://www.flickr.com/photos/smithco/sets/72057594052666401/