First thing we need to do is disassemble this thing. Remove the knobs, then remove the screws.I suggest getting a few cups so you can keep the screws organized. It can be a pain to try and figure out which screws go where later.

Now take the top cover off. If it doesn’t come off then you forgot a screw.

I’m sure people will think this is dumb, since you can’t reconnect these cables incorrectly, but take some tape and label all the blue cables!! It’s not so you remember where to plug them in. There are 2 layers to the RM1x and you will need to position the cables when putting on the top layer. The last thing you want is to screw through a cable or end up ripping something out because it’s not positioned properly beneath the board.

Trust me, this is a good idea.

Remove all the screws on the floppy drive, and the top circuit board. Once again try to keep things in well organized cups or ramequins, because screwing up the re-assembly sucks. Har har.

Fully remove the top board and set it aside, preferably on something you know is non-static and clean.

Unscrew the bottom board and do the same thing. We’ll be working on the bottom board.

I’m using braid in this tutorial much to my chagrin, but I thought it would be easier to demonstrate, and easier for a newbie to use. I can assure you off camera this is now how I did it.

When using desoldering braid, simply press the braid down against the solder and put your soldering iron on top of the braid. Once you see the solder wicked, move on.

We’re going to remove the bottom row of switches only for this. The keyboard section.

Now simply put on the new switches once the old ones are all gone!

I put the switch into the holes, then press the legs out slightly so it sits in there tightly when I turn it upside down to solder.

The proper procedure is to heat up the switch then apply solder. This makes sure you have a complete bond between the metal and solder.

New switches are on. You were patient and now you are rewarded. Carefully put the cables back and carefully put the top layer on. I can not emphasize how easy it is to put a screw through one of those cables. Don’t do it!

Here’s a picture of the board half done with new switches, just for reference.

Wasn’t that easy? Remove screws, organize screws, brain on solder, iron on braid, switches in holes, legs bent, iron on switch, solder on switch, screws in holes, beats in brain. Done. Cool.

This tutorial will be covering a few basic concepts. These are: document structure, dates, scheduling, deadlines, TODO, tags, properties, and agenda. Let’s define these terms before we jump into sections describing how to use them.

• Document Structure
  How to make an org mode file “work”. Org files follow a very simple structure that allows org mode to give you all the fancy features it has. This also includes basic date formatting for this tutorial.
• Dates
  How else are you going to know when or how often something happens?
• Scheduling
  Something that is scheduled occurs on the day it is scheduled, and no other time. A doctor’s appointment is scheduled.
• Deadlines
  Deadlines are a tasks that can be completed anytime before a specific date. A credit card bill would have a deadline
• TODO
  This is how we tell org mode if something needs to be done, or is done. You can create your own custom TODO types to do things from assigning a task to someone, to triggering actions like note logging on complete/cancel or logging completion time.
• Tags
  Just like tagging on a website like flickr. These are words that are related to the entry. Tags are great for organization and searching. They allow you to intelligently narrow down things for custom agenda views by using searches.
• Properties
  A property is a specific attribute relative to the entry. If you have a task that repeats every week, there may be a LAST_REPEAT property that stores the last time you completed that task. Properties are also used for setting specific flags that control how/where/when an entry will appear, and for exporting to another format.
• Agenda
  The agenda is where you view all the tasks that meet a specific criteria. We will be using Agenda List for this, which will show you all your deadlines and what is scheduled for today.

Org files are generally a tree of entries. The level of the entry is determined by asterisks (*). Everything below an entry belongs to that entry until you get to an entry at the same or lower level.

Entries are the basic way of store tasks and the information associated with them. An example follows below:

* Workout
** Squats
** Push Ups
* Programming
** Web
*** That website
** Local
*** Scripts
* Social
** Hipster Festival

Here we can see that squares and push ups are under workout. As scan down you can see how each entry is organized. We will be extending this template as we cover each new concept.

The basic hotkeys you should know when editing a document structure in emacs are:

M-<return> – New header
M-<left/right> – Promote/Demote current header
<TAB> – Collapse/Expand current header
Shift-<TAB> – Collapse/Expand entire document
M-Shift-<left/right> – Promote/Demote subtree
M-Shift-<up/down> – Move Subtree

I prefer to collapse an entry and use C-k (kill to end of line) to delete or cut it. C-y (yank from kill ring) will put it back where your point (cursor) is located.

Essentially everything we do in org is going to be a TODO. Let’s go ahead and mark the TODOs in our schedule.

* Workout
** TODO Squats
** TODO Push Ups
* Programming
** Web
*** TODO That website
** Local
*** Scripts
* Social
** TODO Hipster Festival

There is a lot more to TODO. You can have multiple steps and types, different setups per file, hotkeys, hooks for changing types, child dependencies, change time logging and more.

For now we will only be working with the basic states of TODO and Done. Another tutorial will cover advanced TODO usage.

Dates are when things occur. Dates are written using ISO 8601 Format.

Scheduling is very simple. Add the word ‘SCHEDULED:’ in all caps before an active date. You can also use C-c C-s in Emacs.

Now our outline looks like this:

* Workout
** TODO Squats
   SCHEDULED: <2011-07-27 Wed .+1w>
** TODO Push Ups
   SCHEDULED: <2011-07-29 Fri .+1w>
* Programming
** Web
*** TODO That website
** Local
*** Scripts
* Social
** TODO Hipster Festival
   SCHEDULED: <2011-08-18 Thu 20:00>--<2011-08-22 Mon 05:00>

Deadlines are as easy as scheduled dates. Simply use the word “DEADLINE:” instead. You can also use C-c C-d in Emacs.

Now our outline looks like this:

* Workout
** TODO Squats
   SCHEDULED: <2011-07-27 Wed 08:00 .+1w>
** TODO Push Ups
   SCHEDULED: <2011-07-29 Fri 08:00 .+1w>
* Programming
** Web
*** TODO That website
    DEADLINE: <2011-09-05 Mon>
** Local
*** Scripts
* Social
** TODO Hipster Festival
   SCHEDULED: <2011-08-18 Thu 20:00>--<2011-08-22 Mon 05:00>

Tags are an easy way to assign identifiers to entries. The syntax is very simple.

To assign a tag to an entry, place any series of words after the headline starting with, separated by and ending with a colon. In emacs we can use C-c C-c when positioned on a headline. Here’s how our outline looks when tagged up:

* Workout                                 :exercise:activity:sweat:
** TODO Squats                            :lowerbody:
   SCHEDULED: <2011-07-27 Wed 08:00 .+1w>
** TODO Push Ups                          :upperbody:
   SCHEDULED: <2011-07-29 Fri 08:00 .+1w>
* Programming
** Web
*** TODO That website                     :annoyance:coding:Herbert:
    DEADLINE: <2011-09-05 Mon>
** Local
*** Scripts
* Social
** TODO Hipster Festival                  :music:social:hipster:
   SCHEDULED: <2011-08-18 Thu 20:00>--<2011-08-22 Mon 05:00>

Properties allow you to embed specific information into an entry that’s easily accessible from other parts of org mode. They also let you use features like habits, last repeat, per entry TODO keywords, time clocking and even use org as a database.

Properties begin with ‘:PROPERTIES:’ and end with ‘:END:’ key value pairs are in ‘:key: value’ format. You can add them with C-c C-x p in emacs.

Let’s add some properties to our outline.

* Workout                                 :exercise:activity:sweat:
** TODO Squats                            :lowerbody:
   SCHEDULED: <2011-07-27 Wed 08:00 .+1w>
   :PROPERTIES:
   :STYLE: habit
   :END:
** TODO Push Ups                          :upperbody:
   SCHEDULED: <2011-07-29 Fri 08:00 .+1w>
   :PROPERTIES:
   :STYLE: habit
   :END:
* Programming
** Web
*** TODO That website                     :annoyance:coding:Herbert:
    DEADLINE: <2011-09-05 Mon>
** Local
*** Scripts
* Social
** TODO Hipster Festival                  :music:social:hipster:
   SCHEDULED: <2011-08-18 Thu 20:00>--<2011-08-22 Mon 05:00>

The habit property will likely be discussed in another blog entry. You can find more info about it at the manual.

The agenda is the place where you’ll spend most of your time. There are a few things to do first to set it up. We need to add files to the agenda list so that org mode knows where to look for scheduling, so add this to your .emacs

 '(org-agenda-files (quote ("~/Documents/org/myfile.org")))

You can also visit the file in emacs and hit C-c [ to add the file and C-c ] to remove it. You only need to do this once. Ideally you will setup your file list once then populate it as needed. Some people even use one monolithic file then use the features of org to easily manage everything.

Once that’s done, go into emacs and hit C-c a a to see your work! You’ll notice when you do C-c a, you’ll see a list of options. I suggest browsing those and seeing what you can do. The manual, as linked in the title is an excellent place to explore and see how you can further refine the agenda view to meet your requirements.

Refine your org files and get to it! It usually will only take an hour or two to setup your basic schedules, and then it’s a very quick and periodic refinement process from there.

That’s it. That’s the intro. Next I will be covering capture mode. Capture mode allows you to quickly add things to your org files. Quickness is the absolute most essential part of organizing yourself. That said, the capture mode tutorial will be coming quick!

Org Mode is an organizational, scheduling, notes, authoring, programming, project planning, time clocking etc… extension for Emacs. This tutorial will not be covering usage of Org Mode, but we will be covering the basic installation and configuration of Emacs and Org Mode.

You will need the following things to complete this tutorial:

1. Xcode 3 You must use Xcode 3 Xcode 4 does not compile things correctly as of the writing of this.
2. Homebrew This can be installed with the simple command entered in your terminal:

   ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.github.com/gist/323731)"

3. Git We’ll just install this from homebrew.

   brew install git

4. Make sure your terminal uses option for meta. Terminal.app has this option in Preferences->Settings->Keyboard.
5. The following abbreviations are used throughout:
   Control = C
   Option/alt = M

   Thus the abbreviation ‘C-x’ means control X. ‘M-x’ means alt-X. A space between commands means let go of the previous key chord. C-a a means Control-a (let go) a.

   You will see this notation used very frequently in a lot of unix software.

We need to install Emacs first of course.

1. If you want the .app version, get it from http://emacsformacosx.com/
2. If you prefer the no window version there are 2 steps.
   • Install

     brew install emacs

   • Path setup
     Now you will need to edit a file so that your shell uses the new emacs, not the one included in OS X.

     We will assume you are not yet familiar with emacs, so do the following:

     sudo nano /etc/paths
          Move /usr/local/bin to the top of the file
          (control-k cuts an entire line and control-u pastes)
          Save with C-o
          Exit with C-x

     This is done because emacs already exists in /usr/bin. Homebrew installs to /usr/local/bin, and that is the last place OS X looks by default. We want OS X to find the fresh installation of emacs first, rather than the stale version.

1. Download Org-Mode from http://orgmode.org/index.html#sec-2 I suggest using the stable version from the zip.
2. Unzip the file.
3. Config. If you are using Emacs.app, then follow below, else move to step 4.
   • Setup emacs location
     open Makefile, in the orgmode directory the zip created, in your text editor of choice.
   • Change the line EMACS=emacs to EMACS=/Applications/Emacs.app/Contents/MacOS/Emacs
4. Make. Simply type ‘make’
5. Install. type ‘sudo make install’

The follow lines must be added to a file called “.emacs”. Its location will be ~/.emacs

If you have some of this in your .emacs already, don’t duplicate those parts.

;; Make sure emacs knows where your software is located
(setq path "/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/X11/bin")(setenv "PATH" path)

(push "/usr/local/bin" exec-path)

;; Load org-mode
(require 'org-install)

;; Associate .org files with org-mode inside of Emacs
(add-to-list 'auto-mode-alist '("\\.org\\'" . org-mode))

;; Hotkeys for org-mode
(global-set-key "\C-cl" 'org-store-link)
(global-set-key "\C-cc" 'org-capture)
(global-set-key "\C-ca" 'org-agenda)
(global-set-key "\C-cb" 'org-iswitchb)

That is all. Now you will need to create an .org file, and add it to your agenda files. This will be covered in the next tutorial, but here is a quick overview.

1. Open your text editor of choice and create a file called whatever.org
   • To do this in emacs do
     • C-x C-f
     • whatever.org
     • <enter>
2. Add some info. Documentation
3. Add to your agenda files
   • Emacs
     • C-c [
   • Other editor
     • Add to .emacs
       (custom-set-variables ‘(org-agenda-files (quote (“absolute path to file” “another file” “another file”))))
4. Inside of Emacs show your agenda with C-c a a.

If you need to start over, or if you decide Org-mode is not for you then you can cleanly remove everything we’ve done.

You can either execute these commands by hand, or put them in a file called whatever.sh with #!/bin/bash at the top of the file. Do chmod +x whatever.sh and then ./whatever.sh to execute it.

PLEASE READ WHAT THIS IS DOING. You may not want some of these files deleted, such as your .emacs, .emacs.d or Emacs itself.

rm -r /Applications/Emacs.app
rm -r /usr/share/emacs
rm ~/.emacs
rm -r ~/.emacs.d
brew uninstall emacs
brew uninstall git
cd `brew --prefix`
rm -rf Cellar
brew prune
rm `git ls-files`
rm -r Library/Homebrew Library/Aliases Library/Formula Library/Contributions
rm -rf .git
rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/Homebrew

If you do not have this on your Mac already, then you are in dire need of a wipe and start over. It is far superior to macports and fink, and it supports most of the things you’d want. It’s growing quite fast as well.

ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.github.com/gist/323731)"

Install Leiningen, the core to this all.

brew install leiningen

Don’t use “official” elpa!!! If you use the official elpa, this will not work. Delete it. This caused me A LOT of headaches trying to get this to work.

Download package.el from:
http://repo.or.cz/w/emacs.git/blob_plain/1a0a666f941c99882093d7bd08ced15033bc3f0c:/lisp/emacs-lisp/package.el

cp path/to/package.el ~/.emacs.d

Add to your .emacs

(require 'package)
(add-to-list 'package-archives
             '("marmalade" . "http://marmalade-repo.org/packages/"))
(package-initialize)

Restart emacs. (or you can C-x C-e, I’m assuming the worst when i tell you to restart emacs. Do it to be safe unless you’re sure of what you’re doing)

Do not use elpa. Do not use package.el. Do not use git. If you’ve done these things, delete them. They will cause you a lot of headaches.

https://github.com/technomancy/swank-clojure should always be up to date. Check here first before you follow this step, if there’s different information there, DO THAT INSTEAD!!

lein plugin install swank-clojure 1.3.1

Inside of Emacs now.

M-x package-list-packages

Mark clojure-mode by placing cursor on it and typing: i

Type: X

Still inside of emacs.

M-x package-list-packages

Mark paredit by placing cursor on it and typing: i

Type: X

Edit your .emacs and add:

(autoload 'paredit-mode "paredit"
"Minor mode for pseudo-structurally editing Lisp code." t)
(add-hook 'clojure-mode-hook          (lambda () (paredit-mode +1)))
(add-hook 'slime-mode-hook            (lambda () (paredit-mode +1)))
(add-hook 'emacs-lisp-mode-hook       (lambda () (paredit-mode +1)))
(add-hook 'lisp-mode-hook             (lambda () (paredit-mode +1)))
(add-hook 'lisp-interaction-mode-hook (lambda () (paredit-mode +1)))

I really like Rainbow Delimiters in emacs. I strongly suggest using it along side Paredit just for some sanity.

Inside of emacs:

Inside of Emacs now.

M-x package-list-packages

Mark rainbow-delimiters by placing cursor on it and typing: i

Type: X

Add the following to your .emacs:

(add-hook 'slime-mode-hook 'rainbow-delimiters-mode)
(add-hook 'clojure-mode-hook 'rainbow-delimiters-mode)

My current setup for colours was made using a colour wheel and making sure delimiters were contrasting no matter the depth they were. You may dislike the rainbow look and prefer to use the defaults, or you’re own setup. To do so, do M-x customize-group <enter> rainbow-delimiters-mode <enter>. Here is my setup to add to your .emacs:

(custom-set-faces
  ;; custom-set-faces was added by Custom.
  ;; If you edit it by hand, you could mess it up, so be careful.
  ;; Your init file should contain only one such instance.
  ;; If there is more than one, they won't work right.
 '(rainbow-delimiters-depth-1-face ((((background dark)) (:foreground "yellow"))))
 '(rainbow-delimiters-depth-2-face ((((background dark)) (:foreground "lightblue"))))
 '(rainbow-delimiters-depth-3-face ((((background dark)) (:foreground "red"))))
 '(rainbow-delimiters-depth-4-face ((((background dark)) (:foreground "green"))))
 '(rainbow-delimiters-depth-5-face ((((background dark)) (:foreground "purple"))))
 '(rainbow-delimiters-depth-6-face ((((background dark)) (:foreground "orange"))))
 '(rainbow-delimiters-depth-7-face ((((background dark)) (:foreground "violet"))))
 '(rainbow-delimiters-depth-8-face ((((background dark)) (:foreground "darkgreen"))))
 '(rainbow-delimiters-depth-9-face ((((background dark)) (:foreground "brown"))))
 '(rainbow-delimiters-unmatched-face ((((background dark)) (:foreground "#88090B" :box (:line-width 2 :color "red" :style released-button))))))

To try it out, just create a new directory somewhere. I use ~/Documents/Cproj. Navigate to that directory, type: lein new myprojectname.

Hop over to emacs, C-x C-f, go to you project directory and create new file. Type M-x clojure-jack-in. Give slime a moment to load up and you’re good to go!

Try putting (+ 32 37) in your file, go to the end of the line and C-x C-e. Boom. Awesome.