Should I be seeing a list of available actions when calling embark-act?

[apc]

Ivy user here, testing the waters. Thanks for setting this up. Had shied away from trying non-ivy packages because ivy-bibtex is a central part of my workflow.

I've now disabled all my ivy-related packages and setup selectrum, embark, consult, and bibtex-actions. If I try e.g. bibtex-actions-open I get a list of entries in my main bibliography file. But calling embark-act on any of them doesn't show me a list of options, which is what I would have expected. I see that typing e.g. o will open the URL associated with a given entry, but looking at the bibtex-actions-keymap doesn't help me figure out how to e.g. edit the associated note etc.

Sorry if I'm missing something obvious here!

EDIT: OK, I figured out where to get the values of bibtex-actions-keymap in a readable form. (I just needed to go to the source!). For reasons that escape me, calling C-h v on bibtex-actions-keymap shows me the following unhelpful list of values:

bibtex-actions-map is a variable defined in ‘bibtex-actions.el’.
Its value is shown below.

  This variable may be risky if used as a file-local variable.

Documentation:
Keymap for ’bibtex-actions’.

Value:
(keymap
 (97 . bibtex-actions-add-pdf-to-library)
 (101 . bibtex-actions-open-entry)
 (110 . bibtex-actions-open-notes)
 (116 . bibtex-actions-add-pdf-attachment)
 (98 . bibtex-actions-insert-bibtex)
 (107 . bibtex-actions-insert-key)
 (114 . bibtex-actions-insert-reference)
 (99 . bibtex-actions-insert-citation)
 (108 . bibtex-actions-open-link)
 (112 . bibtex-actions-open-pdf)
 (111 . bibtex-actions-open))

[back]

I was unaware that looking at bibtex-actions.el in this case would have shown a human readable value.

I still want to know whether I should be seeing a list of available actions when calling embark-act, and if not whether there's a way of having that show up. I realize this may be something having to do with my embark settings; if so, please just let me know and I'll close this. (I just copied the example settings from the README on the embark repository.)

[bdarcus]

Hi @apc - answer to your topic question is YES!

It definitely should work as you expect. The first screenshot on the README is what you should see if you have which-key setup and after invoking embark-act.

First, questions:

Did you set the embark variable mentioned in the README:

https://github.com/bdarcus/bibtex-actions#basic

It occurs to me it's possible that section is too brief ATM.

If, as I assume, yes, then two additional questions:

1. do you have marginalia installed and active? I think this is necessary for embark to be able to associate these commands with that keymap.
2. do you have embark configured to load the menus? You may have to do something there.

Once setup, it should just work.

Edit: I just added these test scripts, which are explained in the README.

https://github.com/bdarcus/bibtex-actions/tree/main/test

You can look through them for some config ideas.

[bdarcus]

PS: you don't actually need to deactivate ivy in your config. You just need to turn it off, and turn on selectrum, etc.

[apc]

Hi @bdarcus, thanks for your quick reply! This is my current setup for bibtex-actions:

(use-package bibtex-actions
  :demand t
  :config
  (setf (alist-get 'bibtex embark-keymap-alist) 'bibtex-actions-map)
  (setq bibtex-completion-bibliography '("~/bib/apcmain.bib")))

I figured out that if I type C-h after calling embark-act I see the list of available bindings. Before doing that, all I see is this:

This may well be the intended behavior. Coming from ivy-bibtex, though, I was used to seeing the menu of options when calling ivy-dispatching-done from the list of bib entries. Maybe that's why I got confused?

I'll think about your question re: the README section. In the meantime, here are a few thoughts.

• I had previously set all variables from bibtex-completion (including bibtex-completion-bibliography) in my use-package declaration for bibtex. I suspect most people trying out bibtex-actions may have set those values in their init. I could have used a reminder to move all those settings to the use-package declaration for bibtex-actions. So, something like: "You may have already set values for many of the bibtex-completion variables that bibtex-actions relies on; you want to make sure those variables are set the way you want before you first call any of the bibtex-actions- commands."
• A sample use-package declaration, listing all the values that are needed for most of the actions to work as expected (bibtex-completion-library-path, bibtex-completion-bibliography, etc.) would be nice to have.
• It might be helpful to explain that you need to have embark loaded for the setting of embark-keymap-alist not to give an error. (So, perhaps having :after embark in the example declaration?)
• Finally, just a line saying "to see the list of available bibtex-actions, call embark-bindings" would have been super helpful. (Or perhaps something much like this section of the helm-bibtex documentation?)

[apc]

PS: when I call embark-bindings I see a list of available actions for the selected entry, but it's embedded in this much longer listing of actions available. Is there some way of just seeing bibtex-actions related bindings?

[bdarcus]

PS: when I call embark-bindings I see a list of available actions for the selected entry, but it's embedded in this much longer listing of actions available. Is there some way of just seeing bibtex-actions related bindings?

You shouldn't need to call embark-binding if this is setup right.

Does something like this setup, from the selectrum test scripts, work for you?

https://github.com/raxod502/selectrum/blob/master/test/selectrum-orderless.el

[bdarcus]

I'll think about your question re: the README section. In the meantime, here are a few thoughts.

Thank you!

What do you think about explicitly including how to get this running using the selectrum test scripts, and then moving the more detailed examples to the wiki?

[apc]

I'll think about your question re: the README section. In the meantime, here are a few thoughts.

Thank you!

What do you think about explicitly including how to get this running using the selectrum test scripts, and then moving the more detailed examples to the wiki?

That would be great!

[apc]

PS: when I call embark-bindings I see a list of available actions for the selected entry, but it's embedded in this much longer listing of actions available. Is there some way of just seeing bibtex-actions related bindings?

You shouldn't need to call embark-binding if this is setup right.

Does something like this setup, from the selectrum test scripts, work for you?

https://github.com/raxod502/selectrum/blob/master/test/selectrum-orderless.el

That helps! I ended up adding

(setq embark-prompter #'embark-completing-read-prompter)
(global-set-key (kbd "M-o") #'embark-act)

and that gave me a much more user-friendly experience. I'd still like to be able to only see the list of bibtex-actions available, rather than all the options I now see. Do you know if there's an easy way to make that happen?

[bdarcus]

I'd still like to be able to only see the list of bibtex-actions available, rather than all the options I now see. Do you know if there's an easy way to make that happen?

I strongly agree!

Two things:

First, I had a recent chat with embark author @oantolin about just this, and he noted it's on his todo.

oantolin/embark#197 (comment)

Would it help for one of us to add an explicit issue @oantolin?

Second, in the meantime, I sort the commands in the menu, so the bibtex-actions ones come first.

https://github.com/bdarcus/bibtex-actions/wiki/Configuration#which-key

That's for which-key though; not sure if or how to do that with the default one.

[bdarcus]

BTW, marginalia is also generally useful, beyond its connection to embark.

[apc]

I'd still like to be able to only see the list of bibtex-actions available, rather than all the options I now see. Do you know if there's an easy way to make that happen?

I strongly agree!

Two things:

First, I had a recent chat with embark author @oantolin about just this, and he noted it's on his todo.

oantolin/embark#197 (comment)

Would it help for one of us to add an explicit issue @oantolin?

Second, in the meantime, I sort the commands in the menu, so the bibtex-actions ones come first.

https://github.com/bdarcus/bibtex-actions/wiki/Configuration#which-key

That's for which-key though; not sure if or how to do that with the default one.

Very helpful! I should have checked the wiki first. Using which-key is fine by me for now. (I take it the which-key settings work because bibtex- appears first when actions are sorted alphabetically, right?)

And yes, I've installed marginalia as well. I'm still very new to all of this, though, so I'm sure there's plenty for me to learn before I can get things where I wanted.

[bdarcus]

I take it the which-key settings work because bibtex- appears first when actions are sorted alphabetically, right?)

Right. I can't say I chose the package name for that reason though!

And yes, I've installed marginalia as well. I'm still very new to all of this, though, so I'm sure there's plenty for me to learn before I can get things where I wanted.

There's a moderate learning curve to move from monolithic solutions like ivy and helm to deliberately decomposed, but collaboratively developed, solutions like these.

It probably took me two weeks to "get it".

Many of the decisions here reflect now having understood it. My hope is the wiki can flourish as users start to experiment.

[bdarcus]

Last question: would it help others, do you think, to move this to the discussion forum?

It's easy enough for me to do.

[apc]

Yes, I think so. In general, I find it much easier to learn to use packages by first simply copying from an opinionated setup and then tweaking it to my taste rather than building from scratch. I suspect I'm not alone in this!

…

On Apr 14, 2021, at 10:46 AM, bdarcus ***@***.***> wrote: Last question: would it help others, do you think, to move this to the discussion forum? It's easy enough for me to do. — You are receiving this because you modified the open/close state. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or unsubscribe.

[bdarcus]

It's now on the discussion forum.

I'll work on the README soon.

[bdarcus]

PS - I use Doom, which partly explains why I don't have more default use-package details ATM.

But I link to my doom config in #86.