pymacs: General question and Installation problem

Question

I am trying to setup emacs for python development.

From what I read, it is recommended to use python-mode.el rather than the default python.el from Emacs 22.3. So I embark on the new adventure.

From what I understand, python-mode has the several dependencies, so I need to install rope, ropemode and ropemacs. Then on top of that I need to install pymacs.

Q: is it correct?

This is my new .emacs now:

(custom-set-variables
  ;; custom-set-variables 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.
 '(inhibit-startup-screen t)
 '(tab-width 4))
(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.
 )

(setq emacs-config-path "~/.emacs.d/")
(setq base-lisp-path "~/.emacs.d/site-lisp/")
(setq site-lisp-path (concat emacs-config-path "/site-lisp"))
(defun add-path (p)
  (add-to-list 'load-path (concat base-lisp-path p)))

(add-path "") 
(add-to-list 'load-path "~/.emacs.d")

(require 'psvn)

;; python-mode
;;
(setq auto-mode-alist (cons '("\\.py$" . python-mode) auto-mode-alist))
(setq interpreter-mode-alist (cons '("python" . python-mode) interpreter-mode-alist))
(autoload 'python-mode "python-mode" "Python editing mode." t)


(setq pymacs-load-path '(   "~/.emacs.d/site-lisp/rope"
                            "~/.emacs.d/site-lisp/ropemode"
                            "~/.emacs.d/site-lisp/ropemacs"))


(setq interpreter-mode-alist
      (cons '("python" . python-mode)
        interpreter-mode-alist)
      python-mode-hook
      '(lambda () (progn
            (set-variable 'py-indent-offset 4)
            (set-variable 'py-smart-indentation nil)
            (set-variable 'indent-tabs-mode nil)
            ;;(highlight-beyond-fill-column)
                    (define-key python-mode-map "\C-m" 'newline-and-indent)
            (pabbrev-mode)
            (abbrev-mode)
     )
      )
)


;; pymacs
(autoload 'pymacs-apply "pymacs")
(autoload 'pymacs-call "pymacs")
(autoload 'pymacs-eval "pymacs" nil t)
(autoload 'pymacs-exec "pymacs" nil t)
(autoload 'pymacs-load "pymacs" nil t)

;; Search local path for emacs rope
;;

;; enable pymacs
;; 
(require 'pymacs)
(pymacs-load "ropemacs" "rope-")

Now, when i start emacs, I got this error message:

("C:\\opt\\emacs-22.3\\bin\\emacs.exe")
Loading encoded-kb...done
Loading regexp-opt...done
Loading easy-mmode...done
Loading wid-edit...done
Loading edmacro...done
Loading derived...done
Loading advice...done
Loading cl-macs...done
Loading byte-opt...done


An error has occurred while loading `c:/opt/cygwin/home/akong/.emacs':

File error: Cannot open load file, pymacs

To ensure normal operation, you should investigate and remove the
cause of the error in your initialization file.  Start Emacs with
the `--debug-init' option to view a complete error backtrace.

For information about GNU Emacs and the GNU system, type C-h C-a. [2 times]

To make it slightly more complicated:

For work reason I have to use python 2.4, but I have python 2.6 installed on my PC. But obviously rope does not like 2.4 so I did not run setup.py. I untar/unzip these packages and put these files under ~/.emacs.d/site-lisp. By default if python is invoked in command prompt, it is the python 2.4 executable.

Q: How can I successfully load 'pymacs'?

Answer 1

I have never used pymacs so far, but one thing which catches my eye when I look at your .emacs is that you apparently didn't add the pymacs directory to the emacs load-path but only to the pymacs one:

(setq pymacs-load-path '( "~/.emacs.d/site-lisp/rope"
                          "~/.emacs.d/site-lisp/ropemode"
                          "~/.emacs.d/site-lisp/ropemacs"))

You will probably need also something like:

(add-to-list 'load-path "~/.emacs.d/site-lisp/rope")
(add-to-list 'load-path "~/.emacs.d/site-lisp/ropemode")
(add-to-list 'load-path "~/.emacs.d/site-lisp/ropemacs")

(or whereever you have pymacs.el) so that emacs can find the lisp files. Also mentioned in the pymacs documentation

2.4 Install the Pymacs proper ... for the Emacs part ...

This is usually done by hand now. First select some directory along the list kept in your Emacs load-path, for which you have write access, and copy file pymacs.el in that directory.

Answer 2

It turns out I missed these two:

(add-to-list 'load-path "~/.emacs.d/site-lisp/Pymacs-0.23")

Obviously I need to load the pymac script.

And I have set the env var PYMACS_PYTHON to python 2.6 because I am using python 2.4 as default python interpreter, for work reason.