ros_emacs_utils

This is a collection of packages to work on ROS-based software from Emacs.

It has a rosemacs package, which contains functions for starting a roscore, monitoring ROS nodes etc (with corresponding Emacs key bindings). And, in addition to that, it has a number of packages to simplify development of roslisp-based packages. Among them is a wrapper for Slime (Lisp interactive development environment) called slime_wrapper, a contrib for Slime to work with ROS slime_ros, and a Slime REPL called roslisp_repl, configured to start slime, slime_ros and roslisp.

Not a Lisp programmer

If you don't work with Lisp and just use Emacs for C++ or Python or Java or whatever else, you just need to add the following lines to your Emacs initialization file (init.el or similar):

(add-to-list 'load-path "PATH_TO_ROSLISP_REPL")
(require 'rosemacs-config)

where PATH_TO_ROSLISP_REPL is what rospack find roslisp_repl gives you.

Lisp programmer

For users

If you work with roslisp, all you need to do is to start roslisp_repl in the terminal.

If you want to start the REPL from inside of your Emacs process, add the following to your Emacs init script:

(add-to-list 'load-path "PATH_TO_ROSLISP_REPL")
(require 'slime-config)

where PATH_TO_ROSLISP_REPL is what rospack find roslisp_repl gives you. It is important to have run ./roslisp_repl at least once before you're able to start things from Emacs, as roslisp_repl, besides starting configured Emacs for you, also creates .swank.lisp and .sbclrc in your home directory. If you already have them there, backup / delete them first, they are not being overwritten by default for safety reasons.

For developers

There is a number of things to take into account when compiling ros_emacs_utils from source:

• This repo has Slime as a git submodule. So, if you clone it into your workspace with git clone, make sure to [update the submodule] (http://git-scm.com/book/en/Git-Tools-Submodules#Cloning-a-Project-with-Submodules) as well. But better just use wstool, it knows how to deal with submodules.
• Also, in order for the code to work you not only need to run catkin_make on the packages, but also install them (catkin_make install).

Why do we need to catkin_make install? (Skip the next two paragraphs if you don't care.)

All the packages have their Emacs Lisp part contained in a single or multiple *.el files. During installation of the packages those files are being copied into YOUR_INSTALL_DIR/share/emacs/site-lisp. Therefore, you need to tell Emacs in the initialization script to add that directory to the Emacs load-path in a recursive way. That is done in repl-config.el.

In addition to the Emacs Lisp part, all the packages except rosemacs have a Common Lisp part, and all the *.lisp files are being copied into YOUR_INSTALL_DIR/share/common-lisp/source, this replicates the Debian approach to installing Emacs Lisp and Common Lisp files. Therefore, you need to tell your Common Lisp compiler, actually linker, i.e. ASDF, to search for systems in that directory. That is done in .sbclrc. As you can see, right now only SBCL is supported. The original file can be found in your roslisp_repl ROS package under the name sbclrc. When starting the roslisp_repl executable, this file is being copied into the home directory, unless it already exists there. Check the roslisp_repl executable for more info.

System requirements

This is only for the Lisp developers. For non-Lisp developers things should be quite portable.

• Emacs24
• roslisp installed
• SBCL as the default Common Lisp compiler

FAQ

• Q: Why doesn't my roslisp_repl start properly / find rosemacs?

• A: Probably because you didn't install the ros_emacs_utils packages, e.g. catkin_make install them. Just follow the directions in the error pop up winodw (or echo buffer) of your Emacs.

• Q: I installed the packages. Why doesn't it still work?

• A: Please file a bug report on Github.