# Note: This readme works with the org-make-toc <https://github.com/alphapapa/org-make-toc> package, which automatically updates the table of contents.
Feel free to join us in the chat room: [[https://matrix.to/#/#ement.el:matrix.org][https://img.shields.io/matrix/ement.el:matrix.org.svg?label=%23ement.el:matrix.org]]
The default formatting style resembles IRC clients, with each message being prefixed by the username (which enables powerful Emacs features, like using Occur to show all messages from or mentioning a user). Alternative, built-in styles include an Element-like one with usernames above groups of messages, as well as a classic, no-margins IRC style. Messages may be optionally displayed with unique colors for each user (with customizeable contrast), making it easier to follow conversations. Timestamp headers are optionally displayed where a certain amount of time passes between events, as well as where the date changes.
/Two rooms shown in side-by-side buffers, showing inline images, reactions, date/time headings, room avatars, and messages colored by user (using the modus-vivendi Emacs theme)./
/#emacs:libera.chat showing colored text from IRC users, replies with quoted parts, messages colored by user, addressed usernames colored by their user color, highlighted mentions, and the fully-read marker line (using the modus-vivendi Emacs theme)./
[[images/screenshot5.png]]
/Four rooms shown at once, with messages colored by user, in the default Emacs theme./
[[images/screenshot2.png]]
/A room at the top in the "Elemental" display style, with sender names displayed over groups of messages, and only self-messages in an alternate color. The lower window shows an earlier version of the rooms list./
[[images/reactions.png]]
/Reactions displayed as color emojis (may need [[#displaying-symbols-and-emojis][proper Emacs configuration]])./
Ement.el is published in [[http://elpa.gnu.org/][GNU ELPA]], so it may be installed in Emacs with the command ~M-x package-install RET ement RET~. This is the recommended way to install Ement.el, as it will install the current stable release.
The ~master~ branch of the Git repository is intended to be usable at all times; only minor bugs are expected to be found in it before a new stable release is made. To install from this, it is recommended to use [[https://github.com/quelpa/quelpa-use-package][quelpa-use-package]], like this:
One might also use systems like [[https://github.com/radian-software/straight.el][Straight]] (which is also used by [[https://github.com/doomemacs/doomemacs][DOOM]]) to install from Git, but the author cannot offer support for them.
Ement.el is intended to be installed with Emacs's package system, which will ensure that the required autoloads are generated, etc. If you choose to install it manually, you're on your own.
+ Write reply to event at point (when region is active, only quote marked text) : ~S-RET~
+ Compose message in buffer: ~M-RET~ (while writing in minibuffer: ~C-c ')~ (Use command ~ement-room-compose-org~ to activate Org mode in the compose buffer.)
+ Edit message: ~<insert>~
+ Delete message: ~C-k~
+ Send reaction to event at point, or send same reaction at point: ~s r~
+ Send emote: ~s e~
+ Send file: ~s f~
+ Send image: ~s i~
+ View event source: ~v~
+ Complete members and rooms at point: ~C-M-i~ (standard ~completion-at-point~ command).
+ Desktop notifications are enabled by default for events that mention the local user. They can also be shown for all events in rooms with open buffers.
+ Send messages in Org mode format by customizing the option ~ement-room-send-message-filter~ (which enables Org format by default), or by calling ~ement-room-compose-org~ in a compose buffer (which enables it for a single message). Then Org-formatted messages are automatically converted and sent as HTML-formatted messages (with the Org syntax as the plain-text fallback). You can send syntax such as:
- Bold, italic, underline, strikethrough
- Links
- Tables
- Source blocks (including results with ~:exports both~)
- Footnotes (okay, that might be pushing it, but you can!)
- And, generally, anything that Org can export to HTML
+ Starting in the room list buffer, by pressing ~SPC~ repeatedly, you can cycle through and read all rooms with unread buffers. (If a room doesn't have a buffer, it will not be included.)
+ Room buffers and the room-list buffer can be bookmarked in Emacs, i.e. using =C-x r m=. This is especially useful with [[https://github.com/alphapapa/burly.el][Burly]]: you can arrange an Emacs frame with several room buffers displayed at once, use =burly-bookmark-windows= to bookmark the layout, and then you can restore that layout and all of the room buffers by opening the bookmark, rather than having to manually arrange them every time you start Emacs or change the window configuration.
+ You can customize settings in the ~ement~ group.
- *Note:*~setq~ should not be used for certain options, because it will not call the associated setter function. Users who have an aversion to the customization system may experience problems.
Emacs may not display certain symbols and emojis well by default. Based on [[https://emacs.stackexchange.com/questions/62049/override-the-default-font-for-emoji-characters][this question and answer]], you may find that the simplest way to fix this is to install an appropriate font, like [[https://www.google.com/get/noto/#emoji-zsye][Noto Emoji]], and then use this Elisp code:
#+BEGIN_SRC elisp
(setf use-default-font-for-symbols nil)
(set-fontset-font t 'unicode "Noto Emoji" nil 'append)
Ement.el doesn't support encrypted rooms natively, but it can be used transparently with the E2EE-aware reverse proxy daemon [[https://github.com/matrix-org/pantalaimon/][Pantalaimon]]. After configuring it according to its documentation, call ~ement-connect~ with the appropriate hostname and port, like:
Why write a new Emacs Matrix client when there is already [[https://github.com/alphapapa/matrix-client.el][matrix-client.el]], by the same author, no less? A few reasons:
- ~matrix-client~ uses an older version of the Matrix spec, r0.3.0, with a few elements of r0.4.0 grafted in. Bringing it up to date with the current version of the spec, r0.6.1, would be more work than to begin with the current version. Ement.el targets r0.6.1 from the beginning.
- ~matrix-client~ does not use Matrix's lazy-loading feature (which was added to the specification later), so initial sync requests can take a long time for the server to process and can be large (sometimes tens of megabytes of JSON for the client to process!). Ement.el uses lazy-loading, which significantly improves performance.
- ~matrix-client~ automatically makes buffers for every room a user has joined, even if the user doesn't currently want to watch a room. Ement.el opens room buffers on-demand, improving performance by not having to insert events into buffers for rooms the user isn't watching.
- ~matrix-client~ was developed without the intention of publishing it to, e.g. MELPA or ELPA. It has several dependencies, and its code does not always install or compile cleanly due to macro-expansion issues (apparently depending on the user's Emacs config). Ement.el is designed to have minimal dependencies outside of Emacs (currently only one, ~plz~, which could be imported into the project), and every file is linted and compiles cleanly using [[https://github.com/alphapapa/makem.sh][makem.sh]].
- ~matrix-client~ uses EIEIO, probably unnecessarily, since few, if any, of the benefits of EIEIO are realized in it. Ement.el uses structs instead.
- ~matrix-client~ uses bespoke code for inserting messages into buffers, which works pretty well, but has a few minor bugs which are difficult to track down. Ement.el uses Emacs's built-in (and perhaps little-known) ~ewoc~ library, which makes it much simpler and more reliable to insert and update messages in buffers, and enables the development of advanced UI features more easily.
- ~matrix-client~ was, to a certain extent, designed to imitate other messaging apps. The result is, at least when used with the ~matrix-client-frame~ command, fairly pleasing to use, but isn't especially "Emacsy." Ement.el is intended to better fit into Emacs's paradigms.
- ~matrix-client~'s long name makes for long symbol names, which makes for tedious, verbose code. ~ement~ is easy to type and makes for concise, readable code.
- The author has learned much since writing ~matrix-client~ and hopes to write simpler, more readable, more maintainable code in Ement.el. It's hoped that this will enable others to contribute more easily.
Note that, while ~matrix-client~ remains usable, and probably will for some time to come, Ement.el has now surpassed it in every way. The only reason to choose ~matrix-client~ instead is if one is using an older version of Emacs that isn't supported by Ement.el.
+ Read receipts are re-enabled. (They're now implemented with a global idle timer rather than ~window-scroll-functions~, which sometimes caused a strange race condition that could cause Emacs to become unresponsive or crash.)
+ When determining whether a room is considered unread, non-message events like membership changes, reactions, etc. are ignored. This fixes a bug that caused certain rooms that had no message events (like some bridged rooms) to appear as unread when they shouldn't have. But it's unclear whether this is always preferable (e.g. one might want a member leaving a room to cause it to be marked unread), so this is classified as a change rather than simply a fix, and more improvements may be made to this in the future. (Fixes [[https://github.com/alphapapa/ement.el/issues/97][#97]]. Thanks to [[https://github.com/MrRoy][Julien Roy]] for reporting and testing.)
+ The ~ement-taxy-room-list~ view no longer automatically refreshes the list if the region is active in the buffer. (This allows the user to operate on multiple rooms without the contents of the buffer changing before completing the process.)
# + Read receipt-sending function was called too many times when scrolling.
# + Send read receipts even when the last receipt is outside the range of retrieved events.
+ Temporarily disable sending of read receipts due to an unusual bug that could cause Emacs to become unresponsive. (The feature will be re-enabled in a future release.)
+ Only send D-Bus notifications when supported. (Fixes [[https://github.com/alphapapa/ement.el/issues/83][#83]]. Thanks to [[https://github.com/tsdh][Tassilo Horn]].)
Ement.el is published in GNU ELPA and is considered part of GNU Emacs. Therefore, cumulative contributions of more than 15 lines of code require that the author assign copyright of such contributions to the FSF. Authors who are interested in doing so may contact [[mailto:assign@gnu.org][assign@gnu.org]] to request the appropriate form.
# NOTE: The #+OPTIONS: and other keywords did not take effect when in this section (perhaps due to file size or to changes in Org), so they were moved to the top of the file.
