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<a href="./Home">MLton 20130715</a>
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<h1>EmacsDefUseMode</h1>
</div>
<div id="content">
<div id="preamble">
<div class="sectionbody">
<div class="paragraph"><p>MLton provides an <a href="CompileTimeOptions">option</a>,
<span class="monospaced">-show-def-use <em>file</em></span>, to output precise (giving exact source
locations) and accurate (including all uses and no false data)
whole-program def-use information to a file.  Unlike typical tags
facilities, the information includes local variables and distinguishes
between different definitions even when they have the same name.  The
def-use Emacs mode uses the information to provide navigation support,
which can be particularly useful while reading SML programs compiled
with MLton (such as the MLton compiler itself).</p></div>
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<div class="sect1">
<h2 id="_screen_capture">Screen Capture</h2>
<div class="sectionbody">
<div class="paragraph"><p>Note the highlighting and the type displayed in the minibuffer.</p></div>
<div class="imageblock" style="text-align:center;">
<div class="content">
<img src="EmacsDefUseMode.attachments/def-use-capture.png" alt="EmacsDefUseMode.attachments/def-use-capture.png">
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<div class="sect1">
<h2 id="_features">Features</h2>
<div class="sectionbody">
<div class="ulist"><ul>
<li>
<p>
Highlights definitions and uses.  Different colors for definitions, unused definitions, and uses.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
Shows types (with highlighting) of variable definitions in the minibuffer.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
Navigation: <span class="monospaced">jump-to-def</span>, <span class="monospaced">jump-to-next</span>, and <span class="monospaced">jump-to-prev</span>.  These work precisely (no searching involved).
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
Can list, visit and mark all references to a definition (within a program).
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
Automatically reloads updated def-use files.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
Automatically loads previously used def-use files at startup.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
Supports both <a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/">Gnu Emacs</a> and <a href="http://www.xemacs.org">XEmacs</a>.
</p>
</li>
</ul></div>
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<div class="sect1">
<h2 id="_download">Download</h2>
<div class="sectionbody">
<div class="paragraph"><p>There is no separate package for the def-use mode although the mode
has been relatively stable for some time already.  To install the mode
you need to get the Emacs Lisp, <span class="monospaced">*.el</span>, files from MLton&#8217;s repository:
<a href="https://github.com/MLton/mlton/tree/master/ide/emacs"><span class="monospaced">emacs</span></a>.  The easiest way to get the files
is to use <a href="Git">Git</a> to access MLton&#8217;s <a href="Sources">sources</a>.</p></div>
</div>
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<div class="sect1">
<h2 id="_setup">Setup</h2>
<div class="sectionbody">
<div class="paragraph"><p>The easiest way to load def-use mode is to first tell Emacs where to
find the files.  For example, add</p></div>
<div class="listingblock">
<div class="content"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="p">(</span><span class="nv">add-to-list</span> <span class="ss">&#39;load-path</span> <span class="p">(</span><span class="nv">file-truename</span> <span class="s">&quot;path-to-the-el-files&quot;</span><span class="p">))</span>
</pre></div></div></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>to your <span class="monospaced">~/.emacs</span> or <span class="monospaced">~/.xemacs/init.el</span>.  You&#8217;ll probably
also want to start <span class="monospaced">def-use-mode</span> automatically by adding</p></div>
<div class="listingblock">
<div class="content"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="p">(</span><span class="nb">require</span> <span class="ss">&#39;esml-du-mlton</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="p">(</span><span class="nv">def-use-mode</span><span class="p">)</span>
</pre></div></div></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>to your Emacs init file.  Once the def-use mode is activated, you
should see the <span class="monospaced">DU</span> indicator on the mode line.</p></div>
</div>
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<div class="sect1">
<h2 id="_usage">Usage</h2>
<div class="sectionbody">
<div class="paragraph"><p>To use def-use mode one typically first sets up the program&#8217;s makefile
or build script so that the def-use information is saved each time the
program is compiled.  In addition to the <span class="monospaced">-show-def-use <em>file</em></span>
option, the <span class="monospaced">-prefer-abs-paths true</span> expert option is required.
Note that the time it takes to save the information is small (compared
to type-checking), so it is recommended to simply add the options to
the MLton invocation that compiles the program.  However, it is only
necessary to type check the program (or library), so one can specify
the <span class="monospaced">-stop tc</span> option.  For example, suppose you have a program
defined by an MLB file named <span class="monospaced">my-prg.mlb</span>, you can save the def-use
information to the file <span class="monospaced">my-prg.du</span> by invoking MLton as:</p></div>
<div class="listingblock">
<div class="content monospaced">
<pre>mlton -prefer-abs-paths true -show-def-use my-prg.du -stop tc my-prg.mlb</pre>
</div></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>Finally, one needs to tell the mode where to find the def-use
information.  This is done with the <span class="monospaced">esml-du-mlton</span> command.  For
example, to load the <span class="monospaced">my-prg.du</span> file, one would type:</p></div>
<div class="listingblock">
<div class="content monospaced">
<pre>M-x esml-du-mlton my-prg.du</pre>
</div></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>After doing all of the above, find an SML file covered by the
previously saved and loaded def-use information, and place the cursor
at some variable (definition or use, it doesn&#8217;t matter).  You should
see the variable being highlighted.  (Note that specifications in
signatures do not define variables.)</p></div>
<div class="paragraph"><p>You might also want to setup and use the
<a href="EmacsBgBuildMode">Bg-Build mode</a> to start builds automatically.</p></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="sect1">
<h2 id="_types">Types</h2>
<div class="sectionbody">
<div class="paragraph"><p><span class="monospaced">-show-def-use</span> output was extended to include types of variable
definitions in revision <a href="https://github.com/MLton/mlton/commit/%3A%2FSVN%20r6333"><span class="monospaced">r6333</span></a>.  To get good type names, the
types must be in scope at the end of the program.  If you are using the
<a href="MLBasis">ML Basis</a> system, this means that the root MLB-file for your
application should not wrap the libraries used in the application inside
<span class="monospaced">local ... in ... end</span>, because that would remove them from the scope before
the end of the program.</p></div>
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