emacs-outline-it - outline.el that works

Version 0.1

Emacs package, provide starter for outline-minor-mode and enhancements and fixes, that don't require activation of mode.

Features

• fontification like in Org for any mode.
• fixes for Outline mode for jumping such as xref and goto (advices activates at loading)
• better keys or main commans, TAB key bound to indent-for-tab-command we use indent-line-function.

Configuration

Theare are tree types of usage that may be mixed.

1. by M-x outline-it, or with prepared (outline-it "regex") elisp call, that activate `outline-minor-mode' for current buffer.
2. to enhance `outline-minor-mode', we add hook to it
3. enhance outline related functionality globally

Configuration for 1,2,3)

1. for manual activation by `outline-it'

(add-to-list 'load-path "/path/to/this/package/emacs-outline-it")
(require 'outline-it)

2. for all outline-minor modes or per some major mode:

(add-hook 'outline-minor-mode-hook 'outline-it-outline-minor-mode-hook-function)
(outline-it-advices-activation)

3. for enhancing outline functionality that works without any activation

(add-hook 'isearch-mode-hook #'outline-it--header-search)
(outline-it-advices-activation)

Usage - by function

To use, defune your outline-it-your function same way like outline-it-python and outline-it-githubactionlog at

Then use M-x outline-it-your

;; from: [[file:outline-it.el::426::(defun outline-it-python ()]]
(defun outline-it-githubactionlog ()
  "For Github Action Melpazoid log of run.
Where is goups with substring ##[group].
To check use: (search-forward-regexp (regexp-quote \"##[group]\"))"
  (interactive)
  (setq-local outline-it-heading-alist '(("##\\[group]" . 1) ("⸺ " . 2)))
  (outline-it ".*##\\[group]\\|.*⸺ "))

Usage - by ~/.dir-locals.el file

Create file in the same directory.

For Elisp files:

((emacs-lisp-mode
  . (
     (outline-regexp . "^;;; ")
     (outline-heading-alist . ((";;; " . 1)))
     (eval . (progn (keymap-local-set "C-c k" #'outline-previous-heading)
                    (keymap-local-set "C-c n" #'outline-next-heading)
                    (when (featurep 'outline-it)
                                    (keymap-local-set "C-c C-e" #'outline-it-hide-other))
                    (keymap-local-set "<backtab>" #'outline-cycle-buffer)
                    (keymap-local-set "C-<tab>" #'outline-toggle-children)
                    (outline-hide-body)
                    )) ; noqa
     )))

For Bash files:

((sh-mode
  . (
     (outline-regexp . "^# -- ")
     (outline-heading-alist . (("# -- " . 1)))
     (eval . (progn (keymap-local-set "C-c k" #'outline-previous-heading)
                    (keymap-local-set "C-c n" #'outline-next-heading)
                    (when (featurep 'outline-it)
                                    (keymap-local-set "C-c C-e" #'outline-it-hide-other))
                    (keymap-local-set "<backtab>" #'outline-cycle-buffer)
                    (keymap-local-set "C-<tab>" #'outline-toggle-children)
                    (outline-hide-body) ;; or (outline-cycle-buffer 5) ;; narrow by building levels by 5 first characters
                    ))
     )))

Activation of outline-minor-mode is not required for simple working.

How

By calling outline-it we configure outline.el by setting its variables and bind keys.

To toggle header by TAB key we wrap indent-line-function function.

We replace outline-level function because it match outline-heading-alist incorrectly by full string match instead of searching substring.

For searching in headers we add hook to isearch-mode-hook' that add template to C-M-s isearch-forward-regexpcommand byoutline-regexp' variable. We do this globally without calling `outline-it' function.

Screenshot

Conf-mode with with forced fontification of 3 headers ("^# -- " . 1) ("##\\[group]" . 2) ("⸺ " . 3)

How Outline works

It uses two variables:

1. outline-regexp - to search for header
2. outline-heading-alist - is optional, to determinate level.

alist used in by outline-level function used by many others.

Function outline-back-to-heading -> outline-level ( used by outline-hide-sublevels and outline-hide-entry) uses functions:

• outline-back-to-heading use var outline-regexp
• outline-level uses var alist

Known bugs

(revert-buffer nil t t) not working.

Other packages for same purpose from other authors:

• 2w https://github.com/jdtsmith/outli (font-lock)
• 7y https://github.com/tj64/outline-magic
• 3y https://github.com/alphapapa/outshine (font-lock)
• 4d https://github.com/jamescherti/outline-indent.el (font-lock)

Other packages

• Navigation in Dired, Packages, Buffers modes https://github.com/Anoncheg1/firstly-search
• Search with Chinese https://github.com/Anoncheg1/pinyin-isearch
• Ediff fix https://github.com/Anoncheg1/ediffnw
• Dired history https://github.com/Anoncheg1/dired-hist
• Selected window contrast https://github.com/Anoncheg1/selected-window-contrast
• Copy link to clipboard https://github.com/Anoncheg1/emacs-org-links
• Solution for "callback hell" https://github.com/Anoncheg1/emacs-async1
• Call LLMs and AI agents from Org-mode ai block. https://github.com/Anoncheg1/emacs-oai
• Restore buffer state https://github.com/Anoncheg1/emacs-unmodified-buffer1

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