Repo link: https://github.com/emacs-eask/cli

In 2023, I wrote an article about the Elisp Language Server. It was one of several experimental projects exploring Elisp as an execution environment. While developing Eask, I serendipitously discovered it was an intriguing program that could effortlessly wrap Emacs into a runtime.

Why do I say that? Let’s take a look:

🔰 Running Elisp Programs

Typically, executing Elisp doesn’t allow you to run a code file directly like you can with Python or Node.js:

python hello.py

Or Node.js:

node hello.js

to run a code snippet directly.

This isn’t difficult for Elisp, it just requires a few extra flags:

emacs -batch -l hello.el

❓ The Question

If direct execution is possible, why do we need Eask?

In reality, Eask functions similarly to Python’s pip and Node.js’s npm, all bearing the critical responsibility of package management. The key difference lies in Emacs’s shared environment, which prevents it from having a dedicated node_modules directory like npm. This means any changes to an individual project will affect your entire Emacs setup.

This might not be an issue for users who don’t use Emacs, but it makes package management extremely cumbersome. This is where Emacs’ importance comes into play, addressing these pain points:

  1. No project dependencies, only shared dependencies
  2. Inability to download and manage packages
  3. Dependency pollution issues
  4. Version compatibility problems within Emacs

📝 Example

Next, let’s see how cumbersome Elisp becomes when managing packages.

emacs --batch --quick --eval "
(require 'package)
(setq package-archives '((\“melpa\” . \“https://melpa.org/packages/\”)
                          (\“gnu\”   . \“https://elpa.gnu.org/packages/\”)))
(package-initialize)
(unless (package-installed-p 'async)
  (package-refresh-contents)
  (package-install 'async))
"

This looks terrible—and we haven’t even started writing our program yet! Plus, every time we run this program, we have to check package installations and such, which is incredibly tedious. Using Eask makes things much simpler:

eask install -g async

This means we can use the async package in any project without needing to check or reinstall it each time.

Then we can just focus on writing the code we need, without worrying about other unnecessary issues!

eask load -g hello-async.el

The text of hello-async.el:

(require 'async)

(async-start
   (lambda ()
     (message “Hello!”))
   #'ignore)

⚜️ Closing Thoughts

Honestly, this article isn’t meant to promote Emacs or Eask. It simply highlights how Elisp can handle everyday tasks like a regular programming language. I’ve already leveraged this workflow to automate routine CI/CD tasks:

Typically, Python handles CI/CD tasks for these kinds of projects, but doing it with Elisp is genuinely amusing. 😅 For someone like me who’s already accustomed to writing Elisp, it’s practically a dream come true! 🥳