EMACS - enabling at spi2 support

[David Rysdam]

On Mon, 9 Apr 2012 21:39:05 -0400 (GMT-04:00), Susan Cragin <susancragin at earthlink.net> wrote:
> I have since learned that atspi2 is a multitude of small
> functions. That file implements some, but not the one I
> need. "atspi2.el is a client library for AT-SPI2 written in
> Emacs-Lisp. It is meant to write a screen reader, or similar, in Emacs
> Lisp. However, it does not do any toolkit bridge tasks, so what you
> are looking for is not implemented/handled in atspi2.el." So I took
> that file, and my problem, to the emacs developers list, and there was
> much enthusiasm for adding the functions that haven't been
> implemented.
> 
> New problem: What's the best way to learn lisp? Anyone have a favorite
> book or on-line site?

For general Lisp, I think the most useful book for me was Practical
Common Lisp. Land of Lisp was fun but far less comprehensive. SICP is
great, but way too academic for what it sounds like you need.

For Emacs Lisp (which is similar to but not the same as Common Lisp), I
used this strategy:

1) Reading most of this to get the basic ideas down:

    http://shop.fsf.org/product/Intro_to_Emacs_Lisp_3rd_Ed/ 

   I bought a copy, but it's available Freely:

    http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/emacs-lisp-intro/

2) Copying existing code that did nearly what I want.

3) Looking up extra functions, special behavior, etc here:

    http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/elisp/

Starting the clock at step #2, I got a minor mode working in a few
hours, but I started with a working minor mode...