This file aims to describe what the distel-ie package is. 

The 'ie' suffix is an acronym for "Interactive Erlang".

The original idea was to create something like the *scratch* buffer in emacs, 
where you can play around with the language: define functions see how things 
work etc. So in short, distel-ie is a shell with the unique feature of allowing
 for functions to be defined.

Example:

Start a distel-ie session by doing : M-x erl-ie-session, or, if you run the 
distel extension minor mode: C-c C-d s

now type (without quotes) : 

"sista(W) -> lists:last(W)."

mark this region and press C-M-x, the function sista/1 is now defined and ready
to be used from the session. You can try and call this function:

"sista([1, 2, 3, distel_rocks])."

Again, mark this region and press C-M-x, the result should come as no surprise
:-)


KEYBINDINGS:

These keybindings are available when you run the distel extension minor mode

C-c C-d s : Makes a session buffer the current buffer, if no session exists, 
    	    it creates a new one.

C-M-x     : Evaluates the marked region. If the marked region contains a 
	    function definition, the function is defined. The result of the
	    evaluation is returned on the minibuffer or in a new buffer.

C-u C-M-x : Same as above, but the results ends up in the session buffer.

C-c C-d r : Copies the marked region (in a file buffer) to the session buffer.
    	    If no session exists, a session is created.

C-c C-d c : Same as above but copies an entire buffer.



THINGS NOT WORKING/TODO:

- Evaluating a region containing more than one function definition is not 
  working.

- It would be nice to not having to mark the region yourself, 
  erlang-mark-function or similar would be convenient, but is currently not 
  a viable option. ("fun(X) ->\nlists:last(X)\nend." is not marking the 
  correct region).


Comments and suggestions are welcome,

email_the_author() -> lists:reverse("ei.lu@nillaw.divad").