Gumshoe: a spatial Point movement tracker

Introduction

Gumshoe is a global minor mode that quietly keeps tabs on your Point movements so you can retrace your steps if you ever need a reminder where you’ve been.

(This demonstrates the non-built-in consult-gumshoe command I describe below, because it’s the most visual. I usually just use gumshoe–backtrack-back/forward.)

Gumshoe does not keep track of every move you make, rather, only at increments of some minimum Euclidean distance from the last tracked position, like a leash. It will also automatically log a position if you’ve idled there for a configurable amount of time. This package is very similar to Vim’s jump list, just generalized for Emacs.

Installation

I just use straight+use-package like so:

(use-package gumshoe
  :straight (gumshoe :type git
                     :host github
                     :repo "Overdr0ne/gumshoe"
                     :branch "master")
  :config
  ;; The minor mode must be enabled to begin tracking
  (global-gumshoe-mode 1))

Usage

• Once global-gumshoe-mode is enabled, gumshoe will automatically start recording movements into the gumshoe–log ringbuffer.
• Use gumshoe-backtrack-back and gumshoe-backtrack-forward to jump backwards and forwards in the log.
• Minibuffer autocompletion: Consult supports autocompletion of global(non buffer-local) marks. I’ve decided to remove built-in support for consult, because there are many great autocompletion packages out there. This is the one I use though, so here’s how I use it. You may define a consult function for gumshoe like so:

(defun consult-gumshoe ()
  (interactive)
  (consult-global-mark (ring-elements gumshoe--log)))

I then just added that to my use-package definition.

• Configure Gumshoe’s euclidean follow distance by customizing the gumshoe–follow-distance variable.
• Configure Gumshoe’s idle time by customizing the gumshoe-idle-time variable.
• Configure the number of locations logged with the gumshoe-log-len variable.
• Horizontal distance is scaled down by a factor of 3 by default, since columns are approximately that much narrower than rows, but you can modify gumshoe-horizontal-scale if you want.
• If you use consult, gumshoe will load consult-gumshoe for you. This command allows you to browse the gumshoe–log interactively, just like consult-mark.

Similar Packages

If Gumshoe doesn’t suit you, here are some more Point history tracking packages that may.