DESCRIPTION
===========

Sepia is a set of features to make Emacs a better tool for Perl
development, including:

    * an interactive prompt (REPL) for evaluating code;
    * cross-referencing to find and navigate between function and
      variable definitions and uses;
    * variable- and function-name completion based on this Xref
      database.
    * eldoc support to echo function arguments in the minibuffer
    * functions to simplify POD browsing with Emacs-w3m

I find Emacs as a software development environment preferable to many
modern IDEs, particularly when using a richly-supported language like
Lisp or Emacs Lisp.  Sepia is my attempt to give Perl a similar degree
of support "in the Emacs way," which represents 40 years' collective
experience of the software development community.  I have therefore
tried throughout to use or mimic existing Emacs functionality, rather
than to create something new.

INSTALLATION
============

1) run "perl Makefile.PL; make; make install"
2) optionally, install the Emacs-w3m and tree-widget packages:
       http://emacs-w3m.namazu.org/
       http://emhacks.sf.net/
3) put the elisp files somewhere Emacs will find them.

RUNNING
=======

In Emacs, type

   M-x load-library <ret> sepia <ret>
   M-x sepia-init <ret>

This will give you an Xref database for the EPL process, and start the
REPL.  Note that you should do this before opening a Perl file, since
Sepia needs to install some hooks on `cperl-mode-hook'.

Probably the most useful part of the package is the cross-reference
facility.  In a Perl buffer with Sepia enabled, type

   C-h f sepia-init <ret>

to get a list of functions using it.  In general, the functions will
look up zero or more source locations, then allow you to cycle
through them with "M-x sepia-next".  With a prefix argument, the
functions will instead display a grep-mode buffer listing all the
hits, from which you can then navigate.

TODO
====

* (Easy) Use module, file, and line number to refine queries on the
  Perl side.
* (Hard) Use module, file, and line number to filter results on the
  Emacs side.
* (Medium) Clean up Perl side.
* (Hard) Merge with B::Xref.
* (Medium) Better documentation for Elisp side.

BUGS
====

* Emacs may display a "not enough arguments for format string" error.
  This is probably caused by some code passing a string containing a
  "%" as the first argument to `format', either in but I haven't
  tracked it down yet.
* Function definition lines may all go completely wrong.  Rebuilding
  the Xref database fixes this.
* The cursor may miss by several lines when jumping to a definition.
  This is hard to fix -- Perl doesn't give exact line numbers for sub
  defs, so we have to do some minor adjustment and regex-searching,
  neither of which is flawless.
* `sepia-var-assigns' doesn't work yet -- don't use it.

CREDITS
=======

Sepia would never have been possible without Software Libre, as many
key components have been stolen and adapted from other packages:

    * generic-repl is taken from Slime;
    * Devel::Xref is taken from B::Xref;
    * sepia-w3m is taken from w3m-perldoc;