Hello,

I'm trying to setup GNU emacs to do some SIMPLE java work for me.

I'm working in a given folder, and want to just edit and compile programs in this one folder.

In my .emacs, I have:
I cd to the folder, and run emacs sample.java

I edit the file, and then in emacs, I M-x compile.

The problem, is that in the minibuffer, it shows:
Compile command: javac *scratch*

instead of javac sample.java

Why is this? The buffer *scratch* is (by default) open, but is NOT in the one visible window - sample.java is.

How to I get this to use the correct buffer name for the active buffer?

hmm.....might I suggest setting it like this: Alternately, might I suggest using SETF instead of SETQ?

i've used the following to compile c programs by binding to the F4 key, it saves the file and then compiles it. probably would work the same replacing the cc command with javac.

(global-set-key [f4] 'wcompile)

(defun wcompile()
(interactive)
(save-buffer)
(compile (concat "cc " buffer-file-name))
)


over time i found it is more flexible to just map the F4 key to compile which allows you to put in whatever command you want at the prompt (at the bottom), that way you can do any set of commands such as compile & run with the output piped to a bunch of other commands (ie: sort, grep, awk, sed, etc). the command (or set of commands separated by semicolons) that you put in remains in the command buffer and each time you run compile it will be there to either rerun or modify. it's a handy way of having a command prompt within emacs.

The problem is that compile-command gets set when the your .emacs is loaded, what you need to do is add a hook that will run every time you open a java file:

ntubski,

thanks, that's exactly what I needed. And now that I think about it (and read up on hooks) I understand the *scratch* issue.