How is the migration to Casual 2.0 going?

[kickingvegas]

For folks who were using the Casual 1.x packages, I'm interested in knowing how well the migration has gone for you. Please provide your feedback, either positive or negative.

Thanks!

[kickingvegas]

If you voted "Not Well", please elaborate why here and hopefully I can help.

[Stebalien]

For anyone looking for use-package suggestions, just use a single use-package block. There's no need to explicitly use all the sub-packages unless you need key-bindings that map directly to sub-menus. All the top-level menus have autoload cookies.

For example, here's my config (using general for evil keybindings):

(use-package casual
  :ensure t
  (:keymaps 'dired-mode-map
   :states 'normal
   "?" 'casual-dired-tmenu)
  (:keymaps 'calc-mode-map
   :states 'normal
   "?" 'casual-calc-tmenu)
  (:keymaps 'ibuffer-mode-map
   :states '(normal motion)
   "?" 'casual-ibuffer-tmenu)
  (:keymaps 'Info-mode-map
   :states 'normal
   "?" 'casual-info-tmenu))

[kickingvegas]

@Stebalien thanks for sharing this!

[kickingvegas]

Folks -

I've recently updated the upgrade instructions on the README.org file. It will also be reflected in the description when looking at the casual package in package-list.

https://github.com/kickingvegas/casual?tab=readme-ov-file#install

[randomphrase]

I see lots of use-package suggestions, but many seem overly complex to me. YMMV of course! Here's what I settled on for now:

(use-package casual
  :after (dired)
  :bind (:map dired-mode-map ("?" . casual-dired-tmenu)
	 :map ibuffer-mode-map ("?" . casual-ibuffer-tmenu) ;; 'h' and '?' both bound to describe-mode, we'll just take the latter
	 :map Info-mode-map ("?" . casual-info-tmenu)
  ))

[deen1]

I had been using Casual 1.0 – specifically, just the calc package, which I think was the first one out – and hadn't updated for a while. I saw the notice about upgrading to the 2.0 version and the use of use-package, so I tried to take care when upgrading.

I removed my previous configuration:

(use-package casual
  :straight (:type git :host github :repo "kickingvegas/Casual")
  :bind
  (:map calc-mode-map
        ("C-o"   .  'casual-main-menu) )
  )

and backed up the old repository, and then tried the following configuration after restarting:

(use-package casual
  :straight t
  :bind (:map dired-mode-map ("?" . casual-dired-tmenu)
	 :map ibuffer-mode-map ("?" . casual-ibuffer-tmenu) ;; 'h' and '?' both bound to describe-mode, we'll just take the latter
	 :map Info-mode-map ("?" . casual-info-tmenu)
	 :map calc-mode-map ("C-o"  .  casual-calc-tmenu) )
  )

Unfortunately, while the dired, Ibuffer and Info Casual menus work, I can't get the old calc menu to pop up anymore. Instead I get the error

require: Symbol’s value as variable is void: casual-calc-operators-group

Not sure what to do, I've tried rebuilding the package but it doesn't seem to help.

I'm on GNU Emacs 29.4 (build 2, x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 3.24.43, cairo version 1.18.2) of 2024-12-06, with Magit v4.1.3-32-gbfbab898, Transient 0.8.1, Git 2.49.0, Emacs 29.4, gnu/linux.

[kickingvegas]

@deen1 Thanks for sharing this. I appreciate that you’ve taken the time to use Casual. Are you using packages from MELPA stable or ELPA? If so, this is likely the cause.

As of the time of this reply (May 21, 2025), breaking changes have been introduced into the pre-release Transient codebase. The latest Casual release (v2.4.3) takes the pre-release changes (0.9.0) in Transient into account. However in doing so, Casual v2.4.3 breaks for users using any released version of Transient up to 0.8.8.

Some more details on the version skew between Transient and Casual is described in v2.4.3 · kickingvegas/casual · Discussion #208.

As far as workarounds you can do today, there are a number of options you can take.

1. Don’t use Casual until Transient 0.9.0 is released, which should be in the first week of June.
2. Install the latest snapshot of Transient from MELPA.

Given my current circumstances, I will not be able to issue a fix for MELPA stable in time before Transient 0.9.0 is released. If you can live without Casual, my guidance is to take option 1, as it would least disrupt your configuration.

My apologies for any inconvenience this has brought for you.

[deen1]

Thanks for your reply. I see, I have had similar dependency issues with Transient and Magit (which relies heavily on Transient) in the past after building and upgrading Emacs.

I'm happy to wait for the updates to Transient to progress to the main release versions and then try out Casual. It's no problem for me now, I just hadn't had a chance to try out the upgraded version and the non-calc menus before and wanted to do so because they look quite useful.

FYI the Straight package manager allows me to install directly from the package repository (i.e. this GitHub repo, though I hear that package.el now has this functionality too) rather than via MELPA, and I believe that's what the Straight "recipe"

(casual :type git :flavor melpa :host github :repo "kickingvegas/casual")

indicates. To double check this isn't a MELPA problem, I manually cloned the repo and got Straight to build and use this local version instead (with head at commit 006b3d4ba15969946c9aa9255c8ac6b1ac82a409), and unfortunately I get the same problem. Also, when the package is built, the *Warnings* buffer pops up with a bunch of messages like:

⛔ Warning (comp): ~/.emacs.d/straight/build/casual/casual-editkit.el: Error: Symbol's value as variable is void casual-editkit-navigation-group
⛔ Warning (comp): ~/.emacs.d/straight/build/casual/casual-editkit-utils.el: Error: Symbol's value as variable is void casual-editkit-navigation-group
...
⛔ Warning (comp): ~/.emacs.d/straight/build/casual/casual-calendar.el: Error: Symbol's value as variable is void casual-calendar--navigation-group
⛔ Warning (comp): ~/.emacs.d/straight/build/casual/casual-calendar-utils.el: Error: Symbol's value as variable is void casual-calendar--navigation-group
...
⛔ Warning (comp): ~/.emacs.d/straight/build/casual/casual-calendar.el: Error: Symbol's value as variable is void casual-calendar--navigation-group
⛔ Warning (comp): ~/.emacs.d/straight/build/casual/casual-calendar-utils.el: Error: Symbol's value as variable is void casual-calendar--navigation-group
...
⛔ Warning (comp): ~/.emacs.d/straight/build/casual/casual-calc.el: Error: Symbol's value as variable is void casual-calc-operators-group
⛔ Warning (comp): ~/.emacs.d/straight/build/casual/casual-calc-vector.el: Error: Symbol's value as variable is void casual-calc-operators-group

which naively don't seem to be related to the dependency on Transient, but I haven't really checked. EDIT: Actually, this is probably related to your switch to transient-define-group in the still un-released version of Transient, right? So hopefully everything works in June.

Thanks for all your work on this!

[deen1]

Just to briefly add: I checked out the commit associated with version 2.4.2, before the shift to transient-define-group and depending on an older version of Transient, and now the calc tmenu works perfectly fine, as do the other ones.

[kickingvegas]

@deen1 yes, pulling the older release (2.4.2) should work with Transient < 0.9.0. The breaking change is in using transient-define-group (which I approve of).

Package management in Emacs is quite "wild-west"; as most users get Casual direct from MELPA, in real-world practice MELPA is released code from a user perspective, no matter what meaning developers wish to impose on it and users. My QA of Casual and its dependencies is based on what is in MELPA and not the versioned code in MELPA stable. While this might be considered cardinally "wrong" from a developer lens, it ensures the highest stability for the majority (~95%) of Casual users.