Example emacs lisp program to generate programmer activity reports

epractivity.el

;;;; Script Name:	epractivity.el
;;;; By:		MWL
;;;; Date:		07 October 2012
;;;; Purpose:		Generate Programmer Activity Status Report using emacs

;; Open the file 'programmer' into a buffer.
;; Set that buffer as the current buffer.
(set-buffer (find-file "programmer"))
;; Convert the buffer into a string, then split that string
;; into a list containing each line as a separate string
(setq programmer_lines (split-string (buffer-string)
				     "\n"))
;; Kill the buffer containing 'programmer'
(kill-buffer)
;; Repeat for file 'project'
(set-buffer (find-file "project"))
(setq project_lines (split-string (buffer-string)
				  "\n"))
(kill-buffer)

;; Make a vector of names by programmer number
(setq prog_number
      (let* ((plen (length programmer_lines))
	     (pnum (make-vector plen "")))
	(dolist (currprog programmer_lines pnum)
	  (let* ((pfields (split-string currprog ":"))
		 (ind (- (string-to-number (nth 0 pfields)) 101))
		 (val (format "%-12.12s %-12.12s %s"
			      (nth 1 pfields)
			      (nth 2 pfields)
			      (nth 3 pfields))))
	    (unless (or (< ind 0) (> ind plen))
	      (aset pnum ind val))))))
	    
;; Make a vector of the number of projects by programmer number
(setq proj_number
      (let* ((plen (length prog_number))
	     (pnum (make-vector plen 0)))
	(dolist (currproj project_lines pnum)
	  (let* ((pfields (split-string currproj ":"))
		 (ind (- (string-to-number (nth 3 pfields)) 101)))
	    (unless (or (< ind 0) (> ind plen))
	      (aset pnum ind (1+ (aref pnum ind))))))))
	    

;; Finally, print the output
(princ "\tProgrammer Activity Status Report\n\n")
(princ (format-time-string "\t%a %b %d %H:%M:%S %Z %Y\n"))
(princ "Prog#\t*--Name--*\t\t\tProjects\n\n")
(princ "================================================\n")
(dotimes (ind (length prog_number))
  (princ (format "%-d\t%s\t%d\n"
		 (+ ind 101)
		 (aref prog_number ind)
		 (aref proj_number ind))))