It seems like this should be pretty straightforward since Emacs knows how to display images.
In a buffer, let's say I have a URL to an image like:
http://centre.nikkeiplace.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/aikido11.jpg
I'd like to put the caret on that url, call a function like expand-image-from-url and have it render the image in-line.
Is this something that's easily possible?
If you don't mind the image being displayed in a different buffer, just do
M-x ffap If you insist on the image appearing in the current buffer, you'll need to do just a little more work:
(require 'url) (defun insert-image-from-url (&optional url) (interactive) (unless url (setq url (url-get-url-at-point))) (unless url (error "Couldn't find URL.")) (let ((buffer (url-retrieve-synchronously url))) (unwind-protect (let ((data (with-current-buffer buffer (goto-char (point-min)) (search-forward "\n\n") (buffer-substring (point) (point-max))))) (insert-image (create-image data nil t))) (kill-buffer buffer)))) 