Mercurial > hg > xemacs-beta
annotate etc/TUTORIAL @ 5797:a1808d52a34a
If the position of a window's cached point is deleted, use buffer point instead
src/ChangeLog addition:
2014-06-17 Aidan Kehoe <kehoea@parhasard.net>
* extents.h:
* window.c:
* window.c (unshow_buffer):
* window.c (Fset_window_buffer):
Use extents, rather than markers, for the window buffer point
cache, so that when the text containing that window buffer point
is deleted, the window display code uses the buffer's actual point
instead of the position that the marker had been moved to.
Fixes Michael Heinrich's problem of
http://mid.gmane.org/6zr42uxtf5.fsf@elektra.science-computing.de ,
introduced by Ben's patch of
https://bitbucket.org/xemacs/xemacs/commits/047d37eb70d70f43803 .
| author | Aidan Kehoe <kehoea@parhasard.net> |
|---|---|
| date | Tue, 17 Jun 2014 20:55:45 +0100 |
| parents | c6b1500299a7 |
| children |
| rev | line source |
|---|---|
| 771 | 1 You are looking at the XEmacs tutorial. See end for copyrights and conditions. |
| 428 | 2 |
| 771 | 3 XEmacs commands generally involve the CONTROL key (sometimes labeled |
| 4 CTRL or CTL) or the META key. "META" is a traditional Emacs term; on | |
| 2679 | 5 most keyboards, the key is labeled "Alt". (On Sun keyboards, the META |
| 6 key is labeled with a diamond, and is *NOT* the Alt key, which also | |
| 771 | 7 exists.) On some TTY's, there is no META key; in this case, use ESC. |
| 8 Rather than write out META or CONTROL each time we want you to prefix a | |
| 9 character, we'll use the following abbreviations: | |
| 428 | 10 |
| 11 C-<chr> means hold the CONTROL key while typing the character <chr> | |
| 12 Thus, C-f would be: hold the CONTROL key and type f. | |
| 771 | 13 M-<chr> means hold the META (i.e. Alt) key down while typing <chr>. |
| 14 (See above for Sun keyboards and TTY's.) | |
| 15 | |
| 16 Important note: to end the XEmacs session, type C-x C-c. (Two characters.) | |
| 428 | 17 |
| 771 | 18 To move to the next screen, type <Next> (often labeled PgDn). On TTY's, |
| 19 you may not have such a key; use C-v instead. (Hold down the CONTROL key | |
| 20 while typing v.) | |
| 21 | |
| 22 To move to the previous screen, type <Prior> (often labeled PgUp). On | |
| 23 TTY's, use M-v. (Remember, this means META + v; if you have no META or Alt | |
| 24 key that works, press and release ESC, then type v.) | |
| 25 | |
| 428 | 26 The characters ">>" at the left margin indicate directions for you to |
| 27 try using a command. For instance: | |
| 771 | 28 |
| 29 >> Try typing <Next> and then <Prior>, a few times. (Or C-v and M-v, | |
| 30 on TTY's.) | |
| 31 | |
| 32 Note that there is an overlap of two lines when you move from screen to | |
| 33 screen; this provides some continuity so you can continue reading the text. | |
| 34 | |
| 35 In general, every "cursor key" (the arrows and similar keys set off to the | |
| 36 right side of the keyboard) has an equivalent binding that uses only the | |
| 37 alphanumeric keys in combination with CONTROL and/or META, so that TTY | |
| 38 users can use XEmacs. | |
| 428 | 39 |
| 771 | 40 (In fact, in olden days, this "older way" was the only way to do things, |
| 41 and you will still often see references to these keys as the "recommended" | |
| 42 way of doing things. We don't actually recommend that you use these older | |
| 43 bindings in preference to the more obvious cursor keys, since the cursor | |
| 44 keys are easier to remember and usually more convenient to use. However, | |
| 45 it's useful to know the older bindings, either in case you ever use a TTY | |
| 46 or so that you can make sense of references to them. From now on, we will | |
| 47 mention the TTY bindings in parentheses, and expect that TTY users will | |
| 2679 | 48 substitute them whenever we mention a cursor key.) |
| 428 | 49 |
| 771 | 50 Now you may ask, what is a TTY? A TTY (or "TeleTYpe")is a text-only |
| 51 connection, the kind you get when you use the "telnet" program to log into | |
| 52 a remote site. Up till 20 years ago or so, such text-only connections were | |
| 53 all that existed to communicate with a computer, usually via a "terminal" | |
| 54 (a combination keyboard and monochrome screen) connected directly to a | |
| 55 computer. Nowadays, such dedicated TTY's are increasingly rare, and most | |
| 56 people only run into them when using telnet. Emacs began in those olden | |
| 57 days, and it still carries some baggage from that time, but things have | |
| 58 greatly improved since then. Now, you are probably using XEmacs under MS | |
| 59 Windows or X Windows, collectively termed a "window system". | |
| 428 | 60 |
| 61 | |
| 62 * SUMMARY | |
| 63 --------- | |
| 64 | |
| 65 The following commands are useful for viewing screenfuls: | |
| 66 | |
| 771 | 67 <Next> Move forward one screenful (C-v on TTY's) |
| 68 <Prior> Move backward one screenful (M-v on TTY's) | |
| 69 C-l Clear frame and redisplay all the text, | |
| 70 moving the text around the cursor | |
| 71 to the center of the window. | |
| 72 (That's CONTROL-L, not CONTROL-1.) | |
| 428 | 73 |
|
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74 >> Find the cursor, and note what text is near it. Then type C-l. |
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75 Find the cursor again and notice that the same text is still near |
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76 the cursor, but now it is in the center of the screen. |
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77 If you press C-l again, this piece of text will move to the top of |
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78 the screen. Press C-l again, and it moves to the bottom. |
| 428 | 79 |
| 771 | 80 * SOME TERMINOLOGY |
| 81 ------------------ | |
| 82 | |
| 83 All aspects of computers have terminology associated with them, and until | |
| 84 you master the terminology, things can seem overwhelming. To add to this, | |
| 85 however, XEmacs has its own terminology, some of which of course includes | |
| 86 terms for concepts new to XEmacs. Some XEmacs terminology, however, is | |
| 87 just nonstandard terms for familiar objects and concepts. (This is because | |
| 88 Emacs began a long time ago, when many standard things in today's computers | |
| 89 didn't exist, and others that did exist had different names.) | |
| 90 | |
| 91 To make things easier for you, the most common XEmacs terms that you will | |
| 92 find in this tutorial are defined here, even though some have already been | |
| 93 defined above and others aren't discussed in detail until later. This way, | |
| 94 if you come across an unfamiliar term, you know exactly where to look to | |
| 95 find the definition. Don't worry if you don't understand all the terms; if | |
| 96 you keep reading the tutorial, eventually all the terms will be explained | |
| 97 in detail. | |
| 98 | |
| 99 Term Definition | |
| 100 -------------------------- | |
| 101 C- A keystroke involving the CONTROL key. C-k is sometimes | |
| 102 indicated as CONTROL + k or (not in XEmacs) ^K, and means | |
| 103 to hold down the CONTROL key and hit the k key. | |
| 104 Info The name of XEmacs' online documentation, accessed through | |
| 105 C-h i. | |
| 106 M- A keystroke involving the META key. See META. | |
| 107 META An abstract name for a particular modifier key, which has | |
| 108 different correspondences depending on your keyboard. On | |
| 109 most keyboards, META is the Alt key, but on Sun keyboards it's | |
| 2679 | 110 a key labeled with a diamond, and *NOT* the Alt key, which |
| 771 | 111 also exists. META can also be simulated by pressing ESC before |
| 112 the other key, but in reality this is just two separate keys, | |
| 113 not a modifier plus a key: If you want to do M-f M-f, normally | |
| 114 you can hold down (e.g.) Alt, hit f twice, and release the Alt, | |
| 115 but when using ESC as META, you'd have to type ESC f ESC f. | |
| 116 TTY A text-only connection to a computer, such as when you | |
| 117 telnet into a machine. See the previous section for more | |
| 118 explanation. | |
| 119 binding The command that's bound to a particular key sequence; you | |
| 120 can find out what the binding is and how the command works | |
| 121 using C-h k; it's also possible to change the bindings of | |
| 122 key sequences, but this isn't discussed in the tutorial | |
| 123 buffer A block of memory holding some text, such as the text of a | |
| 124 file, email message, list of files in a directory, etc. All | |
| 125 visible windows are always displaying the text of some buffer, | |
| 126 and more than one window can be displaying the same buffer. | |
| 127 In this case, each buffer has a different value for point | |
| 128 (see definition). | |
| 129 cursor A block or bar showing where in the text the current insertion | |
| 130 point is. | |
| 131 cursor key Any of the keys used for moving the cursor, such as the arrow | |
| 2679 | 132 keys, <Next> and <Prior> (often labeled PgUp and PgDn), |
| 771 | 133 <Home> and <End>, etc. Usually set off to the right of the |
| 134 main part of the keyboard, often painted gray. | |
| 135 echo area A one-line area at the bottom of the frame where messages are | |
| 136 output. It shares the same space as the minibuffer, which | |
| 137 works because the minibuffer is not active most of the time | |
| 138 and is active only for short intervals. (Even then, if a | |
| 139 message needs to be displayed, the minibuffer will temporarily | |
| 140 disappear, the message will be displayed, and then the | |
| 141 minibuffer will appear again in a few seconds.) | |
| 142 frame Same as what's standardly called a "window" in a window system. | |
| 143 TTY's only have one visible frame, but it's possible to create | |
| 144 others and switch between them (sort of like if, in a window | |
| 145 system, all your windows were maximized to take up the whole | |
| 146 screen, so you could only see one at once). | |
| 147 isearch Incremental search. An Emacs invention that is a special, | |
| 148 extra-efficient way of searching. Each time you type a | |
| 149 character in a search string, XEmacs immediately finds the | |
| 150 next match for what you've typed so far. This way, you avoid | |
| 151 typing more keys than necessary to find what you're looking | |
| 152 for. | |
| 153 key sequence A sequence of one or more keystrokes that together make a | |
| 154 command. C-x C-f, C-x 5 0, C-l, and <Next> are all key | |
| 155 sequences. See also "binding". | |
| 156 keystroke A combination of a key and a modifier (e.g. CONTROL, SHIFT, | |
| 157 META). | |
| 158 kill Standardly known as "cut". Remove text and remember it, so | |
| 159 that it can be "yanked" (standardly, "pasted") later. Multiple | |
| 160 "kills" are remembered, not only the most recent, and can be | |
| 161 accessed using M-y. "kill" is also sometimes used in general | |
| 162 to refer to deleting anything other than text, e.g. buffers, | |
| 2679 | 163 toolbar items, local variables, subprocesses, abbreviations, |
| 771 | 164 or to terminating the XEmacs process. |
| 165 minibuffer A small buffer (usually one line, but it may expand as | |
| 166 necessary) at the bottom of the frame, used when commands need | |
| 167 input such as file names. | |
| 168 modeline A status line, near the bottom of a window, showing the | |
| 169 current file being edited, the current mode, the line number, | |
| 170 etc. (If you split a frame into two windows, you get two | |
| 171 modelines.) | |
| 172 point The location in the text where the cursor is. (Technically, | |
| 173 the cursor is *BETWEEN* two text characters, not on one. | |
| 174 This is most obvious when you use the bar cursor.) | |
| 175 prefix argument An extra piece of information typed just before a command to | |
| 176 be executed, which changes how the command works. Prefix | |
| 177 arguments typically come in two types: Numeric arguments, | |
| 178 which specify repeat counts, screen lines to move to, etc. | |
| 179 are are specified using META plus a number before a command; | |
| 180 and flag arguments, which are just simple yes/no-type | |
| 181 indications to do something differently (e.g. put point at | |
| 182 the beginning of inserted text rather than at the end) and | |
| 183 are specified using C-u before the command. | |
| 184 recursive edit Used when you are in the middle of executing a long command | |
| 185 (e.g. a search and replace), and want to temporarily make | |
| 186 an edit to some text. Indicated with brackets around the | |
| 187 mode name. It's unlikely you'll use this much, if at all, | |
| 188 but it's useful to know how to get out if you accidentally | |
| 189 get into this mode: use ESC ESC. | |
| 190 screen The totality of everything that can be seen on the display. | |
| 191 Also used in some expressions: "on/off the screen" means | |
| 192 currently visible or invisible. A "screenful" is the amount | |
| 193 of text in a particular window that can be viewed at one time. | |
| 194 window Non-overlapping division of a frame, standardly called a | |
| 195 "pane". Most often, there is only one window in a frame, and | |
| 196 then the two terms become essentially synonymous. (Technically, | |
| 197 however, the window includes the modeline below it but not | |
| 198 the minibuffer.) | |
| 199 yank Standardly known as "paste". Insert text that was previously | |
| 200 removed and remembered, a process known as "killing", or more | |
| 201 standardly "cutting". | |
| 202 | |
| 203 | |
| 428 | 204 * BASIC CURSOR CONTROL |
| 205 ---------------------- | |
| 206 | |
| 771 | 207 The first thing that you need to know is how to move around from place |
| 208 to place in the text. You already know how to move forward and backward | |
| 209 one screen, but how do you move to a specific place within the text on | |
| 210 the screen? | |
| 428 | 211 |
| 212 There are several ways you can do this. The most basic way is to use | |
| 771 | 213 the arrow keys, which we refer to as <Left>, <Right>, <Up>, and <Down>. |
| 214 Each of these commands moves the cursor one row or column in a | |
| 215 particular direction on the screen. | |
| 216 | |
| 217 On a TTY, the arrow keys should, hopefully, work the same, but they | |
| 218 might not, since TTY's are easy to misconfigure. As mentioned above, | |
| 219 for all cursor-key bindings, there are equivalent alphanumeric ones. In | |
| 220 this case, the bindings are unfortunately not at all obvious, since they | |
| 221 were chosen mnemonically and not visually. Here is a table showing the | |
| 222 TTY bindings: | |
| 428 | 223 |
| 224 Previous line, C-p | |
| 225 : | |
| 226 : | |
| 227 Backward, C-b .... Current cursor position .... Forward, C-f | |
| 228 : | |
| 229 : | |
| 230 Next line, C-n | |
| 231 | |
| 771 | 232 >> Move the cursor to the line in the middle of that diagram using <Down> |
| 233 or <Up>. Then type C-l to see the whole diagram centered in the window. | |
| 234 (Remember, TTY users should substitute the appropriate bindings whenever | |
| 235 necessary. In this case, use C-n and C-p.) | |
| 428 | 236 |
| 771 | 237 Note the mnemonic significance of the TTY bindings: P for previous, N |
| 238 for next, B for backward and F for forward. If you're on a TTY, you | |
| 239 really should spend some time now etching these cursor bindings into | |
| 240 your brain. These cursor positioning commands are the most fundamental | |
| 241 way to move around and you'll be using them ALL the time, so you will be | |
| 242 completely lost without them. | |
| 243 | |
| 244 Even if you are on a window system and are not forced to learn these | |
| 245 bindings, you should try to memorize at least these four commands and in | |
| 246 particular their associated words, since variations on them show up in | |
| 247 many different keyboard commands, and knowing what they stand for can be | |
| 248 of tremendous help. | |
| 428 | 249 |
| 771 | 250 |
| 251 >> Do a few <Down>'s to bring the cursor down to this line. | |
| 428 | 252 |
| 771 | 253 >> Move into the line with <Right>'s and then up with <Up>'s. |
| 254 See what <Up> does when the cursor is in the middle of the line. | |
| 428 | 255 |
| 771 | 256 The location of the cursor in the text is also called "point". You will |
| 257 often see such references to "point" in the documentation, so remember | |
| 258 this term. | |
| 428 | 259 |
| 771 | 260 Each line of text ends with a Newline character, which serves to separate |
| 261 it from the following line. The last line in your file ought to have a | |
| 262 Newline at the end. XEmacs does not normally require it to have one, but | |
| 263 you can change this -- see the menu entry "Options->Editing->Newline at End | |
| 264 of File...". (More on menu entries later.) | |
| 265 | |
| 266 >> Try to <Left> at the beginning of a line. It should move to | |
| 428 | 267 the end of the previous line. This is because it moves back |
| 268 across the Newline character. | |
| 269 | |
| 771 | 270 <Right> can move across a Newline just like <Left>. |
| 428 | 271 |
| 771 | 272 >> Do a few more <Left>'s, so you get a feel for where the cursor is. |
| 273 Then do <Right>'s to return to the end of the line. | |
| 274 Then do one more <Right> to move to the following line. | |
| 428 | 275 |
| 771 | 276 When you move past the top or bottom of the window, the text beyond |
| 428 | 277 the edge shifts onto the screen. This is called "scrolling". It |
| 771 | 278 enables XEmacs to move the cursor to the specified place in the text |
| 428 | 279 without moving it off the screen. |
| 280 | |
| 771 | 281 >> Try to move the cursor off the bottom of the window with <Down>, and |
| 428 | 282 see what happens. |
| 283 | |
| 771 | 284 If moving by characters is too slow, you can move by words. C-<Right> |
| 285 (CONTROL + right-arrow key) moves forward a word and C-<Left> moves back a | |
| 2679 | 286 word. On TTY's, use M-f instead of C-<Right> and M-b instead of C-<Left>. |
| 428 | 287 |
| 771 | 288 >> Type a few C-<Right>'s and C-<Left>'s. |
| 428 | 289 |
| 771 | 290 When you are in the middle of a word, C-<Right> moves to the end of the |
| 291 word. When you are in whitespace between words, C-<Right> moves to the | |
| 292 end of the following word. C-<Left> works likewise in the opposite | |
| 293 direction. | |
| 428 | 294 |
| 771 | 295 >> Type C-<Right> and C-<Left> a few times, interspersed with <Right>'s and |
| 296 <Left>'s so that you can observe the action of C-<Right> and C-<Left> | |
| 297 from various places inside and between words. | |
| 428 | 298 |
| 771 | 299 Notice the parallel between <Right> and <Left> on the one hand, and |
| 300 C-<Right> and C-<Left> on the other hand. Also notice the parallel | |
| 301 between C-f and C-p on the one hand, and M-f and M-p on the other hand. | |
| 302 XEmacs tries fairly hard to maintain parallelism in keyboard commands to | |
| 303 make them easier to remember, and generally adding CONTROL or META to an | |
| 304 operation makes it "more so". META goes beyond CONTROL, often making | |
| 305 the units of movement less basic in the process -- words vs. characters, | |
| 306 balanced parenthetical expressions vs. words, or sentences vs. lines. | |
| 428 | 307 |
| 771 | 308 Other important cursor motion commands are <Home> and <End> (beginning |
| 309 and end of the line), and C-<Home> and C-<End> (beginning and end of the | |
| 310 whole text). Note again the parallelism just mentioned. | |
| 428 | 311 |
| 771 | 312 On TTY's, use C-a and C-e for beginning and end of line, and M-< and M-> |
| 313 for beginning and end of text. (If it helps, think of A as the first | |
| 314 letter of the alphabet, and E as standing for "end".) Note that the < | |
| 315 and > chars (Less-than and Greater-than) are above the comma and period | |
| 316 on most keyboards, so you'll have to use the SHIFT key in conjunction | |
| 317 with META. If you have no META, the order is very important: Type ESC | |
| 318 first, then type < or >. | |
| 428 | 319 |
| 771 | 320 >> Move the cursor to this line, then try <Home> and <End> a few times. |
| 428 | 321 |
| 771 | 322 >> (Read this entire entry before doing anything!) Try C-<Home> now, to |
| 323 move to the beginning of the tutorial. Then use <Next> repeatedly to | |
| 324 move back here. | |
| 428 | 325 |
| 326 >> Try all of these commands now a few times for practice. | |
| 327 These are the most often used commands. | |
| 328 | |
| 771 | 329 Here is a summary of simple cursor-moving operations. Don't worry if you |
| 330 can't remember everything; you can always move back to this table for | |
| 331 reference. | |
| 332 | |
| 333 KEYSTROKE: SEQUENCE TTY: | |
| 334 | |
| 335 <Prior> (PgUp) Move backward a screen M-v | |
| 336 <Next> (PgDn) Move forward a screen C-v | |
| 428 | 337 |
| 771 | 338 <Left> Move backward a character C-b |
| 339 <Right> Move forward a character C-f | |
| 340 | |
| 341 C-<Left> Move backward a word M-b | |
| 342 C-<Right> Move forward a word M-f | |
| 428 | 343 |
| 771 | 344 <Up> Move to previous line C-p |
| 345 <Down> Move to next line C-n | |
| 428 | 346 |
| 771 | 347 C-<Up> Move 6 lines up |
| 348 C-<Down> Move 6 lines down | |
| 428 | 349 |
| 771 | 350 <Home> Move to beginning of line C-a |
| 351 <End> Move to end of line C-e | |
| 352 | |
| 353 C-<Home> Move to beginning of text M-< | |
| 354 C-<End> Move to end of text M-> | |
| 355 | |
| 356 | |
| 357 * PREFIX ARGUMENTS | |
| 358 ------------------ | |
| 428 | 359 |
| 771 | 360 Most XEmacs commands accept a numeric argument; for most commands, this |
| 361 serves as a repeat-count. The way you give a command a repeat count is | |
| 362 by holding down the META key while typing the digits. You really only | |
| 363 need to hold down META for the first digit; for this reason, an | |
| 364 alternative method is to simply hit the ESC key once, then type the | |
| 365 digits. (This latter method works on TTY's as well.) The numeric | |
| 366 argument is also called a "prefix argument", because you type the | |
| 367 argument before the command it applies to. | |
| 428 | 368 |
| 771 | 369 For instance, M-8 <Right> moves forward eight characters. |
| 428 | 370 |
| 771 | 371 >> Try using <Down> or <Up> with a numeric argument, to move the cursor |
| 428 | 372 to a line near this one with just one command. |
| 373 | |
| 771 | 374 Sometimes, commands use the term "prefix argument" to refer not to a |
| 375 numeric argument, but to just a flag that makes the command do something | |
| 376 different if given. (We haven't encountered any such commands so far.) | |
| 377 For such commands, the flag is normally given by typing C-u before the | |
| 378 command, but generally you can also specify any numeric argument -- the | |
| 379 actual number makes no difference. | |
| 428 | 380 |
| 771 | 381 |
| 382 * SCROLLBARS | |
| 383 ------------ | |
| 428 | 384 |
| 771 | 385 Unless you are on a TTY, there is probably a rectangular area called a |
| 386 scroll bar at the right hand side of the XEmacs window. You can scroll the | |
| 387 text by manipulating the scrollbar with the mouse. | |
| 428 | 388 |
| 771 | 389 The scrollbar has a button in the middle of it, called a thumb. The |
| 390 relative position of this thumb within the rectangle indicates where you | |
| 391 are within the file. As you scroll up or down with the cursor keys, the | |
| 392 thumb will follow. | |
| 428 | 393 |
| 771 | 394 >> Try holding down the left button on the thumb and moving the mouse up |
| 395 and down. You'll see that the text scrolls up and down as you move the | |
| 396 mouse. (NOTE: Some scrollbars, such as the Athena scrollbars under X | |
| 397 Windows, work differently. On these, you will have to use the middle | |
| 398 button, not the left one.) | |
| 428 | 399 |
| 771 | 400 >> Try clicking the left button in the area above the thumb. This should |
| 401 scroll the text up by a screenful. Similarly, clicking the button below | |
| 402 the thumb will scroll down by a screenful. (NOTE: Under Athena, things | |
| 403 work differently.) Holding the button down will cause the text to | |
| 404 repeatedly scroll by a screenful. | |
| 405 | |
| 406 >> Most scrollbars have arrows at the top and bottom of the rectangle. | |
| 407 Clicking on these will scroll the text up or down by a line, and holding | |
| 408 the button down will cause the text to repeatedly scroll by a line. | |
| 428 | 409 |
| 410 | |
| 771 | 411 * USING THE MENU |
| 412 ---------------- | |
| 413 | |
| 414 Unless you are on a TTY, you will notice a menubar at the top of the | |
| 415 XEmacs frame. You can use this menubar to access all the most common | |
| 416 XEmacs commands, such as "open a file". You will find this easier at | |
| 417 first, because you don't need to remember the keystrokes necessary to | |
| 418 access any particular command. Once you are comfortable with XEmacs, it | |
| 419 will be easy to begin using the keyboard commands because each menu item | |
| 420 with a corresponding keyboard command has the command listed next to it. | |
| 421 | |
| 422 Note that there are many items in the menubar that have no exact | |
| 423 keyboard equivalents. For example, the Buffers menu lists all of the | |
| 424 available buffers in most-recently used order. You can switch to any | |
| 425 buffer by simply findings its name in the Buffers menu and selecting it. | |
| 426 | |
| 427 You can also configure XEmacs so that you can use the META key to access | |
| 428 menu items -- the "accelerator" functionality that is standard under MS | |
| 429 Windows. One easy way to do this in XEmacs is using the menu item | |
| 430 "Options->Menubars->Alt/Meta Selects Menu Items". | |
| 428 | 431 |
| 771 | 432 When this feature is on, you can select a menu or menu item using the |
| 433 combination of META (i.e. Alt) plus the underlined letter of the menu item. | |
| 434 For example, to exit XEmacs, use M-f M-x. We currently don't turn this on | |
| 435 by default because it interferes with the traditional usage of META in | |
| 436 XEmacs. However, we may do this in the future: Only commands for which | |
| 437 there are top-level menus are shadowed by accelerator bindings, and for all | |
| 438 those commands, there are equivalents either using cursor keys or on the | |
| 439 menus. | |
| 428 | 440 |
| 771 | 441 When we mention a menu selection, it will be specified as just shown -- |
| 442 i.e. a string, with an arrow ("->") separating different submenus or items. | |
| 443 In this case, the menu entry just mentioned means "Click the Options menu | |
| 444 on the menubar, then the Menubars submenu, the the entry off of that | |
| 445 labeled "Alt/Meta Selects Menu Items". In general, XEmacs is highly | |
| 446 customizable, and one of the easiest ways to make such customizations is | |
| 447 through the Options menu. | |
| 448 | |
| 449 IMPORTANT: If you want a change on the Options menu to last beyond the | |
| 450 current XEmacs session, use "Options->Save Options to Init File". This | |
| 451 way, it will be permanent. Otherwise, all Options changes made in the | |
| 452 current session will be lost. | |
| 428 | 453 |
| 454 | |
| 771 | 455 * WHEN XEMACS IS HUNG OR IN SOME STRANGE MODE |
| 456 --------------------------------------------- | |
| 428 | 457 |
| 771 | 458 If XEmacs stops responding to your commands, you can stop it safely by |
| 428 | 459 typing C-g. You can use C-g to stop a command which is taking too |
| 460 long to execute. | |
| 461 | |
| 462 You can also use C-g to discard a numeric argument or the beginning of | |
| 463 a command that you do not want to finish. | |
| 464 | |
| 771 | 465 >> Type M-100 to make a numeric arg of 100 (remember, this means hold |
| 466 down META and type 100, or type ESC 1 0 0), then type C-g. Now type | |
| 467 <Right>. It should move just one character, because you canceled the | |
| 468 argument with C-g. | |
| 428 | 469 |
| 771 | 470 If XEmacs is in some strange mode and C-g isn't getting out of it, you |
| 471 can use the all-purpose escape mechanism: ESC ESC. (On TTY's, you have | |
| 472 to use ESC ESC ESC. The reasons for this are a bit complicated.) | |
| 473 | |
| 474 Hitting ESC ESC will get you out of almost any weird mode, including | |
| 475 selected text, split windows, the minibuffer, recursive edits, "stranded | |
| 476 minibuffer requests", and the like. If you have many problems at once, | |
| 2679 | 477 each invocation of ESC ESC will get rid of one, so keep repeating until |
| 771 | 478 everything's fixed. REMEMBER: ESC ESC does not work if XEmacs is hung |
| 479 doing some time-consuming operation or running broken code. Use C-g for | |
| 480 that. | |
| 428 | 481 |
| 482 | |
| 483 * DISABLED COMMANDS | |
| 484 ------------------- | |
| 485 | |
| 771 | 486 Some XEmacs commands are "disabled" so that beginning users cannot use |
| 428 | 487 them by accident. |
| 488 | |
| 771 | 489 If you type one of the disabled commands, XEmacs displays a message |
| 428 | 490 saying what the command was, and asking you whether you want to go |
| 491 ahead and execute the command. | |
| 492 | |
| 771 | 493 If you really want to try the command, type <Space> in answer to the |
| 428 | 494 question. Normally, if you do not want to execute the disabled |
| 495 command, answer the question with "n". | |
| 496 | |
| 497 >> Type `C-x n p' (which is a disabled command), | |
| 498 then type n to answer the question. | |
| 499 | |
| 500 | |
| 771 | 501 * "WINDOWS", I.E. PANES |
| 502 ----------------------- | |
| 428 | 503 |
| 771 | 504 XEmacs can have several panes (i.e. non-overlapping divisions of a window |
| 505 or a TTY screen), each displaying its own text. For historical reasons, | |
| 506 these panes are called "windows", and what we normally think of as a | |
| 507 window is called a "frame". XEmacs can also have multiple "frames"; this | |
| 508 is described later. From now on, we omit the quotes around the XEmacs | |
| 509 terms, and if we need to use "window" in the standard sense, we will say | |
| 510 "window-system window". | |
| 428 | 511 |
| 771 | 512 At this stage it is better not to go too deeply into the techniques of |
| 513 using multiple windows. But you do need to know how to get rid of extra | |
| 514 windows that may appear to display help or output from certain commands. | |
| 515 Most of the time, your cursor will be in the new window; if this is the | |
| 516 case, simply type q. Alternatively, you can type | |
| 428 | 517 |
| 771 | 518 C-x 0 Delete window. |
| 428 | 519 |
| 771 | 520 That is, CONTROL-x followed by the digit 0. This command is unlike the |
| 521 other commands you have learned in that it consists of two characters. It | |
| 522 starts with the character CONTROL-x. There is a whole series of commands | |
| 523 that start with CONTROL-x; many of them have to do with windows, files, | |
| 524 buffers, and related things. These commands are two, three or four | |
| 525 characters long. | |
| 428 | 526 |
| 771 | 527 >> Move the cursor to this line and type M-0 C-l. |
| 528 (That's a zero, not an Oh.) | |
| 529 >> Type CONTROL-h k CONTROL-f. | |
| 530 See how this window shrinks, while a new one appears | |
| 531 to display documentation on the CONTROL-f command. | |
| 532 | |
| 533 >> Type q and see the documentation listing window disappear. | |
| 428 | 534 |
| 771 | 535 (Remember that C-l redraws the frame. If you give a numeric argument to |
| 536 this command, it means "redraw the frame and put the current line that | |
| 537 many lines from the top of the window." So M-0 C-l means "redraw the | |
| 538 frame, putting the current line at the top.") | |
| 428 | 539 |
| 540 | |
| 541 * INSERTING AND DELETING | |
| 542 ------------------------ | |
| 543 | |
| 771 | 544 If you want to insert text, just type the text. Characters which you can |
| 545 see, such as A, 7, *, etc. are taken by XEmacs as text and inserted | |
| 546 immediately. Type <Return> (the carriage-return key) to insert a Newline | |
| 547 character. | |
| 428 | 548 |
| 771 | 549 You can delete the last character you typed by typing <Backspace>. |
| 550 <Backspace> is a key on the keyboard, which may be labeled simply with a | |
| 551 left arrow sign. | |
| 428 | 552 |
| 771 | 553 (NOTE: On a few misconfigured TTY's, typing <Backspace> may try to invoke |
| 554 the help system; the symptom of this is a line like "C-h (Type ? for | |
| 555 further options)" at the bottom of the frame. If this is the case, type | |
| 556 C-g to get out of this, and try using <Delete> from now on in place of | |
| 557 <Backspace>.) | |
| 558 | |
| 559 More generally, <Backspace> deletes the character immediately before the | |
| 428 | 560 current cursor position. |
| 561 | |
| 562 >> Do this now--type a few characters, then delete them | |
| 771 | 563 by typing <Backspace> a few times. Don't worry about this file |
| 428 | 564 being changed; you will not alter the master tutorial. This is |
| 565 your personal copy of it. | |
| 566 | |
| 771 | 567 When a line of text gets too big for one line on the window, the line of |
| 568 text is "continued" onto a second window line. An arrow at the right | |
| 569 margin that hooks down and to the left (or a backslash ("\") on TTY's) | |
| 570 indicates a line which has been continued. | |
| 428 | 571 |
| 572 >> Insert text until you reach the right margin, and keep on inserting. | |
| 573 You'll see a continuation line appear. | |
| 574 | |
| 771 | 575 >> Use <Backspace>s to delete the text until the line fits on one window |
| 428 | 576 line again. The continuation line goes away. |
| 577 | |
| 578 You can delete a Newline character just like any other character. | |
| 579 Deleting the Newline character between two lines merges them into | |
| 580 one line. If the resulting combined line is too long to fit in the | |
| 771 | 581 window width, it will be displayed with a continuation line. |
| 428 | 582 |
| 771 | 583 >> Move the cursor to the beginning of a line and type <Backspace>. This |
| 428 | 584 merges that line with the previous line. |
| 585 | |
| 586 >> Type <Return> to reinsert the Newline you deleted. | |
| 587 | |
| 771 | 588 Remember that most XEmacs commands can be given a repeat count; |
| 428 | 589 this includes text characters. Repeating a text character inserts |
| 590 it several times. | |
| 591 | |
| 771 | 592 >> Try that now -- type M-8 * to insert ********. |
| 428 | 593 |
| 594 You've now learned the most basic way of typing something in | |
| 771 | 595 XEmacs and correcting errors. You can delete by words or lines |
| 428 | 596 as well. Here is a summary of the delete operations: |
| 597 | |
| 771 | 598 <Backspace> delete the character just before the cursor |
| 599 <Delete> delete the next character after the cursor | |
| 600 C-d same as <Delete> but works on TTY's | |
| 601 | |
| 602 M-<Backspace> cut ("kill") the word immediately before the cursor | |
| 603 M-<Delete> cut ("kill") the next word after the cursor | |
| 604 M-d same as M-<Delete> but works on TTY's | |
| 605 | |
| 606 C-k cut ("kill") from the cursor position to end of line | |
| 607 M-k cut ("kill") to the end of the current sentence | |
| 608 | |
| 609 Notice again the parallelism with no modifier vs. CONTROL vs. META that | |
| 610 was mentioned earlier -- although the parallels are not perfect. | |
| 428 | 611 |
| 771 | 612 (In the violent old days when Emacs first began, removing text that |
| 613 could later be re-inserted was called "killing", and re-inserting was | |
| 614 called "yanking" -- evidently the designers of Emacs must have been | |
| 615 thinking of role-playing games, where killed characters could be easily | |
| 616 resurrected with the wave [yank?] of a magic wand. In the more genteel | |
| 617 [and realistic] times we live in, the preferred terms are "cut" and | |
| 618 "paste".) | |
| 428 | 619 |
| 771 | 620 You can also kill any part of the buffer with one uniform method. Under |
| 621 window systems, the preferred method is to move to one end of that part, | |
| 622 hold the SHIFT key down, and use the cursor keys to move to the other | |
| 623 end. Then release the SHIFT key and type C-w. That kills all the text | |
| 624 between the two positions. | |
| 625 | |
| 626 An alternative method, which also works on TTY's, is to move to one end of | |
| 627 the text, and type C-@ or C-<Space> (either one). | |
| 628 Move to the other end and type C-w. | |
| 428 | 629 |
| 771 | 630 >> Move the cursor to the A at the start of the previous paragraph. |
| 631 >> Hold the SHIFT key down. | |
| 632 >> Move the cursor to the n in "end", on the third line of the | |
| 633 paragraph. | |
| 634 >> Release the SHIFT key and type C-w. This will kill the text starting | |
| 635 from the A, and ending just before the n. | |
| 636 | |
| 637 Now try it the other way. | |
| 428 | 638 |
| 771 | 639 >> Type C-/ to undo the killing, or C-_ or C-x u on TTY's. |
| 640 >> Move the cursor to the same A again. | |
| 641 >> Type C-<Space>. XEmacs should display a message "Mark set" | |
| 642 at the bottom of the frame. | |
| 643 >> Move the cursor to the n in "end", on the third line of the | |
| 644 paragraph. | |
| 645 >> Type C-w. You will get the same result as previously. | |
| 428 | 646 |
| 771 | 647 The difference between "killing" and "deleting" is that "killed" text |
| 648 can be reinserted, whereas "deleted" things cannot be reinserted. | |
| 649 Reinsertion of killed text is called "yanking". Generally, the | |
| 650 commands that can remove a lot of text kill the text (they set up so | |
| 651 that you can yank the text), while the commands that remove just one | |
| 652 character, or just blank lines and spaces, do deletion (so you cannot | |
| 653 yank that text). | |
| 654 | |
| 655 Normally, on a window system "killing" text stores it internally but | |
| 656 also puts it on the clipboard, just like Cut in a word processor, and | |
| 657 "yanking" takes text from the clipboard if available, just like Paste. | |
| 658 (This connection to the clipboard can be turned off from the Options | |
| 659 menu.) There are also menu items, "Edit->Cut" and "Edit->Paste", that | |
| 660 always connect with the clipboard, and equivalent Cut and Paste keys on | |
| 661 Sun keyboards. | |
| 428 | 662 |
| 663 >> Move the cursor to the beginning of a line which is not empty. | |
| 664 Then type C-k to kill the text on that line. | |
| 665 >> Type C-k a second time. You'll see that it kills the Newline | |
| 666 which follows that line. | |
| 667 | |
| 668 Note that a single C-k kills the contents of the line, and a second | |
| 771 | 669 C-k kills the line itself, and makes all the other lines move up. C-k |
| 428 | 670 treats a numeric argument specially: it kills that many lines AND |
| 771 | 671 their contents. This is not mere repetition. M-2 C-k kills two |
| 428 | 672 lines and their newlines; typing C-k twice would not do that. |
| 673 | |
| 771 | 674 Bringing back killed text is called "yanking". (Think of it as |
| 675 yanking back, or pulling back, some text that was taken away.) You | |
| 676 can yank the killed text either at the same place where it was killed, | |
| 677 or at some other place in the buffer, or even in a different file. | |
| 678 You can yank the text several times, which makes multiple copies of | |
| 679 it. | |
| 680 | |
| 681 The command for yanking is C-y. It reinserts the last killed text, | |
| 682 after the current cursor position. | |
| 428 | 683 |
| 684 >> Try it; type C-y to yank the text back. | |
| 685 | |
| 771 | 686 If you do several C-k's in a row, all of the killed text is saved |
| 687 together, so that one C-y will yank all of the lines at once. | |
| 428 | 688 |
| 689 >> Do this now, type C-k several times. | |
| 690 | |
| 691 Now to retrieve that killed text: | |
| 692 | |
| 693 >> Type C-y. Then move the cursor down a few lines and type C-y | |
| 694 again. You now see how to copy some text. | |
| 695 | |
| 696 What do you do if you have some text you want to yank back, and then | |
| 697 you kill something else? C-y would yank the more recent kill. But | |
| 698 the previous text is not lost. You can get back to it using the M-y | |
| 699 command. After you have done C-y to get the most recent kill, typing | |
| 700 M-y replaces that yanked text with the previous kill. Typing M-y | |
| 701 again and again brings in earlier and earlier kills. When you have | |
| 702 reached the text you are looking for, you do not have to do anything to | |
| 703 keep it. Just go on with your editing, leaving the yanked text where | |
| 704 it is. | |
| 705 | |
| 706 If you M-y enough times, you come back to the starting point (the most | |
| 707 recent kill). | |
| 708 | |
| 709 >> Kill a line, move around, kill another line. | |
| 710 Then do C-y to get back the second killed line. | |
| 711 Then do M-y and it will be replaced by the first killed line. | |
| 712 Do more M-y's and see what you get. Keep doing them until | |
| 713 the second kill line comes back, and then a few more. | |
| 714 If you like, you can try giving M-y positive and negative | |
| 715 arguments. | |
| 716 | |
| 717 | |
| 718 * UNDO | |
| 719 ------ | |
| 720 | |
| 771 | 721 If you make a change to the text, and then decide that it was a mistake, |
| 722 you can undo the change with the undo command, C-/. (On TTY's, use C-_, | |
| 723 i.e. CONTROL + underscore, which is normally above the minus sign; | |
| 724 i.e. you will have to hold the SHIFT key down, as in CONTROL + SHIFT + | |
| 725 minus. If that doesn't work, you can fall back to C-x u; but that has | |
| 726 the unfortunate property that it's difficult to execute several times in | |
| 727 a row.) | |
| 428 | 728 |
| 771 | 729 Normally, C-/ undoes the changes made by one command; if you repeat |
| 730 the C-/ several times in a row, each repetition undoes one | |
| 428 | 731 additional command. |
| 732 | |
| 733 But there are two exceptions: commands that do not change the text do | |
| 734 not count (this includes cursor motion commands and scrolling | |
| 735 command), and self-inserting characters are usually handled in groups | |
| 771 | 736 of up to 20. (This is to reduce the number of C-/'s you have to |
| 428 | 737 type to undo insertion of text.) |
| 738 | |
| 771 | 739 >> Kill this line with C-k, then type C-/ and it should reappear. |
| 740 | |
| 741 A numeric argument to C-/ acts as a repeat count. | |
| 742 | |
| 743 If you change your mind and want to redo changes that you've undone, | |
| 744 issue any command other than Undo (usually people move the cursor), and | |
| 745 then start undoing again. This will undo your Undo changes; keep | |
| 746 hitting Undo, and you will eventually undo all the Undo's, and start | |
| 747 undoing your original changes. Essentially, XEmacs treats each Undo as | |
| 748 a further change, and records them for undoing just like regular | |
| 749 commands; but as long as you keeping issuing Undo commands directly | |
| 750 after previous ones, XEmacs remembers where you are in the Undo history | |
| 751 so it can keep undoing. Once you issue another command, XEmacs | |
| 752 "forgets" and resets its internal pointer to the end of the Undo | |
| 753 history. This may seem confusing, so try it out: | |
| 754 | |
| 755 >> Type a line of text above this one. | |
| 756 >> Move to the end of the line you just typed, and hit <Backspace> | |
| 757 until you've deleted all characters. | |
| 758 >> Type C-/ a number of times to undo some of your deletions. | |
| 759 >> Move the cursor left. | |
| 760 >> Start typing C-/ again, and it will redo your deletions until there's | |
| 761 no text left, then it will start undoing the original deletions. | |
| 762 When all the text appears again, further C-/'s will undo the text you | |
| 763 originally typed, in groups of up to 20 (see above). | |
| 764 | |
| 765 As you just saw, you can undo deletion of text just as you can undo | |
| 766 killing of text. The distinction between killing something and deleting | |
| 767 it affects whether you can yank it with C-y; it makes no difference for | |
| 768 undo. | |
| 428 | 769 |
| 771 | 770 |
| 771 * USING THE MOUSE | |
| 772 ----------------- | |
| 773 | |
| 774 On window systems, XEmacs is fully integrated with the mouse. You can | |
| 775 position the text cursor by clicking the left button at the desired | |
| 776 location, and you can select text by dragging the left mouse button | |
| 777 across the text you want to select. (Or alternatively, click the left | |
| 778 mouse button at one end of the text, then move to the other end and use | |
| 779 Shift-click to select the text.) | |
| 428 | 780 |
| 771 | 781 The middle mouse button is commonly used to choose items that are |
| 782 visible on the screen. For example, if you enter Info (the on-line | |
| 783 XEmacs documentation) using C-h i or the Help menu, you can follow a | |
| 784 highlighted link by clicking the middle mouse button on it. Similarly, | |
| 785 if you are typing a file name in (e.g. when prompted by "Find File") and | |
| 786 you hit <Tab> to show the possible completions, you can click the middle | |
| 787 mouse button on one of the completions to select it. If you have a | |
| 788 two-button mouse, such as some MS Windows systems, you can click both | |
| 789 buttons simultaneously to simulate the middle button. | |
| 790 | |
| 791 The right mouse button brings up a popup menu, called a "context menu" | |
| 792 because the contents vary depending on what context you're in, such as | |
| 793 the mode of the window you click in or the text under the mouse. The | |
| 794 menu usually contains the commands most relevant to where you clicked, | |
| 795 so they're easier to access. | |
| 796 | |
| 797 >> Press the right mouse button now. | |
| 798 | |
| 799 Under X Windows, you may have to hold the button down in order to keep | |
| 800 the menu up. | |
| 428 | 801 |
| 802 | |
| 803 * FILES | |
| 804 ------- | |
| 805 | |
| 806 In order to make the text you edit permanent, you must put it in a | |
| 771 | 807 file. Otherwise, it will go away when your invocation of XEmacs goes |
| 808 away. In order to put your text in a file, you must "find" the file | |
| 809 before you enter the text. (This is also called "visiting" the file.) | |
| 428 | 810 |
| 811 Finding a file means that you see the contents of the file within | |
| 771 | 812 XEmacs. In many ways, it is as if you were editing the file itself. |
| 813 However, the changes you make using XEmacs do not become permanent | |
| 428 | 814 until you "save" the file. This is so you can avoid leaving a |
| 815 half-changed file on the system when you do not want to. Even when | |
| 771 | 816 you save, XEmacs leaves the original file under a changed name in case |
| 428 | 817 you later decide that your changes were a mistake. |
| 818 | |
| 771 | 819 If you look near the bottom of the frame you will see a line that begins |
| 820 and ends with dashes, and contains the string "XEmacs: TUTORIAL" or | |
| 821 something like that. This part of the frame normally shows the name of | |
| 822 the file that you are visiting. Right now, you are visiting a file called | |
| 823 "TUTORIAL" which is your personal scratch copy of the XEmacs tutorial. | |
| 824 When you find a file with XEmacs, that file's name will appear in that | |
| 825 precise spot. | |
| 428 | 826 |
| 771 | 827 One special thing about the command for finding a file is that you |
| 828 have to say what file name you want. We say the command "reads an | |
| 829 argument from the terminal" (in this case, the argument is the name of | |
| 830 the file). After you type the command | |
| 428 | 831 |
| 832 C-x C-f Find a file | |
| 833 | |
| 771 | 834 XEmacs asks you to type the file name. The file name you type appears |
| 835 on the bottom line of the frame. The bottom line is called the | |
| 428 | 836 minibuffer when it is used for this sort of input. You can use |
| 771 | 837 ordinary XEmacs editing commands to edit the file name. |
| 428 | 838 |
| 839 While you are entering the file name (or any minibuffer input), | |
| 840 you can cancel the command with C-g. | |
| 841 | |
| 842 >> Type C-x C-f, then type C-g. This cancels the minibuffer, | |
| 843 and also cancels the C-x C-f command that was using the | |
| 844 minibuffer. So you do not find any file. | |
| 845 | |
| 846 When you have finished entering the file name, type <Return> to | |
| 847 terminate it. Then C-x C-f command goes to work, and finds the file | |
| 848 you chose. The minibuffer disappears when the C-x C-f command is | |
| 849 finished. | |
| 850 | |
| 851 In a little while the file contents appear on the screen, and you can | |
| 852 edit the contents. When you wish to make your changes permanent, | |
| 853 type the command | |
| 854 | |
| 855 C-x C-s Save the file | |
| 856 | |
| 771 | 857 This copies the text within XEmacs into the file. The first time you |
| 858 do this, XEmacs renames the original file to a new name so that it is | |
| 428 | 859 not lost. The new name is made by adding "~" to the end of the |
| 860 original file's name. | |
| 861 | |
| 771 | 862 When saving is finished, XEmacs displays the name of the file written. |
| 428 | 863 You should save fairly often, so that you will not lose very much |
| 864 work if the system should crash. | |
| 865 | |
| 866 >> Type C-x C-s, saving your copy of the tutorial. | |
| 771 | 867 This should show "Wrote ...TUTORIAL" at the bottom of the frame. |
| 428 | 868 |
| 771 | 869 NOTE: On some older TTY connections, typing C-s will freeze the screen |
| 870 and you will see no further output from XEmacs. This indicates that an | |
| 871 operating system "feature" called "flow control" is intercepting the C-s | |
| 872 and not letting it get through to XEmacs. To unfreeze the screen, type | |
| 873 C-q. Then see the section "Spontaneous Entry to Incremental Search" in | |
| 874 the XEmacs manual for advice on dealing with this "feature". | |
| 428 | 875 |
| 876 You can find an existing file, to view it or edit it. You can also | |
| 877 find a file which does not already exist. This is the way to create a | |
| 771 | 878 file with XEmacs: find the file, which will start out empty, and then |
| 428 | 879 begin inserting the text for the file. When you ask to "save" the |
| 771 | 880 file, XEmacs will really create the file with the text that you have |
| 428 | 881 inserted. From then on, you can consider yourself to be editing an |
| 882 already existing file. | |
| 883 | |
| 884 | |
| 885 * BUFFERS | |
| 886 --------- | |
| 887 | |
| 888 If you find a second file with C-x C-f, the first file remains | |
| 771 | 889 inside XEmacs. You can switch back to it by finding it again with |
| 890 C-x C-f. This way you can get quite a number of files inside XEmacs. | |
| 428 | 891 |
| 892 >> Create a file named "foo" by typing C-x C-f foo <Return>. | |
| 893 Then insert some text, edit it, and save "foo" by typing C-x C-s. | |
| 894 Finally, type C-x C-f TUTORIAL <Return> | |
| 895 to come back to the tutorial. | |
| 896 | |
| 771 | 897 XEmacs stores each file's text inside an object called a "buffer". |
| 898 Finding a file makes a new buffer inside XEmacs. To see a list of the | |
| 899 buffers that currently exist in your XEmacs job, type | |
| 428 | 900 |
| 901 C-x C-b List buffers | |
| 902 | |
| 903 >> Try C-x C-b now. | |
| 904 | |
| 905 See how each buffer has a name, and it may also have a file name | |
| 906 for the file whose contents it holds. Some buffers do not correspond | |
| 907 to files. For example, the buffer named "*Buffer List*" does | |
| 908 not have any file. It is the buffer which contains the buffer | |
| 771 | 909 list that was made by C-x C-b. ANY text you see in an XEmacs window |
| 428 | 910 is always part of some buffer. |
| 911 | |
| 771 | 912 >> Type ESC ESC to get rid of the buffer list. (Remember, three ESC's |
| 913 under TTY's.) | |
| 428 | 914 |
| 915 If you make changes to the text of one file, then find another file, | |
| 771 | 916 this does not save the first file. Its changes remain inside XEmacs, |
| 428 | 917 in that file's buffer. The creation or editing of the second file's |
| 918 buffer has no effect on the first file's buffer. This is very useful, | |
| 919 but it also means that you need a convenient way to save the first | |
| 920 file's buffer. It would be a nuisance to have to switch back to | |
| 921 it with C-x C-f in order to save it with C-x C-s. So we have | |
| 922 | |
| 923 C-x s Save some buffers | |
| 924 | |
| 925 C-x s asks you about each buffer which contains changes that you have | |
| 926 not saved. It asks you, for each such buffer, whether to save the | |
| 927 buffer. | |
| 928 | |
| 929 >> Insert a line of text, then type C-x s. | |
| 930 It should ask you whether to save the buffer named TUTORIAL. | |
| 931 Answer yes to the question by typing "y". | |
| 932 | |
| 933 | |
| 934 * EXTENDING THE COMMAND SET | |
| 935 --------------------------- | |
| 936 | |
| 771 | 937 There are many, many more XEmacs commands than could possibly be put |
| 938 on all the control and meta characters. XEmacs gets around this with | |
| 428 | 939 the X (eXtend) command. This comes in two flavors: |
| 940 | |
| 941 C-x Character eXtend. Followed by one character. | |
| 942 M-x Named command eXtend. Followed by a long name. | |
| 943 | |
| 944 These are commands that are generally useful but used less than the | |
| 945 commands you have already learned about. You have already seen two of | |
| 946 them: the file commands C-x C-f to Find and C-x C-s to Save. Another | |
| 771 | 947 example is the command to end the XEmacs session--this is the command |
| 428 | 948 C-x C-c. (Do not worry about losing changes you have made; C-x C-c |
| 771 | 949 offers to save each changed file before it kills the XEmacs.) |
| 428 | 950 |
| 771 | 951 If you have installed the sample init.el file (we highly recommend this, |
| 952 once you've gotten some familiarity with XEmacs; see "Help->Samples->View | |
| 953 Sample init.el"), you will find that C-x C-c does not exit XEmacs, but | |
| 954 instead outputs a message. This is intentional, since C-x C-c is easy to | |
| 955 hit accidentally. Instead, use the "File->Exit XEmacs" menu item to exit. | |
| 428 | 956 |
| 771 | 957 If you are on a TTY, and you want to exit temporarily to execute a shell |
| 958 command, you should use C-z instead of C-x C-c. Under TTY's, C-z | |
| 959 "suspends" XEmacs; that is, it returns to the shell but does not destroy | |
| 960 the XEmacs. In the most common shells, you can resume XEmacs with the | |
| 961 `fg' command or with `%xemacs'. (On systems which do not implement | |
| 962 suspending, C-z creates a subshell running under XEmacs to give you the | |
| 963 chance to run other programs and return to XEmacs afterward; it does not | |
| 964 truly "exit" from XEmacs. In this case, the shell command `exit' is the | |
| 965 usual way to get back to XEmacs from the subshell.) | |
| 428 | 966 |
| 967 There are many C-x commands. Here is a list of the ones you have learned: | |
| 968 | |
| 969 C-x C-f Find file. | |
| 970 C-x C-s Save file. | |
| 971 C-x C-b List buffers. | |
| 771 | 972 C-x C-c Quit XEmacs. |
| 973 C-x 0 Delete the current window. | |
| 974 C-x u Undo (TTY version). | |
| 428 | 975 |
| 976 Named eXtended commands are commands which are used even less | |
| 977 frequently, or commands which are used only in certain modes. An | |
| 978 example is the command replace-string, which globally replaces one | |
| 771 | 979 string with another. When you type M-x, XEmacs prompts you at the |
| 980 bottom of the frame with M-x and you should type the name of the | |
| 981 command; in this case, "replace-string". Just type "repl s<Tab>" and | |
| 982 XEmacs will complete the name. (<Tab> is the Tab key, usually found | |
| 983 above the CapsLock or Shift key near the left edge of the keyboard.) | |
| 984 End the command name with <Return>. | |
| 428 | 985 |
| 986 The replace-string command requires two arguments--the string to be | |
| 987 replaced, and the string to replace it with. You must end each | |
| 988 argument with <Return>. | |
| 989 | |
| 990 >> Move the cursor to the blank line two lines below this one. | |
| 991 Then type M-x repl s<Return>changed<Return>altered<Return>. | |
| 992 | |
| 993 Notice how this line has changed: you've replaced | |
| 994 the word c-h-a-n-g-e-d with "altered" wherever it occurred, | |
| 995 after the initial position of the cursor. | |
| 996 | |
| 997 | |
| 998 * AUTO SAVE | |
| 999 ----------- | |
| 1000 | |
| 1001 When you have made changes in a file, but you have not saved them yet, | |
| 771 | 1002 they could be lost if your computer crashes. To protect you from this, |
| 1003 XEmacs periodically writes an "auto save" file for each file that you | |
| 1004 are editing. The auto save file name has a # at the beginning and the | |
| 1005 end; for example, if your file is named "hello.c", its auto save file's | |
| 1006 name is usually "#hello.c#". When you save the file in the normal way, | |
| 1007 XEmacs deletes its auto save file. | |
| 428 | 1008 |
| 1009 If the computer crashes, you can recover your auto-saved editing by | |
| 1010 finding the file normally (the file you were editing, not the auto | |
| 771 | 1011 save file) and then typing M-x recover file<Return>. When it asks for |
| 1012 confirmation, type yes<Return> to go ahead and recover the auto-save | |
| 428 | 1013 data. |
| 1014 | |
| 1015 | |
| 1016 * ECHO AREA | |
| 1017 ----------- | |
| 1018 | |
| 771 | 1019 If XEmacs sees that you are typing multicharacter commands slowly, it |
| 1020 shows them to you at the bottom of the frame in an area called the | |
| 1021 "echo area". The echo area contains the bottom line of the frame. | |
| 428 | 1022 |
| 1023 | |
| 1024 * MODELINE | |
| 771 | 1025 ---------- |
| 428 | 1026 |
| 1027 The line immediately above the echo area it is called the "modeline". | |
| 1028 The mode line says something like this: | |
| 1029 | |
| 1030 --**-XEmacs: TUTORIAL (Fundamental)--L670--58%---------------- | |
| 1031 | |
| 771 | 1032 This line gives useful information about the status of XEmacs and |
| 428 | 1033 the text you are editing. |
| 1034 | |
| 1035 You already know what the filename means--it is the file you have | |
| 1036 found. -NN%-- indicates your current position in the text; it means | |
| 771 | 1037 that NN percent of the text is above the top of the window. If the |
| 428 | 1038 top of the file is on the screen, it will say --Top-- instead of |
| 1039 --00%--. If the bottom of the text is on the screen, it will say | |
| 1040 --Bot--. If you are looking at text so small that all of it fits on | |
| 1041 the screen, the mode line says --All--. | |
| 1042 | |
| 771 | 1043 The L and digits indicate position in another way: they give the |
| 1044 current line number of point. | |
| 1045 | |
| 428 | 1046 The stars near the front mean that you have made changes to the text. |
| 1047 Right after you visit or save a file, that part of the mode line shows | |
| 1048 no stars, just dashes. | |
| 1049 | |
| 1050 The part of the mode line inside the parentheses is to tell you what | |
| 1051 editing modes you are in. The default mode is Fundamental which is | |
| 1052 what you are using now. It is an example of a "major mode". | |
| 1053 | |
| 771 | 1054 XEmacs has many different major modes. Some of them are meant for |
| 428 | 1055 editing different languages and/or kinds of text, such as Lisp mode, |
| 1056 Text mode, etc. At any time one and only one major mode is active, | |
| 1057 and its name can always be found in the mode line just where | |
| 1058 "Fundamental" is now. | |
| 1059 | |
| 1060 Each major mode makes a few commands behave differently. For example, | |
| 1061 there are commands for creating comments in a program, and since each | |
| 1062 programming language has a different idea of what a comment should | |
| 1063 look like, each major mode has to insert comments differently. Each | |
| 1064 major mode is the name of an extended command, which is how you can | |
| 1065 switch to that mode. For example, M-x fundamental-mode is a command to | |
| 1066 switch to Fundamental mode. | |
| 1067 | |
| 1068 If you are going to be editing English text, such as this file, you | |
| 1069 should probably use Text Mode. | |
| 1070 >> Type M-x text-mode<Return>. | |
| 1071 | |
| 771 | 1072 Don't worry, none of the XEmacs commands you have learned changes in |
| 1073 any great way. But you can observe that C-<Right> and C-<Left> now treat | |
| 428 | 1074 apostrophes as part of words. Previously, in Fundamental mode, |
| 771 | 1075 C-<Right> and C-<Left> treated apostrophes as word-separators. |
| 428 | 1076 |
| 1077 Major modes usually make subtle changes like that one: most commands | |
| 1078 do "the same job" in each major mode, but they work a little bit | |
| 1079 differently. | |
| 1080 | |
| 1081 To view documentation on your current major mode, type C-h m. | |
| 1082 | |
| 771 | 1083 >> Use M-4 C-l to bring this line near the top of the window. |
| 428 | 1084 >> Type C-h m, to see how Text mode differs from Fundamental mode. |
| 1085 >> Type q to remove the documentation from the screen. | |
| 1086 | |
| 1087 Major modes are called major because there are also minor modes. | |
| 771 | 1088 Minor modes are not alternatives to the major modes, just minor |
| 428 | 1089 modifications of them. Each minor mode can be turned on or off by |
| 1090 itself, independent of all other minor modes, and independent of your | |
| 1091 major mode. So you can use no minor modes, or one minor mode, or any | |
| 1092 combination of several minor modes. | |
| 1093 | |
| 1094 One minor mode which is very useful, especially for editing English | |
| 771 | 1095 text, is Auto Fill mode. When this mode is on, XEmacs breaks the line |
| 428 | 1096 in between words automatically whenever you insert text and make a |
| 1097 line that is too wide. | |
| 1098 | |
| 1099 You can turn Auto Fill mode on by doing M-x auto-fill-mode<Return>. | |
| 771 | 1100 When the mode is on, you can turn it off again by doing M-x |
| 428 | 1101 auto-fill-mode<Return>. If the mode is off, this command turns it on, |
| 1102 and if the mode is on, this command turns it off. We say that the | |
| 1103 command "toggles the mode". | |
| 1104 | |
| 1105 >> Type M-x auto-fill-mode<Return> now. Then insert a line of "asdf " | |
| 1106 over again until you see it divide into two lines. You must put in | |
| 1107 spaces between them because Auto Fill breaks lines only at spaces. | |
| 1108 | |
| 1109 The margin is usually set at 70 characters, but you can change it | |
| 1110 with the C-x f command. You should give the margin setting you want | |
| 1111 as a numeric argument. | |
| 1112 | |
| 771 | 1113 >> Type C-x f with an argument of 20. (M-20 C-x f). |
| 1114 Then type in some text and see XEmacs fill lines of 20 | |
| 428 | 1115 characters with it. Then set the margin back to 70 using |
| 1116 C-x f again. | |
| 1117 | |
| 771 | 1118 If you make changes in the middle of a paragraph, Auto Fill mode |
| 428 | 1119 does not re-fill it for you. |
| 771 | 1120 To re-fill the paragraph, type M-q (META-q) with the cursor inside |
| 428 | 1121 that paragraph. |
| 1122 | |
| 1123 >> Move the cursor into the previous paragraph and type M-q. | |
| 1124 | |
| 1125 | |
| 1126 * SEARCHING | |
| 1127 ----------- | |
| 1128 | |
| 771 | 1129 XEmacs can do searches for strings (these are groups of contiguous |
| 428 | 1130 characters or words) either forward through the text or backward |
| 1131 through it. Searching for a string is a cursor motion command; | |
| 1132 it moves the cursor to the next place where that string appears. | |
| 1133 | |
| 771 | 1134 The XEmacs search command is different from the search commands |
| 428 | 1135 of most editors, in that it is "incremental". This means that the |
| 1136 search happens while you type in the string to search for. | |
| 1137 | |
| 1138 The command to initiate a search is C-s for forward search, and C-r | |
| 1139 for reverse search. BUT WAIT! Don't try them now. | |
| 1140 | |
| 1141 When you type C-s you'll notice that the string "I-search" appears as | |
| 771 | 1142 a prompt in the echo area. This tells you that XEmacs is in what is |
| 428 | 1143 called an incremental search waiting for you to type the thing that |
| 1144 you want to search for. <Return> terminates a search. | |
| 1145 | |
| 1146 >> Now type C-s to start a search. SLOWLY, one letter at a time, | |
| 1147 type the word 'cursor', pausing after you type each | |
| 1148 character to notice what happens to the cursor. | |
| 1149 Now you have searched for "cursor", once. | |
| 1150 >> Type C-s again, to search for the next occurrence of "cursor". | |
| 771 | 1151 >> Now type <Backspace> four times and see how the cursor moves. |
| 1152 >> Type <Return> to terminate the search. | |
| 428 | 1153 |
| 771 | 1154 Did you see what happened? XEmacs, in an incremental search, tries to |
| 428 | 1155 go to the occurrence of the string that you've typed out so far, |
| 1156 highlighting it for your convenience. To go to the next occurrence of | |
| 771 | 1157 'cursor' just type C-s again. If no such occurrence exists XEmacs |
| 428 | 1158 beeps and tells you the search is currently "failing", C-g would also |
| 1159 terminate the search. | |
| 1160 | |
| 771 | 1161 NOTE: On some older TTY connections, typing C-s will freeze the screen |
| 1162 and you will see no further output from XEmacs. This indicates that an | |
| 1163 operating system "feature" called "flow control" is intercepting the C-s | |
| 1164 and not letting it get through to XEmacs. To unfreeze the screen, type | |
| 1165 C-q. Then see the section "Spontaneous Entry to Incremental Search" in | |
| 1166 the XEmacs manual for advice on dealing with this "feature". | |
| 428 | 1167 |
| 771 | 1168 If you are in the middle of an incremental search and type <Backspace>, |
| 428 | 1169 you'll notice that the last character in the search string is erased |
| 1170 and the search backs up to the last place of the search. For | |
| 1171 instance, suppose you have typed "c", to search for the first | |
| 1172 occurrence of "c". Now if you type "u", the cursor will move | |
| 771 | 1173 to the first occurrence of "cu". Now type <Backspace>. This erases |
| 428 | 1174 the "u" from the search string, and the cursor moves back to |
| 1175 the first occurrence of "c". | |
| 1176 | |
| 1177 If you are in the middle of a search and type a control or meta | |
| 1178 character (with a few exceptions--characters that are special in | |
| 1179 a search, such as C-s and C-r), the search is terminated. | |
| 1180 | |
| 1181 The C-s starts a search that looks for any occurrence of the search | |
| 1182 string AFTER the current cursor position. If you want to search for | |
| 1183 something earlier in the text, type C-r instead. Everything that we | |
| 1184 have said about C-s also applies to C-r, except that the direction of | |
| 1185 the search is reversed. | |
| 1186 | |
| 1187 | |
| 771 | 1188 * MULTIPLE "WINDOWS" (I.E. PANES) |
| 1189 --------------------------------- | |
| 428 | 1190 |
| 771 | 1191 One of the nice features of XEmacs is that you can split the current |
| 1192 frame (i.e. window-system window) into more than one pane, or "window" | |
| 1193 in XEmacs parlance. | |
| 428 | 1194 |
| 771 | 1195 >> Move the cursor to this line and type M-0 C-l (that's zero, not Oh, |
| 1196 and CONTROL-L, not CONTROL-1). | |
| 428 | 1197 |
| 771 | 1198 >> Now type C-x 2 which splits the frame into two windows. |
| 428 | 1199 Both windows display this tutorial. The cursor stays in the top window. |
| 1200 | |
| 771 | 1201 >> Type M-<Next> to scroll the bottom window. |
| 1202 (C-M-v on TTY's. If you do not have a real META key, type ESC C-v.) | |
| 428 | 1203 |
| 771 | 1204 >> Type C-<Tab> to move the cursor to the bottom window. (Use C-x o -- "o" |
| 1205 for "other" -- on TTY's.) | |
| 1206 | |
| 1207 >> Use <Next> and <Prior> in the bottom window to scroll it. | |
| 428 | 1208 Keep reading these directions in the top window. |
| 1209 | |
| 771 | 1210 >> Type C-<Tab> again to move the cursor back to the top window. |
| 428 | 1211 The cursor in the top window is just where it was before. |
| 1212 | |
| 771 | 1213 You can keep using C-<Tab> to switch between the windows. Each |
| 428 | 1214 window has its own cursor position, but only one window actually |
| 1215 shows the cursor. All the ordinary editing commands apply to the | |
| 1216 window that the cursor is in. We call this the "selected window". | |
| 1217 | |
| 771 | 1218 If you have more than two windows, C-<Tab> cycles between them, and |
| 1219 C-Sh-<Tab> (i.e. CONTROL-SHIFT-TAB) in the opposite direction. (There is | |
| 1220 no TTY equivalent for C-Sh-<Tab>.) | |
| 1221 | |
| 1222 The commands M-<Prior> and M-<Next> are very useful when you are editing | |
| 1223 text in one window and using the other window just for reference. You | |
| 1224 can keep the cursor always in the window where you are editing, and | |
| 1225 scroll forward or back through the other window with these commands. | |
| 428 | 1226 |
| 771 | 1227 On TTY's, use C-M-v in place of M-<Next>, and there's no equivalent of |
| 1228 M-<Prior>. C-M-v is an example of a CONTROL-META character. If you | |
| 1229 have a real META key, you can type C-M-v by holding down both CONTROL | |
| 1230 and META while typing v. It does not matter whether CONTROL or META | |
| 1231 "comes first," because both of these keys act by modifying the | |
| 1232 characters you type. If you do not have a real META key, and you use | |
| 1233 ESC instead, the order does matter: you must type ESC followed by | |
| 1234 CONTROL-v, because CONTROL-ESC v will not work. This is because ESC is | |
| 1235 a character in its own right, not a modifier key. | |
| 428 | 1236 |
| 1237 >> Type C-x 1 (in the top window) to get rid of the bottom window. | |
| 1238 | |
| 1239 (If you had typed C-x 1 in the bottom window, that would get rid | |
| 1240 of the top one. Think of this command as "Keep just one | |
| 1241 window--the window I am already in.") | |
| 1242 | |
| 1243 You do not have to display the same buffer in both windows. If you | |
| 1244 use C-x C-f to find a file in one window, the other window does not | |
| 1245 change. You can find a file in each window independently. | |
| 1246 | |
| 1247 Here is another way to use two windows to display two different | |
| 1248 things: | |
| 1249 | |
| 771 | 1250 >> Type C-x 4 f followed by the name of one of your files. |
| 428 | 1251 End with <Return>. See the specified file appear in the bottom |
| 1252 window. The cursor goes there, too. | |
| 1253 | |
| 771 | 1254 >> Type C-<Tab> to go back to the top window, and C-x 1 to delete |
| 428 | 1255 the bottom window. |
| 1256 | |
| 1257 | |
| 771 | 1258 * MULTIPLE "FRAMES" (I.E. WINDOW-SYSTEM WINDOWS) |
| 1259 ------------------------------------------------ | |
| 1260 | |
| 1261 On window systems, you can also create multiple "frames", or | |
| 1262 window-system windows. These exist independently of each other at the | |
| 1263 top level, just like separate programs. (There is no support for the MS | |
| 1264 Windows feature called MDI, or Multiple Document Interface, where | |
| 1265 multiple overlapping child windows exist inside of a single top-level | |
| 1266 window.) | |
| 1267 | |
| 1268 The commands for frames are similar to those for windows, but begin with | |
| 1269 "C-x 5". | |
| 1270 | |
| 1271 >> Type C-x 5 2 to create a new frame. | |
| 1272 | |
| 1273 >> Move the mouse into it, and click. (On X Windows, you may not need | |
| 1274 to click; this depends on the window manager.) | |
| 1275 | |
| 1276 >> Scroll up or down. Note that, just like for XEmacs windows, two frames | |
| 1277 can be showing the same buffer but in different positions. | |
| 1278 | |
| 1279 >> Type C-x 2. Note that each frame can have separate windows, | |
| 1280 independently of other frames. | |
| 1281 | |
| 1282 >> Type C-x 5 o (or Alt-Tab under MS Windows) to go back to the first frame. | |
| 1283 (That's a small Oh, for "other".) | |
| 1284 | |
| 1285 >> Type C-x 5 0 to kill the old frame. (That's a zero.) | |
| 1286 | |
| 1287 >> Note that we're still here! XEmacs will not exit until all frames | |
| 1288 are deleted, no matter what order they were created in. | |
| 1289 | |
| 1290 >> Type C-x 1 to get back to one window. | |
| 1291 | |
| 1292 You can also use C-x 5 f to open a file in a new frame, just like C-x 4 | |
| 1293 f opens a file in a new window in the same frame. | |
| 1294 | |
| 1295 | |
| 428 | 1296 * RECURSIVE EDITING LEVELS |
| 1297 -------------------------- | |
| 1298 | |
| 1299 Sometimes you will get into what is called a "recursive editing | |
| 1300 level". This is indicated by square brackets in the mode line, | |
| 1301 surrounding the parentheses around the major mode name. For | |
| 1302 example, you might see [(Fundamental)] instead of (Fundamental). | |
| 1303 | |
| 771 | 1304 To get out of the recursive editing level, use the all-purpose escape |
| 1305 mechanism mentioned earlier: ESC ESC. (Remember, it's ESC ESC ESC on | |
| 1306 TTY's.) You can also use it for eliminating extra windows, canceling a | |
| 1307 selection, and getting out of the minibuffer. | |
| 428 | 1308 |
| 771 | 1309 >> Type M-x to get into a minibuffer; then type ESC ESC to get out. |
| 428 | 1310 |
| 1311 You cannot use C-g to get out of a recursive editing level. This is | |
| 1312 because C-g is used for canceling commands and arguments WITHIN the | |
| 1313 recursive editing level. | |
| 1314 | |
| 1315 | |
| 1316 * GETTING MORE HELP | |
| 1317 ------------------- | |
| 1318 | |
| 1319 In this tutorial we have tried to supply just enough information to | |
| 771 | 1320 get you started using XEmacs. There is so much available in XEmacs that |
| 428 | 1321 it would be impossible to explain it all here. However, you may want |
| 771 | 1322 to learn more about XEmacs since it has many other useful features. |
| 1323 XEmacs provides commands for reading documentation about XEmacs | |
| 428 | 1324 commands. These "help" commands all start with the character |
| 771 | 1325 CONTROL-h, which is called "the Help character". |
| 428 | 1326 |
| 1327 To use the Help features, type the C-h character, and then a | |
| 1328 character saying what kind of help you want. If you are REALLY lost, | |
| 771 | 1329 type C-h ? ? and XEmacs will tell you what kinds of help it can give. |
| 428 | 1330 If you have typed C-h and decide you do not want any help, just |
| 1331 type C-g to cancel it. | |
| 1332 | |
| 771 | 1333 (Note for TTY users: Some sites change the meaning of the character C-h. |
| 1334 They really should not do this as a blanket measure for all users, so you | |
| 1335 have grounds to complain to the system administrator. Meanwhile, if C-h | |
| 1336 does not display a message about help at the bottom of the frame, try | |
| 1337 typing the F1 key or M-? instead.) | |
| 428 | 1338 |
| 771 | 1339 The most basic HELP feature is C-h c. Type C-h, the character c, and |
| 1340 a command character or sequence; then XEmacs displays a very brief | |
| 428 | 1341 description of the command. |
| 1342 | |
| 771 | 1343 >> Type C-h c <Up>. |
| 428 | 1344 The message should be something like |
| 1345 | |
| 771 | 1346 up runs the command previous-line |
| 428 | 1347 |
| 1348 This tells you the "name of the function". Function names are used | |
| 771 | 1349 mainly for customizing and extending XEmacs. But since function names |
| 428 | 1350 are chosen to indicate what the command does, they can serve also as |
| 1351 very brief documentation--sufficient to remind you of commands you | |
| 1352 have already learned. | |
| 1353 | |
| 771 | 1354 Multi-character commands such as C-x C-s and <ESC>v are also allowed |
| 1355 after C-h c. | |
| 428 | 1356 |
| 1357 To get more information about a command, use C-h k instead of C-h c. | |
| 1358 | |
| 771 | 1359 >> Type C-h k <Up>. |
| 428 | 1360 |
| 1361 This displays the documentation of the function, as well as its | |
| 771 | 1362 name, in an XEmacs window. When you are finished reading the |
| 428 | 1363 output, type q to get rid of the help text. |
| 1364 | |
| 1365 Here are some other useful C-h options: | |
| 1366 | |
| 1367 C-h f Describe a function. You type in the name of the | |
| 1368 function. | |
| 1369 | |
| 1370 >> Try typing C-h f previous-line<Return>. | |
| 771 | 1371 This displays all the information XEmacs has about the |
| 1372 function which implements the <Up> command. | |
| 428 | 1373 |
| 771 | 1374 A similar command C-h v displays the documentation of variables whose |
| 1375 values you can set to customize XEmacs behavior. You need to type in | |
| 1376 the name of the variable when XEmacs prompts for it. | |
| 1377 | |
| 1378 C-h a Hyper Apropos. Type in a keyword and XEmacs will list | |
| 428 | 1379 all the functions and variables whose names contain |
| 631 | 1380 that keyword. For commands that can be invoked with |
| 771 | 1381 META-x, an asterisk will be displayed to the left. |
| 428 | 1382 |
| 1383 >> Type C-h a newline<Return>. | |
| 1384 | |
| 1385 This displays a list of all functions and variables with "newline" in | |
| 1386 their names. Press <Return> or click the middle mouse button to find | |
| 1387 out more about a function or variable. Type `q' to exit hyper-apropos. | |
| 1388 | |
| 771 | 1389 C-h i Read On-line Manuals (a.k.a. Info). This command puts |
| 1390 you into a special buffer called `*info*' where you can | |
| 1391 read on-line manuals for the XEmacs packages installed | |
| 1392 on your system. Type m xemacs <Return> to read the | |
| 1393 XEmacs manual. If you have never before used Info, type | |
| 1394 ? and XEmacs will take you on a guided tour of Info mode | |
| 1395 facilities. Once you are through with this tutorial, | |
| 1396 you should consult the XEmacs Info manual as your | |
| 1397 primary documentation. | |
| 428 | 1398 |
| 1399 * CONCLUSION | |
| 1400 ------------ | |
| 1401 | |
| 771 | 1402 Remember, to exit XEmacs permanently use the menu item "File->Exit XEmacs", |
| 1403 or type C-x C-c. On TTY's, to temporarily exit to a shell, so that you can | |
| 1404 come back in, use C-z. | |
| 428 | 1405 |
| 771 | 1406 This tutorial is meant to be understandable to all new users, so if you |
| 1407 found something unclear, don't sit and blame yourself - complain! | |
| 428 | 1408 |
| 1409 | |
| 771 | 1410 COPYRIGHTS, COPYING, ORIGINS |
| 1411 ---------------------------- | |
| 1412 | |
|
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changeset
|
1413 Copyright (c) 1985, 1996, 2012 Free Software Foundation. |
| 771 | 1414 Copyright (c) 2001 Ben Wing. |
| 1415 This tutorial is synched with FSF 21.0.106. | |
| 428 | 1416 |
| 771 | 1417 This tutorial descends from a long line of Emacs tutorials starting with |
| 1418 the one written by Stuart Cracraft for the original Emacs. Ben Wing | |
| 1419 updated the tutorial for X Windows. Martin Buchholz and Hrvoje Niksic | |
| 1420 added more corrections for XEmacs. Ben Wing later synched up to FSF | |
| 1421 21.0.105 and rehashed many sections to match the current XEmacs norms. | |
| 428 | 1422 |
| 771 | 1423 This version of the tutorial, like XEmacs, is copyrighted, and |
| 428 | 1424 comes with permission to distribute copies on certain conditions: |
| 1425 | |
| 1426 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies | |
| 1427 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the | |
| 1428 copyright notice and permission notice are preserved, | |
| 1429 and that the distributor grants the recipient permission | |
| 1430 for further redistribution as permitted by this notice. | |
| 1431 | |
| 1432 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions | |
| 1433 of this document, or of portions of it, | |
| 1434 under the above conditions, provided also that they | |
| 1435 carry prominent notices stating who last altered them. | |
| 1436 | |
| 771 | 1437 The conditions for copying XEmacs itself are more complex, but in the |
| 428 | 1438 same spirit. Please read the file COPYING and then do give copies of |
| 771 | 1439 XEmacs to your friends. Help stamp out software obstructionism |
| 428 | 1440 ("ownership") by using, writing, and sharing free software! |