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| author | Henry Thompson <ht@markup.co.uk> |
|---|---|
| date | Thu, 16 Dec 2021 18:48:58 +0000 |
| parents | c6b1500299a7 |
| children |
| rev | line source |
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| 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! |