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| author | Glenn Morris | 2007-08-22 07:41:44 +0000 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Glenn Morris | 2007-08-22 07:41:44 +0000 |
| commit | 9ca6898a721a4fa3cf67497c0202ffc6ec18559e (patch) | |
| tree | 7053ef6102d00a99cb62745de14f0dbeb5b26672 /etc/tutorials/TUTORIAL | |
| parent | a523f0c74b25f548ec76877b6a50bffbbd2c3f9c (diff) | |
| download | emacs-9ca6898a721a4fa3cf67497c0202ffc6ec18559e.tar.gz emacs-9ca6898a721a4fa3cf67497c0202ffc6ec18559e.zip | |
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| 1 | Emacs tutorial. See end for copying conditions. | ||
| 2 | |||
| 3 | Emacs commands generally involve the CONTROL key (sometimes labeled | ||
| 4 | CTRL or CTL) or the META key (sometimes labeled EDIT or ALT). Rather than | ||
| 5 | write that in full each time, we'll use the following abbreviations: | ||
| 6 | |||
| 7 | C-<chr> means hold the CONTROL key while typing the character <chr> | ||
| 8 | Thus, C-f would be: hold the CONTROL key and type f. | ||
| 9 | M-<chr> means hold the META or EDIT or ALT key down while typing <chr>. | ||
| 10 | If there is no META, EDIT or ALT key, instead press and release the | ||
| 11 | ESC key and then type <chr>. We write <ESC> for the ESC key. | ||
| 12 | |||
| 13 | Important note: to end the Emacs session, type C-x C-c. (Two characters.) | ||
| 14 | The characters ">>" at the left margin indicate directions for you to | ||
| 15 | try using a command. For instance: | ||
| 16 | <<Blank lines inserted around following line by help-with-tutorial>> | ||
| 17 | [Middle of page left blank for didactic purposes. Text continues below] | ||
| 18 | >> Now type C-v (View next screen) to move to the next screen. | ||
| 19 | (go ahead, do it by holding down the CONTROL key while typing v). | ||
| 20 | From now on, you should do this again whenever you finish | ||
| 21 | reading the screen. | ||
| 22 | |||
| 23 | Note that there is an overlap of two lines when you move from screen | ||
| 24 | to screen; this provides some continuity so you can continue reading | ||
| 25 | the text. | ||
| 26 | |||
| 27 | The first thing that you need to know is how to move around from place | ||
| 28 | to place in the text. You already know how to move forward one screen, | ||
| 29 | with C-v. To move backwards one screen, type M-v (hold down the META key | ||
| 30 | and type v, or type <ESC>v if you do not have a META, EDIT, or ALT key). | ||
| 31 | |||
| 32 | >> Try typing M-v and then C-v, a few times. | ||
| 33 | |||
| 34 | |||
| 35 | * SUMMARY | ||
| 36 | --------- | ||
| 37 | |||
| 38 | The following commands are useful for viewing screenfuls: | ||
| 39 | |||
| 40 | C-v Move forward one screenful | ||
| 41 | M-v Move backward one screenful | ||
| 42 | C-l Clear screen and redisplay all the text, | ||
| 43 | moving the text around the cursor | ||
| 44 | to the center of the screen. | ||
| 45 | (That's CONTROL-L, not CONTROL-1.) | ||
| 46 | |||
| 47 | >> Find the cursor, and note what text is near it. | ||
| 48 | Then type C-l. | ||
| 49 | Find the cursor again and notice that the same text | ||
| 50 | is near the cursor now. | ||
| 51 | |||
| 52 | You can also use the PageUp and PageDn keys to move by screenfuls, if | ||
| 53 | your terminal has them, but you can edit more efficiently if you use | ||
| 54 | C-v and M-v. | ||
| 55 | |||
| 56 | |||
| 57 | * BASIC CURSOR CONTROL | ||
| 58 | ---------------------- | ||
| 59 | |||
| 60 | Moving from screenful to screenful is useful, but how do you | ||
| 61 | move to a specific place within the text on the screen? | ||
| 62 | |||
| 63 | There are several ways you can do this. You can use the arrow keys, | ||
| 64 | but it's more efficient to keep your hands in the standard position | ||
| 65 | and use the commands C-p, C-b, C-f, and C-n. These characters | ||
| 66 | are equivalent to the four arrow keys, like this: | ||
| 67 | |||
| 68 | Previous line, C-p | ||
| 69 | : | ||
| 70 | : | ||
| 71 | Backward, C-b .... Current cursor position .... Forward, C-f | ||
| 72 | : | ||
| 73 | : | ||
| 74 | Next line, C-n | ||
| 75 | |||
| 76 | >> Move the cursor to the line in the middle of that diagram | ||
| 77 | using C-n or C-p. Then type C-l to see the whole diagram | ||
| 78 | centered in the screen. | ||
| 79 | |||
| 80 | You'll find it easy to remember these letters by words they stand for: | ||
| 81 | P for previous, N for next, B for backward and F for forward. You | ||
| 82 | will be using these basic cursor positioning commands all the time. | ||
| 83 | |||
| 84 | >> Do a few C-n's to bring the cursor down to this line. | ||
| 85 | |||
| 86 | >> Move into the line with C-f's and then up with C-p's. | ||
| 87 | See what C-p does when the cursor is in the middle of the line. | ||
| 88 | |||
| 89 | Each line of text ends with a Newline character, which serves to | ||
| 90 | separate it from the following line. The last line in your file ought | ||
| 91 | to have a Newline at the end (but Emacs does not require it to have | ||
| 92 | one). | ||
| 93 | |||
| 94 | >> Try to C-b at the beginning of a line. It should move to | ||
| 95 | the end of the previous line. This is because it moves back | ||
| 96 | across the Newline character. | ||
| 97 | |||
| 98 | C-f can move across a Newline just like C-b. | ||
| 99 | |||
| 100 | >> Do a few more C-b's, so you get a feel for where the cursor is. | ||
| 101 | Then do C-f's to return to the end of the line. | ||
| 102 | Then do one more C-f to move to the following line. | ||
| 103 | |||
| 104 | When you move past the top or bottom of the screen, the text beyond | ||
| 105 | the edge shifts onto the screen. This is called "scrolling". It | ||
| 106 | enables Emacs to move the cursor to the specified place in the text | ||
| 107 | without moving it off the screen. | ||
| 108 | |||
| 109 | >> Try to move the cursor off the bottom of the screen with C-n, and | ||
| 110 | see what happens. | ||
| 111 | |||
| 112 | If moving by characters is too slow, you can move by words. M-f | ||
| 113 | (META-f) moves forward a word and M-b moves back a word. | ||
| 114 | |||
| 115 | >> Type a few M-f's and M-b's. | ||
| 116 | |||
| 117 | When you are in the middle of a word, M-f moves to the end of the word. | ||
| 118 | When you are in whitespace between words, M-f moves to the end of the | ||
| 119 | following word. M-b works likewise in the opposite direction. | ||
| 120 | |||
| 121 | >> Type M-f and M-b a few times, interspersed with C-f's and C-b's | ||
| 122 | so that you can observe the action of M-f and M-b from various | ||
| 123 | places inside and between words. | ||
| 124 | |||
| 125 | Notice the parallel between C-f and C-b on the one hand, and M-f and | ||
| 126 | M-b on the other hand. Very often Meta characters are used for | ||
| 127 | operations related to the units defined by language (words, sentences, | ||
| 128 | paragraphs), while Control characters operate on basic units that are | ||
| 129 | independent of what you are editing (characters, lines, etc). | ||
| 130 | |||
| 131 | This parallel applies between lines and sentences: C-a and C-e move to | ||
| 132 | the beginning or end of a line, and M-a and M-e move to the beginning | ||
| 133 | or end of a sentence. | ||
| 134 | |||
| 135 | >> Try a couple of C-a's, and then a couple of C-e's. | ||
| 136 | Try a couple of M-a's, and then a couple of M-e's. | ||
| 137 | |||
| 138 | See how repeated C-a's do nothing, but repeated M-a's keep moving one | ||
| 139 | more sentence. Although these are not quite analogous, each one seems | ||
| 140 | natural. | ||
| 141 | |||
| 142 | The location of the cursor in the text is also called "point". To | ||
| 143 | paraphrase, the cursor shows on the screen where point is located in | ||
| 144 | the text. | ||
| 145 | |||
| 146 | Here is a summary of simple cursor-moving operations, including the | ||
| 147 | word and sentence moving commands: | ||
| 148 | |||
| 149 | C-f Move forward a character | ||
| 150 | C-b Move backward a character | ||
| 151 | |||
| 152 | M-f Move forward a word | ||
| 153 | M-b Move backward a word | ||
| 154 | |||
| 155 | C-n Move to next line | ||
| 156 | C-p Move to previous line | ||
| 157 | |||
| 158 | C-a Move to beginning of line | ||
| 159 | C-e Move to end of line | ||
| 160 | |||
| 161 | M-a Move back to beginning of sentence | ||
| 162 | M-e Move forward to end of sentence | ||
| 163 | |||
| 164 | >> Try all of these commands now a few times for practice. | ||
| 165 | These are the most often used commands. | ||
| 166 | |||
| 167 | Two other important cursor motion commands are M-< (META Less-than), | ||
| 168 | which moves to the beginning of the whole text, and M-> (META | ||
| 169 | Greater-than), which moves to the end of the whole text. | ||
| 170 | |||
| 171 | On most terminals, the "<" is above the comma, so you must use the | ||
| 172 | shift key to type it. On these terminals you must use the shift key | ||
| 173 | to type M-< also; without the shift key, you would be typing M-comma. | ||
| 174 | |||
| 175 | >> Try M-< now, to move to the beginning of the tutorial. | ||
| 176 | Then use C-v repeatedly to move back here. | ||
| 177 | |||
| 178 | >> Try M-> now, to move to the end of the tutorial. | ||
| 179 | Then use M-v repeatedly to move back here. | ||
| 180 | |||
| 181 | You can also move the cursor with the arrow keys, if your terminal has | ||
| 182 | arrow keys. We recommend learning C-b, C-f, C-n and C-p for three | ||
| 183 | reasons. First, they work on all kinds of terminals. Second, once | ||
| 184 | you gain practice at using Emacs, you will find that typing these Control | ||
| 185 | characters is faster than typing the arrow keys (because you do not | ||
| 186 | have to move your hands away from touch-typing position). Third, once | ||
| 187 | you form the habit of using these Control character commands, you can | ||
| 188 | easily learn to use other advanced cursor motion commands as well. | ||
| 189 | |||
| 190 | Most Emacs commands accept a numeric argument; for most commands, this | ||
| 191 | serves as a repeat-count. The way you give a command a repeat count | ||
| 192 | is by typing C-u and then the digits before you type the command. If | ||
| 193 | you have a META (or EDIT or ALT) key, there is another, alternative way | ||
| 194 | to enter a numeric argument: type the digits while holding down the | ||
| 195 | META key. We recommend learning the C-u method because it works on | ||
| 196 | any terminal. The numeric argument is also called a "prefix argument", | ||
| 197 | because you type the argument before the command it applies to. | ||
| 198 | |||
| 199 | For instance, C-u 8 C-f moves forward eight characters. | ||
| 200 | |||
| 201 | >> Try using C-n or C-p with a numeric argument, to move the cursor | ||
| 202 | to a line near this one with just one command. | ||
| 203 | |||
| 204 | Most commands use the numeric argument as a repeat count, but some | ||
| 205 | commands use it in some other way. Several commands (but none of | ||
| 206 | those you have learned so far) use it as a flag--the presence of a | ||
| 207 | prefix argument, regardless of its value, makes the command do | ||
| 208 | something different. | ||
| 209 | |||
| 210 | C-v and M-v are another kind of exception. When given an argument, | ||
| 211 | they scroll the screen up or down by that many lines, rather than by a | ||
| 212 | screenful. For example, C-u 8 C-v scrolls the screen by 8 lines. | ||
| 213 | |||
| 214 | >> Try typing C-u 8 C-v now. | ||
| 215 | |||
| 216 | This should have scrolled the screen up by 8 lines. If you would like | ||
| 217 | to scroll it down again, you can give an argument to M-v. | ||
| 218 | |||
| 219 | If you are using a windowed display, such as X11 or MS-Windows, there | ||
| 220 | should be a tall rectangular area called a scroll bar at the | ||
| 221 | side of the Emacs window. You can scroll the text by clicking the | ||
| 222 | mouse in the scroll bar. | ||
| 223 | |||
| 224 | >> Try pressing the middle button at the top of the highlighted area | ||
| 225 | within the scroll bar. This should scroll the text to a position | ||
| 226 | determined by how high or low you click. | ||
| 227 | |||
| 228 | >> Try moving the mouse up and down, while holding the middle button | ||
| 229 | pressed down. You'll see that the text scrolls up and down as | ||
| 230 | you move the mouse. | ||
| 231 | |||
| 232 | |||
| 233 | * WHEN EMACS IS HUNG | ||
| 234 | -------------------- | ||
| 235 | |||
| 236 | If Emacs stops responding to your commands, you can stop it safely by | ||
| 237 | typing C-g. You can use C-g to stop a command which is taking too | ||
| 238 | long to execute. | ||
| 239 | |||
| 240 | You can also use C-g to discard a numeric argument or the beginning of | ||
| 241 | a command that you do not want to finish. | ||
| 242 | |||
| 243 | >> Type C-u 100 to make a numeric arg of 100, then type C-g. | ||
| 244 | Now type C-f. It should move just one character, | ||
| 245 | because you canceled the argument with C-g. | ||
| 246 | |||
| 247 | If you have typed an <ESC> by mistake, you can get rid of it | ||
| 248 | with a C-g. | ||
| 249 | |||
| 250 | |||
| 251 | * DISABLED COMMANDS | ||
| 252 | ------------------- | ||
| 253 | |||
| 254 | Some Emacs commands are "disabled" so that beginning users cannot use | ||
| 255 | them by accident. | ||
| 256 | |||
| 257 | If you type one of the disabled commands, Emacs displays a message | ||
| 258 | saying what the command was, and asking you whether you want to go | ||
| 259 | ahead and execute the command. | ||
| 260 | |||
| 261 | If you really want to try the command, type <SPC> (the Space bar) in | ||
| 262 | answer to the question. Normally, if you do not want to execute the | ||
| 263 | disabled command, answer the question with "n". | ||
| 264 | |||
| 265 | >> Type C-x C-l (which is a disabled command), | ||
| 266 | then type n to answer the question. | ||
| 267 | |||
| 268 | |||
| 269 | * WINDOWS | ||
| 270 | --------- | ||
| 271 | |||
| 272 | Emacs can have several windows, each displaying its own text. We will | ||
| 273 | explain later on how to use multiple windows. Right now we want to | ||
| 274 | explain how to get rid of extra windows and go back to basic | ||
| 275 | one-window editing. It is simple: | ||
| 276 | |||
| 277 | C-x 1 One window (i.e., kill all other windows). | ||
| 278 | |||
| 279 | That is CONTROL-x followed by the digit 1. C-x 1 expands the window | ||
| 280 | which contains the cursor, to occupy the full screen. It deletes all | ||
| 281 | other windows. | ||
| 282 | |||
| 283 | >> Move the cursor to this line and type C-u 0 C-l. | ||
| 284 | >> Type CONTROL-h k CONTROL-f. | ||
| 285 | See how this window shrinks, while a new one appears | ||
| 286 | to display documentation on the CONTROL-f command. | ||
| 287 | |||
| 288 | >> Type C-x 1 and see the documentation listing window disappear. | ||
| 289 | |||
| 290 | This command is unlike the other commands you have learned in that it | ||
| 291 | consists of two characters. It starts with the character CONTROL-x. | ||
| 292 | There is a whole series of commands that start with CONTROL-x; many of | ||
| 293 | them have to do with windows, files, buffers, and related things. | ||
| 294 | These commands are two, three or four characters long. | ||
| 295 | |||
| 296 | |||
| 297 | * INSERTING AND DELETING | ||
| 298 | ------------------------ | ||
| 299 | |||
| 300 | If you want to insert text, just type the text. Characters which you | ||
| 301 | can see, such as A, 7, *, etc. are taken by Emacs as text and inserted | ||
| 302 | immediately. Type <Return> (the carriage-return key) to insert a | ||
| 303 | Newline character. | ||
| 304 | |||
| 305 | You can delete the last character you typed by typing <Delback>. | ||
| 306 | <Delback> is a key on the keyboard--the same one you normally use, | ||
| 307 | outside Emacs, for deleting the last character you typed. It is | ||
| 308 | normally a large key a couple of lines up from the <Return> key, and | ||
| 309 | it is usually labeled "Delete", "Del" or "Backspace". | ||
| 310 | |||
| 311 | If the large key there is labeled "Backspace", then that's the one you | ||
| 312 | use for <Delback>. There may also be another key labeled "Delete" | ||
| 313 | somewhere else, but that's not <Delback>. | ||
| 314 | |||
| 315 | More generally, <Delback> deletes the character immediately before the | ||
| 316 | current cursor position. | ||
| 317 | |||
| 318 | >> Do this now--type a few characters, then delete them | ||
| 319 | by typing <Delback> a few times. Don't worry about this file | ||
| 320 | being changed; you will not alter the master tutorial. This is | ||
| 321 | your personal copy of it. | ||
| 322 | |||
| 323 | When a line of text gets too big for one line on the screen, the line | ||
| 324 | of text is "continued" onto a second screen line. A backslash ("\") | ||
| 325 | (or, if you're using a windowed display, a little curved arrow) at the | ||
| 326 | right margin indicates a line which has been continued. | ||
| 327 | |||
| 328 | >> Insert text until you reach the right margin, and keep on inserting. | ||
| 329 | You'll see a continuation line appear. | ||
| 330 | |||
| 331 | >> Use <Delback>s to delete the text until the line fits on one screen | ||
| 332 | line again. The continuation line goes away. | ||
| 333 | |||
| 334 | You can delete a Newline character just like any other character. | ||
| 335 | Deleting the Newline character between two lines merges them into | ||
| 336 | one line. If the resulting combined line is too long to fit in the | ||
| 337 | screen width, it will be displayed with a continuation line. | ||
| 338 | |||
| 339 | >> Move the cursor to the beginning of a line and type <Delback>. This | ||
| 340 | merges that line with the previous line. | ||
| 341 | |||
| 342 | >> Type <Return> to reinsert the Newline you deleted. | ||
| 343 | |||
| 344 | Remember that most Emacs commands can be given a repeat count; | ||
| 345 | this includes text characters. Repeating a text character inserts | ||
| 346 | it several times. | ||
| 347 | |||
| 348 | >> Try that now -- type C-u 8 * to insert ********. | ||
| 349 | |||
| 350 | You've now learned the most basic way of typing something in | ||
| 351 | Emacs and correcting errors. You can delete by words or lines | ||
| 352 | as well. Here is a summary of the delete operations: | ||
| 353 | |||
| 354 | <Delback> Delete the character just before the cursor | ||
| 355 | C-d Delete the next character after the cursor | ||
| 356 | |||
| 357 | M-<Delback> Kill the word immediately before the cursor | ||
| 358 | M-d Kill the next word after the cursor | ||
| 359 | |||
| 360 | C-k Kill from the cursor position to end of line | ||
| 361 | M-k Kill to the end of the current sentence | ||
| 362 | |||
| 363 | Notice that <Delback> and C-d vs M-<Delback> and M-d extend the parallel | ||
| 364 | started by C-f and M-f (well, <Delback> is not really a control | ||
| 365 | character, but let's not worry about that). C-k and M-k are like C-e | ||
| 366 | and M-e, sort of, in that lines are opposite sentences. | ||
| 367 | |||
| 368 | You can also kill any part of the text with one uniform method. Move | ||
| 369 | to one end of that part, and type C-@ or C-<SPC> (either one). (<SPC> | ||
| 370 | is the Space bar.) Move to the other end of that part, and type C-w. | ||
| 371 | That kills all the text between the two positions. | ||
| 372 | |||
| 373 | >> Move the cursor to the Y at the start of the previous paragraph. | ||
| 374 | >> Type C-<SPC>. Emacs should display a message "Mark set" | ||
| 375 | at the bottom of the screen. | ||
| 376 | >> Move the cursor to the n in "end", on the second line of the | ||
| 377 | paragraph. | ||
| 378 | >> Type C-w. This will kill the text starting from the Y, | ||
| 379 | and ending just before the n. | ||
| 380 | |||
| 381 | The difference between "killing" and "deleting" is that "killed" text | ||
| 382 | can be reinserted, whereas "deleted" things cannot be reinserted. | ||
| 383 | Reinsertion of killed text is called "yanking". Generally, the | ||
| 384 | commands that can remove a lot of text kill the text (they set up so | ||
| 385 | that you can yank the text), while the commands that remove just one | ||
| 386 | character, or only remove blank lines and spaces, do deletion (so you | ||
| 387 | cannot yank that text). <Delback> and C-d do deletion in the simplest | ||
| 388 | case, with no argument. When given an argument, they kill instead. | ||
| 389 | |||
| 390 | >> Move the cursor to the beginning of a line which is not empty. | ||
| 391 | Then type C-k to kill the text on that line. | ||
| 392 | >> Type C-k a second time. You'll see that it kills the Newline | ||
| 393 | which follows that line. | ||
| 394 | |||
| 395 | Note that a single C-k kills the contents of the line, and a second | ||
| 396 | C-k kills the line itself, and makes all the other lines move up. C-k | ||
| 397 | treats a numeric argument specially: it kills that many lines AND | ||
| 398 | their contents. This is not mere repetition. C-u 2 C-k kills two | ||
| 399 | lines and their newlines; typing C-k twice would not do that. | ||
| 400 | |||
| 401 | Bringing back killed text is called "yanking". (Think of it as | ||
| 402 | yanking back, or pulling back, some text that was taken away.) You | ||
| 403 | can yank the killed text either at the same place where it was killed, | ||
| 404 | or at some other place in the text you are editing, or even in a | ||
| 405 | different file. You can yank the same text several times; that makes | ||
| 406 | multiple copies of it. | ||
| 407 | |||
| 408 | The command for yanking is C-y. It reinserts the last killed text, | ||
| 409 | at the current cursor position. | ||
| 410 | |||
| 411 | >> Try it; type C-y to yank the text back. | ||
| 412 | |||
| 413 | If you do several C-k's in a row, all of the killed text is saved | ||
| 414 | together, so that one C-y will yank all of the lines at once. | ||
| 415 | |||
| 416 | >> Do this now, type C-k several times. | ||
| 417 | |||
| 418 | Now to retrieve that killed text: | ||
| 419 | |||
| 420 | >> Type C-y. Then move the cursor down a few lines and type C-y | ||
| 421 | again. You now see how to copy some text. | ||
| 422 | |||
| 423 | What do you do if you have some text you want to yank back, and then | ||
| 424 | you kill something else? C-y would yank the more recent kill. But | ||
| 425 | the previous text is not lost. You can get back to it using the M-y | ||
| 426 | command. After you have done C-y to get the most recent kill, typing | ||
| 427 | M-y replaces that yanked text with the previous kill. Typing M-y | ||
| 428 | again and again brings in earlier and earlier kills. When you have | ||
| 429 | reached the text you are looking for, you do not have to do anything to | ||
| 430 | keep it. Just go on with your editing, leaving the yanked text where | ||
| 431 | it is. | ||
| 432 | |||
| 433 | If you M-y enough times, you come back to the starting point (the most | ||
| 434 | recent kill). | ||
| 435 | |||
| 436 | >> Kill a line, move around, kill another line. | ||
| 437 | Then do C-y to get back the second killed line. | ||
| 438 | Then do M-y and it will be replaced by the first killed line. | ||
| 439 | Do more M-y's and see what you get. Keep doing them until | ||
| 440 | the second kill line comes back, and then a few more. | ||
| 441 | If you like, you can try giving M-y positive and negative | ||
| 442 | arguments. | ||
| 443 | |||
| 444 | |||
| 445 | * UNDO | ||
| 446 | ------ | ||
| 447 | |||
| 448 | If you make a change to the text, and then decide that it was a | ||
| 449 | mistake, you can undo the change with the undo command, C-x u. | ||
| 450 | |||
| 451 | Normally, C-x u undoes the changes made by one command; if you repeat | ||
| 452 | the C-x u several times in a row, each repetition undoes one | ||
| 453 | additional command. | ||
| 454 | |||
| 455 | But there are two exceptions: commands that do not change the text do | ||
| 456 | not count (this includes cursor motion commands and scrolling | ||
| 457 | command), and self-inserting characters are usually handled in groups | ||
| 458 | of up to 20. (This is to reduce the number of C-x u's you have to | ||
| 459 | type to undo insertion of text.) | ||
| 460 | |||
| 461 | >> Kill this line with C-k, then type C-x u and it should reappear. | ||
| 462 | |||
| 463 | C-_ is an alternative undo command; it works just the same as C-x u, | ||
| 464 | but it is easier to type several times in a row. The disadvantage of | ||
| 465 | C-_ is that on some keyboards it is not obvious how to type it. That | ||
| 466 | is why we provide C-x u as well. On some terminals, you can type C-_ | ||
| 467 | by typing / while holding down CONTROL. | ||
| 468 | |||
| 469 | A numeric argument to C-_ or C-x u acts as a repeat count. | ||
| 470 | |||
| 471 | You can undo deletion of text just as you can undo killing of text. | ||
| 472 | The distinction between killing something and deleting it affects | ||
| 473 | whether you can yank it with C-y; it makes no difference for undo. | ||
| 474 | |||
| 475 | |||
| 476 | * FILES | ||
| 477 | ------- | ||
| 478 | |||
| 479 | In order to make the text you edit permanent, you must put it in a | ||
| 480 | file. Otherwise, it will go away when your invocation of Emacs goes | ||
| 481 | away. In order to put your text in a file, you must "find" the file | ||
| 482 | before you enter the text. (This is also called "visiting" the file.) | ||
| 483 | |||
| 484 | Finding a file means that you see the contents of the file within | ||
| 485 | Emacs. In many ways, it is as if you were editing the file itself. | ||
| 486 | However, the changes you make using Emacs do not become permanent | ||
| 487 | until you "save" the file. This is so you can avoid leaving a | ||
| 488 | half-changed file on the system when you do not want to. Even when | ||
| 489 | you save, Emacs leaves the original file under a changed name in case | ||
| 490 | you later decide that your changes were a mistake. | ||
| 491 | |||
| 492 | If you look near the bottom of the screen you will see a line that | ||
| 493 | begins and ends with dashes, and starts with "--:-- TUTORIAL" or | ||
| 494 | something like that. This part of the screen normally shows the name | ||
| 495 | of the file that you are visiting. Right now, you are visiting a file | ||
| 496 | called "TUTORIAL" which is your personal scratch copy of the Emacs | ||
| 497 | tutorial. When you find a file with Emacs, that file's name will | ||
| 498 | appear in that precise spot. | ||
| 499 | |||
| 500 | One special thing about the command for finding a file is that you | ||
| 501 | have to say what file name you want. We say the command "reads an | ||
| 502 | argument from the terminal" (in this case, the argument is the name of | ||
| 503 | the file). After you type the command | ||
| 504 | |||
| 505 | C-x C-f Find a file | ||
| 506 | |||
| 507 | Emacs asks you to type the file name. The file name you type appears | ||
| 508 | on the bottom line of the screen. The bottom line is called the | ||
| 509 | minibuffer when it is used for this sort of input. You can use | ||
| 510 | ordinary Emacs editing commands to edit the file name. | ||
| 511 | |||
| 512 | While you are entering the file name (or any minibuffer input), | ||
| 513 | you can cancel the command with C-g. | ||
| 514 | |||
| 515 | >> Type C-x C-f, then type C-g. This cancels the minibuffer, | ||
| 516 | and also cancels the C-x C-f command that was using the | ||
| 517 | minibuffer. So you do not find any file. | ||
| 518 | |||
| 519 | When you have finished entering the file name, type <Return> to | ||
| 520 | terminate it. Then C-x C-f command goes to work, and finds the file | ||
| 521 | you chose. The minibuffer disappears when the C-x C-f command is | ||
| 522 | finished. | ||
| 523 | |||
| 524 | In a little while the file contents appear on the screen, and you can | ||
| 525 | edit the contents. When you wish to make your changes permanent, | ||
| 526 | type the command | ||
| 527 | |||
| 528 | C-x C-s Save the file | ||
| 529 | |||
| 530 | This copies the text within Emacs into the file. The first time you | ||
| 531 | do this, Emacs renames the original file to a new name so that it is | ||
| 532 | not lost. The new name is made by adding "~" to the end of the | ||
| 533 | original file's name. | ||
| 534 | |||
| 535 | When saving is finished, Emacs displays the name of the file written. | ||
| 536 | You should save fairly often, so that you will not lose very much | ||
| 537 | work if the system should crash. | ||
| 538 | |||
| 539 | >> Type C-x C-s, saving your copy of the tutorial. | ||
| 540 | This should show "Wrote ...TUTORIAL" at the bottom of the screen. | ||
| 541 | |||
| 542 | NOTE: On some systems, typing C-x C-s will freeze the screen and you | ||
| 543 | will see no further output from Emacs. This indicates that an | ||
| 544 | operating system "feature" called "flow control" is intercepting the | ||
| 545 | C-s and not letting it get through to Emacs. To unfreeze the screen, | ||
| 546 | type C-q. Then see the section "Spontaneous Entry to Incremental | ||
| 547 | Search" in the Emacs manual for advice on dealing with this "feature". | ||
| 548 | |||
| 549 | You can find an existing file, to view it or edit it. You can also | ||
| 550 | find a file which does not already exist. This is the way to create a | ||
| 551 | file with Emacs: find the file, which will start out empty, and then | ||
| 552 | begin inserting the text for the file. When you ask to "save" the | ||
| 553 | file, Emacs will really create the file with the text that you have | ||
| 554 | inserted. From then on, you can consider yourself to be editing an | ||
| 555 | already existing file. | ||
| 556 | |||
| 557 | |||
| 558 | * BUFFERS | ||
| 559 | --------- | ||
| 560 | |||
| 561 | If you find a second file with C-x C-f, the first file remains | ||
| 562 | inside Emacs. You can switch back to it by finding it again with | ||
| 563 | C-x C-f. This way you can get quite a number of files inside Emacs. | ||
| 564 | |||
| 565 | >> Create a file named "foo" by typing C-x C-f foo <Return>. | ||
| 566 | Then insert some text, edit it, and save "foo" by typing C-x C-s. | ||
| 567 | Finally, type C-x C-f TUTORIAL <Return> | ||
| 568 | to come back to the tutorial. | ||
| 569 | |||
| 570 | Emacs stores each file's text inside an object called a "buffer". | ||
| 571 | Finding a file makes a new buffer inside Emacs. To see a list of the | ||
| 572 | buffers that currently exist in your Emacs job, type | ||
| 573 | |||
| 574 | C-x C-b List buffers | ||
| 575 | |||
| 576 | >> Try C-x C-b now. | ||
| 577 | |||
| 578 | See how each buffer has a name, and it may also have a file name for | ||
| 579 | the file whose contents it holds. ANY text you see in an Emacs window | ||
| 580 | is always part of some buffer. | ||
| 581 | |||
| 582 | >> Type C-x 1 to get rid of the buffer list. | ||
| 583 | |||
| 584 | When you have several buffers, only one of them is "current" at any | ||
| 585 | time. That buffer is the one you edit. If you want to edit another | ||
| 586 | buffer, you need to "switch" to it. If you want to switch to a buffer | ||
| 587 | that corresponds to a file, you can do it by visiting the file again | ||
| 588 | with C-x C-f. But there is an easier way: use the C-x b command. | ||
| 589 | In that command, you have to type the buffer's name. | ||
| 590 | |||
| 591 | >> Type C-x b foo <Return> to go back to the buffer "foo" which holds | ||
| 592 | the text of the file "foo". Then type C-x b TUTORIAL <Return> | ||
| 593 | to come back to this tutorial. | ||
| 594 | |||
| 595 | Most of the time, the buffer's name is the same as the file name | ||
| 596 | (without the file directory part). However, this is not always true. | ||
| 597 | The buffer list you make with C-x C-b always shows you the name of | ||
| 598 | every buffer. | ||
| 599 | |||
| 600 | ANY text you see in an Emacs window is always part of some buffer. | ||
| 601 | Some buffers do not correspond to files. For example, the buffer | ||
| 602 | named "*Buffer List*" does not have any file. It is the buffer which | ||
| 603 | contains the buffer list that you made with C-x C-b. The buffer named | ||
| 604 | "*Messages*" also does not correspond to any file; it contains the | ||
| 605 | messages that have appeared on the bottom line during your Emacs | ||
| 606 | session. | ||
| 607 | |||
| 608 | >> Type C-x b *Messages* <Return> to look at the buffer of messages. | ||
| 609 | Then type C-x b TUTORIAL <Return> to come back to this tutorial. | ||
| 610 | |||
| 611 | If you make changes to the text of one file, then find another file, | ||
| 612 | this does not save the first file. Its changes remain inside Emacs, | ||
| 613 | in that file's buffer. The creation or editing of the second file's | ||
| 614 | buffer has no effect on the first file's buffer. This is very useful, | ||
| 615 | but it also means that you need a convenient way to save the first | ||
| 616 | file's buffer. It would be a nuisance to have to switch back to | ||
| 617 | it with C-x C-f in order to save it with C-x C-s. So we have | ||
| 618 | |||
| 619 | C-x s Save some buffers | ||
| 620 | |||
| 621 | C-x s asks you about each buffer which contains changes that you have | ||
| 622 | not saved. It asks you, for each such buffer, whether to save the | ||
| 623 | buffer. | ||
| 624 | |||
| 625 | >> Insert a line of text, then type C-x s. | ||
| 626 | It should ask you whether to save the buffer named TUTORIAL. | ||
| 627 | Answer yes to the question by typing "y". | ||
| 628 | |||
| 629 | |||
| 630 | * EXTENDING THE COMMAND SET | ||
| 631 | --------------------------- | ||
| 632 | |||
| 633 | There are many, many more Emacs commands than could possibly be put | ||
| 634 | on all the control and meta characters. Emacs gets around this with | ||
| 635 | the X (eXtend) command. This comes in two flavors: | ||
| 636 | |||
| 637 | C-x Character eXtend. Followed by one character. | ||
| 638 | M-x Named command eXtend. Followed by a long name. | ||
| 639 | |||
| 640 | These are commands that are generally useful but used less than the | ||
| 641 | commands you have already learned about. You have already seen a few | ||
| 642 | of them: the file commands C-x C-f to Find and C-x C-s to Save, for | ||
| 643 | example. Another example is the command to end the Emacs | ||
| 644 | session--this is the command C-x C-c. (Do not worry about losing | ||
| 645 | changes you have made; C-x C-c offers to save each changed file before | ||
| 646 | it kills the Emacs.) | ||
| 647 | |||
| 648 | If you are using a graphical display that supports multiple | ||
| 649 | applications in parallel, you don't need any special command to move | ||
| 650 | from Emacs to another application. You can do this with the mouse or | ||
| 651 | with window manager commands. However, if you're using a text | ||
| 652 | terminal which can only show one application at a time, you need to | ||
| 653 | "suspend" Emacs to move to any other program. | ||
| 654 | |||
| 655 | C-z is the command to exit Emacs *temporarily*--so that you can go | ||
| 656 | back to the same Emacs session afterward. When Emacs is running on a | ||
| 657 | text terminal, C-z "suspends" Emacs; that is, it returns to the shell | ||
| 658 | but does not destroy the Emacs. In the most common shells, you can | ||
| 659 | resume Emacs with the `fg' command or with `%emacs'. | ||
| 660 | |||
| 661 | The time to use C-x C-c is when you are about to log out. It's also | ||
| 662 | the right thing to use to exit an Emacs invoked under mail handling | ||
| 663 | programs and other miscellaneous utilities, since they may not know | ||
| 664 | how to cope with suspension of Emacs. In ordinary circumstances, | ||
| 665 | though, if you are not about to log out, it is better to suspend Emacs | ||
| 666 | with C-z instead of exiting Emacs. | ||
| 667 | |||
| 668 | There are many C-x commands. Here is a list of the ones you have learned: | ||
| 669 | |||
| 670 | C-x C-f Find file | ||
| 671 | C-x C-s Save file | ||
| 672 | C-x s Save some buffers | ||
| 673 | C-x C-b List buffers | ||
| 674 | C-x b Switch buffer | ||
| 675 | C-x C-c Quit Emacs | ||
| 676 | C-x 1 Delete all but one window | ||
| 677 | C-x u Undo | ||
| 678 | |||
| 679 | Named eXtended commands are commands which are used even less | ||
| 680 | frequently, or commands which are used only in certain modes. An | ||
| 681 | example is the command replace-string, which globally replaces one | ||
| 682 | string with another. When you type M-x, Emacs prompts you at the | ||
| 683 | bottom of the screen with M-x and you should type the name of the | ||
| 684 | command; in this case, "replace-string". Just type "repl s<TAB>" and | ||
| 685 | Emacs will complete the name. (<TAB> is the Tab key, usually found | ||
| 686 | above the CapsLock or Shift key near the left edge of the keyboard.) | ||
| 687 | End the command name with <Return>. | ||
| 688 | |||
| 689 | The replace-string command requires two arguments--the string to be | ||
| 690 | replaced, and the string to replace it with. You must end each | ||
| 691 | argument with <Return>. | ||
| 692 | |||
| 693 | >> Move the cursor to the blank line two lines below this one. | ||
| 694 | Then type M-x repl s<Return>changed<Return>altered<Return>. | ||
| 695 | |||
| 696 | Notice how this line has changed: you've replaced | ||
| 697 | the word c-h-a-n-g-e-d with "altered" wherever it occurred, | ||
| 698 | after the initial position of the cursor. | ||
| 699 | |||
| 700 | |||
| 701 | * AUTO SAVE | ||
| 702 | ----------- | ||
| 703 | |||
| 704 | When you have made changes in a file, but you have not saved them yet, | ||
| 705 | they could be lost if your computer crashes. To protect you from | ||
| 706 | this, Emacs periodically writes an "auto save" file for each file that | ||
| 707 | you are editing. The auto save file name has a # at the beginning and | ||
| 708 | the end; for example, if your file is named "hello.c", its auto save | ||
| 709 | file's name is "#hello.c#". When you save the file in the normal way, | ||
| 710 | Emacs deletes its auto save file. | ||
| 711 | |||
| 712 | If the computer crashes, you can recover your auto-saved editing by | ||
| 713 | finding the file normally (the file you were editing, not the auto | ||
| 714 | save file) and then typing M-x recover file<Return>. When it asks for | ||
| 715 | confirmation, type yes<Return> to go ahead and recover the auto-save | ||
| 716 | data. | ||
| 717 | |||
| 718 | |||
| 719 | * ECHO AREA | ||
| 720 | ----------- | ||
| 721 | |||
| 722 | If Emacs sees that you are typing multicharacter commands slowly, it | ||
| 723 | shows them to you at the bottom of the screen in an area called the | ||
| 724 | "echo area". The echo area contains the bottom line of the screen. | ||
| 725 | |||
| 726 | |||
| 727 | * MODE LINE | ||
| 728 | ----------- | ||
| 729 | |||
| 730 | The line immediately above the echo area is called the "mode line". | ||
| 731 | The mode line says something like this: | ||
| 732 | |||
| 733 | --:** TUTORIAL 63% L749 (Fundamental)----------------------- | ||
| 734 | |||
| 735 | This line gives useful information about the status of Emacs and | ||
| 736 | the text you are editing. | ||
| 737 | |||
| 738 | You already know what the filename means--it is the file you have | ||
| 739 | found. NN% indicates your current position in the text; it means that | ||
| 740 | NN percent of the text is above the top of the screen. If the top of | ||
| 741 | the file is on the screen, it will say "Top" instead of " 0%". If the | ||
| 742 | bottom of the text is on the screen, it will say "Bot". If you are | ||
| 743 | looking at text so small that all of it fits on the screen, the mode | ||
| 744 | line says "All". | ||
| 745 | |||
| 746 | The L and digits indicate position in another way: they give the | ||
| 747 | current line number of point. | ||
| 748 | |||
| 749 | The stars near the front mean that you have made changes to the text. | ||
| 750 | Right after you visit or save a file, that part of the mode line shows | ||
| 751 | no stars, just dashes. | ||
| 752 | |||
| 753 | The part of the mode line inside the parentheses is to tell you what | ||
| 754 | editing modes you are in. The default mode is Fundamental which is | ||
| 755 | what you are using now. It is an example of a "major mode". | ||
| 756 | |||
| 757 | Emacs has many different major modes. Some of them are meant for | ||
| 758 | editing different languages and/or kinds of text, such as Lisp mode, | ||
| 759 | Text mode, etc. At any time one and only one major mode is active, | ||
| 760 | and its name can always be found in the mode line just where | ||
| 761 | "Fundamental" is now. | ||
| 762 | |||
| 763 | Each major mode makes a few commands behave differently. For example, | ||
| 764 | there are commands for creating comments in a program, and since each | ||
| 765 | programming language has a different idea of what a comment should | ||
| 766 | look like, each major mode has to insert comments differently. Each | ||
| 767 | major mode is the name of an extended command, which is how you can | ||
| 768 | switch to that mode. For example, M-x fundamental-mode is a command to | ||
| 769 | switch to Fundamental mode. | ||
| 770 | |||
| 771 | If you are going to be editing human-language text, such as this file, you | ||
| 772 | should probably use Text Mode. | ||
| 773 | |||
| 774 | >> Type M-x text mode<Return>. | ||
| 775 | |||
| 776 | Don't worry, none of the Emacs commands you have learned changes in | ||
| 777 | any great way. But you can observe that M-f and M-b now treat | ||
| 778 | apostrophes as part of words. Previously, in Fundamental mode, | ||
| 779 | M-f and M-b treated apostrophes as word-separators. | ||
| 780 | |||
| 781 | Major modes usually make subtle changes like that one: most commands | ||
| 782 | do "the same job" in each major mode, but they work a little bit | ||
| 783 | differently. | ||
| 784 | |||
| 785 | To view documentation on your current major mode, type C-h m. | ||
| 786 | |||
| 787 | >> Use C-u C-v once or more to bring this line near the top of screen. | ||
| 788 | >> Type C-h m, to see how Text mode differs from Fundamental mode. | ||
| 789 | >> Type C-x 1 to remove the documentation from the screen. | ||
| 790 | |||
| 791 | Major modes are called major because there are also minor modes. | ||
| 792 | Minor modes are not alternatives to the major modes, just minor | ||
| 793 | modifications of them. Each minor mode can be turned on or off by | ||
| 794 | itself, independent of all other minor modes, and independent of your | ||
| 795 | major mode. So you can use no minor modes, or one minor mode, or any | ||
| 796 | combination of several minor modes. | ||
| 797 | |||
| 798 | One minor mode which is very useful, especially for editing | ||
| 799 | human-language text, is Auto Fill mode. When this mode is on, Emacs | ||
| 800 | breaks the line in between words automatically whenever you insert | ||
| 801 | text and make a line that is too wide. | ||
| 802 | |||
| 803 | You can turn Auto Fill mode on by doing M-x auto fill mode<Return>. | ||
| 804 | When the mode is on, you can turn it off again by doing M-x | ||
| 805 | auto fill mode<Return>. If the mode is off, this command turns it on, | ||
| 806 | and if the mode is on, this command turns it off. We say that the | ||
| 807 | command "toggles the mode". | ||
| 808 | |||
| 809 | >> Type M-x auto fill mode<Return> now. Then insert a line of "asdf " | ||
| 810 | over again until you see it divide into two lines. You must put in | ||
| 811 | spaces between them because Auto Fill breaks lines only at spaces. | ||
| 812 | |||
| 813 | The margin is usually set at 70 characters, but you can change it | ||
| 814 | with the C-x f command. You should give the margin setting you want | ||
| 815 | as a numeric argument. | ||
| 816 | |||
| 817 | >> Type C-x f with an argument of 20. (C-u 2 0 C-x f). | ||
| 818 | Then type in some text and see Emacs fill lines of 20 | ||
| 819 | characters with it. Then set the margin back to 70 using | ||
| 820 | C-x f again. | ||
| 821 | |||
| 822 | If you make changes in the middle of a paragraph, Auto Fill mode | ||
| 823 | does not re-fill it for you. | ||
| 824 | To re-fill the paragraph, type M-q (META-q) with the cursor inside | ||
| 825 | that paragraph. | ||
| 826 | |||
| 827 | >> Move the cursor into the previous paragraph and type M-q. | ||
| 828 | |||
| 829 | |||
| 830 | * SEARCHING | ||
| 831 | ----------- | ||
| 832 | |||
| 833 | Emacs can do searches for strings (these are groups of contiguous | ||
| 834 | characters or words) either forward through the text or backward | ||
| 835 | through it. Searching for a string is a cursor motion command; | ||
| 836 | it moves the cursor to the next place where that string appears. | ||
| 837 | |||
| 838 | The Emacs search command is different from the search commands | ||
| 839 | of most editors, in that it is "incremental". This means that the | ||
| 840 | search happens while you type in the string to search for. | ||
| 841 | |||
| 842 | The command to initiate a search is C-s for forward search, and C-r | ||
| 843 | for reverse search. BUT WAIT! Don't try them now. | ||
| 844 | |||
| 845 | When you type C-s you'll notice that the string "I-search" appears as | ||
| 846 | a prompt in the echo area. This tells you that Emacs is in what is | ||
| 847 | called an incremental search waiting for you to type the thing that | ||
| 848 | you want to search for. <Return> terminates a search. | ||
| 849 | |||
| 850 | >> Now type C-s to start a search. SLOWLY, one letter at a time, | ||
| 851 | type the word 'cursor', pausing after you type each | ||
| 852 | character to notice what happens to the cursor. | ||
| 853 | Now you have searched for "cursor", once. | ||
| 854 | >> Type C-s again, to search for the next occurrence of "cursor". | ||
| 855 | >> Now type <Delback> four times and see how the cursor moves. | ||
| 856 | >> Type <Return> to terminate the search. | ||
| 857 | |||
| 858 | Did you see what happened? Emacs, in an incremental search, tries to | ||
| 859 | go to the occurrence of the string that you've typed out so far. To | ||
| 860 | go to the next occurrence of 'cursor' just type C-s again. If no such | ||
| 861 | occurrence exists, Emacs beeps and tells you the search is currently | ||
| 862 | "failing". C-g would also terminate the search. | ||
| 863 | |||
| 864 | NOTE: On some systems, typing C-s will freeze the screen and you will | ||
| 865 | see no further output from Emacs. This indicates that an operating | ||
| 866 | system "feature" called "flow control" is intercepting the C-s and not | ||
| 867 | letting it get through to Emacs. To unfreeze the screen, type C-q. | ||
| 868 | Then see the section "Spontaneous Entry to Incremental Search" in the | ||
| 869 | Emacs manual for advice on dealing with this "feature". | ||
| 870 | |||
| 871 | If you are in the middle of an incremental search and type <Delback>, | ||
| 872 | you'll notice that the last character in the search string is erased | ||
| 873 | and the search backs up to the last place of the search. For | ||
| 874 | instance, suppose you have typed "c", to search for the first | ||
| 875 | occurrence of "c". Now if you type "u", the cursor will move | ||
| 876 | to the first occurrence of "cu". Now type <Delback>. This erases | ||
| 877 | the "u" from the search string, and the cursor moves back to | ||
| 878 | the first occurrence of "c". | ||
| 879 | |||
| 880 | If you are in the middle of a search and type a control or meta | ||
| 881 | character (with a few exceptions--characters that are special in | ||
| 882 | a search, such as C-s and C-r), the search is terminated. | ||
| 883 | |||
| 884 | The C-s starts a search that looks for any occurrence of the search | ||
| 885 | string AFTER the current cursor position. If you want to search for | ||
| 886 | something earlier in the text, type C-r instead. Everything that we | ||
| 887 | have said about C-s also applies to C-r, except that the direction of | ||
| 888 | the search is reversed. | ||
| 889 | |||
| 890 | |||
| 891 | * MULTIPLE WINDOWS | ||
| 892 | ------------------ | ||
| 893 | |||
| 894 | One of the nice features of Emacs is that you can display more than one | ||
| 895 | window on the screen at the same time. | ||
| 896 | |||
| 897 | >> Move the cursor to this line and type C-u 0 C-l (that's CONTROL-L, not | ||
| 898 | CONTROL-1). | ||
| 899 | |||
| 900 | >> Now type C-x 2 which splits the screen into two windows. | ||
| 901 | Both windows display this tutorial. The cursor stays in the top window. | ||
| 902 | |||
| 903 | >> Type C-M-v to scroll the bottom window. | ||
| 904 | (If you do not have a real META key, type <ESC> C-v.) | ||
| 905 | |||
| 906 | >> Type C-x o ("o" for "other") to move the cursor to the bottom window. | ||
| 907 | >> Use C-v and M-v in the bottom window to scroll it. | ||
| 908 | Keep reading these directions in the top window. | ||
| 909 | |||
| 910 | >> Type C-x o again to move the cursor back to the top window. | ||
| 911 | The cursor in the top window is just where it was before. | ||
| 912 | |||
| 913 | You can keep using C-x o to switch between the windows. Each | ||
| 914 | window has its own cursor position, but only one window actually | ||
| 915 | shows the cursor. All the ordinary editing commands apply to the | ||
| 916 | window that the cursor is in. We call this the "selected window". | ||
| 917 | |||
| 918 | The command C-M-v is very useful when you are editing text in one | ||
| 919 | window and using the other window just for reference. You can keep | ||
| 920 | the cursor always in the window where you are editing, and advance | ||
| 921 | through the other window sequentially with C-M-v. | ||
| 922 | |||
| 923 | C-M-v is an example of a CONTROL-META character. If you have a real | ||
| 924 | META key, you can type C-M-v by holding down both CONTROL and META while | ||
| 925 | typing v. It does not matter whether CONTROL or META "comes first," | ||
| 926 | because both of these keys act by modifying the characters you type. | ||
| 927 | |||
| 928 | If you do not have a real META key, and you use <ESC> instead, the | ||
| 929 | order does matter: you must type <ESC> followed by CONTROL-v, because | ||
| 930 | CONTROL-<ESC> v will not work. This is because <ESC> is a character | ||
| 931 | in its own right, not a modifier key. | ||
| 932 | |||
| 933 | >> Type C-x 1 (in the top window) to get rid of the bottom window. | ||
| 934 | |||
| 935 | (If you had typed C-x 1 in the bottom window, that would get rid | ||
| 936 | of the top one. Think of this command as "Keep just one | ||
| 937 | window--the window I am already in.") | ||
| 938 | |||
| 939 | You do not have to display the same buffer in both windows. If you | ||
| 940 | use C-x C-f to find a file in one window, the other window does not | ||
| 941 | change. You can find a file in each window independently. | ||
| 942 | |||
| 943 | Here is another way to use two windows to display two different | ||
| 944 | things: | ||
| 945 | |||
| 946 | >> Type C-x 4 C-f followed by the name of one of your files. | ||
| 947 | End with <Return>. See the specified file appear in the bottom | ||
| 948 | window. The cursor goes there, too. | ||
| 949 | |||
| 950 | >> Type C-x o to go back to the top window, and C-x 1 to delete | ||
| 951 | the bottom window. | ||
| 952 | |||
| 953 | |||
| 954 | * RECURSIVE EDITING LEVELS | ||
| 955 | -------------------------- | ||
| 956 | |||
| 957 | Sometimes you will get into what is called a "recursive editing | ||
| 958 | level". This is indicated by square brackets in the mode line, | ||
| 959 | surrounding the parentheses around the major mode name. For | ||
| 960 | example, you might see [(Fundamental)] instead of (Fundamental). | ||
| 961 | |||
| 962 | To get out of the recursive editing level, type <ESC> <ESC> <ESC>. | ||
| 963 | That is an all-purpose "get out" command. You can also use it for | ||
| 964 | eliminating extra windows, and getting out of the minibuffer. | ||
| 965 | |||
| 966 | >> Type M-x to get into a minibuffer; then type <ESC> <ESC> <ESC> to | ||
| 967 | get out. | ||
| 968 | |||
| 969 | You cannot use C-g to get out of a recursive editing level. This is | ||
| 970 | because C-g is used for canceling commands and arguments WITHIN the | ||
| 971 | recursive editing level. | ||
| 972 | |||
| 973 | |||
| 974 | * GETTING MORE HELP | ||
| 975 | ------------------- | ||
| 976 | |||
| 977 | In this tutorial we have tried to supply just enough information to | ||
| 978 | get you started using Emacs. There is so much available in Emacs that | ||
| 979 | it would be impossible to explain it all here. However, you may want | ||
| 980 | to learn more about Emacs since it has many other useful features. | ||
| 981 | Emacs provides commands for reading documentation about Emacs | ||
| 982 | commands. These "help" commands all start with the character | ||
| 983 | CONTROL-h, which is called "the Help character". | ||
| 984 | |||
| 985 | To use the Help features, type the C-h character, and then a | ||
| 986 | character saying what kind of help you want. If you are REALLY lost, | ||
| 987 | type C-h ? and Emacs will tell you what kinds of help it can give. | ||
| 988 | If you have typed C-h and decide you do not want any help, just | ||
| 989 | type C-g to cancel it. | ||
| 990 | |||
| 991 | (Some sites change the meaning of the character C-h. They really | ||
| 992 | should not do this as a blanket measure for all users, so you have | ||
| 993 | grounds to complain to the system administrator. Meanwhile, if C-h | ||
| 994 | does not display a message about help at the bottom of the screen, try | ||
| 995 | typing the F1 key or M-x help <Return> instead.) | ||
| 996 | |||
| 997 | The most basic HELP feature is C-h c. Type C-h, the character c, and | ||
| 998 | a command character or sequence; then Emacs displays a very brief | ||
| 999 | description of the command. | ||
| 1000 | |||
| 1001 | >> Type C-h c C-p. | ||
| 1002 | |||
| 1003 | The message should be something like this: | ||
| 1004 | |||
| 1005 | C-p runs the command previous-line | ||
| 1006 | |||
| 1007 | This tells you the "name of the function". Function names are used | ||
| 1008 | mainly for customizing and extending Emacs. But since function names | ||
| 1009 | are chosen to indicate what the command does, they can serve also as | ||
| 1010 | very brief documentation--sufficient to remind you of commands you | ||
| 1011 | have already learned. | ||
| 1012 | |||
| 1013 | Multi-character commands such as C-x C-s and (if you have no META or | ||
| 1014 | EDIT or ALT key) <ESC>v are also allowed after C-h c. | ||
| 1015 | |||
| 1016 | To get more information about a command, use C-h k instead of C-h c. | ||
| 1017 | |||
| 1018 | >> Type C-h k C-p. | ||
| 1019 | |||
| 1020 | This displays the documentation of the function, as well as its | ||
| 1021 | name, in an Emacs window. When you are finished reading the | ||
| 1022 | output, type C-x 1 to get rid of the help text. You do not have | ||
| 1023 | to do this right away. You can do some editing while referring | ||
| 1024 | to the help text, and then type C-x 1. | ||
| 1025 | |||
| 1026 | Here are some other useful C-h options: | ||
| 1027 | |||
| 1028 | C-h f Describe a function. You type in the name of the | ||
| 1029 | function. | ||
| 1030 | |||
| 1031 | >> Try typing C-h f previous-line<Return>. | ||
| 1032 | This displays all the information Emacs has about the | ||
| 1033 | function which implements the C-p command. | ||
| 1034 | |||
| 1035 | A similar command C-h v displays the documentation of variables whose | ||
| 1036 | values you can set to customize Emacs behavior. You need to type in | ||
| 1037 | the name of the variable when Emacs prompts for it. | ||
| 1038 | |||
| 1039 | C-h a Command Apropos. Type in a keyword and Emacs will list | ||
| 1040 | all the commands whose names contain that keyword. | ||
| 1041 | These commands can all be invoked with META-x. | ||
| 1042 | For some commands, Command Apropos will also list a one | ||
| 1043 | or two character sequence which runs the same command. | ||
| 1044 | |||
| 1045 | >> Type C-h a file<Return>. | ||
| 1046 | |||
| 1047 | This displays in another window a list of all M-x commands with "file" | ||
| 1048 | in their names. You will see character-commands like C-x C-f listed | ||
| 1049 | beside the corresponding command names such as find-file. | ||
| 1050 | |||
| 1051 | >> Type C-M-v to scroll the help window. Do this a few times. | ||
| 1052 | |||
| 1053 | >> Type C-x 1 to delete the help window. | ||
| 1054 | |||
| 1055 | C-h i Read On-line Manuals (a.k.a. Info). This command puts | ||
| 1056 | you into a special buffer called `*info*' where you | ||
| 1057 | can read on-line manuals for the packages installed on | ||
| 1058 | your system. Type m emacs <Return> to read the Emacs | ||
| 1059 | manual. If you have never before used Info, type ? | ||
| 1060 | and Emacs will take you on a guided tour of Info mode | ||
| 1061 | facilities. Once you are through with this tutorial, | ||
| 1062 | you should consult the Emacs Info manual as your | ||
| 1063 | primary documentation. | ||
| 1064 | |||
| 1065 | |||
| 1066 | * MORE FEATURES | ||
| 1067 | --------------- | ||
| 1068 | |||
| 1069 | You can learn more about Emacs by reading its manual, either as a book | ||
| 1070 | or on-line in Info (use the Help menu or type F10 h r). Two features | ||
| 1071 | that you may like especially are completion, which saves typing, and | ||
| 1072 | dired, which simplifies file handling. | ||
| 1073 | |||
| 1074 | Completion is a way to avoid unnecessary typing. For instance, if you | ||
| 1075 | want to switch to the *Messages* buffer, you can type C-x b *M<Tab> | ||
| 1076 | and Emacs will fill in the rest of the buffer name as far as it can | ||
| 1077 | determine from what you have already typed. Completion is described | ||
| 1078 | in Info in the Emacs manual in the node called "Completion". | ||
| 1079 | |||
| 1080 | Dired enables you to list files in a directory (and optionally its | ||
| 1081 | subdirectories), move around that list, visit, rename, delete and | ||
| 1082 | otherwise operate on the files. Dired is described in Info in the | ||
| 1083 | Emacs manual in the node called "Dired". | ||
| 1084 | |||
| 1085 | The manual also describes many other Emacs features. | ||
| 1086 | |||
| 1087 | |||
| 1088 | * CONCLUSION | ||
| 1089 | ------------ | ||
| 1090 | |||
| 1091 | Remember, to exit Emacs permanently use C-x C-c. To exit to a shell | ||
| 1092 | temporarily, so that you can come back to Emacs afterward, use C-z. | ||
| 1093 | |||
| 1094 | This tutorial is meant to be understandable to all new users, so if | ||
| 1095 | you found something unclear, don't sit and blame yourself - complain! | ||
| 1096 | |||
| 1097 | |||
| 1098 | * COPYING | ||
| 1099 | --------- | ||
| 1100 | |||
| 1101 | This tutorial descends from a long line of Emacs tutorials | ||
| 1102 | starting with the one written by Stuart Cracraft for the original Emacs. | ||
| 1103 | |||
| 1104 | This version of the tutorial is a part of GNU Emacs. It is copyrighted | ||
| 1105 | and comes with permission to distribute copies on certain conditions: | ||
| 1106 | |||
| 1107 | Copyright (C) 1985, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, | ||
| 1108 | 2005, 2006, 2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc. | ||
| 1109 | |||
| 1110 | This file is part of GNU Emacs. | ||
| 1111 | |||
| 1112 | GNU Emacs is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify | ||
| 1113 | it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by | ||
| 1114 | the Free Software Foundation; either version 3, or (at your option) | ||
| 1115 | any later version. | ||
| 1116 | |||
| 1117 | GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, | ||
| 1118 | but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of | ||
| 1119 | MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the | ||
| 1120 | GNU General Public License for more details. | ||
| 1121 | |||
| 1122 | You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License | ||
| 1123 | along with GNU Emacs; see the file COPYING. If not, write to the | ||
| 1124 | Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, | ||
| 1125 | Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA. | ||
| 1126 | |||
| 1127 | Please read the file COPYING and then do give copies of GNU Emacs to | ||
| 1128 | your friends. Help stamp out software obstructionism ("ownership") by | ||
| 1129 | using, writing, and sharing free software! | ||
| 1130 | |||
| 1131 | ;;; arch-tag: a0f84628-777f-4238-8865-451a73167f55 | ||