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1 Copyright (c) 1985 Free Software Foundation, Inc; See end for conditions.
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2
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3 You are looking at the Emacs tutorial.
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4
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5 Emacs commands generally involve the CONTROL key (sometimes labelled
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6 CTRL or CTL) or the META key (sometimes labelled EDIT). Rather than
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7 write out META or CONTROL each time we want you to prefix a character,
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8 we'll use the following abbreviations:
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9
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10 C-<chr> means hold the CONTROL key while typing the character <chr>
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11 Thus, C-f would be: hold the CONTROL key and type f.
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12 M-<chr> means hold the META or EDIT key down while typing <chr>.
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13 If there is no META or EDIT key, type <ESC>, release it,
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14 then type the character <chr>. "<ESC>" stands for the
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15 key labelled "ALT" or "ESC".
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16
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17 Important note: to end the Emacs session, type C-x C-c. (Two characters.)
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18 The characters ">>" at the left margin indicate directions for you to
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19 try using a command. For instance:
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20 <<Blank lines inserted here by startup of help-with-tutorial>>
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21 >> Now type C-v (View next screen) to move to the next screen.
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22 (go ahead, do it by depressing the control key and v together).
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23 From now on, you'll be expected to do this whenever you finish
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24 reading the screen.
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25
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26 Note that there is an overlap when going from screen to screen; this
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27 provides some continuity when moving through the file.
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28
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29 The first thing that you need to know is how to move around from
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30 place to place in the file. You already know how to move forward a
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31 screen, with C-v. To move backwards a screen, type M-v (depress the
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32 META key and type v, or type <ESC>v if you don't have a META or EDIT
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33 key).
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34
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35 >> Try typing M-v and then C-v to move back and forth a few times.
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36
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37
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1375
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38 * SUMMARY
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39 ---------
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40
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41 The following commands are useful for viewing screenfuls:
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42
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43 C-v Move forward one screenful
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44 M-v Move backward one screenful
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45 C-l Clear screen and redisplay everything
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46 putting the text near the cursor at the center.
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47 (That's control-L, not control-1.
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48 There is no such character as control-1.)
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49
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50 >> Find the cursor and remember what text is near it.
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51 Then type a C-l.
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52 Find the cursor again and see what text is near it now.
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53
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54
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1375
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55 * BASIC CURSOR CONTROL
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56 ----------------------
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57
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58 Getting from screenful to screenful is useful, but how do you
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59 reposition yourself within a given screen to a specific place?
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60 There are several ways you can do this. One way (not the best, but
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61 the most basic) is to use the commands previous, backward, forward
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62 and next. As you can imagine these commands (which are given to
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63 Emacs as C-p, C-b, C-f, and C-n respectively) move the cursor from
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64 where it currently is to a new place in the given direction. Here,
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65 in a more graphical form are the commands:
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66
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67 Previous line, C-p
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68 :
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69 :
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70 Backward, C-b .... Current cursor position .... Forward, C-f
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71 :
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72 :
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73 Next line, C-n
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74
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75 >> Move the cursor to the line in the middle of that diagram
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76 and type C-l to see the whole diagram centered in the screen.
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77
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78 You'll probably find it easy to think of these by letter. P for
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79 previous, N for next, B for backward and F for forward. These are
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80 the basic cursor positioning commands and you'll be using them ALL
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81 the time so it would be of great benefit if you learn them now.
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82
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83 >> Do a few C-n's to bring the cursor down to this line.
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84
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85 >> Move into the line with C-f's and then up with C-p's.
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86 See what C-p does when the cursor is in the middle of the line.
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87
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88 Lines are separated by Newline characters. For most applications
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89 there should normally be a Newline character at the end of the text,
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90 as well, but it is up to you to make sure of this. A file can
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91 validly exist without a Newline at the end.
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92
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93 >> Try to C-b at the beginning of a line. Do a few more C-b's.
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94 Then do C-f's back to the end of the line and beyond.
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95
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96 When you go off the top or bottom of the screen, the text beyond
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97 the edge is shifted onto the screen so that your instructions can
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98 be carried out while keeping the cursor on the screen.
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99
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100 >> Try to move the cursor off the bottom of the screen with C-n and
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101 see what happens.
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102
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103 If moving by characters is too slow, you can move by words. M-f
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104 (Meta-f) moves forward a word and M-b moves back a word.
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105
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106 >> Type a few M-f's and M-b's. Intersperse them with C-f's and C-b's.
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107
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108 Notice the parallel between C-f and C-b on the one hand, and M-f and
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109 M-b on the other hand. Very often Meta characters are used for
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110 operations related to English text whereas Control characters operate
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111 on the basic textual units that are independent of what you are
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112 editing (characters, lines, etc). There is a similar parallel between
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113 lines and sentences: C-a and C-e move to the beginning or end of a
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114 line, and M-a and M-e move to the beginning or end of a sentence.
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115
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116 >> Try a couple of C-a's, and then a couple of C-e's.
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117 Try a couple of M-a's, and then a couple of M-e's.
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118
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119 See how repeated C-a's do nothing, but repeated M-a's keep moving
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120 farther. Do you think that this is right?
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121
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122 Two other simple cursor motion commands are M-< (Meta Less-than),
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123 which moves to the beginning of the file, and M-> (Meta Greater-than),
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124 which moves to the end of the file. You probably don't need to try
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125 them, since finding this spot again will be boring. On most terminals
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126 the "<" is above the comma and you must use the shift key to type it.
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127 On these terminals you must use the shift key to type M-< also;
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128 without the shift key, you would be typing M-comma.
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129
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130 The location of the cursor in the text is also called "point". To
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131 paraphrase, the cursor shows on the screen where point is located in
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132 the text.
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133
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134 Here is a summary of simple moving operations including the word and
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135 sentence moving commands:
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136
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137 C-f Move forward a character
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138 C-b Move backward a character
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139
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140 M-f Move forward a word
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141 M-b Move backward a word
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142
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143 C-n Move to next line
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144 C-p Move to previous line
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145
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146 C-a Move to beginning of line
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147 C-e Move to end of line
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148
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149 M-a Move back to beginning of sentence
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150 M-e Move forward to end of sentence
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151
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152 M-< Go to beginning of file
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153 M-> Go to end of file
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154
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155 >> Try all of these commands now a few times for practice.
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156 Since the last two will take you away from this screen,
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157 you can come back here with M-v's and C-v's. These are
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158 the most often used commands.
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159
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160 Like all other commands in Emacs, these commands can be given
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161 arguments which cause them to be executed repeatedly. The way you
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162 give a command a repeat count is by typing C-u and then the digits
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163 before you type the command. If you have a META or EDIT key, you can
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164 omit the C-u if you hold down the META or EDIT key while you type the
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165 digits. This is easier, but we recommend the C-u method because it
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166 works on any terminal.
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167
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168 For instance, C-u 8 C-f moves forward eight characters.
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169
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170 >> Try giving a suitable argument to C-n or C-p to come as close
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171 as you can to this line in one jump.
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172
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173 The only apparent exception to this is the screen moving commands,
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174 C-v and M-v. When given an argument, they scroll the screen up or
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175 down by that many lines, rather than screenfuls. This proves to be
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176 much more useful.
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177
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178 >> Try typing C-u 8 C-v now.
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179
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180 Did it scroll the screen up by 8 lines? If you would like to
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181 scroll it down you can give an argument to M-v.
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182
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2863
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183 If you are using X Windows, there is probably a rectangular area
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184 called a scroll bar at the right hand side of the Emacs window. You
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185 can scroll the text by clicking the mouse in the scroll bar.
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186
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187 >> Try pressing the middle button at the top of the highlighted area
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188 within the scroll bar, then moving the mouse while holding that button
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189 down.
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190
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191 >> Move the mouse to a point in the scroll bar about three lines from
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192 the top, and click the left button a couple of times. Then try the
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193 right button a couple of times.
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194
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13
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195
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1375
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196 * WHEN EMACS IS HUNG
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197 --------------------
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198
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199 If Emacs gets into an infinite (or simply very long) computation which
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200 you don't want to finish, you can stop it safely by typing C-g.
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201 You can also use C-g to discard a numeric argument or the beginning of
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202 a command that you don't want to finish.
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203
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204 >> Type C-u 100 to make a numeric arg of 100, then type C-g.
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205 Now type C-f. How many characters does it move?
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206 If you have typed an <ESC> by mistake, you can get rid of it
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207 with a C-g.
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208
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209 If you type <ESC> <ESC>, you get a new window appearing on
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210 the screen, telling you that M-ESC is a "disabled command"
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211 and asking whether you really want to execute it. The command
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212 M-ESC is marked as disabled because you probably don't want to
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213 use it until you know more about Emacs, and we expect it would
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214 confuse you if it were allowed to go ahead and run. If you really
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215 want to try the M-ESC command, you could type a Space in answer
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216 to the question and M-ESC would go ahead. Normally, if you do
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217 not want to execute M-ESC, you would type "n" to answer the question.
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218
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219 >> Type <ESC> <ESC>, then type n.
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220
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221
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1375
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222 * WINDOWS
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223 ---------
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224
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225 Emacs can have several windows, each displaying its own text.
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226 At this stage it is better not to go into the techniques of
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227 using multiple windows. But you do need to know how to get
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228 rid of extra windows that may appear to display help or
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229 output from certain commands. It is simple:
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230
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231 C-x 1 One window (i.e., kill all other windows).
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232
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233 That is Control-x followed by the digit 1.
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234 C-x 1 makes the window which the cursor is in become
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235 the full screen, by getting rid of any other windows.
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236
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237 >> Move the cursor to this line and type C-u 0 C-l.
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238 >> Type Control-h k Control-f.
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239 See how this window shrinks, while a new one appears
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240 to display documentation on the Control-f command.
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241
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242 >> Type C-x 1 and see the documentation listing window disappear.
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243
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244
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1375
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245 * INSERTING AND DELETING
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246 ------------------------
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247
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248 If you want to insert text, just type it. Characters which you can
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249 see, such as A, 7, *, etc. are taken by Emacs as text and inserted
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250 immediately. Type <Return> (the carriage-return key) to insert a
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251 Newline character.
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252
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253 You can delete the last character you typed by typing <Rubout>.
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254 <Rubout> is a key on the keyboard, which might be labelled "Delete"
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255 instead of "Rubout" on some terminals. More generally, <Rubout>
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256 deletes the character immediately before the current cursor position.
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257
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258 >> Do this now, type a few characters and then delete them
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259 by typing <Rubout> a few times. Don't worry about this file
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260 being changed; you won't affect the master tutorial. This is just
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261 a copy of it.
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262
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263 >> Now start typing text until you reach the right margin, and keep
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264 typing. When a line of text gets too big for one line on the
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265 screen, the line of text is "continued" onto a second screen line.
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266 The backslash at the right margin indicates a line which has
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267 been continued.
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268 >> Use <Rubout>s to delete the text until the line fits on one screen
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269 line again. The continuation line goes away.
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270
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271 >> Move the cursor to the beginning of a line and type <Rubout>. This
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272 deletes the newline before the line and merges the line onto
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273 the previous line. The resulting line may be too long to fit, in
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274 which case it has a continuation line.
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275 >> Type <Return> to reinsert the Newline you deleted.
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276
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277 Remember that most Emacs commands can be given a repeat count;
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278 this includes characters which insert themselves.
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279
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280 >> Try that now -- type C-u 8 * and see what happens.
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281
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282 You've now learned the most basic way of typing something in
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283 Emacs and correcting errors. You can delete by words or lines
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284 as well. Here is a summary of the delete operations:
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285
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286 <Rubout> delete the character just before the cursor
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287 C-d delete the next character after the cursor
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288
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289 M-<Rubout> kill the word immediately before the cursor
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290 M-d kill the next word after the cursor
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291
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292 C-k kill from the cursor position to end of line
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293 M-k kill to the end of the current sentence
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294
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295 Notice that <Rubout> and C-d vs M-<Rubout> and M-d extend the parallel
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296 started by C-f and M-f (well, <Rubout> isn't really a control
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297 character, but let's not worry about that). C-k and M-k are like C-e
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298 and M-e, sort of, in that lines are opposite sentences.
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299
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300 Now suppose you kill something, and then you decide that you want to
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301 get it back? Well, whenever you kill something bigger than a
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302 character, Emacs saves it for you. To yank it back, use C-y. You
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303 can kill text in one place, move elsewhere, and then do C-y; this is
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304 a good way to move text around. Note that the difference
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305 between "Killing" and "Deleting" something is that "Killed" things
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306 can be yanked back, and "Deleted" things cannot. Generally, the
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307 commands that can destroy a lot of text save it, while the ones that
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308 attack only one character, or nothing but blank lines and spaces, do
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309 not save.
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310
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311 For instance, type C-n a couple times to position the cursor
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312 at some line on this screen.
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313
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314 >> Do this now, move the cursor and kill that line with C-k.
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315
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316 Note that a single C-k kills the contents of the line, and a second
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317 C-k kills the line itself, and make all the other lines move up. If
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318 you give C-k a repeat count, it kills that many lines AND their
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319 contents.
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320
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321 The text that has just disappeared is saved so that you can
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322 retrieve it. To retrieve the last killed text and put it where
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323 the cursor currently is, type C-y.
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324
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325 >> Try it; type C-y to yank the text back.
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326
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327 Think of C-y as if you were yanking something back that someone
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328 took away from you. Notice that if you do several C-k's in a row
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329 the text that is killed is all saved together so that one C-y will
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330 yank all of the lines.
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331
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332 >> Do this now, type C-k several times.
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333
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334 Now to retrieve that killed text:
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335
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336 >> Type C-y. Then move the cursor down a few lines and type C-y
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337 again. You now see how to copy some text.
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338
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339 What do you do if you have some text you want to yank back, and then
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340 you kill something else? C-y would yank the more recent kill. But
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341 the previous text is not lost. You can get back to it using the M-y
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342 command. After you have done C-y to get the most recent kill, typing
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343 M-Y replaces that yanked text with the previous kill. Typing M-y
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344 again and again brings in earlier and earlier kills. When you
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345 have reached the text you are looking for, you can just go away and
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346 leave it there. If you M-y enough times, you come back to the
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347 starting point (the most recent kill).
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348
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349 >> Kill a line, move around, kill another line.
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350 Then do C-y to get back the second killed line.
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351 Then do M-y and it will be replaced by the first killed line.
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352 Do more M-y's and see what you get. Keep doing them until
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353 the second kill line comes back, and then a few more.
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354 If you like, you can try giving M-y positive and negative
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355 arguments.
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356
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357
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1375
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358 * UNDO
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359 ------
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360
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361 Any time you make a change to the text and wish you had not done so,
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362 you can undo the change (return the text to its previous state)
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363 with the undo command, C-x u. Normally, C-x u undoes one command's
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364 worth of changes; if you repeat the C-x u several times in a row,
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365 each time undoes one more command. There are two exceptions:
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366 commands that made no change (just moved the cursor) do not count,
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367 and self-inserting characters are often lumped together in groups
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368 of up to 20. This is to reduce the number of C-x u's you have to type.
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369
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370 >> Kill this line with C-k, then type C-x u and it should reappear.
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371
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372 C-_ is another command for undoing; it is just the same as C-x u
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373 but easier to type several times in a row. The problem with C-_ is
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374 that on some keyboards it is not obvious how to type it. That is
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375 why C-x u is provided as well. On some DEC terminals, you can type
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376 C-_ by typing / while holding down CTRL. Illogical, but what can
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377 you expect from DEC?
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378
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379 Giving a numeric argument to C-_ or C-x u is equivalent to repeating
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380 it as many times as the argument says.
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381
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382
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1375
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383 * FILES
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384 -------
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385
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386 In order to make the text you edit permanent, you must put it in a
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387 file. Otherwise, it will go away when your invocation of Emacs goes
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388 away. You put your editing in a file by "finding" the file. What
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389 finding means is that you see the contents of the file in your Emacs;
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390 and, loosely speaking, what you are editing is the file itself.
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391 However, the changes still don't become permanent until you "save" the
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392 file. This is so you can have control to avoid leaving a half-changed
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393 file around when you don't want to. Even then, Emacs leaves the
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394 original file under a changed name in case your changes turn out
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395 to be a mistake.
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396
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397 If you look near the bottom of the screen you will see a line that
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398 begins and ends with dashes, and contains the string "Emacs: TUTORIAL".
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399 Your copy of the Emacs tutorial is called "TUTORIAL". Whatever
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400 file you find, that file's name will appear in that precise
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401 spot.
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402
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403 The commands for finding and saving files are unlike the other
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404 commands you have learned in that they consist of two characters.
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405 They both start with the character Control-x. There is a whole series
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406 of commands that start with Control-x; many of them have to do with
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407 files, buffers, and related things, and all of them consist of
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408 Control-x followed by some other character.
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409
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410 Another thing about the command for finding a file is that you have
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411 to say what file name you want. We say the command "reads an argument
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412 from the terminal" (in this case, the argument is the name of the
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413 file). After you type the command
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414
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415 C-x C-f Find a file
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416
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417 Emacs asks you to type the file name. It echoes on the bottom
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418 line of the screen. You are using the minibuffer now! this is
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419 what the minibuffer is for. When you type <Return> to end the
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420 file name, the minibuffer is no longer needed, so it disappears.
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421
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422 >> Type C-x C-f, then type C-g. This cancels the minibuffer,
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423 and also cancels the C-x C-f command that was using the
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424 minibuffer. So you do not find any file.
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425
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426 In a little while the file contents appear on the screen. You can
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427 edit the contents. When you wish to make the changes permanent,
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428 issue the command
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429
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430 C-x C-s Save the file
|
|
431
|
|
432 The contents of Emacs are written into the file. The first time you
|
|
433 do this, the original file is renamed to a new name so that it
|
|
434 is not lost. The new name is made by appending "~" to the end
|
|
435 of the original file's name.
|
|
436
|
|
437 When saving is finished, Emacs prints the name of the file written.
|
|
438 You should save fairly often, so that you will not lose very much
|
|
439 work if the system should crash.
|
|
440
|
|
441 >> Type C-x C-s, saving your copy of the tutorial.
|
|
442 This should print "Wrote .../TUTORIAL" at the bottom of the screen.
|
|
443 On VMS it will print "Wrote ...[...]TUTORIAL."
|
|
444
|
|
445 To make a new file, just find it "as if" it already existed. Then
|
|
446 start typing in the text. When you ask to "save" the file, Emacs
|
|
447 will really create the file with the text that you have inserted.
|
|
448 From then on, you can consider yourself to be editing an already
|
|
449 existing file.
|
|
450
|
|
451
|
1375
|
452 * BUFFERS
|
|
453 ---------
|
13
|
454
|
|
455 If you find a second file with C-x C-f, the first file remains
|
|
456 inside Emacs. You can switch back to it by finding it again with
|
|
457 C-x C-f. This way you can get quite a number of files inside Emacs.
|
|
458
|
|
459 The object inside Emacs which holds the text read from one file
|
|
460 is called a "buffer." Finding a file makes a new buffer inside Emacs.
|
|
461 To see a list of the buffers that exist in Emacs, type
|
|
462
|
|
463 C-x C-b List buffers
|
|
464
|
|
465 >> Try C-x C-b now.
|
|
466
|
|
467 See how each buffer has a name, and it may also have a file name
|
|
468 for the file whose contents it holds. Some buffers do not correspond
|
|
469 to files. For example, the buffer named "*Buffer List*" does
|
|
470 not have any file. It is the buffer which contains the buffer
|
|
471 list that was made by C-x C-b. ANY text you see in an Emacs window
|
|
472 has to be in some buffer.
|
|
473
|
|
474 >> Type C-x 1 to get rid of the buffer list.
|
|
475
|
|
476 If you make changes to the text of one file, then find another file,
|
|
477 this does not save the first file. Its changes remain inside Emacs,
|
|
478 in that file's buffer. The creation or editing of the second file's
|
|
479 buffer has no effect on the first file's buffer. This is very useful,
|
|
480 but it also means that you need a convenient way to save the first
|
|
481 file's buffer. It would be a nuisance to have to switch back to
|
|
482 it with C-x C-f in order to save it with C-x C-s. So we have
|
|
483
|
|
484 C-x s Save some buffers
|
|
485
|
|
486 C-x s goes through the list of all the buffers you have
|
|
487 and finds the ones that contain files you have changed.
|
|
488 For each such buffer, C-x s asks you whether to save it.
|
|
489
|
|
490
|
1375
|
491 * EXTENDING THE COMMAND SET
|
|
492 ---------------------------
|
13
|
493
|
|
494 There are many, many more Emacs commands than could possibly be put
|
|
495 on all the control and meta characters. Emacs gets around this with
|
|
496 the X (eXtend) command. This comes in two flavors:
|
|
497
|
|
498 C-x Character eXtend. Followed by one character.
|
|
499 M-x Named command eXtend. Followed by a long name.
|
|
500
|
|
501 These are commands that are generally useful but used less than the
|
|
502 commands you have already learned about. You have already seen two
|
|
503 of them: the file commands C-x C-f to Find and C-x C-s to Save.
|
|
504 Another example is the command to tell Emacs that you'd like to stop
|
|
505 editing and get rid of Emacs. The command to do this is C-x C-c.
|
|
506 (Don't worry; it offers to save each changed file before it kills the
|
|
507 Emacs.)
|
|
508
|
|
509 C-z is the usual way to exit Emacs, because it is always better not to
|
|
510 kill the Emacs if you are going to do any more editing. On systems
|
|
511 which allow it, C-z exits from Emacs to the shell but does not destroy
|
|
512 the Emacs; if you use the C shell, you can resume Emacs with the `fg'
|
|
513 command (or, more generally, with `%emacs', which works even if your
|
|
514 most recent job was some other). On systems where suspending is not
|
|
515 possible, C-z creates a subshell running under Emacs to give you the
|
|
516 chance to run other programs and return to Emacs afterward, but it
|
|
517 does not truly "exit" from Emacs. In this case, the shell command
|
|
518 `exit' is the usual way to get back to Emacs from the subshell.
|
|
519
|
|
520 You would use C-x C-c if you were about to log out. You would
|
|
521 also use it to exit an Emacs invoked under mail handling programs
|
|
522 and other random utilities, since they may not believe you have
|
|
523 really finished using the Emacs if it continues to exist.
|
|
524
|
|
525 There are many C-x commands. The ones you know are:
|
|
526
|
|
527 C-x C-f Find file.
|
|
528 C-x C-s Save file.
|
|
529 C-x C-b List buffers.
|
|
530 C-x C-c Quit Emacs.
|
|
531 C-x u Undo.
|
|
532
|
|
533 Named eXtended commands are commands which are used even less
|
|
534 frequently, or commands which are used only in certain modes. These
|
|
535 commands are usually called "functions". An example is the function
|
|
536 replace-string, which globally replaces one string with another. When
|
|
537 you type M-x, Emacs prompts you at the bottom of the screen with
|
|
538 M-x and you should type the name of the function you wish to call; in
|
|
539 this case, "replace-string". Just type "repl s<TAB>" and Emacs will
|
|
540 complete the name. End the command name with <Return>.
|
|
541 Then type the two "arguments"--the string to be replaced, and the string
|
|
542 to replace it with--each one ended with a Return.
|
|
543
|
|
544 >> Move the cursor to the blank line two lines below this one.
|
|
545 Then type M-x repl s<Return>changed<Return>altered<Return>.
|
|
546
|
|
547 Notice how this line has changed: you've replaced
|
34
|
548 the word c-h-a-n-g-e-d with "altered" wherever it occurred
|
13
|
549 after the cursor.
|
|
550
|
|
551
|
1375
|
552 * MODE LINE
|
|
553 -----------
|
13
|
554
|
|
555 If Emacs sees that you are typing commands slowly it shows them to you
|
|
556 at the bottom of the screen in an area called the "echo area." The echo
|
|
557 area contains the bottom line of the screen. The line immediately above
|
|
558 it is called the MODE LINE. The mode line says something like
|
|
559
|
1375
|
560 ----**--Emacs: TUTORIAL (Fundamental)----58%-------------
|
13
|
561
|
|
562 This is a very useful "information" line.
|
|
563
|
|
564 You already know what the filename means--it is the file you have
|
|
565 found. What the --NN%-- means is that NN percent of the file is
|
|
566 above the top of the screen. If the top of the file is on the screen,
|
|
567 it will say --TOP-- instead of --00%--. If the bottom of the file is
|
|
568 on the screen, it will say --BOT--. If you are looking at a file so
|
|
569 small it all fits on the screen, it says --ALL--.
|
|
570
|
|
571 The stars near the front mean that you have made changes to the text.
|
|
572 Right after you visit or save a file, there are no stars, just dashes.
|
|
573
|
|
574 The part of the mode line inside the parentheses is to tell you what
|
|
575 modes you are in. The default mode is Fundamental which is what you
|
|
576 are in now. It is an example of a "major mode". There are several
|
|
577 major modes in Emacs for editing different languages and text, such as
|
|
578 Lisp mode, Text mode, etc. At any time one and only one major mode is
|
|
579 active, and its name can always be found in the mode line just where
|
|
580 "Fundamental" is now. Each major mode makes a few commands behave
|
|
581 differently. For example, there are commands for creating comments in
|
|
582 a program, and since each programming language has a different idea of
|
|
583 what a comment should look like, each major mode has to insert
|
|
584 comments differently. Each major mode is the name of an extended
|
|
585 command, which is how you get into the mode. For example,
|
|
586 M-X fundamental-mode is how to get into Fundamental mode.
|
|
587
|
|
588 If you are going to be editing English text, such as this file, you
|
|
589 should probably use Text Mode.
|
|
590 >> Type M-x text-mode<Return>.
|
|
591
|
|
592 Don't worry, none of the commands you have learned changes Emacs in
|
2619
|
593 any great way. But you can observe that apostrophes are now part of
|
|
594 words when you do M-f or M-b. Major modes are usually like that:
|
|
595 commands don't change into completely unrelated things, but they work
|
|
596 a little bit differently.
|
13
|
597
|
|
598 To get documentation on your current major mode, type C-h m.
|
|
599
|
|
600 >> Use C-u C-v once or more to bring this line near the top of screen.
|
|
601 >> Type C-h m, to see how Text mode differs from Fundamental mode.
|
|
602 >> Type C-x 1 to remove the documentation from the screen.
|
|
603
|
|
604 Major modes are called major because there are also minor modes.
|
|
605 They are called minor because they aren't alternatives to the major
|
|
606 modes, just minor modifications of them. Each minor mode can be
|
|
607 turned on or off by itself, regardless of what major mode you are in,
|
|
608 and regardless of the other minor modes. So you can use no minor
|
|
609 modes, or one minor mode, or any combination of several minor modes.
|
|
610
|
|
611 One minor mode which is very useful, especially for editing English
|
|
612 text, is Auto Fill mode. When this mode is on, Emacs breaks the line
|
|
613 in between words automatically whenever the line gets too long. You
|
|
614 can turn this mode on by doing M-x auto-fill-mode<Return>. When the
|
|
615 mode is on, you can turn it off by doing M-x auto-fill-mode<Return>.
|
|
616 If the mode is off, this function turns it on, and if the mode is on,
|
|
617 this function turns it off. This is called "toggling".
|
|
618
|
|
619 >> Type M-x auto-fill-mode<Return> now. Then insert a line of "asdf "
|
|
620 over again until you see it divide into two lines. You must put in
|
|
621 spaces between them because Auto Fill breaks lines only at spaces.
|
|
622
|
|
623 The margin is usually set at 70 characters, but you can change it
|
|
624 with the C-x f command. You should give the margin setting you want
|
|
625 as a numeric argument.
|
|
626
|
|
627 >> Type C-x f with an argument of 20. (C-u 2 0 C-x f).
|
|
628 Then type in some text and see Emacs fill lines of 20
|
|
629 characters with it. Then set the margin back to 70 using
|
|
630 C-x f again.
|
|
631
|
|
632 If you makes changes in the middle of a paragraph, Auto Fill mode
|
|
633 does not re-fill it for you.
|
|
634 To re-fill the paragraph, type M-q (Meta-q) with the cursor inside
|
|
635 that paragraph.
|
|
636
|
|
637 >> Move the cursor into the previous paragraph and type M-q.
|
|
638
|
1375
|
639 * SEARCHING
|
|
640 -----------
|
13
|
641
|
|
642 Emacs can do searches for strings (these are groups of contiguous
|
|
643 characters or words) either forward through the file or backward
|
|
644 through it. To search for the string means that you are trying to
|
|
645 locate it somewhere in the file and have Emacs show you where the
|
|
646 occurrences of the string exist. This type of search is somewhat
|
|
647 different from what you may be familiar with. It is a search that is
|
|
648 performed as you type in the thing to search for. The command to
|
|
649 initiate a search is C-s for forward search, and C-r for reverse
|
|
650 search. BUT WAIT! Don't do them now. When you type C-s you'll
|
|
651 notice that the string "I-search" appears as a prompt in the echo
|
|
652 area. This tells you that Emacs is in what is called an incremental
|
|
653 search waiting for you to type the thing that you want to search for.
|
|
654 <ESC> terminates a search.
|
|
655
|
|
656 >> Now type C-s to start a search. SLOWLY, one letter at a time,
|
|
657 type the word 'cursor', pausing after you type each
|
|
658 character to notice what happens to the cursor.
|
|
659 >> Type C-s to find the next occurrence of "cursor".
|
|
660 >> Now type <Rubout> four times and see how the cursor moves.
|
|
661 >> Type <ESC> to terminate the search.
|
|
662
|
|
663 Did you see what happened? Emacs, in an incremental search, tries to
|
|
664 go to the occurrence of the string that you've typed out so far. To go
|
|
665 to the next occurrence of 'cursor' just type C-s again. If no such
|
|
666 occurrence exists Emacs beeps and tells you that it is a failing
|
|
667 search. C-g would also terminate the search.
|
|
668
|
|
669 If you are in the middle of an incremental search and type <Rubout>,
|
|
670 you'll notice that the last character in the search string is erased
|
|
671 and the search backs up to the last place of the search. For
|
|
672 instance, suppose you currently have typed 'cu' and you see that your
|
|
673 cursor is at the first occurrence of 'cu'. If you now type <Rubout>,
|
|
674 the 'u' on the search line is erased and you'll be repositioned in the
|
|
675 text to the occurrence of 'c' where the search took you before you
|
|
676 typed the 'u'. This provides a useful means for backing up while you
|
|
677 are searching.
|
|
678
|
|
679 If you are in the middle of a search and happen to type a control
|
|
680 character (other than a C-s or C-r, which tell Emacs to search for the
|
|
681 next occurrence of the string), the search is terminated.
|
|
682
|
|
683 The C-s starts a search that looks for any occurrence of the search
|
|
684 string AFTER the current cursor position. But what if you want to
|
|
685 search for something earlier in the text? To do this, type C-r for
|
|
686 Reverse search. Everything that applies to C-s applies to C-r except
|
|
687 that the direction of the search is reversed.
|
|
688
|
|
689
|
1375
|
690 * MULTIPLE WINDOWS
|
|
691 ------------------
|
476
|
692
|
|
693 One of the nice features of Emacs is that you can display more than one
|
|
694 window on the screen at the same time.
|
|
695
|
|
696 >> Move the cursor to this line and type C-u 0 C-l.
|
|
697
|
|
698 >> Now type C-x 2 which splits the screen into two windows.
|
|
699 Both windows display this tutorial. The cursor stays in the top window.
|
|
700
|
|
701 >> Type C-M-v to scroll the bottom window.
|
|
702
|
|
703 >> Type C-x o ("o" for "other") to move the cursor to the bottom window.
|
|
704 >> Use C-v and M-v in the bottom window to scroll it.
|
|
705 Keep reading these directions in the top window.
|
|
706
|
|
707 >> Type C-x o again to move the cursor back to the top window.
|
|
708 The cursor is still just where it was in the top window before.
|
|
709
|
|
710 You can keep using C-x o to switch between the windows. Each
|
|
711 window has its own cursor position, but only one window actually
|
|
712 shows the cursor. All the ordinary editing commands apply to the
|
|
713 window that the cursor is in.
|
|
714
|
|
715 The command C-M-v is very useful when you are editing text in one
|
|
716 window and using the other window just for reference. You can keep
|
|
717 the cursor always in the window where you are editing, and edit
|
|
718 there as you advance through the other window.
|
|
719
|
|
720 >> Type C-x 1 (in the top window) to get rid of the bottom window.
|
|
721
|
|
722 (If you had typed C-x 1 in the bottom window, that would get rid
|
|
723 of the top one. Think of this command as "Keep just one
|
|
724 window--the window I am already in.")
|
|
725
|
|
726 You don't have to display the same buffer in both windows. If
|
|
727 you use C-x C-f to find a file in one window, the other window
|
|
728 doesn't change. You can pick a file in each window
|
|
729 independently.
|
|
730
|
|
731 Here is another way to use two windows to display two different
|
|
732 things:
|
|
733
|
|
734 >> Type C-x 4 C-f followed by the name of one of your files.
|
|
735 End with <RETURN>. See the specified file appear in the bottom
|
|
736 window. The cursor goes there, too.
|
|
737
|
|
738 >> Type C-x o to go back to the top window, and C-x 1 to delete
|
|
739 the bottom window.
|
|
740
|
|
741
|
1375
|
742 * RECURSIVE EDITING LEVELS
|
|
743 --------------------------
|
13
|
744
|
|
745 Sometimes you will get into what is called a "recursive editing
|
|
746 level". This is indicated by square brackets in the mode line,
|
|
747 surrounding the parentheses around the major mode name. For
|
|
748 example, you might see [(Fundamental)] instead of (Fundamental).
|
|
749
|
|
750 To get out of the recursive editing level, type
|
|
751 M-x top-level<Return>.
|
|
752
|
|
753 >> Try that now; it should display "Back to top level"
|
|
754 at the bottom of the screen.
|
|
755
|
|
756 In fact, you were ALREADY at top level (not inside a recursive editing
|
|
757 level) if you have obeyed instructions. M-x top-level does not care;
|
|
758 it gets out of any number of recursive editing levels, perhaps zero,
|
|
759 to get back to top level.
|
|
760
|
|
761 You can't use C-g to get out of a recursive editing level because C-g
|
|
762 is used for discarding numeric arguments and partially typed commands
|
|
763 WITHIN the recursive editing level.
|
|
764
|
|
765
|
1375
|
766 * GETTING MORE HELP
|
|
767 -------------------
|
13
|
768
|
|
769 In this tutorial we have tried to supply just enough information to
|
|
770 get you started using Emacs. There is so much available in Emacs that
|
|
771 it would be impossible to explain it all here. However, you may want
|
|
772 to learn more about Emacs since it has numerous desirable features
|
|
773 that you don't know about yet. Emacs has a great deal of internal
|
|
774 documentation. All of these commands can be accessed through
|
|
775 the character Control-h, which we call "the Help character"
|
|
776 because of the function it serves.
|
|
777
|
|
778 To use the HELP features, type the C-h character, and then a
|
|
779 character saying what kind of help you want. If you are REALLY lost,
|
|
780 type C-h ? and Emacs will tell you what kinds of help it can give.
|
|
781 If you have typed C-h and decide you don't want any help, just
|
|
782 type C-G to cancel it.
|
|
783
|
|
784 The most basic HELP feature is C-h c. Type C-h, a c, and a
|
|
785 command character or sequence, and Emacs displays a very brief
|
|
786 description of the command.
|
|
787
|
|
788 >> Type C-h c Control-p.
|
|
789 The message should be something like
|
|
790
|
|
791 C-p runs the command previous-line
|
|
792
|
|
793 This tells you the "name of the function". That is important in
|
|
794 writing Lisp code to extend Emacs; it also is enough to remind
|
|
795 you of what the command does if you have seen it before but did
|
|
796 not remember.
|
|
797
|
|
798 Multi-character commands such as C-x C-s and (if you have no META or
|
|
799 EDIT key) <ESC>v are also allowed after C-h c.
|
|
800
|
|
801 To get more information on the command, use C-h k instead of C-h c.
|
|
802
|
|
803 >> Type C-h k Control-p.
|
|
804
|
477
|
805 This displays the documentation of the function, as well as its
|
|
806 name, in an Emacs window. When you are finished reading the
|
|
807 output, type C-x 1 to get rid of the help text. You do not have
|
|
808 to do this right away. You can do some editing while referring
|
|
809 to the help text and then type C-x 1.
|
13
|
810
|
|
811 Here are some other useful C-h options:
|
|
812
|
|
813 C-h f Describe a function. You type in the name of the
|
|
814 function.
|
|
815
|
|
816 >> Try typing C-h f previous-line<Return>.
|
|
817 This prints all the information Emacs has about the
|
|
818 function which implements the C-P command.
|
|
819
|
|
820 C-h a Command Apropos. Type in a keyword and Emacs will list
|
|
821 all the commands whose names contain that keyword.
|
|
822 These commands can all be invoked with Meta-x.
|
|
823 For some commands, Command Apropos will also list a one
|
|
824 or two character sequence which has the same effect.
|
|
825
|
477
|
826 >> Type C-h a file<Return>.
|
|
827
|
|
828 This displays in another window a list of all M-x commands with
|
|
829 "file" in their names. You will also see commands like C-x C-f
|
|
830 and C-x C-w, listed beside the command names find-file and
|
|
831 write-file.
|
|
832
|
|
833 >> Type C-M-v to scroll the help window. Do this a few times.
|
|
834
|
|
835 >> Type C-x 1 to delete the help window.
|
13
|
836
|
|
837
|
1375
|
838 * CONCLUSION
|
|
839 ------------
|
13
|
840
|
|
841 Remember, to exit Emacs permanently use C-x C-c. To exit to a shell
|
|
842 temporarily, so that you can come back in, use C-z.
|
|
843
|
|
844 This tutorial is meant to be understandable to all new users, so if
|
|
845 you found something unclear, don't sit and blame yourself - complain!
|
|
846
|
|
847
|
|
848 COPYING
|
|
849 -------
|
|
850
|
|
851 This tutorial descends from a long line of Emacs tutorials
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852 starting with the one written by Stuart Cracraft for the original Emacs.
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853
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854 This version of the tutorial, like GNU Emacs, is copyrighted, and
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855 comes with permission to distribute copies on certain conditions:
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856
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857 Copyright (c) 1985 Free Software Foundation
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858
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859 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
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860 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
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861 copyright notice and permission notice are preserved,
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862 and that the distributor grants the recipient permission
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863 for further redistribution as permitted by this notice.
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864
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865 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
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866 of this document, or of portions of it,
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867 under the above conditions, provided also that they
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868 carry prominent notices stating who last altered them.
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869
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870 The conditions for copying Emacs itself are slightly different
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871 but in the same spirit. Please read the file COPYING and then
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872 do give copies of GNU Emacs to your friends.
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873 Help stamp out software obstructionism ("ownership") by using,
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874 writing, and sharing free software!
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