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annotate man/screen.texi @ 37778:bb2c78e3e068
(NEW_CYGWIN): Output message about spurious error
message that is to be ignored.
author | Andrew Innes <andrewi@gnu.org> |
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date | Thu, 17 May 2001 12:44:02 +0000 |
parents | 401a53e249b5 |
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rev | line source |
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25829 | 1 @c This is part of the Emacs manual. |
2 @c Copyright (C) 1985, 86, 87, 93, 94, 95, 1997 Free Software Foundation, Inc. | |
3 @c See file emacs.texi for copying conditions. | |
4 @node Screen, User Input, Acknowledgments, Top | |
5 @chapter The Organization of the Screen | |
6 @cindex screen | |
7 @cindex parts of the screen | |
8 @c | |
9 | |
10 On a text-only terminal, the Emacs display occupies the whole screen. | |
11 On the X Window System, Emacs creates its own X windows to use. We use | |
12 the term @dfn{frame} to mean an entire text-only screen or an entire X | |
13 window used by Emacs. Emacs uses both kinds of frames in the same way | |
14 to display your editing. Emacs normally starts out with just one frame, | |
15 but you can create additional frames if you wish. @xref{Frames}. | |
16 | |
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17 When you start Emacs, the entire frame except for the top and bottom |
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18 is devoted to the text you are editing. This area is called the |
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19 @dfn{window}. At the top there is normally a @dfn{menu bar} where you |
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20 can access a series of menus; then there may be a @dfn{tool bar}, a |
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21 row of icons that perform editing commands if you click on them. |
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22 Below this, the window begins. The last line is a special @dfn{echo |
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23 area} or @dfn{minibuffer window}, where prompts appear and where you |
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24 can enter information when Emacs asks for it. See below for more |
25829 | 25 information about these special lines. |
26 | |
27 You can subdivide the large text window horizontally or vertically | |
28 into multiple text windows, each of which can be used for a different | |
29 file (@pxref{Windows}). In this manual, the word ``window'' always | |
30 refers to the subdivisions of a frame within Emacs. | |
31 | |
32 The window that the cursor is in is the @dfn{selected window}, in | |
33 which editing takes place. Most Emacs commands implicitly apply to the | |
34 text in the selected window (though mouse commands generally operate on | |
35 whatever window you click them in, whether selected or not). The other | |
36 windows display text for reference only, unless/until you select them. | |
37 If you use multiple frames under the X Window System, then giving the | |
38 input focus to a particular frame selects a window in that frame. | |
39 | |
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40 Each window's last line is a @dfn{mode line}, which describes what |
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41 is going on in that window. It appears in inverse video, if the |
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42 terminal supports that; its contents normally begin with |
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43 @w{@samp{--:-- @ *scratch*}} when Emacs starts. The mode line |
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44 displays status information such as what buffer is being displayed |
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45 above it in the window, what major and minor modes are in use, and |
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46 whether the buffer contains unsaved changes. |
25829 | 47 |
48 @menu | |
49 * Point:: The place in the text where editing commands operate. | |
50 * Echo Area:: Short messages appear at the bottom of the screen. | |
51 * Mode Line:: Interpreting the mode line. | |
52 * Menu Bar:: How to use the menu bar. | |
53 @end menu | |
54 | |
55 @node Point | |
56 @section Point | |
57 @cindex point | |
58 @cindex cursor | |
59 | |
60 Within Emacs, the terminal's cursor shows the location at which | |
61 editing commands will take effect. This location is called @dfn{point}. | |
62 Many Emacs commands move point through the text, so that you can edit at | |
63 different places in it. You can also place point by clicking mouse | |
64 button 1. | |
65 | |
66 While the cursor appears to point @emph{at} a character, you should | |
67 think of point as @emph{between} two characters; it points @emph{before} | |
68 the character that appears under the cursor. For example, if your text | |
69 looks like @samp{frob} with the cursor over the @samp{b}, then point is | |
70 between the @samp{o} and the @samp{b}. If you insert the character | |
71 @samp{!} at that position, the result is @samp{fro!b}, with point | |
72 between the @samp{!} and the @samp{b}. Thus, the cursor remains over | |
73 the @samp{b}, as before. | |
74 | |
75 Sometimes people speak of ``the cursor'' when they mean ``point,'' or | |
76 speak of commands that move point as ``cursor motion'' commands. | |
77 | |
78 Terminals have only one cursor, and when output is in progress it must | |
79 appear where the typing is being done. This does not mean that point is | |
80 moving. It is only that Emacs has no way to show you the location of point | |
81 except when the terminal is idle. | |
82 | |
83 If you are editing several files in Emacs, each in its own buffer, | |
84 each buffer has its own point location. A buffer that is not currently | |
85 displayed remembers where point is in case you display it again later. | |
86 | |
87 When there are multiple windows in a frame, each window has its own | |
88 point location. The cursor shows the location of point in the selected | |
89 window. This also is how you can tell which window is selected. If the | |
90 same buffer appears in more than one window, each window has its own | |
91 position for point in that buffer. | |
92 | |
93 When there are multiple frames, each frame can display one cursor. | |
94 The cursor in the selected frame is solid; the cursor in other frames is | |
95 a hollow box, and appears in the window that would be selected if you | |
96 give the input focus to that frame. | |
97 | |
36185 | 98 The term ``point'' comes from the character @samp{.}, which was the |
25829 | 99 command in TECO (the language in which the original Emacs was written) |
36185 | 100 for accessing the value now called ``point.'' |
25829 | 101 |
102 @node Echo Area | |
103 @section The Echo Area | |
104 @cindex echo area | |
105 @c | |
106 | |
107 The line at the bottom of the frame (below the mode line) is the | |
108 @dfn{echo area}. It is used to display small amounts of text for | |
109 several purposes. | |
110 | |
111 @dfn{Echoing} means displaying the characters that you type. Outside | |
112 Emacs, the operating system normally echoes all your input. Emacs | |
113 handles echoing differently. | |
114 | |
115 Single-character commands do not echo in Emacs, and multi-character | |
116 commands echo only if you pause while typing them. As soon as you pause | |
117 for more than a second in the middle of a command, Emacs echoes all the | |
118 characters of the command so far. This is to @dfn{prompt} you for the | |
119 rest of the command. Once echoing has started, the rest of the command | |
120 echoes immediately as you type it. This behavior is designed to give | |
121 confident users fast response, while giving hesitant users maximum | |
122 feedback. You can change this behavior by setting a variable | |
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123 (@pxref{Display Custom}). |
25829 | 124 |
125 @cindex error message in the echo area | |
126 If a command cannot be executed, it may print an @dfn{error message} in | |
127 the echo area. Error messages are accompanied by a beep or by flashing the | |
128 screen. Also, any input you have typed ahead is thrown away when an error | |
129 happens. | |
130 | |
131 Some commands print informative messages in the echo area. These | |
132 messages look much like error messages, but they are not announced with | |
133 a beep and do not throw away input. Sometimes the message tells you | |
134 what the command has done, when this is not obvious from looking at the | |
135 text being edited. Sometimes the sole purpose of a command is to print | |
136 a message giving you specific information---for example, @kbd{C-x =} | |
137 prints a message describing the character position of point in the text | |
138 and its current column in the window. Commands that take a long time | |
139 often display messages ending in @samp{...} while they are working, and | |
140 add @samp{done} at the end when they are finished. | |
141 | |
142 @cindex @samp{*Messages*} buffer | |
143 @cindex saved echo area messages | |
144 @cindex messages saved from echo area | |
145 Echo-area informative messages are saved in an editor buffer named | |
146 @samp{*Messages*}. (We have not explained buffers yet; see | |
147 @ref{Buffers}, for more information about them.) If you miss a message | |
148 that appears briefly on the screen, you can switch to the | |
149 @samp{*Messages*} buffer to see it again. (Successive progress messages | |
150 are often collapsed into one in that buffer.) | |
151 | |
152 @vindex message-log-max | |
153 The size of @samp{*Messages*} is limited to a certain number of lines. | |
154 The variable @code{message-log-max} specifies how many lines. Once the | |
155 buffer has that many lines, each line added at the end deletes one line | |
156 from the beginning. @xref{Variables}, for how to set variables such as | |
157 @code{message-log-max}. | |
158 | |
159 The echo area is also used to display the @dfn{minibuffer}, a window that | |
160 is used for reading arguments to commands, such as the name of a file to be | |
161 edited. When the minibuffer is in use, the echo area begins with a prompt | |
162 string that usually ends with a colon; also, the cursor appears in that line | |
163 because it is the selected window. You can always get out of the | |
164 minibuffer by typing @kbd{C-g}. @xref{Minibuffer}. | |
165 | |
166 @node Mode Line | |
167 @section The Mode Line | |
168 @cindex mode line | |
169 @cindex top level | |
170 @c | |
171 | |
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172 Each text window's last line is a @dfn{mode line}, which describes |
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173 what is going on in that window. When there is only one text window, |
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174 the mode line appears right above the echo area; it is the |
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175 next-to-last line in the frame. The mode line starts and ends with |
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176 dashes. On a text-mode display, the mode line is in inverse video if |
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177 the terminal supports that; on a graphics display, the mode line has a |
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178 3D box appearence to help it stand out. |
25829 | 179 |
180 Normally, the mode line looks like this: | |
181 | |
182 @example | |
183 -@var{cs}:@var{ch} @var{buf} (@var{major} @var{minor})--@var{line}--@var{pos}------ | |
184 @end example | |
185 | |
186 @noindent | |
187 This gives information about the buffer being displayed in the window: the | |
188 buffer's name, what major and minor modes are in use, whether the buffer's | |
189 text has been changed, and how far down the buffer you are currently | |
190 looking. | |
191 | |
192 @var{ch} contains two stars @samp{**} if the text in the buffer has | |
193 been edited (the buffer is ``modified''), or @samp{--} if the buffer has | |
194 not been edited. For a read-only buffer, it is @samp{%*} if the buffer | |
195 is modified, and @samp{%%} otherwise. | |
196 | |
197 @var{buf} is the name of the window's @dfn{buffer}. In most cases | |
198 this is the same as the name of a file you are editing. @xref{Buffers}. | |
199 | |
200 The buffer displayed in the selected window (the window that the | |
201 cursor is in) is also Emacs's selected buffer, the one that editing | |
202 takes place in. When we speak of what some command does to ``the | |
203 buffer,'' we are talking about the currently selected buffer. | |
204 | |
205 @var{line} is @samp{L} followed by the current line number of point. | |
206 This is present when Line Number mode is enabled (which it normally is). | |
207 You can optionally display the current column number too, by turning on | |
208 Column Number mode (which is not enabled by default because it is | |
209 somewhat slower). @xref{Optional Mode Line}. | |
210 | |
211 @var{pos} tells you whether there is additional text above the top of | |
212 the window, or below the bottom. If your buffer is small and it is all | |
213 visible in the window, @var{pos} is @samp{All}. Otherwise, it is | |
214 @samp{Top} if you are looking at the beginning of the buffer, @samp{Bot} | |
215 if you are looking at the end of the buffer, or @samp{@var{nn}%}, where | |
216 @var{nn} is the percentage of the buffer above the top of the | |
217 window.@refill | |
218 | |
219 @var{major} is the name of the @dfn{major mode} in effect in the | |
220 buffer. At any time, each buffer is in one and only one of the possible | |
221 major modes. The major modes available include Fundamental mode (the | |
222 least specialized), Text mode, Lisp mode, C mode, Texinfo mode, and many | |
223 others. @xref{Major Modes}, for details of how the modes differ and how | |
224 to select one.@refill | |
225 | |
226 Some major modes display additional information after the major mode | |
227 name. For example, Rmail buffers display the current message number and | |
228 the total number of messages. Compilation buffers and Shell buffers | |
229 display the status of the subprocess. | |
230 | |
231 @var{minor} is a list of some of the @dfn{minor modes} that are turned | |
232 on at the moment in the window's chosen buffer. For example, | |
233 @samp{Fill} means that Auto Fill mode is on. @samp{Abbrev} means that | |
234 Word Abbrev mode is on. @samp{Ovwrt} means that Overwrite mode is on. | |
235 @xref{Minor Modes}, for more information. @samp{Narrow} means that the | |
236 buffer being displayed has editing restricted to only a portion of its | |
237 text. This is not really a minor mode, but is like one. | |
238 @xref{Narrowing}. @samp{Def} means that a keyboard macro is being | |
239 defined. @xref{Keyboard Macros}. | |
240 | |
241 In addition, if Emacs is currently inside a recursive editing level, | |
242 square brackets (@samp{[@dots{}]}) appear around the parentheses that | |
243 surround the modes. If Emacs is in one recursive editing level within | |
244 another, double square brackets appear, and so on. Since recursive | |
245 editing levels affect Emacs globally, not just one buffer, the square | |
246 brackets appear in every window's mode line or not in any of them. | |
247 @xref{Recursive Edit}.@refill | |
248 | |
249 Non-windowing terminals can only show a single Emacs frame at a time | |
250 (@pxref{Frames}). On such terminals, the mode line displays the name of | |
251 the selected frame, after @var{ch}. The initial frame's name is | |
252 @samp{F1}. | |
253 | |
254 @var{cs} states the coding system used for the file you are editing. | |
255 A dash indicates the default state of affairs: no code conversion, | |
256 except for end-of-line translation if the file contents call for that. | |
257 @samp{=} means no conversion whatsoever. Nontrivial code conversions | |
258 are represented by various letters---for example, @samp{1} refers to ISO | |
259 Latin-1. @xref{Coding Systems}, for more information. If you are using | |
260 an input method, a string of the form @samp{@var{i}>} is added to the | |
261 beginning of @var{cs}; @var{i} identifies the input method. (Some input | |
262 methods show @samp{+} or @samp{@@} instead of @samp{>}.) @xref{Input | |
263 Methods}. | |
264 | |
265 When you are using a character-only terminal (not a window system), | |
266 @var{cs} uses three characters to describe, respectively, the coding | |
267 system for keyboard input, the coding system for terminal output, and | |
268 the coding system used for the file you are editing. | |
269 | |
270 When multibyte characters are not enabled, @var{cs} does not appear at | |
271 all. @xref{Enabling Multibyte}. | |
272 | |
273 @cindex end-of-line conversion, mode-line indication | |
274 The colon after @var{cs} can change to another string in certain | |
30866 | 275 circumstances. Emacs uses newline characters to separate lines in the buffer. |
25829 | 276 Some files use different conventions for separating lines: either |
277 carriage-return linefeed (the MS-DOS convention) or just carriage-return | |
278 (the Macintosh convention). If the buffer's file uses carriage-return | |
279 linefeed, the colon changes to either a backslash (@samp{\}) or | |
280 @samp{(DOS)}, depending on the operating system. If the file uses just | |
281 carriage-return, the colon indicator changes to either a forward slash | |
282 (@samp{/}) or @samp{(Mac)}. On some systems, Emacs displays | |
283 @samp{(Unix)} instead of the colon even for files that use newline to | |
284 separate lines. | |
285 | |
286 @vindex eol-mnemonic-unix | |
287 @vindex eol-mnemonic-dos | |
288 @vindex eol-mnemonic-mac | |
289 @vindex eol-mnemonic-undecided | |
290 You can customize the mode line display for each of the end-of-line | |
291 formats by setting each of the variables @code{eol-mnemonic-unix}, | |
292 @code{eol-mnemonic-dos}, @code{eol-mnemonic-mac}, and | |
293 @code{eol-mnemonic-undecided} to any string you find appropriate. | |
294 @xref{Variables}, for an explanation how to set variables. | |
295 | |
296 @xref{Optional Mode Line}, for features that add other handy | |
297 information to the mode line, such as the current column number of | |
298 point, the current time, and whether new mail for you has arrived. | |
299 | |
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300 The mode line is mouse-sensitive; when you move the mouse across |
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301 various parts of it, Emacs displays help text to say what a click in |
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302 that place will do. @xref{Mode Line Mouse}. |
30866 | 303 |
25829 | 304 @node Menu Bar |
305 @section The Menu Bar | |
306 @cindex menu bar | |
307 | |
308 Each Emacs frame normally has a @dfn{menu bar} at the top which you | |
309 can use to perform certain common operations. There's no need to list | |
310 them here, as you can more easily see for yourself. | |
311 | |
312 @kindex M-` | |
313 @kindex F10 | |
314 @findex tmm-menubar | |
315 When you are using a window system, you can use the mouse to choose a | |
316 command from the menu bar. An arrow pointing right, after the menu | |
317 item, indicates that the item leads to a subsidiary menu; @samp{...} at | |
318 the end means that the command will read arguments from the keyboard | |
319 before it actually does anything. | |
320 | |
321 To view the full command name and documentation for a menu item, type | |
322 @kbd{C-h k}, and then select the menu bar with the mouse in the usual | |
323 way (@pxref{Key Help}). | |
324 | |
325 On text-only terminals with no mouse, you can use the menu bar by | |
326 typing @kbd{M-`} or @key{F10} (these run the command | |
327 @code{tmm-menubar}). This command enters a mode in which you can select | |
328 a menu item from the keyboard. A provisional choice appears in the echo | |
329 area. You can use the left and right arrow keys to move through the | |
330 menu to different choices. When you have found the choice you want, | |
331 type @key{RET} to select it. | |
332 | |
333 Each menu item also has an assigned letter or digit which designates | |
334 that item; it is usually the initial of some word in the item's name. | |
335 This letter or digit is separated from the item name by @samp{=>}. You | |
336 can type the item's letter or digit to select the item. | |
337 | |
338 Some of the commands in the menu bar have ordinary key bindings as | |
339 well; if so, the menu lists one equivalent key binding in parentheses | |
340 after the item itself. |