comparison etc/FAQ @ 24295:0845212b2b2c

Merge latest posted one.

24294:83d27baff0a1

This is the introduction to a list of frequently asked questions (FAQ)
about GNU Emacs 20 with answers.  Some of the answers are not valid for GNU
Emacs 18 or 19.

[This version has been somewhat edited from the last-posted version
(as of January 1999) for inclusion in the Emacs distribution.]

The FAQ is posted (in five parts) to reduce the noise level in the
gnu.emacs.help newsgroup (which is also the help-gnu-emacs mailing list)
which results from the repetition of frequently asked questions, wrong
answers to these questions, corrections to the wrong answers, corrections

The FAQ is posted in five parts; if you are missing a section or would
prefer to read the FAQ in a single file, see question 22.

------------------------------------------------------------
  Time-stamp: <1998-11-15 12:37:16 reuven>


Notation Used in FAQ

  Skip this section and then come back if you don't understand some of the

  The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual is also available on-line, in Info
  format.  Texinfo source for the manual (along with pregenerated Info
  files) is available at

    ftp://gnudist.gnu.org/pub/gnu/elisp-manual-20-2.5.tar.gz

  and all mirrors of gnudist.gnu.org (See question 92 for a list).  See
  question 17 if you want to install the Info files, or question 18 if you
  want to use the Texinfo source to print the manual yourself.

  First, you must turn the Texinfo files into Info files.  You may do this
  using the stand-alone "makeinfo" program, available as part of the latest
  Texinfo package at

    ftp://gnudist.gnu.org/pub/gnu/texinfo-3.12.tar.gz

  and all mirrors of gnudist.gnu.org (see question 92 for a list).

  For information about the Texinfo format, read the Texinfo manual which
  comes with Emacs.  This manual also comes installed in Info format, so

    Texinfo package.  See question 17 for details.

  * Xinfo, a stand-alone version of the Info program that runs under X
    Windows.  You can get it at

      ftp://gnudist.gnu.org/pub/gnu/xinfo-1.01.01.tar.gz

    and all mirrors of gnudist.gnu.org (See question 92 for a list).

  * Tkinfo, an Info viewer that runs under X Windows and uses Tcl/Tk.  You
    can get Tkinfo at

  * In the Emacs distribution.  Since Emacs 18.56, the FAQ at the time of
    release has been part of the Emacs distribution as etc/FAQ (see
    question 4).

  * Via the World Wide Web.  Point your favorite Web browser at:

    http://www.geek-girl.com/emacs/faq/index.html

    This is an old version, but it works.

  * Via anonymous ftp and e-mail from rtfm.mit.edu (and its mirror in
    Europe), the main repository for FAQs and other items posted to
    news.answers.  The Emacs FAQs are available at

  * Emacs sources.  See question 92 for a list of ftp sites that make them
    available.  On gnudist.gnu.org, the main GNU distribution site, sources are
    available at

      ftp://gnudist.gnu.org/pub/gnu/emacs-20.4.tar.gz

    The above will obviously change as new versions of Emacs come out.  For
    instance, when Emacs 20.5 is released, it will most probably be
    available at

      ftp://gnudist.gnu.org/pub/gnu/emacs-20.5.tar.gz

    Again, you should use one of the mirror sites in question 92 (and
    adjust the URL accordingly) so as to reduce load on gnudist.gnu.org.

  * Gzip, the GNU compression utility.  You can get gzip via anonymous ftp

  Code Directory Record.  Anonymous FTP uploads are not permitted.
  Instead, all submissions are mailed to [e-mail].
  The lispdir.el package has a function named submit-lcd-entry which will
  help you with this.

  See question 90 regarding non-maintenance of the archive. 

92:  Where can I get other up-to-date GNU stuff?

  The most up-to-date official GNU software is normally kept on
  gnudist.gnu.org and is available at

    ftp://gnudist.gnu.org/pub/gnu

  Read the files etc/DISTRIB and etc/FTP for more information.

  The following sites are all mirror images of the GNU distribution area:

    ASIA: ftp://cair.kaist.ac.kr/pub/gnu,
          ftp://ftp.nectec.or.th/pub/mirrors/gnu,
          ftp://utsun.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/ftpsync/prep,
          ftp://ftp.cs.titech.ac.jp/pub/gnu

    AUSTRALIA: ftp://archie.au/gnu (archie.oz or archie.oz.au for ACSnet)

    AFRICA: ftp://ftp.sun.ac.za/pub/gnu

    EUROPE: ftp://ftp.denet.dk/pub/gnu,
            ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/gnu,
            ftp://ftp.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/pub/gnu,
            ftp://ftp.informatik.tu-muenchen.de/pub/comp/gnu,
            ftp://ftp.luth.se/pub/unix/gnu,
            ftp://ftp.stacken.kth.se/pub/gnu,
            ftp://ftp.win.tue.nl/pub/gnu,
            ftp://isy.liu.se/pub/gnu,
            ftp://nic.switch.ch/mirror/gnu,
            ftp://archive.eu.net/pub/gnu,
            ftp://ftp.eunet.ch/software/gnu,
            ftp://ftp.ieunet.ie/pub/gnu,
            ftp://ftp.mcc.ac.uk/pub/gnu,
            ftp://ftp.sunet.se:/pub/gnu,
            ftp://ftp.univ-lyon1.fr/pub/gnu,
            ftp://irisa.irisa.fr/pub/gnu,
            ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/gnu,
            ftp://unix.hensa.ac.uk/pub/uunet/systems/gnu

    SOUTH AMERICA: ftp.unicamp.br:/pub/gnu

    WESTERN CANADA: ftp.cs.ubc.ca:/mirror2/gnu

    USA: ftp://col.hp.com/mirrors/gnu,
         ftp://f.ms.uky.edu/pub3/gnu,
         ftp://ftp.cs.columbia.edu/archives/gnu/prep,
         ftp://ftp.digex.net/pub/gnu,
         ftp://ftp.hawaii.edu/mirrors/gnu,
         ftp://ftp.kpc.com/pub/mirror/gnu,
         ftp://ftp.uu.net/systems/gnu,
         ftp://gatekeeper.dec.com/pub/GNU,
         ftp://jaguar.utah.edu/gnustuff,
         ftp://labrea.stanford.edu/pub/gnu,
         ftp://mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu/pub/gnu,
         ftp://vixen.cso.uiuc.edu/gnu,
         ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/systems/gnu

  The directory at ftp.uu.net is a mirror of gnudist.gnu.org except that files
  larger than one megabyte are split into multiple parts.  If you have
  trouble transferring large files, you should try that site.  A file
  normally named "XXX" is split into files XXX-split/part[0-9][0-9], and
  there will be a file named XXX-split/README which contains the list of
  parts (especially helpful when FTP-ing by e-mail), their checksums, and
  reassembly instructions.

93:  What is the difference between Emacs and XEmacs (formerly "Lucid
     Emacs")?

  XEmacs is a modified version of GNU Emacs.

  supports long file names under Windows 9x.  More information is available
  from:

        ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/gnu/djgpp/v2gnu/emacs.README

  And the binary itself is available in the files

        ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/gnu/djgpp/v2gnu/em1934*.zip

  where * indicates that you should retrieve all of the files beginning
  with "em1934" and ending with "zip".

  If you prefer to compile Emacs for yourself, you will need a 386 (or
  better) processor, and are running MS-DOS 3.0 or later.  According to Eli
  Zaretskii <[e-mail]> and Darrel Hankerson
  <[e-mail]>, you will need the following:

  available at

    ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/comp.emacs/

  Note that while many of these programs look similar to Emacs, they often
  lack certain features, particularly as the Emacs Lisp extension language.

95:  Where can I get Emacs for Microsoft Windows, Windows 9x, or Windows
     NT?

  GNU Emacs has been fully ported to Windows NT and Windows 95/98.  

96:  Where can I get Emacs for my PC running OS/2?

  Emacs 19.33 is ported for emx on OS/2 2.0 or 2.1, and is available at:

    ftp://hobbes.nmsu.edu/os2/unix/apps/emacs/v.19.33/

97:  Where can I get Emacs for my Atari ST?

  Roland Schäuble reports that Emacs 18.58 running on plain TOS and MiNT
  is available at

  Note that Barry Warsaw's cc-mode now works for C, C++, Objective-C, and
  Java code.  You can get the latest version from the Emacs Lisp Archive;
  see question 90 for details.  A FAQ for cc-mode is available at

      http://www.python.org/ftp/emacs/cc-mode.html/Top.html

103: What is the IP address of XXX.YYY.ZZZ?

  If you are on a Unix machine, try using the "nslookup" command, included
  in the Berkeley BIND package.  For example, to find the IP address of

Major Emacs Lisp Packages, Emacs Extensions, and Related Programs

104: VM (View Mail) -- another mail reader within Emacs, with MIME support

  Author: Kyle Jones <[e-mail]>
  Latest version: 6.62
  Anonymous FTP:
    ftp://ftp.uu.net/networking/mail/vm/vm.tar.gz
  Newsgroups and mailing lists:
    Informational newsgroup/mailing list:
      gnu.emacs.vm.info (newsgroup)
      [e-mail] (for subscriptions)
      [e-mail] (for submissions)

106: Calc -- poor man's Mathematica within Emacs

  Author: Dave Gillespie <[e-mail]>
  Latest version: 2.02f
  Anonymous FTP:
    ftp://gnudist.gnu.org/pub/gnu/calc-2.02f.tar.gz
  NOTE: Unlike Wolfram Research, Dave has never threatened to sue
        anyone for having a program with a similar command language to
        Calc.  :-)

107: VIPER -- vi emulation for Emacs

  Mailing list:
    [e-mail] (for subscriptions)
    [e-mail] (for submissions)
    [e-mail] (auc-tex development team)
  World Wide Web:
    http://www.iesd.auc.dk/~amanda/auctex/

109: BBDB -- personal Info Rolodex integrated with mail/news readers

  Maintainer: Matt Simmons <[e-mail]>
  Latest released version: 2.00

          Ispell 4.0 is no longer a supported product.

111: W3-mode -- A World Wide Web browser inside of Emacs

  Author: Bill Perry <[e-mail]>
  Latest version: 4.0pre.31
  Anonymous FTP:
    ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/elisp/w3/.betas/w3.tar.gz
  Mailing lists:
    [e-mail] (to get announcements of new versions)
    [e-mail] (for beta-testers of new versions)

  Emacs 20 now includes many of the features of MULE, the Multilingual
  Enhancement of Emacs.  See question 84 for information on where to find
  and download Emacs.

  The original MULE is available at

    ftp://sh.wide.ad.jp/JAPAN/mule/mule-19.33-delta.tar.gz

137: Where is an Emacs that can handle Semitic (right-to-left) alphabets?

  Emacs 20 supports Hebrew characters (ISO 8859-8), but does not yet
  support right-to-left character entry.

24295:0845212b2b2c

This is the introduction to a list of frequently asked questions (FAQ)
about GNU Emacs 20 with answers.  Some of the answers are not valid for GNU
Emacs 18 or 19.

[This version has been somewhat edited from the last-posted version
(as of February 1999) for inclusion in the Emacs distribution.]

The FAQ is posted (in five parts) to reduce the noise level in the
gnu.emacs.help newsgroup (which is also the help-gnu-emacs mailing list)
which results from the repetition of frequently asked questions, wrong
answers to these questions, corrections to the wrong answers, corrections

The FAQ is posted in five parts; if you are missing a section or would
prefer to read the FAQ in a single file, see question 22.

------------------------------------------------------------
  Time-stamp: <1999-02-10 18:44:04 reuven>


Notation Used in FAQ

  Skip this section and then come back if you don't understand some of the

  The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual is also available on-line, in Info
  format.  Texinfo source for the manual (along with pregenerated Info
  files) is available at

    ftp://gnudist.gnu.org/pub/gnu/emacs/elisp-manual-20-2.5.tar.gz

  and all mirrors of gnudist.gnu.org (See question 92 for a list).  See
  question 17 if you want to install the Info files, or question 18 if you
  want to use the Texinfo source to print the manual yourself.

  First, you must turn the Texinfo files into Info files.  You may do this
  using the stand-alone "makeinfo" program, available as part of the latest
  Texinfo package at

    ftp://gnudist.gnu.org/pub/gnu/texinfo/texinfo-3.12.tar.gz

  and all mirrors of gnudist.gnu.org (see question 92 for a list).

  For information about the Texinfo format, read the Texinfo manual which
  comes with Emacs.  This manual also comes installed in Info format, so

    Texinfo package.  See question 17 for details.

  * Xinfo, a stand-alone version of the Info program that runs under X
    Windows.  You can get it at

      ftp://gnudist.gnu.org/pub/gnu/xinfo/xinfo-1.01.01.tar.gz

    and all mirrors of gnudist.gnu.org (See question 92 for a list).

  * Tkinfo, an Info viewer that runs under X Windows and uses Tcl/Tk.  You
    can get Tkinfo at

  * In the Emacs distribution.  Since Emacs 18.56, the FAQ at the time of
    release has been part of the Emacs distribution as etc/FAQ (see
    question 4).

  * Via the World Wide Web.  A hypertext version is available at

    http://www.lerner.co.il/emacs/

  * Via anonymous ftp and e-mail from rtfm.mit.edu (and its mirror in
    Europe), the main repository for FAQs and other items posted to
    news.answers.  The Emacs FAQs are available at

  * Emacs sources.  See question 92 for a list of ftp sites that make them
    available.  On gnudist.gnu.org, the main GNU distribution site, sources are
    available at

      ftp://gnudist.gnu.org/pub/gnu/emacs/emacs-20.3.tar.gz

    The above will obviously change as new versions of Emacs come out.  For
    instance, when Emacs 20.5 is released, it will most probably be
    available at

      ftp://gnudist.gnu.org/pub/gnu/emacs/emacs-20.4.tar.gz

    Again, you should use one of the mirror sites in question 92 (and
    adjust the URL accordingly) so as to reduce load on gnudist.gnu.org.

  * Gzip, the GNU compression utility.  You can get gzip via anonymous ftp

  Code Directory Record.  Anonymous FTP uploads are not permitted.
  Instead, all submissions are mailed to [e-mail].
  The lispdir.el package has a function named submit-lcd-entry which will
  help you with this.

 Note that maintenance of the archive is currently very slow. 

92:  Where can I get other up-to-date GNU stuff?

  The most up-to-date official GNU software is normally kept on
  gnudist.gnu.org and is available at

    ftp://gnudist.gnu.org/pub/gnu

  Read the files etc/DISTRIB and etc/FTP for more information.

  A list of sites mirroring gnudist.gnu.org can be found at

    http://www.gnu.org/order/ftp.html

93:  What is the difference between Emacs and XEmacs (formerly "Lucid
     Emacs")?

  XEmacs is a modified version of GNU Emacs.

  supports long file names under Windows 9x.  More information is available
  from:

        ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/gnu/djgpp/v2gnu/emacs.README

  And the binary itself is available in the files em1934*.zip in the
  directory

        ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/gnu/djgpp/v2gnu/

  If you prefer to compile Emacs for yourself, you will need a 386 (or
  better) processor, and are running MS-DOS 3.0 or later.  According to Eli
  Zaretskii <[e-mail]> and Darrel Hankerson
  <[e-mail]>, you will need the following:

  available at

    ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/comp.emacs/

  Note that while many of these programs look similar to Emacs, they often
  lack certain features, particularly the Emacs Lisp extension language.

95:  Where can I get Emacs for Microsoft Windows, Windows 9x, or Windows
     NT?

  GNU Emacs has been fully ported to Windows NT and Windows 95/98.  

96:  Where can I get Emacs for my PC running OS/2?

  Emacs 19.33 is ported for emx on OS/2 2.0 or 2.1, and is available at:

    ftp://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/os2/apps/editors/emacs/v19.33/

97:  Where can I get Emacs for my Atari ST?

  Roland Schäuble reports that Emacs 18.58 running on plain TOS and MiNT
  is available at

  Note that Barry Warsaw's cc-mode now works for C, C++, Objective-C, and
  Java code.  You can get the latest version from the Emacs Lisp Archive;
  see question 90 for details.  A FAQ for cc-mode is available at

      http://www.python.org/emacs/cc-mode/

103: What is the IP address of XXX.YYY.ZZZ?

  If you are on a Unix machine, try using the "nslookup" command, included
  in the Berkeley BIND package.  For example, to find the IP address of

Major Emacs Lisp Packages, Emacs Extensions, and Related Programs

104: VM (View Mail) -- another mail reader within Emacs, with MIME support

  Author: Kyle Jones <[e-mail]>
  Latest version: 6.67
  Anonymous FTP:
    ftp://ftp.wonderworks.com/pub/vm/vm.tar.gz
  Newsgroups and mailing lists:
    Informational newsgroup/mailing list:
      gnu.emacs.vm.info (newsgroup)
      [e-mail] (for subscriptions)
      [e-mail] (for submissions)

106: Calc -- poor man's Mathematica within Emacs

  Author: Dave Gillespie <[e-mail]>
  Latest version: 2.02f
  Anonymous FTP:
    ftp://gnudist.gnu.org/pub/gnu/calc/calc-2.02f.tar.gz
  NOTE: Unlike Wolfram Research, Dave has never threatened to sue
        anyone for having a program with a similar command language to
        Calc.  :-)

107: VIPER -- vi emulation for Emacs

  Mailing list:
    [e-mail] (for subscriptions)
    [e-mail] (for submissions)
    [e-mail] (auc-tex development team)
  World Wide Web:
    http://sunsite.auc.dk/auctex/

109: BBDB -- personal Info Rolodex integrated with mail/news readers

  Maintainer: Matt Simmons <[e-mail]>
  Latest released version: 2.00

          Ispell 4.0 is no longer a supported product.

111: W3-mode -- A World Wide Web browser inside of Emacs

  Author: Bill Perry <[e-mail]>
  Latest version: 4.0pre.39
  Anonymous FTP:
    ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/elisp/w3/.betas/w3.tar.gz
  Mailing lists:
    [e-mail] (to get announcements of new versions)
    [e-mail] (for beta-testers of new versions)

  Emacs 20 now includes many of the features of MULE, the Multilingual
  Enhancement of Emacs.  See question 84 for information on where to find
  and download Emacs.

137: Where is an Emacs that can handle Semitic (right-to-left) alphabets?

  Emacs 20 supports Hebrew characters (ISO 8859-8), but does not yet
  support right-to-left character entry.