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comparison man/screen.texi @ 25829:ac7e9e5e2ccb
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author | Dave Love <fx@gnu.org> |
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date | Wed, 29 Sep 1999 15:17:24 +0000 |
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children | aad48d49f25c |
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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 | |
17 When you start Emacs, the entire frame except for the first and last | |
18 lines is devoted to the text you are editing. This area is called the | |
19 @dfn{window}. The first line is a @dfn{menu bar}, and the last line is | |
20 a special @dfn{echo area} or @dfn{minibuffer window} where prompts | |
21 appear and where you can enter responses. See below for more | |
22 information about these special lines. | |
23 | |
24 You can subdivide the large text window horizontally or vertically | |
25 into multiple text windows, each of which can be used for a different | |
26 file (@pxref{Windows}). In this manual, the word ``window'' always | |
27 refers to the subdivisions of a frame within Emacs. | |
28 | |
29 The window that the cursor is in is the @dfn{selected window}, in | |
30 which editing takes place. Most Emacs commands implicitly apply to the | |
31 text in the selected window (though mouse commands generally operate on | |
32 whatever window you click them in, whether selected or not). The other | |
33 windows display text for reference only, unless/until you select them. | |
34 If you use multiple frames under the X Window System, then giving the | |
35 input focus to a particular frame selects a window in that frame. | |
36 | |
37 Each window's last line is a @dfn{mode line}, which describes what is | |
38 going on in that window. It appears in inverse video, if the terminal | |
39 supports that, and its contents begin with @w{@samp{--:-- @ *scratch*}} | |
40 when Emacs starts. The mode line displays status information such as | |
41 what buffer is being displayed above it in the window, what major and | |
42 minor modes are in use, and whether the buffer contains unsaved changes. | |
43 | |
44 @menu | |
45 * Point:: The place in the text where editing commands operate. | |
46 * Echo Area:: Short messages appear at the bottom of the screen. | |
47 * Mode Line:: Interpreting the mode line. | |
48 * Menu Bar:: How to use the menu bar. | |
49 @end menu | |
50 | |
51 @node Point | |
52 @section Point | |
53 @cindex point | |
54 @cindex cursor | |
55 | |
56 Within Emacs, the terminal's cursor shows the location at which | |
57 editing commands will take effect. This location is called @dfn{point}. | |
58 Many Emacs commands move point through the text, so that you can edit at | |
59 different places in it. You can also place point by clicking mouse | |
60 button 1. | |
61 | |
62 While the cursor appears to point @emph{at} a character, you should | |
63 think of point as @emph{between} two characters; it points @emph{before} | |
64 the character that appears under the cursor. For example, if your text | |
65 looks like @samp{frob} with the cursor over the @samp{b}, then point is | |
66 between the @samp{o} and the @samp{b}. If you insert the character | |
67 @samp{!} at that position, the result is @samp{fro!b}, with point | |
68 between the @samp{!} and the @samp{b}. Thus, the cursor remains over | |
69 the @samp{b}, as before. | |
70 | |
71 Sometimes people speak of ``the cursor'' when they mean ``point,'' or | |
72 speak of commands that move point as ``cursor motion'' commands. | |
73 | |
74 Terminals have only one cursor, and when output is in progress it must | |
75 appear where the typing is being done. This does not mean that point is | |
76 moving. It is only that Emacs has no way to show you the location of point | |
77 except when the terminal is idle. | |
78 | |
79 If you are editing several files in Emacs, each in its own buffer, | |
80 each buffer has its own point location. A buffer that is not currently | |
81 displayed remembers where point is in case you display it again later. | |
82 | |
83 When there are multiple windows in a frame, each window has its own | |
84 point location. The cursor shows the location of point in the selected | |
85 window. This also is how you can tell which window is selected. If the | |
86 same buffer appears in more than one window, each window has its own | |
87 position for point in that buffer. | |
88 | |
89 When there are multiple frames, each frame can display one cursor. | |
90 The cursor in the selected frame is solid; the cursor in other frames is | |
91 a hollow box, and appears in the window that would be selected if you | |
92 give the input focus to that frame. | |
93 | |
94 The term `point' comes from the character @samp{.}, which was the | |
95 command in TECO (the language in which the original Emacs was written) | |
96 for accessing the value now called `point'. | |
97 | |
98 @node Echo Area | |
99 @section The Echo Area | |
100 @cindex echo area | |
101 @c | |
102 | |
103 The line at the bottom of the frame (below the mode line) is the | |
104 @dfn{echo area}. It is used to display small amounts of text for | |
105 several purposes. | |
106 | |
107 @dfn{Echoing} means displaying the characters that you type. Outside | |
108 Emacs, the operating system normally echoes all your input. Emacs | |
109 handles echoing differently. | |
110 | |
111 Single-character commands do not echo in Emacs, and multi-character | |
112 commands echo only if you pause while typing them. As soon as you pause | |
113 for more than a second in the middle of a command, Emacs echoes all the | |
114 characters of the command so far. This is to @dfn{prompt} you for the | |
115 rest of the command. Once echoing has started, the rest of the command | |
116 echoes immediately as you type it. This behavior is designed to give | |
117 confident users fast response, while giving hesitant users maximum | |
118 feedback. You can change this behavior by setting a variable | |
119 (@pxref{Display Vars}). | |
120 | |
121 @cindex error message in the echo area | |
122 If a command cannot be executed, it may print an @dfn{error message} in | |
123 the echo area. Error messages are accompanied by a beep or by flashing the | |
124 screen. Also, any input you have typed ahead is thrown away when an error | |
125 happens. | |
126 | |
127 Some commands print informative messages in the echo area. These | |
128 messages look much like error messages, but they are not announced with | |
129 a beep and do not throw away input. Sometimes the message tells you | |
130 what the command has done, when this is not obvious from looking at the | |
131 text being edited. Sometimes the sole purpose of a command is to print | |
132 a message giving you specific information---for example, @kbd{C-x =} | |
133 prints a message describing the character position of point in the text | |
134 and its current column in the window. Commands that take a long time | |
135 often display messages ending in @samp{...} while they are working, and | |
136 add @samp{done} at the end when they are finished. | |
137 | |
138 @cindex @samp{*Messages*} buffer | |
139 @cindex saved echo area messages | |
140 @cindex messages saved from echo area | |
141 Echo-area informative messages are saved in an editor buffer named | |
142 @samp{*Messages*}. (We have not explained buffers yet; see | |
143 @ref{Buffers}, for more information about them.) If you miss a message | |
144 that appears briefly on the screen, you can switch to the | |
145 @samp{*Messages*} buffer to see it again. (Successive progress messages | |
146 are often collapsed into one in that buffer.) | |
147 | |
148 @vindex message-log-max | |
149 The size of @samp{*Messages*} is limited to a certain number of lines. | |
150 The variable @code{message-log-max} specifies how many lines. Once the | |
151 buffer has that many lines, each line added at the end deletes one line | |
152 from the beginning. @xref{Variables}, for how to set variables such as | |
153 @code{message-log-max}. | |
154 | |
155 The echo area is also used to display the @dfn{minibuffer}, a window that | |
156 is used for reading arguments to commands, such as the name of a file to be | |
157 edited. When the minibuffer is in use, the echo area begins with a prompt | |
158 string that usually ends with a colon; also, the cursor appears in that line | |
159 because it is the selected window. You can always get out of the | |
160 minibuffer by typing @kbd{C-g}. @xref{Minibuffer}. | |
161 | |
162 @node Mode Line | |
163 @section The Mode Line | |
164 @cindex mode line | |
165 @cindex top level | |
166 @c | |
167 | |
168 Each text window's last line is a @dfn{mode line}, which describes what | |
169 is going on in that window. When there is only one text window, the | |
170 mode line appears right above the echo area; it is the next-to-last line | |
171 on the frame. The mode line is in inverse video if the terminal | |
172 supports that, and it starts and ends with dashes. | |
173 | |
174 Normally, the mode line looks like this: | |
175 | |
176 @example | |
177 -@var{cs}:@var{ch} @var{buf} (@var{major} @var{minor})--@var{line}--@var{pos}------ | |
178 @end example | |
179 | |
180 @noindent | |
181 This gives information about the buffer being displayed in the window: the | |
182 buffer's name, what major and minor modes are in use, whether the buffer's | |
183 text has been changed, and how far down the buffer you are currently | |
184 looking. | |
185 | |
186 @var{ch} contains two stars @samp{**} if the text in the buffer has | |
187 been edited (the buffer is ``modified''), or @samp{--} if the buffer has | |
188 not been edited. For a read-only buffer, it is @samp{%*} if the buffer | |
189 is modified, and @samp{%%} otherwise. | |
190 | |
191 @var{buf} is the name of the window's @dfn{buffer}. In most cases | |
192 this is the same as the name of a file you are editing. @xref{Buffers}. | |
193 | |
194 The buffer displayed in the selected window (the window that the | |
195 cursor is in) is also Emacs's selected buffer, the one that editing | |
196 takes place in. When we speak of what some command does to ``the | |
197 buffer,'' we are talking about the currently selected buffer. | |
198 | |
199 @var{line} is @samp{L} followed by the current line number of point. | |
200 This is present when Line Number mode is enabled (which it normally is). | |
201 You can optionally display the current column number too, by turning on | |
202 Column Number mode (which is not enabled by default because it is | |
203 somewhat slower). @xref{Optional Mode Line}. | |
204 | |
205 @var{pos} tells you whether there is additional text above the top of | |
206 the window, or below the bottom. If your buffer is small and it is all | |
207 visible in the window, @var{pos} is @samp{All}. Otherwise, it is | |
208 @samp{Top} if you are looking at the beginning of the buffer, @samp{Bot} | |
209 if you are looking at the end of the buffer, or @samp{@var{nn}%}, where | |
210 @var{nn} is the percentage of the buffer above the top of the | |
211 window.@refill | |
212 | |
213 @var{major} is the name of the @dfn{major mode} in effect in the | |
214 buffer. At any time, each buffer is in one and only one of the possible | |
215 major modes. The major modes available include Fundamental mode (the | |
216 least specialized), Text mode, Lisp mode, C mode, Texinfo mode, and many | |
217 others. @xref{Major Modes}, for details of how the modes differ and how | |
218 to select one.@refill | |
219 | |
220 Some major modes display additional information after the major mode | |
221 name. For example, Rmail buffers display the current message number and | |
222 the total number of messages. Compilation buffers and Shell buffers | |
223 display the status of the subprocess. | |
224 | |
225 @var{minor} is a list of some of the @dfn{minor modes} that are turned | |
226 on at the moment in the window's chosen buffer. For example, | |
227 @samp{Fill} means that Auto Fill mode is on. @samp{Abbrev} means that | |
228 Word Abbrev mode is on. @samp{Ovwrt} means that Overwrite mode is on. | |
229 @xref{Minor Modes}, for more information. @samp{Narrow} means that the | |
230 buffer being displayed has editing restricted to only a portion of its | |
231 text. This is not really a minor mode, but is like one. | |
232 @xref{Narrowing}. @samp{Def} means that a keyboard macro is being | |
233 defined. @xref{Keyboard Macros}. | |
234 | |
235 In addition, if Emacs is currently inside a recursive editing level, | |
236 square brackets (@samp{[@dots{}]}) appear around the parentheses that | |
237 surround the modes. If Emacs is in one recursive editing level within | |
238 another, double square brackets appear, and so on. Since recursive | |
239 editing levels affect Emacs globally, not just one buffer, the square | |
240 brackets appear in every window's mode line or not in any of them. | |
241 @xref{Recursive Edit}.@refill | |
242 | |
243 Non-windowing terminals can only show a single Emacs frame at a time | |
244 (@pxref{Frames}). On such terminals, the mode line displays the name of | |
245 the selected frame, after @var{ch}. The initial frame's name is | |
246 @samp{F1}. | |
247 | |
248 @var{cs} states the coding system used for the file you are editing. | |
249 A dash indicates the default state of affairs: no code conversion, | |
250 except for end-of-line translation if the file contents call for that. | |
251 @samp{=} means no conversion whatsoever. Nontrivial code conversions | |
252 are represented by various letters---for example, @samp{1} refers to ISO | |
253 Latin-1. @xref{Coding Systems}, for more information. If you are using | |
254 an input method, a string of the form @samp{@var{i}>} is added to the | |
255 beginning of @var{cs}; @var{i} identifies the input method. (Some input | |
256 methods show @samp{+} or @samp{@@} instead of @samp{>}.) @xref{Input | |
257 Methods}. | |
258 | |
259 When you are using a character-only terminal (not a window system), | |
260 @var{cs} uses three characters to describe, respectively, the coding | |
261 system for keyboard input, the coding system for terminal output, and | |
262 the coding system used for the file you are editing. | |
263 | |
264 When multibyte characters are not enabled, @var{cs} does not appear at | |
265 all. @xref{Enabling Multibyte}. | |
266 | |
267 @cindex end-of-line conversion, mode-line indication | |
268 The colon after @var{cs} can change to another string in certain | |
269 circumstances. Emacs uses newline to separate lines in the buffer. | |
270 Some files use different conventions for separating lines: either | |
271 carriage-return linefeed (the MS-DOS convention) or just carriage-return | |
272 (the Macintosh convention). If the buffer's file uses carriage-return | |
273 linefeed, the colon changes to either a backslash (@samp{\}) or | |
274 @samp{(DOS)}, depending on the operating system. If the file uses just | |
275 carriage-return, the colon indicator changes to either a forward slash | |
276 (@samp{/}) or @samp{(Mac)}. On some systems, Emacs displays | |
277 @samp{(Unix)} instead of the colon even for files that use newline to | |
278 separate lines. | |
279 | |
280 @vindex eol-mnemonic-unix | |
281 @vindex eol-mnemonic-dos | |
282 @vindex eol-mnemonic-mac | |
283 @vindex eol-mnemonic-undecided | |
284 You can customize the mode line display for each of the end-of-line | |
285 formats by setting each of the variables @code{eol-mnemonic-unix}, | |
286 @code{eol-mnemonic-dos}, @code{eol-mnemonic-mac}, and | |
287 @code{eol-mnemonic-undecided} to any string you find appropriate. | |
288 @xref{Variables}, for an explanation how to set variables. | |
289 | |
290 @xref{Optional Mode Line}, for features that add other handy | |
291 information to the mode line, such as the current column number of | |
292 point, the current time, and whether new mail for you has arrived. | |
293 | |
294 @node Menu Bar | |
295 @section The Menu Bar | |
296 @cindex menu bar | |
297 | |
298 Each Emacs frame normally has a @dfn{menu bar} at the top which you | |
299 can use to perform certain common operations. There's no need to list | |
300 them here, as you can more easily see for yourself. | |
301 | |
302 @kindex M-` | |
303 @kindex F10 | |
304 @findex tmm-menubar | |
305 When you are using a window system, you can use the mouse to choose a | |
306 command from the menu bar. An arrow pointing right, after the menu | |
307 item, indicates that the item leads to a subsidiary menu; @samp{...} at | |
308 the end means that the command will read arguments from the keyboard | |
309 before it actually does anything. | |
310 | |
311 To view the full command name and documentation for a menu item, type | |
312 @kbd{C-h k}, and then select the menu bar with the mouse in the usual | |
313 way (@pxref{Key Help}). | |
314 | |
315 On text-only terminals with no mouse, you can use the menu bar by | |
316 typing @kbd{M-`} or @key{F10} (these run the command | |
317 @code{tmm-menubar}). This command enters a mode in which you can select | |
318 a menu item from the keyboard. A provisional choice appears in the echo | |
319 area. You can use the left and right arrow keys to move through the | |
320 menu to different choices. When you have found the choice you want, | |
321 type @key{RET} to select it. | |
322 | |
323 Each menu item also has an assigned letter or digit which designates | |
324 that item; it is usually the initial of some word in the item's name. | |
325 This letter or digit is separated from the item name by @samp{=>}. You | |
326 can type the item's letter or digit to select the item. | |
327 | |
328 Some of the commands in the menu bar have ordinary key bindings as | |
329 well; if so, the menu lists one equivalent key binding in parentheses | |
330 after the item itself. |