comparison etc/FAQ @ 23905:d36d3bab8291

Incorporate comments from Eli.

23904:74c3c643e90c

65:  How do I delete menus and menu options?
66:  How do I turn on syntax highlighting?
67:  How can I force Emacs to scroll only one line when I move past the
     bottom of the screen?
68:  How can I replace highlighted text with what I type?
69:  How can I edit MS-DOS files using Emacs?
70:  How can I tell Emacs to fill paragraphs with a single space after
     each period?

Bugs/Problems

91:  How do I submit code to the Emacs Lisp Archive?
92:  Where can I get other up-to-date GNU stuff?
93:  What is the difference between Emacs and XEmacs (formerly "Lucid
     Emacs")?
94:  Where can I get Emacs for my PC running MS-DOS?
95:  Where can I get Emacs for Microsoft Windows, Windows '95, or Windows
     NT?
96:  Where can I get Emacs for my PC running OS/2?
97:  Where can I get Emacs for my Atari ST?
98:  Where can I get Emacs for my Amiga?
99:  Where can I get Emacs for NeXTSTEP?

  years, although there may be some unintentional gaps in coverage.  The
  archive is not particularly well organized or easy to retrieve individual
  postings from, but pretty much everything is there.  The latest archives
  are available at
 
    ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/MailingListArchives/current

  Web-based Usenet search services, such as DejaNews, also archive the
  gnu.* groups.  You can reach DejaNews at

    http://www.dejanews.com

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

  and all mirrors of ftp.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.

  WWW versions of the Emacs Lisp Reference Manual are available at

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

  and all mirrors of ftp.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
  you can read it on-line.

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

    and all mirrors of ftp.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

      http://math-www.uni-paderborn.de/~axel/tkinfo/

    SERVICE -- GNU Service Directory
    SUN-SUPPORT -- including "Using Emacstool with GNU Emacs"

  Latest versions of some of the above files are also available at

    ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/GNUinfo/

  More GNU information, including back issues of the "GNU's Bulletin", are at

    http://www.gnu.org/bulletins/bulletins.html
    http://www.cs.pdx.edu/~trent/gnu/gnu.html

  See question 84 for some basic installation hints, and question 83 if you
  have problems with the installation.

  The file etc/SERVICE (see question 4 if you're not sure where that is)
  lists companies and individuals willing to sell you help in installing or
  using Emacs.  An up-to-date version this file is available on ftp.gnu.org
  (see question 20).

22:  Where can I get the latest version of this document (the FAQ list)?

  The Emacs FAQ is available in several ways:

    And evaluate the following Lisp form:

      (setq visible-bell t)

46:  How do I turn down the bell volume in Emacs running under X Windows?

  You can adjust the bell volume and duration for all programs with the
  shell command xset.
 

    (setq initial-dired-omit-files-p t)

  If you're tired of seeing backup files whenever you do an "ls" at the
  Unix shell, try GNU ls with the "-B" option.  GNU ls is part of the GNU
  fileutils package, available at mirrors of ftp.gnu.org (see question 92).

  To disable or change how backups are made, see "Backup Names" in the
  on-line manual.

63:  How do I disable auto-save-mode?

    When OFF, typed text is just inserted at point.

  This mode also allows you to delete (not kill) the highlighted region by
  pressing DEL.

69:  How can I edit MS-DOS files using Emacs?

  As of Emacs 20, detection and handling of MS-DOS (and Windows) files is
  performed transparently.  You can open an MS-DOS file on a Unix system
  (and vice versa), edit it, and save it without having to worry about the
  file format.  To save it with a different end-of-line convention use

  For Unix and Unix-like systems, the easiest way is often to compile it
  from scratch.  You will need:

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

      ftp://ftp.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://ftp.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 ftp.gnu.org.

  * Gzip, the GNU compression utility.  You can get gzip via anonymous ftp
    at mirrors of ftp.gnu.org sites; it should compile and install without
    much trouble on most systems.  Once you have retrieved the Emacs
    sources, you will probably be able to uncompress them with the command

      gunzip --verbose emacs-20.4.tar.gz

    The `x' indicates that we want to extract files from this tarfile, the
    two `v's force verbose output, and the `f' tells tar to use a disk
    file, rather than one on tape.

    If you're using GNU tar (available at mirrors of ftp.gnu.org), you can
    combine this step and the previous one by using the command

      tar -zxvvf emacs-20.4.tar.gz

    The additional `z' at the beginning of the options list tells GNU tar

  lists all functions and variables containing the string "wordstar".

  It is also possible that the package is on your system, but has not been
  loaded.  To see which packages are available for loading, look through your
  computer's lisp directory (see question 4) or use the Finder (C-h p) to
  search under keywords.  The Lisp source to most most packages contains a
  short description of how they should be loaded, invoked, and configured --
  so before you use or modify a Lisp package, see if the author has provided
  any hints in the source code.

  If a package does not come with Emacs, check the Lisp Code Directory,

  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
  ftp.gnu.org and is available at

    ftp://ftp.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:

         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 ftp.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

  significant differences at the Lisp programming level.

94:  Where can I get Emacs for my PC running MS-DOS?

  A pre-built binary distribution of Emacs is available from the Simtel
  archives.  This version works under MS-DOS and Windows (3.x, 95, and NT) and
  supports long file names under Windows 95.  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

  Zaretskii <[e-mail]> and Darrel Hankerson
  <[e-mail]>, you will need the following:

  Compiler: djgpp version 1.12 maint 1 or later.  Djgpp 2.0 or later is
            recommended, since 1.x is being phased out.  Djgpp 2 supports
            long filenames under Windows 95.

            You can get the latest release of djgpp by retrieving
            all of the files in

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

            16-bit utilities can be found in GNUish:

              ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/gnu/gnuish

  The files INSTALL and PROBLEMS in the top-level directory of the Emacs
  source contains some additional information regarding Emacs under MS-DOS.

  For a list of other MS-DOS implementations of Emacs (and Emacs
  look-alikes), consult the list of "Emacs implementations and literature,"
  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 '95, or Windows
     NT?

  GNU Emacs has been fully ported to Windows NT and Windows 95/98.  
  If you have MSVC 4.0 or greater, then you can compile GNU Emacs
  directly from the source distribution.  First read the file

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
  "ftp.gnu.org", you would type

    nslookup ftp.gnu.org

  Your computer should then provide the IP address of that computer.

  If your site's nameserver is deficient, you can use IP addresses to FTP
  files.  You can get this information by

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

  Author: Dave Gillespie <[e-mail]>
  Latest version: 2.02f
  Anonymous FTP:
    ftp://ftp.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

23905:d36d3bab8291

65:  How do I delete menus and menu options?
66:  How do I turn on syntax highlighting?
67:  How can I force Emacs to scroll only one line when I move past the
     bottom of the screen?
68:  How can I replace highlighted text with what I type?
69:  How can I edit MS-DOS-style text files using Emacs?
70:  How can I tell Emacs to fill paragraphs with a single space after
     each period?

Bugs/Problems

91:  How do I submit code to the Emacs Lisp Archive?
92:  Where can I get other up-to-date GNU stuff?
93:  What is the difference between Emacs and XEmacs (formerly "Lucid
     Emacs")?
94:  Where can I get Emacs for my PC running MS-DOS?
95:  Where can I get Emacs for Microsoft Windows, Windows 9x, or Windows
     NT?
96:  Where can I get Emacs for my PC running OS/2?
97:  Where can I get Emacs for my Atari ST?
98:  Where can I get Emacs for my Amiga?
99:  Where can I get Emacs for NeXTSTEP?

  years, although there may be some unintentional gaps in coverage.  The
  archive is not particularly well organized or easy to retrieve individual
  postings from, but pretty much everything is there.  The latest archives
  are available at
 
    ftp://gnudist.gnu.org/pub/gnu/MailingListArchives/current

  Web-based Usenet search services, such as DejaNews, also archive the
  gnu.* groups.  You can reach DejaNews at

    http://www.dejanews.com

  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.

  WWW versions of the Emacs Lisp Reference Manual are available at

  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
  you can read it on-line.

    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

      http://math-www.uni-paderborn.de/~axel/tkinfo/

    SERVICE -- GNU Service Directory
    SUN-SUPPORT -- including "Using Emacstool with GNU Emacs"

  Latest versions of some of the above files are also available at

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

  More GNU information, including back issues of the "GNU's Bulletin", are at

    http://www.gnu.org/bulletins/bulletins.html
    http://www.cs.pdx.edu/~trent/gnu/gnu.html

  See question 84 for some basic installation hints, and question 83 if you
  have problems with the installation.

  The file etc/SERVICE (see question 4 if you're not sure where that is)
  lists companies and individuals willing to sell you help in installing or
  using Emacs.  An up-to-date version this file is available on gnudist.gnu.org
  (see question 20).

22:  Where can I get the latest version of this document (the FAQ list)?

  The Emacs FAQ is available in several ways:

    And evaluate the following Lisp form:

      (setq visible-bell t)

  There is also a way to turn off _all_ effects of a bell, by defining
  a custom `ring-bell-function' that does nothing.

46:  How do I turn down the bell volume in Emacs running under X Windows?

  You can adjust the bell volume and duration for all programs with the
  shell command xset.
 

    (setq initial-dired-omit-files-p t)

  If you're tired of seeing backup files whenever you do an "ls" at the
  Unix shell, try GNU ls with the "-B" option.  GNU ls is part of the GNU
  fileutils package, available at mirrors of gnudist.gnu.org (see question 92).

  To disable or change how backups are made, see "Backup Names" in the
  on-line manual.

63:  How do I disable auto-save-mode?

    When OFF, typed text is just inserted at point.

  This mode also allows you to delete (not kill) the highlighted region by
  pressing DEL.

69:  How can I edit MS-DOS-style text files using Emacs?

  As of Emacs 20, detection and handling of MS-DOS (and Windows) files is
  performed transparently.  You can open an MS-DOS file on a Unix system
  (and vice versa), edit it, and save it without having to worry about the
  file format.  To save it with a different end-of-line convention use

  For Unix and Unix-like systems, the easiest way is often to compile it
  from scratch.  You will need:

  * 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
    at mirrors of gnudist.gnu.org sites; it should compile and install without
    much trouble on most systems.  Once you have retrieved the Emacs
    sources, you will probably be able to uncompress them with the command

      gunzip --verbose emacs-20.4.tar.gz

    The `x' indicates that we want to extract files from this tarfile, the
    two `v's force verbose output, and the `f' tells tar to use a disk
    file, rather than one on tape.

    If you're using GNU tar (available at mirrors of gnudist.gnu.org), you can
    combine this step and the previous one by using the command

      tar -zxvvf emacs-20.4.tar.gz

    The additional `z' at the beginning of the options list tells GNU tar

  lists all functions and variables containing the string "wordstar".

  It is also possible that the package is on your system, but has not been
  loaded.  To see which packages are available for loading, look through your
  computer's lisp directory (see question 4) or use the Finder (C-h p) to
  search under keywords.  The Lisp source to most packages contains a
  short description of how they should be loaded, invoked, and configured --
  so before you use or modify a Lisp package, see if the author has provided
  any hints in the source code.

  If a package does not come with Emacs, check the Lisp Code Directory,

  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:

         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

  significant differences at the Lisp programming level.

94:  Where can I get Emacs for my PC running MS-DOS?

  A pre-built binary distribution of Emacs is available from the Simtel
  archives.  This version works under MS-DOS and Windows (3.x, 9x, and NT) and
  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

  Zaretskii <[e-mail]> and Darrel Hankerson
  <[e-mail]>, you will need the following:

  Compiler: djgpp version 1.12 maint 1 or later.  Djgpp 2.0 or later is
            recommended, since 1.x is being phased out.  Djgpp 2 supports
            long filenames under Windows 9x.

            You can get the latest release of djgpp by retrieving
            all of the files in

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

            16-bit utilities can be found in GNUish:

              ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/gnu/gnuish

  The files INSTALL and etc/PROBLEMS in the Emacs source contains some
  additional information regarding Emacs under MS-DOS.

  For a list of other MS-DOS implementations of Emacs (and Emacs
  look-alikes), consult the list of "Emacs implementations and literature,"
  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.  
  If you have MSVC 4.0 or greater, then you can compile GNU Emacs
  directly from the source distribution.  First read the file

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
  "gnudist.gnu.org", you would type

    nslookup gnudist.gnu.org

  Your computer should then provide the IP address of that computer.

  If your site's nameserver is deficient, you can use IP addresses to FTP
  files.  You can get this information by

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