comparison man/glossary.texi @ 37845:ece336c2aab9

Add Text Properties item. Minor corrections, especially in xrefs.

37844:25ec812aa6bd

ASCII printing characters include letters, digits, space, and these
punctuation characters: @samp{!@@#$%^& *()_-+=|\~` @{@}[]:;"' <>,.?/}.

@item Auto Fill Mode
Auto Fill mode is a minor mode in which text that you insert is
automatically broken into lines of fixed width.  @xref{Filling}.

@item Auto Saving
Auto saving is the practice of saving the contents of an Emacs buffer in
a specially-named file, so that the information will not be lost if the
buffer is lost due to a system error or user error.  @xref{Auto Save}.

See `minibuffer history.'

@item Command Name
A command name is the name of a Lisp symbol which is a command
(@pxref{Commands}).  You can invoke any command by its name using
@kbd{M-x} (@pxref{M-x}).

@item Comment
A comment is text in a program which is intended only for humans reading
the program, and which is marked specially so that it will be ignored
when the program is loaded or compiled.  Emacs offers special commands
for creating, aligning and killing comments.  @xref{Comments}.

@item Common Lisp
Common Lisp is a dialect of Lisp (q.v.@:) much larger and more powerful
than Emacs Lisp.  Emacs provides a subset of Common Lisp in the CL
package.  @xref{, Common Lisp, , cl, Common Lisp Extensions}.

@item Compilation
Compilation is the process of creating an executable program from source
code.  Emacs has commands for compiling files of Emacs Lisp code
(@pxref{Byte Compilation,, Byte Compilation, elisp, the Emacs Lisp
Reference Manual}) and programs in C and other languages
(@pxref{Compilation}).

@item Complete Key
A complete key is a key sequence which fully specifies one action to be

Deletion means erasing text without copying it into the kill ring
(q.v.@:).  The alternative is killing (q.v.@:).  @xref{Killing,Deletion}.

@item Deletion of Files
Deleting a file means erasing it from the file system.
@xref{Misc File Ops}.

@item Deletion of Messages
Deleting a message means flagging it to be eliminated from your mail
file.  Until you expunge (q.v.@:) the Rmail file, you can still undelete
the messages you have deleted.  @xref{Rmail Deletion}.

particular delimiter characters to reindent the line or insert one or
more newlines in addition to self-insertion.

@item End Of Line
End of line is a character or characters which signal an end of a text
line.  On GNU and Unix systems, this is a newline (.q.v.@:), but other
systems have other conventions.  @xref{Coding Systems,end-of-line}.
Emacs can recognize several end-of-line conventions in files and convert
between them.

@item Environment Variable

underline and strike-through, background stipple, etc.  Emacs provides
features to associate specific faces with portions of buffer text, in
order to display that text as specified by the face attributes.

@item File Locking
Emacs used file locking to notice when two different users
start to edit one file at the same time.  @xref{Interlocking}.

@item File Name
A file name is a name that refers to a file.  File names may be relative
or absolute; the meaning of a relative file name depends on the current

Insertion means copying text into the buffer, either from the keyboard
or from some other place in Emacs.

@item Interlocking
Interlocking is a feature for warning when you start to alter a file
that someone else is already editing.  @xref{Interlocking,,Simultaneous
Editing}.

@item Isearch
See `incremental search.'

@item Justification

@xref{User Input,C-M-}.

@item @kbd{M-x}
@kbd{M-x} is the key sequence which is used to call an Emacs command by
name.  This is how you run commands that are not bound to key sequences.
@xref{M-x}.

@item Mail
Mail means messages sent from one user to another through the computer
system, to be read at the recipient's convenience.  Emacs has commands for
composing and sending mail, and for reading and editing the mail you have

@item Multibyte Character
A multibyte character is a character that takes up several bytes in a
buffer.  Emacs uses multibyte characters to represent non-ASCII text,
since the number of non-ASCII characters is much more than 256.
@xref{International Intro}.

@item Named Mark
A named mark is a register (q.v.@:) in its role of recording a
location in text so that you can move point to that location.
@xref{Registers}.

@item Point
Point is the place in the buffer at which insertion and deletion
occur.  Point is considered to be between two characters, not at one
character.  The terminal's cursor (q.v.@:) indicates the location of
point.  @xref{Basic,Point}.
	
@item Prefix Argument
See `numeric argument.'

@item Prefix Key

block or a parenthesized expression in C.  @xref{Lists,Sexps}.

@item Simultaneous Editing
Simultaneous editing means two users modifying the same file at once.
Simultaneous editing if not detected can cause one user to lose his
work.  Emacs detects all cases of simultaneous editing and warns one of
the users to investigate.  @xref{Interlocking,,Simultaneous Editing}.

@item Speedbar
Speedbar is a special tall frame that provides fast access to Emacs
buffers, functions within those buffers, Info nodes, and other
interesting parts of text within Emacs.  @xref{Speedbar}.

Two meanings (@pxref{Text}):

@itemize @bullet
@item
Data consisting of a sequence of characters, as opposed to binary
numbers, images, graphics commands, executable programs, and the like.
The contents of an Emacs buffer are always text in this sense.
@item
Data consisting of written human language, as opposed to programs,
or following the stylistic conventions of human language.
@end itemize

@item Text-only Terminal
A text-only terminal is a display that is limited to displaying text in
character units.  Such a terminal cannot control individual pixels it
displays.  Emacs supports a subset of display features on text-only
terminals.

@item Tool Bar
The tool bar is a line (sometimes multiple lines) of icons at the top
of an Emacs frame.  Clicking on one of these icons executes a command.
You can think of this as a graphical relative of the menu bar (q.v.@:).

A variable is an object in Lisp that can store an arbitrary value.
Emacs uses some variables for internal purposes, and has others (known
as `user options' (q.v.@:)) just so that you can set their values to
control the behavior of Emacs.  The variables used in Emacs that you
are likely to be interested in are listed in the Variables Index in
this manual.  @xref{Variables}, for information on variables.

@item Version Control
Version control systems keep track of multiple versions of a source file.
They provide a more powerful alternative to keeping backup files (q.v.@:).
@xref{Version Control}.

37845:ece336c2aab9

ASCII printing characters include letters, digits, space, and these
punctuation characters: @samp{!@@#$%^& *()_-+=|\~` @{@}[]:;"' <>,.?/}.

@item Auto Fill Mode
Auto Fill mode is a minor mode in which text that you insert is
automatically broken into lines of a given maximum width.
@xref{Filling}.

@item Auto Saving
Auto saving is the practice of saving the contents of an Emacs buffer in
a specially-named file, so that the information will not be lost if the
buffer is lost due to a system error or user error.  @xref{Auto Save}.

See `minibuffer history.'

@item Command Name
A command name is the name of a Lisp symbol which is a command
(@pxref{Commands}).  You can invoke any command by its name using
@kbd{M-x} (@pxref{M-x,M-x,Running Commands by Name}).

@item Comment
A comment is text in a program which is intended only for humans reading
the program, and which is marked specially so that it will be ignored
when the program is loaded or compiled.  Emacs offers special commands
for creating, aligning and killing comments.  @xref{Comments}.

@item Common Lisp
Common Lisp is a dialect of Lisp (q.v.@:) much larger and more powerful
than Emacs Lisp.  Emacs provides a subset of Common Lisp in the CL
package.  @xref{Common Lisp,,, cl, Common Lisp Extensions}.

@item Compilation
Compilation is the process of creating an executable program from source
code.  Emacs has commands for compiling files of Emacs Lisp code
(@pxref{Byte Compilation,,, elisp, the Emacs Lisp
Reference Manual}) and programs in C and other languages
(@pxref{Compilation}).

@item Complete Key
A complete key is a key sequence which fully specifies one action to be

Deletion means erasing text without copying it into the kill ring
(q.v.@:).  The alternative is killing (q.v.@:).  @xref{Killing,Deletion}.

@item Deletion of Files
Deleting a file means erasing it from the file system.
@xref{Misc File Ops,Misc File Ops,Miscellaneous File Operations}.

@item Deletion of Messages
Deleting a message means flagging it to be eliminated from your mail
file.  Until you expunge (q.v.@:) the Rmail file, you can still undelete
the messages you have deleted.  @xref{Rmail Deletion}.

particular delimiter characters to reindent the line or insert one or
more newlines in addition to self-insertion.

@item End Of Line
End of line is a character or characters which signal an end of a text
line.  On GNU and Unix systems, this is a newline (q.v.@:), but other
systems have other conventions.  @xref{Coding Systems,end-of-line}.
Emacs can recognize several end-of-line conventions in files and convert
between them.

@item Environment Variable

underline and strike-through, background stipple, etc.  Emacs provides
features to associate specific faces with portions of buffer text, in
order to display that text as specified by the face attributes.

@item File Locking
Emacs uses file locking to notice when two different users
start to edit one file at the same time.  @xref{Interlocking}.

@item File Name
A file name is a name that refers to a file.  File names may be relative
or absolute; the meaning of a relative file name depends on the current

Insertion means copying text into the buffer, either from the keyboard
or from some other place in Emacs.

@item Interlocking
Interlocking is a feature for warning when you start to alter a file
that someone else is already editing.
@xref{Interlocking,Interlocking,Simultaneous Editing}.

@item Isearch
See `incremental search.'

@item Justification

@xref{User Input,C-M-}.

@item @kbd{M-x}
@kbd{M-x} is the key sequence which is used to call an Emacs command by
name.  This is how you run commands that are not bound to key sequences.
@xref{M-x,M-x,Running Commands by Name}.

@item Mail
Mail means messages sent from one user to another through the computer
system, to be read at the recipient's convenience.  Emacs has commands for
composing and sending mail, and for reading and editing the mail you have

@item Multibyte Character
A multibyte character is a character that takes up several bytes in a
buffer.  Emacs uses multibyte characters to represent non-ASCII text,
since the number of non-ASCII characters is much more than 256.
@xref{International Chars, International Characters}.

@item Named Mark
A named mark is a register (q.v.@:) in its role of recording a
location in text so that you can move point to that location.
@xref{Registers}.

@item Point
Point is the place in the buffer at which insertion and deletion
occur.  Point is considered to be between two characters, not at one
character.  The terminal's cursor (q.v.@:) indicates the location of
point.  @xref{Basic,Point,Basic Editing}.
	
@item Prefix Argument
See `numeric argument.'

@item Prefix Key

block or a parenthesized expression in C.  @xref{Lists,Sexps}.

@item Simultaneous Editing
Simultaneous editing means two users modifying the same file at once.
Simultaneous editing if not detected can cause one user to lose his
work.  Emacs detects all cases of simultaneous editing and warns one
of the users to investigate.
@xref{Interlocking,Interlocking,Simultaneous Editing}.

@item Speedbar
Speedbar is a special tall frame that provides fast access to Emacs
buffers, functions within those buffers, Info nodes, and other
interesting parts of text within Emacs.  @xref{Speedbar}.

Two meanings (@pxref{Text}):

@itemize @bullet
@item
Data consisting of a sequence of characters, as opposed to binary
numbers, executable programs, and the like.  The basic contents of an
Emacs buffer (aside from the text properties, q.v.@:) are always text
in this sense.
@item
Data consisting of written human language, as opposed to programs,
or following the stylistic conventions of human language.
@end itemize

@item Text-only Terminal
A text-only terminal is a display that is limited to displaying text in
character units.  Such a terminal cannot control individual pixels it
displays.  Emacs supports a subset of display features on text-only
terminals.

@item Text Properties
Text properties are annotations recorded for particular characters in
the buffer.  Images in the buffer are recorded as text properties;
they also specify formatting information.  @xref{Editing Format Info}.

@item Tool Bar
The tool bar is a line (sometimes multiple lines) of icons at the top
of an Emacs frame.  Clicking on one of these icons executes a command.
You can think of this as a graphical relative of the menu bar (q.v.@:).

A variable is an object in Lisp that can store an arbitrary value.
Emacs uses some variables for internal purposes, and has others (known
as `user options' (q.v.@:)) just so that you can set their values to
control the behavior of Emacs.  The variables used in Emacs that you
are likely to be interested in are listed in the Variables Index in
this manual (@pxref{Variable Index}).  @xref{Variables}, for
information on variables.

@item Version Control
Version control systems keep track of multiple versions of a source file.
They provide a more powerful alternative to keeping backup files (q.v.@:).
@xref{Version Control}.