Mercurial > emacs
view doc/emacs/screen.texi @ 108035:98d289f97679
get rid of "unix" pre-defined macro when preprocessing Makefile
author | Miles Bader <miles@gnu.org> |
---|---|
date | Thu, 22 Apr 2010 09:10:30 +0900 |
parents | 1d1d5d9bd884 |
children | 51ddcf320fe4 |
line wrap: on
line source
@c This is part of the Emacs manual. @c Copyright (C) 1985, 1986, 1987, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1997, 2001, 2002, @c 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 Free Software Foundation, Inc. @c See file emacs.texi for copying conditions. @node Screen, User Input, Acknowledgments, Top @chapter The Organization of the Screen @cindex screen @cindex parts of the screen On a text-only terminal, the Emacs display occupies the entire terminal screen. On a graphical display, such as on GNU/Linux using the X Window System, Emacs creates its own windows to use. We use the term @dfn{frame} to mean the entire terminal screen or graphical window used by Emacs. Emacs uses both kinds of frames, in the same way, to display your editing. Emacs normally starts out with just one frame, but you can create additional frames if you wish (@pxref{Frames}). The frame consists of several distinct regions. At the top of the frame is a @dfn{menu bar}, which allows you to access commands via a series of menus. On a graphical display, directly below the menu bar is a @dfn{tool bar}, a row of icons that perform editing commands if you click on them. At the very bottom of the frame is a special @dfn{echo area}, where short informative messages are displayed and where you enter information when Emacs asks for it. The main area of the frame, below the tool bar (if one exists) and above the echo area, is called @dfn{the window}. This is where Emacs displays the @dfn{buffer}: the text that you are editing. On a graphical display, the window possesses a @dfn{scroll bar} on one side, which you can use to display different parts of the buffer in the window. The last line of the window is a @dfn{mode line}. This displays various information about what is going on in the buffer, such as whether there are unsaved changes, the editing modes that are in use, the current line number, and so forth. When you start Emacs, there is normally only one window in the frame. However, you can subdivide this window horizontally or vertically to create multiple windows, each of which can independently display a buffer (@pxref{Windows}). In this manual, the word ``window'' refers to the initial large window if not subdivided, or any one of the multiple windows you have subdivided it into. At any time, one window is the @dfn{selected window}. On graphical displays, the selected window normally shows a more prominent cursor (usually solid and blinking) while other windows show a weaker cursor (such as a hollow box). Text terminals have just one cursor, so it always appears in the selected window. The buffer displayed in the selected window is called the @dfn{current buffer}, and it is where editing happens. Most Emacs commands implicitly apply to the current buffer; the text displayed in unselected windows is mostly visible for reference. If you use multiple frames on a graphical display, selecting a particular frame selects a window in that frame. @menu * Point:: The place in the text where editing commands operate. * Echo Area:: Short messages appear at the bottom of the screen. * Mode Line:: Interpreting the mode line. * Menu Bar:: How to use the menu bar. @end menu @node Point @section Point @cindex point @cindex cursor The active cursor shows the location at which editing commands will take effect, which is called @dfn{point}@footnote{The term ``point'' comes from the character @samp{.}, which was the command in TECO (the language in which the original Emacs was written) for accessing the value now called ``point.''}. Many Emacs commands move point to different places in the buffer; for example, you can place point by clicking mouse button 1 (normally the left button) at the desired location. While the cursor appears to be @emph{on} a character, you should think of point as @emph{between} two characters; it points @emph{before} the character that appears under the cursor. For example, if your text looks like @samp{frob} with the cursor over the @samp{b}, then point is between the @samp{o} and the @samp{b}. If you insert the character @samp{!} at that position, the result is @samp{fro!b}, with point between the @samp{!} and the @samp{b}. Thus, the cursor remains over the @samp{b}, as before. Sometimes people speak of ``the cursor'' when they mean ``point,'' or speak of commands that move point as ``cursor motion'' commands. If you are editing several files in Emacs, each in its own buffer, each buffer has its own point location. A buffer that is not currently displayed remembers its point location in case you display it again later. When Emacs displays multiple windows, each window has its own point location. If the same buffer appears in more than one window, each window has its own point position in that buffer. On a graphical display, Emacs shows a cursor in each window; the selected window's cursor is solid and blinking, and the other cursors are hollow. On a text-only terminal, there is just one cursor, in the selected window; even though the unselected windows have their own point positions, they do not display a cursor. @xref{Cursor Display}, for customizable variables that control cursor display. @node Echo Area @section The Echo Area @cindex echo area The line at the very bottom of the frame is the @dfn{echo area}. It is used to display small amounts of text for various purposes. @dfn{Echoing} means displaying the characters that you type. Single-character commands, including most simple editing operations, are not echoed. Multi-character commands are echoed if you pause while typing them: if you pause for more than a second in the middle of a command, Emacs echoes all the characters of the command so far, to prompt you for the rest of the command. The echoed characters are displayed in the echo area. Once echoing has started, the rest of the command echoes immediately as you type it. This behavior is designed to give confident users fast response, while giving hesitant users maximum feedback. @xref{Display Custom}. @cindex error message in the echo area If a command cannot do its job, it may display an @dfn{error message}. Error messages are also displayed in the echo area. They may be accompanied by beeping or by flashing the screen. Some commands display informative messages in the echo area. Unlike error messages, these messages are not announced with a beep or flash. Sometimes the message tells you what the command has done, when this is not obvious from looking at the text being edited. Other times, the sole purpose of a command is to show you a message giving you specific information. For example, @kbd{C-x =} (hold down @key{CTRL} and type @kbd{x}, then let go of @key{CTRL} and type @kbd{=}) displays a message describing the character position of point in the text and its current column in the window. Commands that take a long time often display messages ending in @samp{...} while they are working, and add @samp{done} at the end when they are finished. They may also indicate progress with percentages. @cindex @samp{*Messages*} buffer @cindex saved echo area messages @cindex messages saved from echo area @vindex message-log-max Informative echo-area messages are saved in a special buffer named @samp{*Messages*}. (We have not explained buffers yet; see @ref{Buffers}, for more information about them.) If you miss a message that appeared briefly on the screen, you can switch to the @samp{*Messages*} buffer to see it again. The @samp{*Messages*} buffer is limited to a certain number of lines, specified by the variable @code{message-log-max}. (We have not explained variables either; see @ref{Variables}, for more information about them.) Beyond this limit, one line is deleted from the beginning whenever a new message line is added at the end. @cindex minibuffer The echo area is also used to display the @dfn{minibuffer}, a special window where you can input arguments to commands, such as the name of a file to be edited. When the minibuffer is in use, the text displayed in the echo area begins with a @dfn{prompt string} (usually ending with a colon); also, the active cursor appears within the minibuffer, which is temporarily considered the selected window. You can always get out of the minibuffer by typing @kbd{C-g}. @xref{Minibuffer}. @node Mode Line @section The Mode Line @cindex mode line @cindex top level At the bottom of each window is a @dfn{mode line}, which describes what is going on in the current buffer. When there is only one window, the mode line appears right above the echo area; it is the next-to-last line in the frame. On a graphical display, the mode line is drawn with a 3D box appearance, and the mode line of the selected window has a brighter color than that of unselected windows to make it stand out. On a text-only terminal, the mode line is usually drawn in inverse video. The text displayed in the mode line has the following format: @example -@var{cs}:@var{ch}-@var{fr} @var{buf} @var{pos} @var{line} (@var{major} @var{minor})------ @end example @noindent The @var{cs} string and the colon character after it describe the character set and newline convention used for the current buffer. Normally, Emacs handles these settings intelligently, but it is sometimes useful to have this information. @var{cs} describes the character set of the buffer (@pxref{Coding Systems}). If it is a dash (@samp{-}), that indicates the default state of affairs: no special character set handling, except for the end-of-line translations described in the next paragraph. @samp{=} means no conversion whatsoever. Letters represent various nontrivial @dfn{coding systems}---for example, @samp{1} represents ISO Latin-1. On a text-only terminal, @var{cs} is preceded by two additional characters that describe the coding system for keyboard input and the coding system for terminal output. Furthermore, if you are using an input method, @var{cs} is preceded by a string that identifies the input method, which takes the form @samp{@var{i}>}, @samp{@var{i}+}, or @samp{@var{i}@@} (@pxref{Input Methods}). @cindex end-of-line conversion, mode-line indication The character after @var{cs} is usually a colon. However, under some circumstances a different string is displayed, which indicates a nontrivial end-of-line convention. Usually, lines of text are separated by @dfn{newline characters}, but two other conventions are sometimes used. The MS-DOS convention is to use a ``carriage-return'' character followed by a ``linefeed'' character; when editing such files, the colon changes to either a backslash (@samp{\}) or @samp{(DOS)}, depending on the operating system. The Macintosh end-of-line convention is to use a ``carriage-return'' character instead of a newline; when editing such files, the colon indicator changes to either a forward slash (@samp{/}) or @samp{(Mac)}. On some systems, Emacs displays @samp{(Unix)} instead of the colon for files that use newline as the line separator. The next element on the mode line is the string indicated by @var{ch}. This shows two dashes (@samp{--}) if the buffer displayed in the window has the same contents as the corresponding file on the disk; i.e., if the buffer is ``unmodified''. If the buffer is modified, it shows two stars (@samp{**}). For a read-only buffer, it shows @samp{%*} if the buffer is modified, and @samp{%%} otherwise. The character after @var{ch} is normally a dash (@samp{-}). However, if the default-directory for the current buffer is on a remote machine, @samp{@@} is displayed instead (@pxref{File Names}). @var{fr} gives the selected frame name (@pxref{Frames}). It appears only on text-only terminals. The initial frame's name is @samp{F1}. @var{buf} is the name of the buffer displayed in the window. Usually, this is the same as the name of a file you are editing. @xref{Buffers}. @var{pos} tells you whether there is additional text above the top of the window, or below the bottom. If your buffer is small and it is all visible in the window, @var{pos} is @samp{All}. Otherwise, it is @samp{Top} if you are looking at the beginning of the buffer, @samp{Bot} if you are looking at the end of the buffer, or @samp{@var{nn}%}, where @var{nn} is the percentage of the buffer above the top of the window. With Size Indication mode, you can display the size of the buffer as well. @xref{Optional Mode Line}. @var{line} is the character @samp{L} followed by the line number at point. (You can display the current column number too, by turning on Column Number mode. @xref{Optional Mode Line}.) @var{major} is the name of the @dfn{major mode} used in the buffer. A major mode is a principal editing mode for the buffer, such as Text mode, Lisp mode, C mode, and so forth. @xref{Major Modes}. Some major modes display additional information after the major mode name. For example, Rmail buffers display the current message number and the total number of messages. Compilation buffers and Shell buffers display the status of the subprocess. @var{minor} is a list of some of the @dfn{minor modes} turned on in the buffer. Minor modes are optional editing modes that provide additional features on top of the major mode. @xref{Minor Modes}. Some features are listed together with the minor modes whenever they are turned on, even through they are not really minor modes. @samp{Narrow} means that the buffer being displayed has editing restricted to only a portion of its text (@pxref{Narrowing}). @samp{Def} means that a keyboard macro is currently being defined (@pxref{Keyboard Macros}). In addition, if Emacs is inside a recursive editing level, square brackets (@samp{[@dots{}]}) appear around the parentheses that surround the modes. If Emacs is in one recursive editing level within another, double square brackets appear, and so on. Since recursive editing levels affect Emacs globally, not just one buffer, the square brackets appear in every window's mode line or not in any of them. @xref{Recursive Edit}.@refill You can change the appearance of the mode line as well as the format of its contents. @xref{Optional Mode Line}. In addition, the mode line is mouse-sensitive; clicking on different parts of the mode line performs various commands. @xref{Mode Line Mouse}. @node Menu Bar @section The Menu Bar @cindex menu bar Each Emacs frame normally has a @dfn{menu bar} at the top which you can use to perform common operations. There's no need to list them here, as you can more easily see them yourself. @kindex M-` @kindex F10 @findex tmm-menubar @findex menu-bar-open On a graphical display, you can use the mouse to choose a command from the menu bar. A right-arrow at the end of a menu item means it leads to a subsidiary menu, or @dfn{submenu}. A @samp{...} at the end of a menu item means that the command invoked will prompt you for further input before it actually does anything. Some of the commands in the menu bar have ordinary key bindings as well; if so, a key binding is shown in parentheses after the item itself. To view the full command name and documentation for a menu item, type @kbd{C-h k}, and then select the menu bar with the mouse in the usual way (@pxref{Key Help}). Instead of using the mouse, you can also invoke the first menu bar item by pressing @key{F10} (to run the command @code{menu-bar-open}). You can then navigate the menus with the arrow keys. To activate a selected menu item, press @key{RET}; to cancel menu navigation, press @key{ESC}. On text-only terminals with no mouse, you can use the menu bar by typing @kbd{M-`} or @key{F10} (these run the command @code{tmm-menubar}). This lets you select a menu item with the keyboard. A provisional choice appears in the echo area. You can use the up and down arrow keys to move through the menu to different items, and then you can type @key{RET} to select the item. Each menu item also has an assigned letter or digit which designates that item; it is usually the initial of some word in the item's name. This letter or digit is separated from the item name by @samp{=>}. You can type the item's letter or digit to select the item. @ignore arch-tag: 104ba40e-d972-4866-a542-a98be94bdf2f @end ignore