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Emacsen5 have a steeper learning curve than your average software because
they don't use the vocabulary words you'd expect them to and therefore
it takes a longer time to find what you're looking for in the manual
or learn the options you'd like to understand. You may very well know
what you want but not know how to find it. A simple vocabulary lesson
will set you a long way forward in your effort to learn to use emacs.
- Frames
- are what any other program would call ``windows.'' An
emacs frame can be simply another view of the same document or show
different documents.
- Buffers:
- When you load a document into memory, your work
resides in a memory buffer, while the file remains unchanged on the
disk. Then when you save your work, the buffer is written to that
file.
- Window:
- You can divide your screen into sections called
``windows,'' each of which can view a different buffer or different
parts of the same buffer.
- Filling
- is what other programs call ``word wrap,'' sort of. To
get a paragraph of text to ``wrap'' you must essentially insert a
return character at the end of every line at a certain position, say
every 80th character or so to have paragraphs formatted 80
characters wide.
- Kill
- means to remove text. Everyone else calls it ``cut.''
- Yank
- means to insert previously removed text, i.e ``paste.''
- Copy to Kill Ring
- is the equivalent of ``copying'' text in other
applications.
Figure 1 shows a summary of emacs lingo and their
equivalents for other software packages.
Figure 1:
Emacs Vocabulary and meaning
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First of all, a word about notation: emacs commands all start with the
control key or the alt key. The command Control-X is shown as
follows: C-x and the command alt-X is shown as follows:
M-x (the M stands for ``meta'' and goes back to the days before
the alt-key). Some commands involve several steps, like the
following, which sets the margin to 20 characters: C-u 20 C-x
f. So hit control-u, type the number 20, then hit control-x,
release, and strike the f key. The status bar at the bottom of the
screen shows your progress. If you screw up half way, hit control-g
to cancel the command (you can't edit the command half way, you have
to start over). Now that you understand the notation, you'll
understand C-x C-c, which means ``exit emacs.''
You'll feel more comfortable exploring emacs once you know how to undo
mistakes. The command is C-x u and emacs remembers a long history of
your previous commands so it can undo a lot of mistakes. Figure
2 summarizes these basic commands.
Figure 2:
The Basics
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Next: Emacs Commands
Up: The Basics
Previous: The Basics
Contents
Randall Wood
2011-03-31