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- Copyright (c) 1985 Free Software Foundation, Inc; See end for conditions.
-
- You are looking at the Emacs tutorial.
-
- Emacs commands generally involve the CONTROL key (sometimes labelled
- CTRL or CTL) or the META key (sometimes labelled EDIT). Rather than
- write out META or CONTROL each time we want you to prefix a character,
- we'll use the following abbreviations:
-
- C-<chr> means hold the CONTROL key while typing the character <chr>
- Thus, C-f would be: hold the CONTROL key and type f.
- M-<chr> means hold the META or EDIT key down while typing <chr>.
- If there is no META or EDIT key, type <ESC>, release it,
- then type the character <chr>. "<ESC>" stands for the
- key labelled "ALT" or "ESC".
-
- Important note: to end the Emacs session, type C-x C-c. (Two characters.)
- The characters ">>" at the left margin indicate directions for you to
- try using a command. For instance:
- <<Blank lines inserted here by startup of help-with-tutorial>>
- >> Now type C-v (View next screen) to move to the next screen.
- (go ahead, do it by depressing the control key and v together).
- From now on, you'll be expected to do this whenever you finish
- reading the screen.
-
- Note that there is an overlap when going from screen to screen; this
- provides some continuity when moving through the file.
-
- The first thing that you need to know is how to move around from
- place to place in the file. You already know how to move forward a
- screen, with C-v. To move backwards a screen, type M-v (depress the
- META key and type v, or type <ESC>v if you don't have a META or EDIT
- key).
-
- >> Try typing M-v and then C-v to move back and forth a few times.
-
-
- SUMMARY
- -------
-
- The following commands are useful for viewing screenfuls:
-
- C-v Move forward one screenful
- M-v Move backward one screenful
- C-l Clear screen and redisplay everything
- putting the text near the cursor at the center.
- (That's control-L, not control-1.
- There is no such character as control-1.)
-
- >> Find the cursor and remember what text is near it.
- Then type a C-l.
- Find the cursor again and see what text is near it now.
-
-
- BASIC CURSOR CONTROL
- --------------------
-
- Getting from screenful to screenful is useful, but how do you
- reposition yourself within a given screen to a specific place?
- There are several ways you can do this. One way (not the best, but
- the most basic) is to use the commands previous, backward, forward
- and next. As you can imagine these commands (which are given to
- Emacs as C-p, C-b, C-f, and C-n respectively) move the cursor from
- where it currently is to a new place in the given direction. Here,
- in a more graphical form are the commands:
-
- Previous line, C-p
- :
- :
- Backward, C-b .... Current cursor position .... Forward, C-f
- :
- :
- Next line, C-n
-
- >> Move the cursor to the line in the middle of that diagram
- and type C-l to see the whole diagram centered in the screen.
-
- You'll probably find it easy to think of these by letter. P for
- previous, N for next, B for backward and F for forward. These are
- the basic cursor positioning commands and you'll be using them ALL
- the time so it would be of great benefit if you learn them now.
-
- >> Do a few C-n's to bring the cursor down to this line.
-
- >> Move into the line with C-f's and then up with C-p's.
- See what C-p does when the cursor is in the middle of the line.
-
- Lines are separated by Newline characters. For most applications
- there should normally be a Newline character at the end of the text,
- as well, but it is up to you to make sure of this. A file can
- validly exist without a Newline at the end.
-
- >> Try to C-b at the beginning of a line. Do a few more C-b's.
- Then do C-f's back to the end of the line and beyond.
-
- When you go off the top or bottom of the screen, the text beyond
- the edge is shifted onto the screen so that your instructions can
- be carried out while keeping the cursor on the screen.
-
- >> Try to move the cursor off the bottom of the screen with C-n and
- see what happens.
-
- If moving by characters is too slow, you can move by words. M-f
- (Meta-f) moves forward a word and M-b moves back a word.
-
- >> Type a few M-f's and M-b's. Intersperse them with C-f's and C-b's.
-
- Notice the parallel between C-f and C-b on the one hand, and M-f and
- M-b on the other hand. Very often Meta characters are used for
- operations related to English text whereas Control characters operate
- on the basic textual units that are independent of what you are
- editing (characters, lines, etc). There is a similar parallel between
- lines and sentences: C-a and C-e move to the beginning or end of a
- line, and M-a and M-e move to the beginning or end of a sentence.
-
- >> Try a couple of C-a's, and then a couple of C-e's.
- Try a couple of M-a's, and then a couple of M-e's.
-
- See how repeated C-a's do nothing, but repeated M-a's keep moving
- farther. Do you think that this is right?
-
- Two other simple cursor motion commands are M-< (Meta Less-than),
- which moves to the beginning of the file, and M-> (Meta Greater-than),
- which moves to the end of the file. You probably don't need to try
- them, since finding this spot again will be boring. On most terminals
- the "<" is above the comma and you must use the shift key to type it.
- On these terminals you must use the shift key to type M-< also;
- without the shift key, you would be typing M-comma.
-
- The location of the cursor in the text is also called "point". To
- paraphrase, the cursor shows on the screen where point is located in
- the text.
-
- Here is a summary of simple moving operations including the word and
- sentence moving commands:
-
- C-f Move forward a character
- C-b Move backward a character
-
- M-f Move forward a word
- M-b Move backward a word
-
- C-n Move to next line
- C-p Move to previous line
-
- C-a Move to beginning of line
- C-e Move to end of line
-
- M-a Move back to beginning of sentence
- M-e Move forward to end of sentence
-
- M-< Go to beginning of file
- M-> Go to end of file
-
- >> Try all of these commands now a few times for practice.
- Since the last two will take you away from this screen,
- you can come back here with M-v's and C-v's. These are
- the most often used commands.
-
- Like all other commands in Emacs, these commands can be given
- arguments which cause them to be executed repeatedly. The way you
- give a command a repeat count is by typing C-u and then the digits
- before you type the command. If you have a META or EDIT key, you can
- omit the C-u if you hold down the META or EDIT key while you type the
- digits. This is easier, but we recommend the C-u method because it
- works on any terminal.
-
- For instance, C-u 8 C-f moves forward eight characters.
-
- >> Try giving a suitable argument to C-n or C-p to come as close
- as you can to this line in one jump.
-
- The only apparent exception to this is the screen moving commands,
- C-v and M-v. When given an argument, they scroll the screen up or
- down by that many lines, rather than screenfuls. This proves to be
- much more useful.
-
- >> Try typing C-u 8 C-v now.
-
- Did it scroll the screen up by 8 lines? If you would like to
- scroll it down you can give an argument to M-v.
-
-
- WHEN EMACS IS HUNG
- -----------------
-
- If Emacs gets into an infinite (or simply very long) computation which
- you don't want to finish, you can stop it safely by typing C-g.
- You can also use C-g to discard a numeric argument or the beginning of
- a command that you don't want to finish.
-
- >> Type C-u 100 to make a numeric arg of 100, then type C-g.
- Now type C-f. How many characters does it move?
- If you have typed an <ESC> by mistake, you can get rid of it
- with a C-g.
-
- If you type <ESC> <ESC>, you get a new window appearing on
- the screen, telling you that M-ESC is a "disabled command"
- and asking whether you really want to execute it. The command
- M-ESC is marked as disabled because you probably don't want to
- use it until you know more about Emacs, and we expect it would
- confuse you if it were allowed to go ahead and run. If you really
- want to try the M-ESC command, you could type a Space in answer
- to the question and M-ESC would go ahead. Normally, if you do
- not want to execute M-ESC, you would type "n" to answer the question.
-
- >> Type <ESC> <ESC>, then type n.
-
-
- WINDOWS
- -------
-
- Emacs can have several windows, each displaying its own text.
- At this stage it is better not to go into the techniques of
- using multiple windows. But you do need to know how to get
- rid of extra windows that may appear to display help or
- output from certain commands. It is simple:
-
- C-x 1 One window (i.e., kill all other windows).
-
- That is Control-x followed by the digit 1.
- C-x 1 makes the window which the cursor is in become
- the full screen, by getting rid of any other windows.
-
- >> Move the cursor to this line and type C-u 0 C-l.
- >> Type Control-h k Control-f.
- See how this window shrinks, while a new one appears
- to display documentation on the Control-f command.
-
- >> Type C-x 1 and see the documentation listing window disappear.
-
-
- INSERTING AND DELETING
- ----------------------
-
- If you want to insert text, just type it. Characters which you can
- see, such as A, 7, *, etc. are taken by Emacs as text and inserted
- immediately. Type <Return> (the carriage-return key) to insert a
- Newline character.
-
- You can delete the last character you typed by typing <Rubout>.
- <Rubout> is a key on the keyboard, which might be labelled "Delete"
- instead of "Rubout" on some terminals. More generally, <Rubout>
- deletes the character immediately before the current cursor position.
-
- >> Do this now, type a few characters and then delete them
- by typing <Rubout> a few times. Don't worry about this file
- being changed; you won't affect the master tutorial. This is just
- a copy of it.
-
- >> Now start typing text until you reach the right margin, and keep
- typing. When a line of text gets too big for one line on the
- screen, the line of text is "continued" onto a second screen line.
- The backslash at the right margin indicates a line which has
- been continued.
- >> Use <Rubout>s to delete the text until the line fits on one screen
- line again. The continuation line goes away.
-
- >> Move the cursor to the beginning of a line and type <Rubout>. This
- deletes the newline before the line and merges the line onto
- the previous line. The resulting line may be too long to fit, in
- which case it has a continuation line.
- >> Type <Return> to reinsert the Newline you deleted.
-
- Remember that most Emacs commands can be given a repeat count;
- this includes characters which insert themselves.
-
- >> Try that now -- type C-u 8 * and see what happens.
-
- You've now learned the most basic way of typing something in
- Emacs and correcting errors. You can delete by words or lines
- as well. Here is a summary of the delete operations:
-
- <Rubout> delete the character just before the cursor
- C-d delete the next character after the cursor
-
- M-<Rubout> kill the word immediately before the cursor
- M-d kill the next word after the cursor
-
- C-k kill from the cursor position to end of line
- M-k kill to the end of the current sentence
-
- Notice that <Rubout> and C-d vs M-<Rubout> and M-d extend the parallel
- started by C-f and M-f (well, <Rubout> isn't really a control
- character, but let's not worry about that). C-k and M-k are like C-e
- and M-e, sort of, in that lines are opposite sentences.
-
- Now suppose you kill something, and then you decide that you want to
- get it back? Well, whenever you kill something bigger than a
- character, Emacs saves it for you. To yank it back, use C-y. You
- can kill text in one place, move elsewhere, and then do C-y; this is
- a good way to move text around. Note that the difference
- between "Killing" and "Deleting" something is that "Killed" things
- can be yanked back, and "Deleted" things cannot. Generally, the
- commands that can destroy a lot of text save it, while the ones that
- attack only one character, or nothing but blank lines and spaces, do
- not save.
-
- For instance, type C-n a couple times to postion the cursor
- at some line on this screen.
-
- >> Do this now, move the cursor and kill that line with C-k.
-
- Note that a single C-k kills the contents of the line, and a second
- C-k kills the line itself, and make all the other lines move up. If
- you give C-k a repeat count, it kills that many lines AND their
- contents.
-
- The text that has just disappeared is saved so that you can
- retrieve it. To retrieve the last killed text and put it where
- the cursor currently is, type C-y.
-
- >> Try it; type C-y to yank the text back.
-
- Think of C-y as if you were yanking something back that someone
- took away from you. Notice that if you do several C-k's in a row
- the text that is killed is all saved together so that one C-y will
- yank all of the lines.
-
- >> Do this now, type C-k several times.
-
- Now to retrieve that killed text:
-
- >> Type C-y. Then move the cursor down a few lines and type C-y
- again. You now see how to copy some text.
-
- What do you do if you have some text you want to yank back, and then
- you kill something else? C-y would yank the more recent kill. But
- the previous text is not lost. You can get back to it using the M-y
- command. After you have done C-y to get the most recent kill, typing
- M-Y replaces that yanked text with the previous kill. Typing M-y
- again and again brings in earlier and earlier kills. When you
- have reached the text you are looking for, you can just go away and
- leave it there. If you M-y enough times, you come back to the
- starting point (the most recent kill).
-
- >> Kill a line, move around, kill another line.
- Then do C-y to get back the second killed line.
- Then do M-y and it will be replaced by the first killed line.
- Do more M-y's and see what you get. Keep doing them until
- the second kill line comes back, and then a few more.
- If you like, you can try giving M-y positive and negative
- arguments.
-
-
- UNDO
- ----
-
- Any time you make a change to the text and wish you had not done so,
- you can undo the change (return the text to its previous state)
- with the undo command, C-x u. Normally, C-x u undoes one command's
- worth of changes; if you repeat the C-x u several times in a row,
- each time undoes one more command. There are two exceptions:
- commands that made no change (just moved the cursor) do not count,
- and self-inserting characters are often lumped together in groups
- of up to 20. This is to reduce the number of C-x u's you have to type.
-
- >> Kill this line with C-k, then type C-x u and it should reappear.
-
- C-_ is another command for undoing; it is just the same as C-x u
- but easier to type several times in a row. The problem with C-_ is
- that on some keyboards it is not obvious how to type it. That is
- why C-x u is provided as well. On some DEC terminals, you can type
- C-_ by typing / while holding down CTRL. Illogical, but what can
- you expect from DEC?
-
- Giving a numeric argument to C-_ or C-x u is equivalent to repeating
- it as many times as the argument says.
-
-
- FILES
- -----
-
- In order to make the text you edit permanent, you must put it in a
- file. Otherwise, it will go away when your invocation of Emacs goes
- away. You put your editing in a file by "finding" the file. What
- finding means is that you see the contents of the file in your Emacs;
- and, loosely speaking, what you are editing is the file itself.
- However, the changes still don't become permanent until you "save" the
- file. This is so you can have control to avoid leaving a half-changed
- file around when you don't want to. Even then, Emacs leaves the
- original file under a changed name in case your changes turn out
- to be a mistake.
-
- If you look near the bottom of the screen you will see a line that
- begins and ends with dashes, and contains the string "Emacs: TUTORIAL".
- Your copy of the Emacs tutorial is called "TUTORIAL". Whatever
- file you find, that file's name will appear in that precise
- spot.
-
- The commands for finding and saving files are unlike the other
- commands you have learned in that they consist of two characters.
- They both start with the character Control-x. There is a whole series
- of commands that start with Control-x; many of them have to do with
- files, buffers, and related things, and all of them consist of
- Control-x followed by some other character.
-
- Another thing about the command for finding a file is that you have
- to say what file name you want. We say the command "reads an argument
- from the terminal" (in this case, the argument is the name of the
- file). After you type the command
-
- C-x C-f Find a file
-
- Emacs asks you to type the file name. It echoes on the bottom
- line of the screen. You are using the minibuffer now! this is
- what the minibuffer is for. When you type <Return> to end the
- file name, the minibuffer is no longer needed, so it disappears.
-
- >> Type C-x C-f, then type C-g. This cancels the minibuffer,
- and also cancels the C-x C-f command that was using the
- minibuffer. So you do not find any file.
-
- In a little while the file contents appear on the screen. You can
- edit the contents. When you wish to make the changes permanent,
- issue the command
-
- C-x C-s Save the file
-
- The contents of Emacs are written into the file. The first time you
- do this, the original file is renamed to a new name so that it
- is not lost. The new name is made by appending "~" to the end
- of the original file's name.
-
- When saving is finished, Emacs prints the name of the file written.
- You should save fairly often, so that you will not lose very much
- work if the system should crash.
-
- >> Type C-x C-s, saving your copy of the tutorial.
- This should print "Wrote .../TUTORIAL" at the bottom of the screen.
- On VMS it will print "Wrote ...[...]TUTORIAL."
-
- To make a new file, just find it "as if" it already existed. Then
- start typing in the text. When you ask to "save" the file, Emacs
- will really create the file with the text that you have inserted.
- From then on, you can consider yourself to be editing an already
- existing file.
-
-
- BUFFERS
- -------
-
- If you find a second file with C-x C-f, the first file remains
- inside Emacs. You can switch back to it by finding it again with
- C-x C-f. This way you can get quite a number of files inside Emacs.
-
- The object inside Emacs which holds the text read from one file
- is called a "buffer." Finding a file makes a new buffer inside Emacs.
- To see a list of the buffers that exist in Emacs, type
-
- C-x C-b List buffers
-
- >> Try C-x C-b now.
-
- See how each buffer has a name, and it may also have a file name
- for the file whose contents it holds. Some buffers do not correspond
- to files. For example, the buffer named "*Buffer List*" does
- not have any file. It is the buffer which contains the buffer
- list that was made by C-x C-b. ANY text you see in an Emacs window
- has to be in some buffer.
-
- >> Type C-x 1 to get rid of the buffer list.
-
- If you make changes to the text of one file, then find another file,
- this does not save the first file. Its changes remain inside Emacs,
- in that file's buffer. The creation or editing of the second file's
- buffer has no effect on the first file's buffer. This is very useful,
- but it also means that you need a convenient way to save the first
- file's buffer. It would be a nuisance to have to switch back to
- it with C-x C-f in order to save it with C-x C-s. So we have
-
- C-x s Save some buffers
-
- C-x s goes through the list of all the buffers you have
- and finds the ones that contain files you have changed.
- For each such buffer, C-x s asks you whether to save it.
-
-
- EXTENDING THE COMMAND SET
- -------------------------
-
- There are many, many more Emacs commands than could possibly be put
- on all the control and meta characters. Emacs gets around this with
- the X (eXtend) command. This comes in two flavors:
-
- C-x Character eXtend. Followed by one character.
- M-x Named command eXtend. Followed by a long name.
-
- These are commands that are generally useful but used less than the
- commands you have already learned about. You have already seen two
- of them: the file commands C-x C-f to Find and C-x C-s to Save.
- Another example is the command to tell Emacs that you'd like to stop
- editing and get rid of Emacs. The command to do this is C-x C-c.
- (Don't worry; it offers to save each changed file before it kills the
- Emacs.)
-
- C-z is the usual way to exit Emacs, because it is always better not to
- kill the Emacs if you are going to do any more editing. On systems
- which allow it, C-z exits from Emacs to the shell but does not destroy
- the Emacs; if you use the C shell, you can resume Emacs with the `fg'
- command (or, more generally, with `%emacs', which works even if your
- most recent job was some other). On systems where suspending is not
- possible, C-z creates a subshell running under Emacs to give you the
- chance to run other programs and return to Emacs afterward, but it
- does not truly "exit" from Emacs. In this case, the shell command
- `exit' is the usual way to get back to Emacs from the subshell.
-
- You would use C-x C-c if you were about to log out. You would
- also use it to exit an Emacs invoked under mail handling programs
- and other random utilities, since they may not believe you have
- really finished using the Emacs if it continues to exist.
-
- There are many C-x commands. The ones you know are:
-
- C-x C-f Find file.
- C-x C-s Save file.
- C-x C-b List buffers.
- C-x C-c Quit Emacs.
- C-x u Undo.
-
- Named eXtended commands are commands which are used even less
- frequently, or commands which are used only in certain modes. These
- commands are usually called "functions". An example is the function
- replace-string, which globally replaces one string with another. When
- you type M-x, Emacs prompts you at the bottom of the screen with
- M-x and you should type the name of the function you wish to call; in
- this case, "replace-string". Just type "repl s<TAB>" and Emacs will
- complete the name. End the command name with <Return>.
- Then type the two "arguments"--the string to be replaced, and the string
- to replace it with--each one ended with a Return.
-
- >> Move the cursor to the blank line two lines below this one.
- Then type M-x repl s<Return>changed<Return>altered<Return>.
-
- Notice how this line has changed: you've replaced
- the word c-h-a-n-g-e-d with "altered" wherever it occured
- after the cursor.
-
-
- MODE LINE
- ---------
-
- If Emacs sees that you are typing commands slowly it shows them to you
- at the bottom of the screen in an area called the "echo area." The echo
- area contains the bottom line of the screen. The line immediately above
- it is called the MODE LINE. The mode line says something like
-
- --**--Emacs: TUTORIAL (Fundamental)----58%-------------
-
- This is a very useful "information" line.
-
- You already know what the filename means--it is the file you have
- found. What the --NN%-- means is that NN percent of the file is
- above the top of the screen. If the top of the file is on the screen,
- it will say --TOP-- instead of --00%--. If the bottom of the file is
- on the screen, it will say --BOT--. If you are looking at a file so
- small it all fits on the screen, it says --ALL--.
-
- The stars near the front mean that you have made changes to the text.
- Right after you visit or save a file, there are no stars, just dashes.
-
- The part of the mode line inside the parentheses is to tell you what
- modes you are in. The default mode is Fundamental which is what you
- are in now. It is an example of a "major mode". There are several
- major modes in Emacs for editing different languages and text, such as
- Lisp mode, Text mode, etc. At any time one and only one major mode is
- active, and its name can always be found in the mode line just where
- "Fundamental" is now. Each major mode makes a few commands behave
- differently. For example, there are commands for creating comments in
- a program, and since each programming language has a different idea of
- what a comment should look like, each major mode has to insert
- comments differently. Each major mode is the name of an extended
- command, which is how you get into the mode. For example,
- M-X fundamental-mode is how to get into Fundamental mode.
-
- If you are going to be editing English text, such as this file, you
- should probably use Text Mode.
- >> Type M-x text-mode<Return>.
-
- Don't worry, none of the commands you have learned changes Emacs in
- any great way. But you can now observe that periods are no longer
- part of words when you do M-f or M-b! Major modes are usually like
- that: commands don't change into completely unrelated things, but they
- work a little bit differently.
-
- To get documentation on your current major mode, type C-h m.
-
- >> Use C-u C-v once or more to bring this line near the top of screen.
- >> Type C-h m, to see how Text mode differs from Fundamental mode.
- >> Type C-x 1 to remove the documentation from the screen.
-
- Major modes are called major because there are also minor modes.
- They are called minor because they aren't alternatives to the major
- modes, just minor modifications of them. Each minor mode can be
- turned on or off by itself, regardless of what major mode you are in,
- and regardless of the other minor modes. So you can use no minor
- modes, or one minor mode, or any combination of several minor modes.
-
- One minor mode which is very useful, especially for editing English
- text, is Auto Fill mode. When this mode is on, Emacs breaks the line
- in between words automatically whenever the line gets too long. You
- can turn this mode on by doing M-x auto-fill-mode<Return>. When the
- mode is on, you can turn it off by doing M-x auto-fill-mode<Return>.
- If the mode is off, this function turns it on, and if the mode is on,
- this function turns it off. This is called "toggling".
-
- >> Type M-x auto-fill-mode<Return> now. Then insert a line of "asdf "
- over again until you see it divide into two lines. You must put in
- spaces between them because Auto Fill breaks lines only at spaces.
-
- The margin is usually set at 70 characters, but you can change it
- with the C-x f command. You should give the margin setting you want
- as a numeric argument.
-
- >> Type C-x f with an argument of 20. (C-u 2 0 C-x f).
- Then type in some text and see Emacs fill lines of 20
- characters with it. Then set the margin back to 70 using
- C-x f again.
-
- If you makes changes in the middle of a paragraph, Auto Fill mode
- does not re-fill it for you.
- To re-fill the paragraph, type M-q (Meta-q) with the cursor inside
- that paragraph.
-
- >> Move the cursor into the previous paragraph and type M-q.
-
- SEARCHING
- ---------
-
- Emacs can do searches for strings (these are groups of contiguous
- characters or words) either forward through the file or backward
- through it. To search for the string means that you are trying to
- locate it somewhere in the file and have Emacs show you where the
- occurrences of the string exist. This type of search is somewhat
- different from what you may be familiar with. It is a search that is
- performed as you type in the thing to search for. The command to
- initiate a search is C-s for forward search, and C-r for reverse
- search. BUT WAIT! Don't do them now. When you type C-s you'll
- notice that the string "I-search" appears as a prompt in the echo
- area. This tells you that Emacs is in what is called an incremental
- search waiting for you to type the thing that you want to search for.
- <ESC> terminates a search.
-
- >> Now type C-s to start a search. SLOWLY, one letter at a time,
- type the word 'cursor', pausing after you type each
- character to notice what happens to the cursor.
- >> Type C-s to find the next occurrence of "cursor".
- >> Now type <Rubout> four times and see how the cursor moves.
- >> Type <ESC> to terminate the search.
-
- Did you see what happened? Emacs, in an incremental search, tries to
- go to the occurrence of the string that you've typed out so far. To go
- to the next occurrence of 'cursor' just type C-s again. If no such
- occurrence exists Emacs beeps and tells you that it is a failing
- search. C-g would also terminate the search.
-
- If you are in the middle of an incremental search and type <Rubout>,
- you'll notice that the last character in the search string is erased
- and the search backs up to the last place of the search. For
- instance, suppose you currently have typed 'cu' and you see that your
- cursor is at the first occurrence of 'cu'. If you now type <Rubout>,
- the 'u' on the search line is erased and you'll be repositioned in the
- text to the occurrence of 'c' where the search took you before you
- typed the 'u'. This provides a useful means for backing up while you
- are searching.
-
- If you are in the middle of a search and happen to type a control
- character (other than a C-s or C-r, which tell Emacs to search for the
- next occurrence of the string), the search is terminated.
-
- The C-s starts a search that looks for any occurrence of the search
- string AFTER the current cursor position. But what if you want to
- search for something earlier in the text? To do this, type C-r for
- Reverse search. Everything that applies to C-s applies to C-r except
- that the direction of the search is reversed.
-
-
- RECURSIVE EDITING LEVELS
- ------------------------
-
- Sometimes you will get into what is called a "recursive editing
- level". This is indicated by square brackets in the mode line,
- surrounding the parentheses around the major mode name. For
- example, you might see [(Fundamental)] instead of (Fundamental).
-
- To get out of the recursive editing level, type
- M-x top-level<Return>.
-
- >> Try that now; it should display "Back to top level"
- at the bottom of the screen.
-
- In fact, you were ALREADY at top level (not inside a recursive editing
- level) if you have obeyed instructions. M-x top-level does not care;
- it gets out of any number of recursive editing levels, perhaps zero,
- to get back to top level.
-
- You can't use C-g to get out of a recursive editing level because C-g
- is used for discarding numeric arguments and partially typed commands
- WITHIN the recursive editing level.
-
-
- GETTING MORE HELP
- -----------------
-
- In this tutorial we have tried to supply just enough information to
- get you started using Emacs. There is so much available in Emacs that
- it would be impossible to explain it all here. However, you may want
- to learn more about Emacs since it has numerous desirable features
- that you don't know about yet. Emacs has a great deal of internal
- documentation. All of these commands can be accessed through
- the character Control-h, which we call "the Help character"
- because of the function it serves.
-
- To use the HELP features, type the C-h character, and then a
- character saying what kind of help you want. If you are REALLY lost,
- type C-h ? and Emacs will tell you what kinds of help it can give.
- If you have typed C-h and decide you don't want any help, just
- type C-G to cancel it.
-
- The most basic HELP feature is C-h c. Type C-h, a c, and a
- command character or sequence, and Emacs displays a very brief
- description of the command.
-
- >> Type C-h c Control-p.
- The message should be something like
-
- C-p runs the command previous-line
-
- This tells you the "name of the function". That is important in
- writing Lisp code to extend Emacs; it also is enough to remind
- you of what the command does if you have seen it before but did
- not remember.
-
- Multi-character commands such as C-x C-s and (if you have no META or
- EDIT key) <ESC>v are also allowed after C-h c.
-
- To get more information on the command, use C-h k instead of C-h c.
-
- >> Type C-h k Control-p.
-
- This displays the documentation of the function, as well as its name,
- in an Emacs window. When you are finished reading the output, type
- C-x 1 to get rid of the help text. You do not have to do this right
- away. You can do some editing based on the help text before you type
- C-x 1.
-
- Here are some other useful C-h options:
-
- C-h f Describe a function. You type in the name of the
- function.
-
- >> Try typing C-h f previous-line<Return>.
- This prints all the information Emacs has about the
- function which implements the C-P command.
-
- C-h a Command Apropos. Type in a keyword and Emacs will list
- all the commands whose names contain that keyword.
- These commands can all be invoked with Meta-x.
- For some commands, Command Apropos will also list a one
- or two character sequence which has the same effect.
-
- >> Type C-h a file<Return>. You will see a list of all M-x commands
- with "file" in their names. You will also see commands
- like C-x C-f and C-x C-w, listed beside the command names
- find-file and write-file.
-
-
- CONCLUSION
- ----------
-
- Remember, to exit Emacs permanently use C-x C-c. To exit to a shell
- temporarily, so that you can come back in, use C-z.
-
- This tutorial is meant to be understandable to all new users, so if
- you found something unclear, don't sit and blame yourself - complain!
-
-
- COPYING
- -------
-
- This tutorial descends from a long line of Emacs tutorials
- starting with the one written by Stuart Cracraft for the original Emacs.
-
- This version of the tutorial, like GNU Emacs, is copyrighted, and
- comes with permission to distribute copies on certain conditions:
-
- Copyright (c) 1985 Free Software Foundation
-
- Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
- of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
- copyright notice and permission notice are preserved,
- and that the distributor grants the recipient permission
- for further redistribution as permitted by this notice.
-
- Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
- of this document, or of portions of it,
- under the above conditions, provided also that they
- carry prominent notices stating who last altered them.
-
- The conditions for copying Emacs itself are slightly different
- but in the same spirit. Please read the file COPYING and then
- do give copies of GNU Emacs to your friends.
- Help stamp out software obstructionism ("ownership") by using,
- writing, and sharing free software!
-