GNU Emacs UNIX Text Editing and Programming

by Schoonover, Michael A.; Bowie, John S.; Arnold, William R.

• ISBN13: 9780201563450
• ISBN10: 0201563452
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1991-11-14
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional

Summary

GNU Emacs is quickly becoming the text editor and programming environment of choice among UNIX users. This book is a succinct tutorial and comprehensive reference to standard GNU Emacs. If you are new to GNU Emacs, you will find the step-by-step tutorials invaluable. You will also appreciate the gentle introduction to basic capabilities, leading you gradually toward more advanced usage.

Table of Contents

Preface

Text Editing In Emacs

A Quick Tour of Emacs

Starting Emacs

Exiting Emacs

Understanding the Emacs Screen

Tying Text

Typing Commands

Using a Basic Set of Editing Commands

Getting Online Help

Using Emacs to Process Electronic Mail

Using Emacs to Manage Files

Changing Emacs' Behavior with Variables

Basic Editing Commands

Visiting a File

Saving a Buffer

Listing Buffers

Switching to a Different Buffer

Killing A Buffer

Setting the Mode for a Buffer

Moving the Cursor

Using Line Numbers

Deleting Text

Undoing Mistakes

Using Regions

Searching for Text

Searching and Replacing Text

Overwriting Text

More Efficient Editing

Running a Command Multiple Times

Modifying Command Behavior with Arguments

Inserting Control Characters into a Buffer

Working with Words, Sentences, and Paragraphs

Working with Pages

Working with Blank Lines

Getting Cursor, Line, and Page Information

Transposing Text

Filling Text

Indenting Text

Changing Letter Case

Searching and Replacing Text

Narrowing a Buffer

Moving the Cursor to Previous Marks (the Mark Ring)

Using the Kill Ring

Completing Long Command Names

Completing File Names

Using Abbreviations (Text Expansions)

Using Macros for Repeated Editing Tasks

Scrolling Windows

Wording with Multiple Windows

Printing a Buffer

Listing a Directory

Advanced Editing

Changing Emacs' Behavior with Commands

Changing Emacs' Behavior with Command-Line Arguments

Searching for Regular Expressions (Regexps)

Searching and Replacing Regexps

Editing Outlines

Manipulating Buffers

Advanced File Operations

Managing Auto-Saving

Managing Emacs Backup Files

Reverting a Buffer to Its Original Contents

Preventing Simultaneous Editing

Advanced Window Operations

Editing Your Responses in the Minibuffer

Sorting Test

Using Rectangles

Using Registers

Programming In Emacs

Program Development in Emacs

Supported Editing Modes

Using Fundamental and Text Mode Commands in Programming Modes

Moving by Function

Marking Functions

Indenting Programs Commenting Programs

Matching Parentheses, Braces, and Brackets

Forcing Balanced Parentheses

Selectively Displaying Program Lines

Getting Documentation on System Commands and Routines

Editing Across Multiple Files with Tag Tables

Keeping Track of Changes to source with a ChangeLog

Compiling Programs

Sexp Commands (Advanced Usage)

Editing in C Mode

Invoking C Mode

Assumptions About C Source

Moving Among Functions

Marking Functions

Indenting Programs

Commenting Programs

Working with Sexps and Lists (Advanced Usage)

Customizing Indentation (Advanced Usage)

Customizing Commenting (Advanced Usage)

Editing in FORTRAN Mode

Invoking FORTRAN Mode

Assumptions About FORTRAN Source

Moving Among Subprograms and Statements

Marking Subprograms

Indenting Programs

Labeling Lines

Commenting Programs

Using FORTRAN Keyword Abbreviations

Working with Sexps and Lists (Advanced Usage)

What Are Sexps and Lists in FORTRAN Mode?

Customizing Indentation (Advanced Usage)

Customizing Commenting (Advanced Usage)

Editing in Lisp Modes

Lisp Major Modes

Assumptions About Lisp Source

Moving Among Defuns

Moving Among Sexps and Lists

List and Sexp Motion Commands

Marking Text

Transposing Sexps

Killing Sexps

Indenting Programs

Commenting Programs

Evaluating Lisp Code

Customizing Indentation (Advanced Usage)

Customizing Commenting (Advanced Usage)

Additional Emacs Features

Getting Online Help

Running Help Commands

Getting Instructions for Using Help

Getting Command Information

Using Emacs for Electronic Mail

The RMAIL Facility and Other UNIX Mail Facilities

Reading Mail Messages

Exiting from the RMAIL Buffer Moving Around Your Mail Messages

Saving Messages to Files

Removing Messages

Getting New Mail

Using a Mail Summary to Scan Messages

Composing and Sending Messages

Using Mode Line Status Messages (Labels)

Using Multiple Mailbox Files

Reading Digest Messages

Associating UNIX Mailbox Files with RMAIL Mailbox Files (Advanced Usage)

Managing Files and Buffers

Using the Dired Facility to Manage Files

Managing Multiple Buffers with Buffer-Menus

Miscellaneous Emacs Features

Checking Your Spelling

Rerunning Commands from the Command History

Recovering Files After System Crashes

Using UNIX Commands in Emacs

Running a UNIX Shell in an Emacs Buffer

Nroff Major Mode

TeX Modes: LaTeX and Plain TeX

Picture Mode

Doctor Mode

Customizing And Administering Emacs

Customizing the Emacs Environment

Using a .emacs Start-Up File

Using Variables to Change Emacs' Behavior

Changing Command Key Bindings

Forcing Confirmation for a Function

More About Variable (Advanced Usage)

More About Key Bindings (Advanced Usage)

Examples of .emacs Customizations

Administering Emacs

Finding Emacs and identifying Its Parts

Using New (or Notes) to Get Emacs Information

Installing Emacs

Editing in Pascal Mode

Obtaining a Pascal Mode

Enabling Pascal Mode

Assumptions About Pascal Source

Moving the Cursor

Indenting Programs

Commands That Build Pascal Constructs

Creating a New Program

Commenting Programs

Working with Sexps and Lists (Advanced Usage)

Customizing Indentation

Customizing Commenting (Advanced Usage)

Summary

Emacs-Lisp Programming

An Overview of Emacs-Lisp Programming

Getting Documentation on Emacs-Lisp Defuns and Variables

Evaluating Lisp Code

Loading Emacs-Lisp Libraries

Compiling Emacs-Lisp Code

Debugging Emacs-Lisp Code (Advanced Usage)

Converting Mocklisp to Emacs-Lisp (for Mocklisp Users)

Summary

Switching from vi to Emacs

The vi Emulation Mode in Emacs

Starting the Editor

Saving Text and Exiting

Line Number Information Commands

Inserting Text

Undoing Commands

Repeating Commands

Rerunning Previous Commands

Moving the Cursor

Deleting Text

Using Marks

Searching for Text Search and Replace Text

Indenting Text

Copying and Moving Blocks of Text

Changing (Overwriting) Text

Scrolling Text

Using Shell Commands

Using Macros

Using Abbreviations

Miscellaneous Commands

Emacs Command Reference

Abbreviations

Buffers

Buffer-Menu

Case Conversion

C Mode

Compilation

Cursor Motion

Debugger (Emacs-Lisp)

Deletion and Killing

Dired

Display Management

Editor Emulation (EDT, vi, Gosling Emacs)

Emacs-Lisp Programming

Exiting

files

Filling

FORTRAN Mode

Help

Indentation

Key Bindings

Killing and Yanking (Moving and Copying)

Lisp Modes

Location and Date/Time

Macros

Mail

Minibuffer Editing

Modes

Nroff Mode

Numeric Prefix

Outline Editing

Pages

Paragraphs

Picture Mode

Printing

Rectangles

Regions

Registers

Searching

Searching and Replacing

Sentences

Sexps and Lists (Balanced Expressions)

Shells

Sorting

Spell-Checking

Tags

TeX Mode

Transposing

Undo

Variables

Windows

Words

Index

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

GNU Emacs is a powerful, integrated computing environment for UNIX that lets you perform a wide range of editing, programming, and file management tasks. If you have never used Emacs, this book will gently but rapidly introduce you to its most serviceable features. If you are a casual Emacs user, we will attempt to show you ways to edit and manage your files more efficiently. And for experienced users, we have included advanced techniques and reference information to help you unlock the power and flexibility of the environment. Always our emphasis is on practical information, on the commands and features we have found in our own experience to be most useful and powerful. What is GNU Emacs? The name, Emacs, is an acronym derived from "Editor MACroS." A macro is a command that reduces a multi-step process to just a few keystrokes. Emacs uses the Control key and other keys to define a set of one, two, or three keystroke macros (commands) that execute all of its functions. The original set of macros from which Emacs evolved was developed by Richard Stallman and Guy Steele at MIT. Stallman later went on to form the Free Software Foundation, an organization that develops and distributes Emacs and other free software products. "GNU"-pronounced "G-Nu"-is a self-referencing acronym derived from the phrase, "GNU''s Not UNIX." GNU is the Free Software Foundation''s name for a complete set of UNIX-compatible programs, of which Emacs is a part. When completed, GNU will replace many of the standard components of the UNIX operating system. While many UNIX users regard GNU Emacs as an excellent alternative to the vi editor, true Emacs aficionados understand that Emacs is not merely an editor, but a complete environment for performing many common computing tasks. Some of the tasks you can perform in the Emacs environment include: Text Editing. Emacs provides unrivaled text-editing power. You can edit multiple documents simultaneously, use specialized editing modes designed specifically for your editing task, create your own powerful keyboard macros, and spell-check your document, to name just a few capabilities. Software Development. Emacs provides several programming language modes, including C, FORTRAN, and Lisp (Pascal mode, while not included with GNU Emacs, is available from other sources; see Appendix A). Emacs provides a complete environment for editing, formatting, and compiling source code. File Management. Emacs provides facilities for manipulating files and directories on your UNIX system. Outlining. Emacs lets you create and edit outlines, using Emacs'' special outline mode. Electronic Mail Processing. the Emacs mail handler lets you compose, send, and receive electronic mail (e-mail) messages. Environment Customization. Emacs itself is open to customization and extension to suit you individual preferences and needs. You can replace one command key-sequence with another, and develop and integrate you own commands. About This Book This book is designed to be a practical companion to Emacs, with examples, tutorials, reference information, and advice for new and experienced users alike. Some of its key features include: Graduated Instructions. New users will quickly learn the basics by working through the "Quick Tour" in Chapter 1, which introduces the key Emacs features and commands. Subsequent chapters build upon this foundation by introducing more efficient and advanced editing techniques. Extensive Tutorials and Examples. Every important feature is thoroughly explained, then demonstrated with an example or short tutorial that you can try on your own Emacs system. Comprehensive Emacs Reference. Advanced users will appreciate the command and function reference in Appendix D, as well as the summary of commands and concepts provided at the end of each chapter. vi-to-Emacs Migration Guide. For vi users who want to move to Emacs, Appendix C lists Emacs equivalents for most vi editor commands. Language-specific Programming Chapters. Individual chapters are provided for programming with C, FORTRAN, Lisp, and Pascal, including advanced instructions for customizing indentation and commenting styles. Customization Instructions. Advanced Emacs users will find helpful advice for customizing and extending Emacs, with a supporting introduction to Emacs-Lisp in Appendix B. Because Emacs is such an extensive and versatile system, you should read this book selectively, focusing on the material that relates to your immediate needs. Part 1, "Text Editing in Emacs,"helps you build the basic skills you will need regardless of how you intend to use Emacs. It also describes more efficient and advanced editing techniques for those who need them. This part of the book along with the reference information in Appendix D, may be all you need to read if you are interested solely in proficient text editing. Chapters in this section include: Chapter 1: A Quick Tour of Emacs. This chapter briefly surveys all aspects of the Emacs environment. Here you will learn to use some common editing commands and be introduced to the online help facility, the electronic mail handler, and the file management facility. Chapter 2: Basic Editing Commands. This chapter teaches you how to load and save files, insert and delete text, move around your documents, cut and past regions of text, and perform keyword searches. The features described here are prerequisites to using the more advanced capabilities described in the later chapters. Chapter 3: More Efficient Editing. This chapter describes more efficient ways to edit your documents, including performing operations multiple times, editing words, sentences, paragraphs and pages, using abbreviations and macros, and working with multiple windows. Chapter 4: Advanced Editing. This chapter describes advanced text-editing features, such as changing Emacs'' default behavior, searching for regular expressions, and editing outlines, as well as advanced file, buffer, and window operations. Part 2, "Programming in Emacs,"describes how to use Emacs as a software development environment. Read Chapter 5 to get an overview of features that are common to all programming languages. Then read Chapter 6 (C), Chapter 7 (FORTRAN), Chapter 8 (Lisp), or Appendix A (Pascal) depending upon which programming language you are using. Chapters in this section include: Chapter 5: Program Development in Emacs. This chapter describes features that are common to all Emacs programming language modes, such as moving around your program, indenting and commenting programs, using tag tables to edit across multiple files, keeping track of source-code changes with ChangeLogs, and compiling programs. Chapter 6: Editing in C Mode. This chapter describes features that are particular to editing C programs, such as moving among and marking C functions, indenting and commenting C programs, working with sexps and lists, and customizing C indentation and commenting styles. Chapter 7: Editing in FORTRAN Mode. This chapter describes features that are particular to editing FORTRAN programs, such as moving among and marking subprograms, indenting and commenting FORTRAN programs, labeling lines, using keyword abbreviations, working with sexps and lists, and customizing FORTRAN indentation and commenting styles. Chapter 8: Editing in Lisp Modes. This chapter describes features that are particular to editing Lisp programs, such as moving among defuns, sexps, and lists, marking text, transposing sexps, killing sexps, indenting and commenting Lisp programs, evaluating Lisp code, and customizing Lisp indentation and commenting styles. Part 3, "Additional Emacs Features,"describes various supporting Emacs features such as the online help facili