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Annotation of 43BSDReno/contrib/emacs-18.55/etc/TUTORIAL, revision 1.1.1.1

1.1 root 1: Copyright (c) 1985 Free Software Foundation, Inc; See end for conditions.
2:
3: You are looking at the Emacs tutorial.
4:
5: Emacs commands generally involve the CONTROL key (sometimes labelled
6: CTRL or CTL) or the META key (sometimes labelled EDIT). Rather than
7: write out META or CONTROL each time we want you to prefix a character,
8: we'll use the following abbreviations:
9:
10: C-<chr> means hold the CONTROL key while typing the character <chr>
11: Thus, C-f would be: hold the CONTROL key and type f.
12: M-<chr> means hold the META or EDIT key down while typing <chr>.
13: If there is no META or EDIT key, type <ESC>, release it,
14: then type the character <chr>. "<ESC>" stands for the
15: key labelled "ALT" or "ESC".
16:
17: Important note: to end the Emacs session, type C-x C-c. (Two characters.)
18: The characters ">>" at the left margin indicate directions for you to
19: try using a command. For instance:
20: <<Blank lines inserted here by startup of help-with-tutorial>>
21: >> Now type C-v (View next screen) to move to the next screen.
22: (go ahead, do it by depressing the control key and v together).
23: From now on, you'll be expected to do this whenever you finish
24: reading the screen.
25:
26: Note that there is an overlap when going from screen to screen; this
27: provides some continuity when moving through the file.
28:
29: The first thing that you need to know is how to move around from
30: place to place in the file. You already know how to move forward a
31: screen, with C-v. To move backwards a screen, type M-v (depress the
32: META key and type v, or type <ESC>v if you don't have a META or EDIT
33: key).
34:
35: >> Try typing M-v and then C-v to move back and forth a few times.
36:
37:
38: SUMMARY
39: -------
40:
41: The following commands are useful for viewing screenfuls:
42:
43: C-v Move forward one screenful
44: M-v Move backward one screenful
45: C-l Clear screen and redisplay everything
46: putting the text near the cursor at the center.
47: (That's control-L, not control-1.
48: There is no such character as control-1.)
49:
50: >> Find the cursor and remember what text is near it.
51: Then type a C-l.
52: Find the cursor again and see what text is near it now.
53:
54:
55: BASIC CURSOR CONTROL
56: --------------------
57:
58: Getting from screenful to screenful is useful, but how do you
59: reposition yourself within a given screen to a specific place?
60: There are several ways you can do this. One way (not the best, but
61: the most basic) is to use the commands previous, backward, forward
62: and next. As you can imagine these commands (which are given to
63: Emacs as C-p, C-b, C-f, and C-n respectively) move the cursor from
64: where it currently is to a new place in the given direction. Here,
65: in a more graphical form are the commands:
66:
67: Previous line, C-p
68: :
69: :
70: Backward, C-b .... Current cursor position .... Forward, C-f
71: :
72: :
73: Next line, C-n
74:
75: >> Move the cursor to the line in the middle of that diagram
76: and type C-l to see the whole diagram centered in the screen.
77:
78: You'll probably find it easy to think of these by letter. P for
79: previous, N for next, B for backward and F for forward. These are
80: the basic cursor positioning commands and you'll be using them ALL
81: the time so it would be of great benefit if you learn them now.
82:
83: >> Do a few C-n's to bring the cursor down to this line.
84:
85: >> Move into the line with C-f's and then up with C-p's.
86: See what C-p does when the cursor is in the middle of the line.
87:
88: Lines are separated by Newline characters. For most applications
89: there should normally be a Newline character at the end of the text,
90: as well, but it is up to you to make sure of this. A file can
91: validly exist without a Newline at the end.
92:
93: >> Try to C-b at the beginning of a line. Do a few more C-b's.
94: Then do C-f's back to the end of the line and beyond.
95:
96: When you go off the top or bottom of the screen, the text beyond
97: the edge is shifted onto the screen so that your instructions can
98: be carried out while keeping the cursor on the screen.
99:
100: >> Try to move the cursor off the bottom of the screen with C-n and
101: see what happens.
102:
103: If moving by characters is too slow, you can move by words. M-f
104: (Meta-f) moves forward a word and M-b moves back a word.
105:
106: >> Type a few M-f's and M-b's. Intersperse them with C-f's and C-b's.
107:
108: Notice the parallel between C-f and C-b on the one hand, and M-f and
109: M-b on the other hand. Very often Meta characters are used for
110: operations related to English text whereas Control characters operate
111: on the basic textual units that are independent of what you are
112: editing (characters, lines, etc). There is a similar parallel between
113: lines and sentences: C-a and C-e move to the beginning or end of a
114: line, and M-a and M-e move to the beginning or end of a sentence.
115:
116: >> Try a couple of C-a's, and then a couple of C-e's.
117: Try a couple of M-a's, and then a couple of M-e's.
118:
119: See how repeated C-a's do nothing, but repeated M-a's keep moving
120: farther. Do you think that this is right?
121:
122: Two other simple cursor motion commands are M-< (Meta Less-than),
123: which moves to the beginning of the file, and M-> (Meta Greater-than),
124: which moves to the end of the file. You probably don't need to try
125: them, since finding this spot again will be boring. On most terminals
126: the "<" is above the comma and you must use the shift key to type it.
127: On these terminals you must use the shift key to type M-< also;
128: without the shift key, you would be typing M-comma.
129:
130: The location of the cursor in the text is also called "point". To
131: paraphrase, the cursor shows on the screen where point is located in
132: the text.
133:
134: Here is a summary of simple moving operations including the word and
135: sentence moving commands:
136:
137: C-f Move forward a character
138: C-b Move backward a character
139:
140: M-f Move forward a word
141: M-b Move backward a word
142:
143: C-n Move to next line
144: C-p Move to previous line
145:
146: C-a Move to beginning of line
147: C-e Move to end of line
148:
149: M-a Move back to beginning of sentence
150: M-e Move forward to end of sentence
151:
152: M-< Go to beginning of file
153: M-> Go to end of file
154:
155: >> Try all of these commands now a few times for practice.
156: Since the last two will take you away from this screen,
157: you can come back here with M-v's and C-v's. These are
158: the most often used commands.
159:
160: Like all other commands in Emacs, these commands can be given
161: arguments which cause them to be executed repeatedly. The way you
162: give a command a repeat count is by typing C-u and then the digits
163: before you type the command. If you have a META or EDIT key, you can
164: omit the C-u if you hold down the META or EDIT key while you type the
165: digits. This is easier, but we recommend the C-u method because it
166: works on any terminal.
167:
168: For instance, C-u 8 C-f moves forward eight characters.
169:
170: >> Try giving a suitable argument to C-n or C-p to come as close
171: as you can to this line in one jump.
172:
173: The only apparent exception to this is the screen moving commands,
174: C-v and M-v. When given an argument, they scroll the screen up or
175: down by that many lines, rather than screenfuls. This proves to be
176: much more useful.
177:
178: >> Try typing C-u 8 C-v now.
179:
180: Did it scroll the screen up by 8 lines? If you would like to
181: scroll it down you can give an argument to M-v.
182:
183:
184: WHEN EMACS IS HUNG
185: -----------------
186:
187: If Emacs gets into an infinite (or simply very long) computation which
188: you don't want to finish, you can stop it safely by typing C-g.
189: You can also use C-g to discard a numeric argument or the beginning of
190: a command that you don't want to finish.
191:
192: >> Type C-u 100 to make a numeric arg of 100, then type C-g.
193: Now type C-f. How many characters does it move?
194: If you have typed an <ESC> by mistake, you can get rid of it
195: with a C-g.
196:
197: If you type <ESC> <ESC>, you get a new window appearing on
198: the screen, telling you that M-ESC is a "disabled command"
199: and asking whether you really want to execute it. The command
200: M-ESC is marked as disabled because you probably don't want to
201: use it until you know more about Emacs, and we expect it would
202: confuse you if it were allowed to go ahead and run. If you really
203: want to try the M-ESC command, you could type a Space in answer
204: to the question and M-ESC would go ahead. Normally, if you do
205: not want to execute M-ESC, you would type "n" to answer the question.
206:
207: >> Type <ESC> <ESC>, then type n.
208:
209:
210: WINDOWS
211: -------
212:
213: Emacs can have several windows, each displaying its own text.
214: At this stage it is better not to go into the techniques of
215: using multiple windows. But you do need to know how to get
216: rid of extra windows that may appear to display help or
217: output from certain commands. It is simple:
218:
219: C-x 1 One window (i.e., kill all other windows).
220:
221: That is Control-x followed by the digit 1.
222: C-x 1 makes the window which the cursor is in become
223: the full screen, by getting rid of any other windows.
224:
225: >> Move the cursor to this line and type C-u 0 C-l.
226: >> Type Control-h k Control-f.
227: See how this window shrinks, while a new one appears
228: to display documentation on the Control-f command.
229:
230: >> Type C-x 1 and see the documentation listing window disappear.
231:
232:
233: INSERTING AND DELETING
234: ----------------------
235:
236: If you want to insert text, just type it. Characters which you can
237: see, such as A, 7, *, etc. are taken by Emacs as text and inserted
238: immediately. Type <Return> (the carriage-return key) to insert a
239: Newline character.
240:
241: You can delete the last character you typed by typing <Rubout>.
242: <Rubout> is a key on the keyboard, which might be labelled "Delete"
243: instead of "Rubout" on some terminals. More generally, <Rubout>
244: deletes the character immediately before the current cursor position.
245:
246: >> Do this now, type a few characters and then delete them
247: by typing <Rubout> a few times. Don't worry about this file
248: being changed; you won't affect the master tutorial. This is just
249: a copy of it.
250:
251: >> Now start typing text until you reach the right margin, and keep
252: typing. When a line of text gets too big for one line on the
253: screen, the line of text is "continued" onto a second screen line.
254: The backslash at the right margin indicates a line which has
255: been continued.
256: >> Use <Rubout>s to delete the text until the line fits on one screen
257: line again. The continuation line goes away.
258:
259: >> Move the cursor to the beginning of a line and type <Rubout>. This
260: deletes the newline before the line and merges the line onto
261: the previous line. The resulting line may be too long to fit, in
262: which case it has a continuation line.
263: >> Type <Return> to reinsert the Newline you deleted.
264:
265: Remember that most Emacs commands can be given a repeat count;
266: this includes characters which insert themselves.
267:
268: >> Try that now -- type C-u 8 * and see what happens.
269:
270: You've now learned the most basic way of typing something in
271: Emacs and correcting errors. You can delete by words or lines
272: as well. Here is a summary of the delete operations:
273:
274: <Rubout> delete the character just before the cursor
275: C-d delete the next character after the cursor
276:
277: M-<Rubout> kill the word immediately before the cursor
278: M-d kill the next word after the cursor
279:
280: C-k kill from the cursor position to end of line
281: M-k kill to the end of the current sentence
282:
283: Notice that <Rubout> and C-d vs M-<Rubout> and M-d extend the parallel
284: started by C-f and M-f (well, <Rubout> isn't really a control
285: character, but let's not worry about that). C-k and M-k are like C-e
286: and M-e, sort of, in that lines are opposite sentences.
287:
288: Now suppose you kill something, and then you decide that you want to
289: get it back? Well, whenever you kill something bigger than a
290: character, Emacs saves it for you. To yank it back, use C-y. You
291: can kill text in one place, move elsewhere, and then do C-y; this is
292: a good way to move text around. Note that the difference
293: between "Killing" and "Deleting" something is that "Killed" things
294: can be yanked back, and "Deleted" things cannot. Generally, the
295: commands that can destroy a lot of text save it, while the ones that
296: attack only one character, or nothing but blank lines and spaces, do
297: not save.
298:
299: For instance, type C-n a couple times to postion the cursor
300: at some line on this screen.
301:
302: >> Do this now, move the cursor and kill that line with C-k.
303:
304: Note that a single C-k kills the contents of the line, and a second
305: C-k kills the line itself, and make all the other lines move up. If
306: you give C-k a repeat count, it kills that many lines AND their
307: contents.
308:
309: The text that has just disappeared is saved so that you can
310: retrieve it. To retrieve the last killed text and put it where
311: the cursor currently is, type C-y.
312:
313: >> Try it; type C-y to yank the text back.
314:
315: Think of C-y as if you were yanking something back that someone
316: took away from you. Notice that if you do several C-k's in a row
317: the text that is killed is all saved together so that one C-y will
318: yank all of the lines.
319:
320: >> Do this now, type C-k several times.
321:
322: Now to retrieve that killed text:
323:
324: >> Type C-y. Then move the cursor down a few lines and type C-y
325: again. You now see how to copy some text.
326:
327: What do you do if you have some text you want to yank back, and then
328: you kill something else? C-y would yank the more recent kill. But
329: the previous text is not lost. You can get back to it using the M-y
330: command. After you have done C-y to get the most recent kill, typing
331: M-Y replaces that yanked text with the previous kill. Typing M-y
332: again and again brings in earlier and earlier kills. When you
333: have reached the text you are looking for, you can just go away and
334: leave it there. If you M-y enough times, you come back to the
335: starting point (the most recent kill).
336:
337: >> Kill a line, move around, kill another line.
338: Then do C-y to get back the second killed line.
339: Then do M-y and it will be replaced by the first killed line.
340: Do more M-y's and see what you get. Keep doing them until
341: the second kill line comes back, and then a few more.
342: If you like, you can try giving M-y positive and negative
343: arguments.
344:
345:
346: UNDO
347: ----
348:
349: Any time you make a change to the text and wish you had not done so,
350: you can undo the change (return the text to its previous state)
351: with the undo command, C-x u. Normally, C-x u undoes one command's
352: worth of changes; if you repeat the C-x u several times in a row,
353: each time undoes one more command. There are two exceptions:
354: commands that made no change (just moved the cursor) do not count,
355: and self-inserting characters are often lumped together in groups
356: of up to 20. This is to reduce the number of C-x u's you have to type.
357:
358: >> Kill this line with C-k, then type C-x u and it should reappear.
359:
360: C-_ is another command for undoing; it is just the same as C-x u
361: but easier to type several times in a row. The problem with C-_ is
362: that on some keyboards it is not obvious how to type it. That is
363: why C-x u is provided as well. On some DEC terminals, you can type
364: C-_ by typing / while holding down CTRL. Illogical, but what can
365: you expect from DEC?
366:
367: Giving a numeric argument to C-_ or C-x u is equivalent to repeating
368: it as many times as the argument says.
369:
370:
371: FILES
372: -----
373:
374: In order to make the text you edit permanent, you must put it in a
375: file. Otherwise, it will go away when your invocation of Emacs goes
376: away. You put your editing in a file by "finding" the file. What
377: finding means is that you see the contents of the file in your Emacs;
378: and, loosely speaking, what you are editing is the file itself.
379: However, the changes still don't become permanent until you "save" the
380: file. This is so you can have control to avoid leaving a half-changed
381: file around when you don't want to. Even then, Emacs leaves the
382: original file under a changed name in case your changes turn out
383: to be a mistake.
384:
385: If you look near the bottom of the screen you will see a line that
386: begins and ends with dashes, and contains the string "Emacs: TUTORIAL".
387: Your copy of the Emacs tutorial is called "TUTORIAL". Whatever
388: file you find, that file's name will appear in that precise
389: spot.
390:
391: The commands for finding and saving files are unlike the other
392: commands you have learned in that they consist of two characters.
393: They both start with the character Control-x. There is a whole series
394: of commands that start with Control-x; many of them have to do with
395: files, buffers, and related things, and all of them consist of
396: Control-x followed by some other character.
397:
398: Another thing about the command for finding a file is that you have
399: to say what file name you want. We say the command "reads an argument
400: from the terminal" (in this case, the argument is the name of the
401: file). After you type the command
402:
403: C-x C-f Find a file
404:
405: Emacs asks you to type the file name. It echoes on the bottom
406: line of the screen. You are using the minibuffer now! this is
407: what the minibuffer is for. When you type <Return> to end the
408: file name, the minibuffer is no longer needed, so it disappears.
409:
410: >> Type C-x C-f, then type C-g. This cancels the minibuffer,
411: and also cancels the C-x C-f command that was using the
412: minibuffer. So you do not find any file.
413:
414: In a little while the file contents appear on the screen. You can
415: edit the contents. When you wish to make the changes permanent,
416: issue the command
417:
418: C-x C-s Save the file
419:
420: The contents of Emacs are written into the file. The first time you
421: do this, the original file is renamed to a new name so that it
422: is not lost. The new name is made by appending "~" to the end
423: of the original file's name.
424:
425: When saving is finished, Emacs prints the name of the file written.
426: You should save fairly often, so that you will not lose very much
427: work if the system should crash.
428:
429: >> Type C-x C-s, saving your copy of the tutorial.
430: This should print "Wrote .../TUTORIAL" at the bottom of the screen.
431: On VMS it will print "Wrote ...[...]TUTORIAL."
432:
433: To make a new file, just find it "as if" it already existed. Then
434: start typing in the text. When you ask to "save" the file, Emacs
435: will really create the file with the text that you have inserted.
436: From then on, you can consider yourself to be editing an already
437: existing file.
438:
439:
440: BUFFERS
441: -------
442:
443: If you find a second file with C-x C-f, the first file remains
444: inside Emacs. You can switch back to it by finding it again with
445: C-x C-f. This way you can get quite a number of files inside Emacs.
446:
447: The object inside Emacs which holds the text read from one file
448: is called a "buffer." Finding a file makes a new buffer inside Emacs.
449: To see a list of the buffers that exist in Emacs, type
450:
451: C-x C-b List buffers
452:
453: >> Try C-x C-b now.
454:
455: See how each buffer has a name, and it may also have a file name
456: for the file whose contents it holds. Some buffers do not correspond
457: to files. For example, the buffer named "*Buffer List*" does
458: not have any file. It is the buffer which contains the buffer
459: list that was made by C-x C-b. ANY text you see in an Emacs window
460: has to be in some buffer.
461:
462: >> Type C-x 1 to get rid of the buffer list.
463:
464: If you make changes to the text of one file, then find another file,
465: this does not save the first file. Its changes remain inside Emacs,
466: in that file's buffer. The creation or editing of the second file's
467: buffer has no effect on the first file's buffer. This is very useful,
468: but it also means that you need a convenient way to save the first
469: file's buffer. It would be a nuisance to have to switch back to
470: it with C-x C-f in order to save it with C-x C-s. So we have
471:
472: C-x s Save some buffers
473:
474: C-x s goes through the list of all the buffers you have
475: and finds the ones that contain files you have changed.
476: For each such buffer, C-x s asks you whether to save it.
477:
478:
479: EXTENDING THE COMMAND SET
480: -------------------------
481:
482: There are many, many more Emacs commands than could possibly be put
483: on all the control and meta characters. Emacs gets around this with
484: the X (eXtend) command. This comes in two flavors:
485:
486: C-x Character eXtend. Followed by one character.
487: M-x Named command eXtend. Followed by a long name.
488:
489: These are commands that are generally useful but used less than the
490: commands you have already learned about. You have already seen two
491: of them: the file commands C-x C-f to Find and C-x C-s to Save.
492: Another example is the command to tell Emacs that you'd like to stop
493: editing and get rid of Emacs. The command to do this is C-x C-c.
494: (Don't worry; it offers to save each changed file before it kills the
495: Emacs.)
496:
497: C-z is the usual way to exit Emacs, because it is always better not to
498: kill the Emacs if you are going to do any more editing. On systems
499: which allow it, C-z exits from Emacs to the shell but does not destroy
500: the Emacs; if you use the C shell, you can resume Emacs with the `fg'
501: command (or, more generally, with `%emacs', which works even if your
502: most recent job was some other). On systems where suspending is not
503: possible, C-z creates a subshell running under Emacs to give you the
504: chance to run other programs and return to Emacs afterward, but it
505: does not truly "exit" from Emacs. In this case, the shell command
506: `exit' is the usual way to get back to Emacs from the subshell.
507:
508: You would use C-x C-c if you were about to log out. You would
509: also use it to exit an Emacs invoked under mail handling programs
510: and other random utilities, since they may not believe you have
511: really finished using the Emacs if it continues to exist.
512:
513: There are many C-x commands. The ones you know are:
514:
515: C-x C-f Find file.
516: C-x C-s Save file.
517: C-x C-b List buffers.
518: C-x C-c Quit Emacs.
519: C-x u Undo.
520:
521: Named eXtended commands are commands which are used even less
522: frequently, or commands which are used only in certain modes. These
523: commands are usually called "functions". An example is the function
524: replace-string, which globally replaces one string with another. When
525: you type M-x, Emacs prompts you at the bottom of the screen with
526: M-x and you should type the name of the function you wish to call; in
527: this case, "replace-string". Just type "repl s<TAB>" and Emacs will
528: complete the name. End the command name with <Return>.
529: Then type the two "arguments"--the string to be replaced, and the string
530: to replace it with--each one ended with a Return.
531:
532: >> Move the cursor to the blank line two lines below this one.
533: Then type M-x repl s<Return>changed<Return>altered<Return>.
534:
535: Notice how this line has changed: you've replaced
536: the word c-h-a-n-g-e-d with "altered" wherever it occured
537: after the cursor.
538:
539:
540: MODE LINE
541: ---------
542:
543: If Emacs sees that you are typing commands slowly it shows them to you
544: at the bottom of the screen in an area called the "echo area." The echo
545: area contains the bottom line of the screen. The line immediately above
546: it is called the MODE LINE. The mode line says something like
547:
548: --**--Emacs: TUTORIAL (Fundamental)----58%-------------
549:
550: This is a very useful "information" line.
551:
552: You already know what the filename means--it is the file you have
553: found. What the --NN%-- means is that NN percent of the file is
554: above the top of the screen. If the top of the file is on the screen,
555: it will say --TOP-- instead of --00%--. If the bottom of the file is
556: on the screen, it will say --BOT--. If you are looking at a file so
557: small it all fits on the screen, it says --ALL--.
558:
559: The stars near the front mean that you have made changes to the text.
560: Right after you visit or save a file, there are no stars, just dashes.
561:
562: The part of the mode line inside the parentheses is to tell you what
563: modes you are in. The default mode is Fundamental which is what you
564: are in now. It is an example of a "major mode". There are several
565: major modes in Emacs for editing different languages and text, such as
566: Lisp mode, Text mode, etc. At any time one and only one major mode is
567: active, and its name can always be found in the mode line just where
568: "Fundamental" is now. Each major mode makes a few commands behave
569: differently. For example, there are commands for creating comments in
570: a program, and since each programming language has a different idea of
571: what a comment should look like, each major mode has to insert
572: comments differently. Each major mode is the name of an extended
573: command, which is how you get into the mode. For example,
574: M-X fundamental-mode is how to get into Fundamental mode.
575:
576: If you are going to be editing English text, such as this file, you
577: should probably use Text Mode.
578: >> Type M-x text-mode<Return>.
579:
580: Don't worry, none of the commands you have learned changes Emacs in
581: any great way. But you can now observe that periods are no longer
582: part of words when you do M-f or M-b! Major modes are usually like
583: that: commands don't change into completely unrelated things, but they
584: work a little bit differently.
585:
586: To get documentation on your current major mode, type C-h m.
587:
588: >> Use C-u C-v once or more to bring this line near the top of screen.
589: >> Type C-h m, to see how Text mode differs from Fundamental mode.
590: >> Type C-x 1 to remove the documentation from the screen.
591:
592: Major modes are called major because there are also minor modes.
593: They are called minor because they aren't alternatives to the major
594: modes, just minor modifications of them. Each minor mode can be
595: turned on or off by itself, regardless of what major mode you are in,
596: and regardless of the other minor modes. So you can use no minor
597: modes, or one minor mode, or any combination of several minor modes.
598:
599: One minor mode which is very useful, especially for editing English
600: text, is Auto Fill mode. When this mode is on, Emacs breaks the line
601: in between words automatically whenever the line gets too long. You
602: can turn this mode on by doing M-x auto-fill-mode<Return>. When the
603: mode is on, you can turn it off by doing M-x auto-fill-mode<Return>.
604: If the mode is off, this function turns it on, and if the mode is on,
605: this function turns it off. This is called "toggling".
606:
607: >> Type M-x auto-fill-mode<Return> now. Then insert a line of "asdf "
608: over again until you see it divide into two lines. You must put in
609: spaces between them because Auto Fill breaks lines only at spaces.
610:
611: The margin is usually set at 70 characters, but you can change it
612: with the C-x f command. You should give the margin setting you want
613: as a numeric argument.
614:
615: >> Type C-x f with an argument of 20. (C-u 2 0 C-x f).
616: Then type in some text and see Emacs fill lines of 20
617: characters with it. Then set the margin back to 70 using
618: C-x f again.
619:
620: If you makes changes in the middle of a paragraph, Auto Fill mode
621: does not re-fill it for you.
622: To re-fill the paragraph, type M-q (Meta-q) with the cursor inside
623: that paragraph.
624:
625: >> Move the cursor into the previous paragraph and type M-q.
626:
627: SEARCHING
628: ---------
629:
630: Emacs can do searches for strings (these are groups of contiguous
631: characters or words) either forward through the file or backward
632: through it. To search for the string means that you are trying to
633: locate it somewhere in the file and have Emacs show you where the
634: occurrences of the string exist. This type of search is somewhat
635: different from what you may be familiar with. It is a search that is
636: performed as you type in the thing to search for. The command to
637: initiate a search is C-s for forward search, and C-r for reverse
638: search. BUT WAIT! Don't do them now. When you type C-s you'll
639: notice that the string "I-search" appears as a prompt in the echo
640: area. This tells you that Emacs is in what is called an incremental
641: search waiting for you to type the thing that you want to search for.
642: <ESC> terminates a search.
643:
644: >> Now type C-s to start a search. SLOWLY, one letter at a time,
645: type the word 'cursor', pausing after you type each
646: character to notice what happens to the cursor.
647: >> Type C-s to find the next occurrence of "cursor".
648: >> Now type <Rubout> four times and see how the cursor moves.
649: >> Type <ESC> to terminate the search.
650:
651: Did you see what happened? Emacs, in an incremental search, tries to
652: go to the occurrence of the string that you've typed out so far. To go
653: to the next occurrence of 'cursor' just type C-s again. If no such
654: occurrence exists Emacs beeps and tells you that it is a failing
655: search. C-g would also terminate the search.
656:
657: If you are in the middle of an incremental search and type <Rubout>,
658: you'll notice that the last character in the search string is erased
659: and the search backs up to the last place of the search. For
660: instance, suppose you currently have typed 'cu' and you see that your
661: cursor is at the first occurrence of 'cu'. If you now type <Rubout>,
662: the 'u' on the search line is erased and you'll be repositioned in the
663: text to the occurrence of 'c' where the search took you before you
664: typed the 'u'. This provides a useful means for backing up while you
665: are searching.
666:
667: If you are in the middle of a search and happen to type a control
668: character (other than a C-s or C-r, which tell Emacs to search for the
669: next occurrence of the string), the search is terminated.
670:
671: The C-s starts a search that looks for any occurrence of the search
672: string AFTER the current cursor position. But what if you want to
673: search for something earlier in the text? To do this, type C-r for
674: Reverse search. Everything that applies to C-s applies to C-r except
675: that the direction of the search is reversed.
676:
677:
678: RECURSIVE EDITING LEVELS
679: ------------------------
680:
681: Sometimes you will get into what is called a "recursive editing
682: level". This is indicated by square brackets in the mode line,
683: surrounding the parentheses around the major mode name. For
684: example, you might see [(Fundamental)] instead of (Fundamental).
685:
686: To get out of the recursive editing level, type
687: M-x top-level<Return>.
688:
689: >> Try that now; it should display "Back to top level"
690: at the bottom of the screen.
691:
692: In fact, you were ALREADY at top level (not inside a recursive editing
693: level) if you have obeyed instructions. M-x top-level does not care;
694: it gets out of any number of recursive editing levels, perhaps zero,
695: to get back to top level.
696:
697: You can't use C-g to get out of a recursive editing level because C-g
698: is used for discarding numeric arguments and partially typed commands
699: WITHIN the recursive editing level.
700:
701:
702: GETTING MORE HELP
703: -----------------
704:
705: In this tutorial we have tried to supply just enough information to
706: get you started using Emacs. There is so much available in Emacs that
707: it would be impossible to explain it all here. However, you may want
708: to learn more about Emacs since it has numerous desirable features
709: that you don't know about yet. Emacs has a great deal of internal
710: documentation. All of these commands can be accessed through
711: the character Control-h, which we call "the Help character"
712: because of the function it serves.
713:
714: To use the HELP features, type the C-h character, and then a
715: character saying what kind of help you want. If you are REALLY lost,
716: type C-h ? and Emacs will tell you what kinds of help it can give.
717: If you have typed C-h and decide you don't want any help, just
718: type C-G to cancel it.
719:
720: The most basic HELP feature is C-h c. Type C-h, a c, and a
721: command character or sequence, and Emacs displays a very brief
722: description of the command.
723:
724: >> Type C-h c Control-p.
725: The message should be something like
726:
727: C-p runs the command previous-line
728:
729: This tells you the "name of the function". That is important in
730: writing Lisp code to extend Emacs; it also is enough to remind
731: you of what the command does if you have seen it before but did
732: not remember.
733:
734: Multi-character commands such as C-x C-s and (if you have no META or
735: EDIT key) <ESC>v are also allowed after C-h c.
736:
737: To get more information on the command, use C-h k instead of C-h c.
738:
739: >> Type C-h k Control-p.
740:
741: This displays the documentation of the function, as well as its name,
742: in an Emacs window. When you are finished reading the output, type
743: C-x 1 to get rid of the help text. You do not have to do this right
744: away. You can do some editing based on the help text before you type
745: C-x 1.
746:
747: Here are some other useful C-h options:
748:
749: C-h f Describe a function. You type in the name of the
750: function.
751:
752: >> Try typing C-h f previous-line<Return>.
753: This prints all the information Emacs has about the
754: function which implements the C-P command.
755:
756: C-h a Command Apropos. Type in a keyword and Emacs will list
757: all the commands whose names contain that keyword.
758: These commands can all be invoked with Meta-x.
759: For some commands, Command Apropos will also list a one
760: or two character sequence which has the same effect.
761:
762: >> Type C-h a file<Return>. You will see a list of all M-x commands
763: with "file" in their names. You will also see commands
764: like C-x C-f and C-x C-w, listed beside the command names
765: find-file and write-file.
766:
767:
768: CONCLUSION
769: ----------
770:
771: Remember, to exit Emacs permanently use C-x C-c. To exit to a shell
772: temporarily, so that you can come back in, use C-z.
773:
774: This tutorial is meant to be understandable to all new users, so if
775: you found something unclear, don't sit and blame yourself - complain!
776:
777:
778: COPYING
779: -------
780:
781: This tutorial descends from a long line of Emacs tutorials
782: starting with the one written by Stuart Cracraft for the original Emacs.
783:
784: This version of the tutorial, like GNU Emacs, is copyrighted, and
785: comes with permission to distribute copies on certain conditions:
786:
787: Copyright (c) 1985 Free Software Foundation
788:
789: Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
790: of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
791: copyright notice and permission notice are preserved,
792: and that the distributor grants the recipient permission
793: for further redistribution as permitted by this notice.
794:
795: Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
796: of this document, or of portions of it,
797: under the above conditions, provided also that they
798: carry prominent notices stating who last altered them.
799:
800: The conditions for copying Emacs itself are slightly different
801: but in the same spirit. Please read the file COPYING and then
802: do give copies of GNU Emacs to your friends.
803: Help stamp out software obstructionism ("ownership") by using,
804: writing, and sharing free software!

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