Synopses & Reviews
GNU Emacs is the most popular and widespread of the Emacs family of editors. It is also the most powerful and flexible. Unlike all other text editors, GNU Emacs is a complete working environment -- you can stay within Emacs all day without leaving. This book tells you how to get started with the GNU Emacs editor. It will also "grow" with you: as you become more proficient, this book will help you learn how to use Emacs more effectively. It takes you from basic Emacs usage (simple text editing) to moderately complicated customization and programming.The second edition of Learning GNU Emacs describes all of the new features of GNU Emacs 19.30, including fonts and colors, pull-down menus, scroll bars, enhanced X Window support, and correct bindings for most standard keys. GNUS, a Usenet newsreader, and ange-ftp mode, a transparent interface to the file transfer protocol, are also described.Learning GNU Emacs, second edition, covers:
- Using Emacs as an Internet Toolkit (to use electronic mail and Usenet news, telnet to other computers, retrieve files using FTP, browse the World Wide Web, and author Web documents)
- Emacs' rich, comprehensive online help facilities
- How to edit files with Emacs
- Using Emacs as a "shell environment"
- How to take advantage of "built-in" formatting features
- How to use multiple buffers, Emacs windows, and X Windows
- Customizing Emacs
- The Emacs interface to the X Window System, which allows you to use a mouse and pop-up menus
- Whys and hows of writing macros to circumvent repetitious tasks
- Emacs as a programming environment
- The basics of Emacs LISP
- How to get Emacs
The book is aimed at new Emacs users, whether or not they are programmers. Also useful for readers switching from other Emacs implementations to GNU Emacs.
Synopsis
A book that grows with the user, this book teaches reader how to use Emacs more effectively. It takes them from basic Emacs usage to moderately complicated customization and programming. The book is aimed at new Emacs users, whether or not they are prgrammers. Also useful for readers switching from other Emacs implementations to GNU Emacs.
Synopsis
GNU Emacs is the most popular and widespread of the Emacs family of editors. It is also the most powerful and flexible. Unlike other text editors, GNU Emacs is a complete working environment; you can stay within Emacs all day without leaving. This book tells you how to get started, but it will also "grow" with you: as you become more proficient, it will help you learn to use Emacs more effectively. It takes you from basic Emacs usage (simple text editing) to moderately complicated customization and programming. The second edition of Learning GNU Emacs describes all of the new features of GNU Emacs 19.30, including fonts and colors, pull-down menus, scrollbars, enhanced X Window System support, and correct bindings for most standard keys. Gnus, a Usenet newsreader, and ange-ftp mode, a transparent interface to the file transfer protocol, are also described. This book covers using Emacs as an Internet toolkit; Emacs' rich, comprehensive online help facilities; how to edit files with Emacs; using Emacs as a "shell environment"; how to take advantage of "built-in" formatting features; how to use multiple buffers, Emacs windows, and X windows; customizing Emacs; the Emacs interface to the X Window System; whys and hows of writing macros to circumvent repetitious tasks; Emacs as a programming environment; the basics of Emacs LISP; and how to get Emacs. Also included is a handy quick-reference card listing all of the commands discussed in the book.
About the Author
Debra Cameron is president of Cameron Consulting. In addition to her love for Emacs, Deb researches and writes about emerging technologies and their applications. Her latest book, Optical Networking: A Wiley Tech Brief, published in 2002 by John Wiley & Sons, covers the practical applications of optical networking and was written in the hope that true broadband will be more widely deployed. Deb also edits OReilly titles, including DNS and Bind, DNS on Windows 2000, TCP/IP Network Administration, HTML and XHTML: The Definitive Guide, Java Security, Java Swing, Learning Java, and Java Performance Tuning. She has presented numerous videos for WatchIT.com, covering security and networking as well as e-business topics. She has moderated roundtables on PlanetIT on advanced networking and intranet design. Deb resides in Gaithersburg, Maryland with her husband Jim and their three children, Meg, David, and Bethany.
Bill Rosenblatt is president of GiantSteps/Media Technology Strategies, a consulting firm in New York City. Before founding GiantSteps, Bill was CTO of Fathom, an online content and education company associated with Columbia University and other scholarly institutions. He has been a technology executive at McGraw-Hill and Times Mirror, and head of strategic marketing for media and publishing at Sun Microsystems. Bill was also one of the architects of the Digital Object Identifier (DOI), a standard for online content identification and DRM.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Preface; 1.1 Why Read This Book?; 1.2 Which Emacs Is Which?; 1.3 GNU Emacs and the Free Software Foundation; 1.4 An Approach to Learning Emacs; 1.5 What We Haven't Included; 1.6 Conventions Used in This Book; 1.7 How to Contact Us; 1.8 Acknowledgments; Chapter 2: Emacs Basics; 2.1 Introducing Emacs!; 2.2 Understanding Files and Buffers; 2.3 A Word About Modes; 2.4 Starting Emacs; 2.5 About the Emacs Screen; 2.6 Emacs Commands; 2.7 Opening a File; 2.8 Saving Files; 2.9 Leaving Emacs; 2.10 Getting Help; 2.11 Summary; Chapter 3: Editing Files; 3.1 Moving the Cursor; 3.2 Deleting Text; 3.3 Marking Text to Delete, Move, or Copy; 3.4 Reformatting Paragraphs; 3.5 Editing Tricks and Shortcuts; 3.6 Stopping Commands and Undoing Changes; 3.7 Making Emacs Work the Way You Want; Chapter 4: Search and Replace Operations; 4.1 Different Kinds of Searches; 4.2 Search and Replace; 4.3 Checking Spelling; 4.4 Word Abbreviation Mode; Chapter 5: Using Buffers and Windows; 5.1 Files, Buffers, and Windows; 5.2 Working with Multiple Buffers; 5.3 Working with Windows; 5.4 Holding Your Place with Bookmarks; 5.5 Temporarily Suspending Emacs; 5.6 Using Multiple X Windows; Chapter 6: Emacs as a Work Environment; 6.1 Executing UNIX Commands in Shell Buffers; 6.2 Working with Files and Directories; 6.3 Printing from Emacs; 6.4 Reading Manpages in Emacs; 6.5 Using Time Management Tools; 6.6 Using Your Emacs Work Environment; Chapter 7: Email and Usenet News; 7.1 Working with Mail; 7.2 Sending Mail from Within Emacs; 7.3 Reading Mail from Within Emacs; 7.4 Reading Usenet News with Gnus; Chapter 8: Emacs as an Internet Toolkit; 8.1 Using Telnet Mode; 8.2 Using Ange-ftp Mode; 8.3 Browsing the Web with W3; Chapter 9: Simple Text Formatting and Specialized Editing; 9.1 Indenting Text; 9.2 Centering Text; 9.3 Inserting Page Breaks; 9.4 Rectangle Editing; 9.5 Making Simple Drawings; 9.6 Using Outline Mode; Chapter 10: Marking up Text with Emacs; 10.1 Introduction; 10.2 Marking up Text for troff and nroff; 10.3 Marking up Text for TEX and LATEX; 10.4 Writing HTML; 10.5 Using Html-helper Mode; Chapter 11: Writing Macros; 11.1 What Is a Macro?; 11.2 Defining a Macro; 11.3 Tips for Creating Good Macros; 11.4 Adding to an Existing Macro; 11.5 Naming and Saving Your Macros; 11.6 Executing a Named Macro; 11.7 Building More Complicated Macros; 11.8 Beyond Macros; Chapter 12: Customizing Emacs; 12.1 Keyboard Customization; 12.2 Terminal Support; 12.3 Emacs Variables; 12.4 Emacs LISP Packages; 12.5 Auto-Mode Customization; Chapter 13: Emacs for Programmers; 13.1 Language Modes; 13.2 C and C++ Modes; 13.3 The LISP Modes; 13.4 FORTRAN Mode; 13.5 Compiling Programs; Chapter 14: Emacs LISP Programming; 14.1 Introduction to LISP; 14.2 LISP Primitive Functions; 14.3 Useful Built-In Emacs Functions; 14.4 Programming a Major Mode; 14.5 Customizing Existing Modes; 14.6 Building Your Own LISP Library; Chapter 15: Emacs and X; 15.1 User-Interface Features; 15.2 Using Emacs with X Fonts and Colors; 15.3 X Display Customizations; 15.4 Customizing via Your .Xdefaults File; 15.5 Properties, Frames, Menus, and Mouse Events; 15.6 Communicating with the X Server; 15.7 A Note on Good X Programming Style; Chapter 16: Version Control Under Emacs; 16.1 The Uses of Version Control; 16.2 Version Control Concepts; 16.3 How VC Helps with Basic Operations; 16.4 Editing Comment Buffers; 16.5 VC Command Summary; 16.6 VC Mode Indicators; 16.7 Which Version Control System?; 16.8 Individual VC Commands; 16.9 Customizing VC; 16.10 Extending VC; 16.11 What VC Is Not; 16.12 Using VC Effectively; Chapter 17: Online Help; 17.1 Completion; 17.2 Help Commands; 17.3 Help in Complex Emacs Commands; How to Get Emacs; FTP on the Internet; Free Software Foundation; Other CD-ROM Sources; Building Emacs; Making Emacs Work the Way You Think It Should; Emacs Variables; Emacs LISP Packages; Bugs and Bug Fixes; Public Statements; The GNU General Public License; GNU Manifesto; The League for Programming Freedom; Give and It Shall Be Given; Quick Reference; Glossary; Colophon;