Emacs

1
Emacs

• Michael Hoisie (mbh)
• CSUA

2
Overview

• Emacs is
• designed for console use
• extendable
• written for programmers
• Emacs is not
• WYSIWYG (pretty)
• Type 'emacs' or 'emacs filename' to launch
• Most of screen is used for text, except for
  bottom line
• Important note tab completion

3
Commands

• Every key combination can be a command (some are
  simple like character entry)
• Commands are often built with modifiers - Meta(M)
  and Control(C) - which are like shift keys
• Keys may differ among architectures
• Command sets usually have prefixes
• C-x common prefix to manipulate files, buffers,
  windows
• C-h used for help commands
• M-x prompts for a name of a command
• Don't bother memorizing commands

4
Data Structures

• File file located on disk
• Buffer
• internal data structure that holds text.
• May be associated with a file, may be the output
  of a program
• emacs can store any arbitrary number of buffers
• Window
• a view of a buffer
• emacs usually starts with one buffer
• screen may be split among multiple buffers

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Basic Commands

• Files
• C-x C-f reads in a file into a buffer (tab
  complete)
• C-x C-s saves the file of the current buffer
• Buffers
• C-x b switches buffers
• C-x k kill a buffer
• Windows
• C-x o switch window
• C-x 0, C-x 1, C-x 2, C-x 3
• C-g cancel

6
Killing and Yanking

• Delete character C-d
• Kill is Unix equivalent of cut
• M-d kill word
• C-k kill line
• Yank is Unix equivalent of paste
• C-y
• To copypaste, you need to kill, yank, and yank

7
Marking and Regions

• Emacs can manipulate arbitrary chunks of text (a
  region).
• Region is between the cursor(point) and the mark.
  
• You usually set the mark around some object, and
  then move the cursor to change the region
• Setting the mark
• C-ltspacegt sets mark at cu cursor
• C-x h marks the whole buffer
• C-x X-x switches mark and cursor
• Region commands
• C-w kill region

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Search and Replace

• Searching
• C-s search forward (repeat to keep searching)
• C-r search backwards
• Regular expression search
• C-M-s
• C-M-r
• To replace
• M-x query-replace
• M-x replace-string

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Modes

• Custom environment (commands, text formatting)
• Every buffer has major mode and other minor modes
• Emacs usually chooses it for you, but you can
  always set it
• Nice modes
• Text mode editing text
• Outline mode taking notes
• Scheme mode using scheme
• C mode writing C
• Each programming language has a mode

10
Help

• C-h a apropos, prompts for a keyword
• C-h m describes current mode, key bindings
• C-h t runs the emacs tutorial
• http//del.icio.us/tag/emacs
• use reference card
• search for info