124 lines
5.3 KiB
HTML
124 lines
5.3 KiB
HTML
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2 Final//EN">
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<HTML>
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<HEAD>
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<META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="SGML-Tools 1.0.9">
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<TITLE>Emacs Beginner's HOWTO: Introduction </TITLE>
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<LINK HREF="Emacs-Beginner-HOWTO-2.html" REL=next>
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<LINK HREF="Emacs-Beginner-HOWTO.html#toc1" REL=contents>
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</HEAD>
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<BODY>
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<A HREF="Emacs-Beginner-HOWTO-2.html">Next</A>
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Previous
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<A HREF="Emacs-Beginner-HOWTO.html#toc1">Contents</A>
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<HR>
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<H2><A NAME="introduction"></A> <A NAME="s1">1. Introduction </A></H2>
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<H2><A NAME="ss1.1">1.1 Copyright</A>
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</H2>
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<P>Copyright © 1998 - 2001 Jeremy D. Zawodny. Permission to
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distribute and modify this document is granted under the GNU General
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Public License. An on-line copy is available at
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<A HREF="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html">http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html</A><P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss1.2">1.2 Audience and Intent</A>
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</H2>
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<P>This document is targeted at the Linux user interested in learning
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a bit about Emacs and trying it out. This actually began as the
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outline of a brief tutorial that I was to give at a Toledo Area Linux
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User Group meeting:
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<A HREF="http://www.talug.org/">http://www.talug.org/</A>. It has since grown a bit as the result of
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the helpful feedback I have received from the community. See the
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Credits section for details.
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<P>
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<P>Having said that, there is virtually nothing Linux-specific in this
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document. It applies to virtually all flavors of Unix and even Emacs
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running on Microsoft Windows. But since this document is part of the
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Linux Documentation Project, I make a point of saying that it was
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developed for Linux users--because it was.
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<P>
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<P>And finally, those of you who prefer the name GNU/Linux to simply
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``Linux'' (read
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<A HREF="http://www.gnu.org/gnu/linux-and-gnu.html">http://www.gnu.org/gnu/linux-and-gnu.html</A> to see why one might)
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are welcomed to mentally substitute GNU/Linux for all occurrences of
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Linux in this document. While I don't disagree with the reasoning and
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spirit behind that idea, I don't feel compelled to write GNU/Linux.
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss1.3">1.3 What is Emacs?</A>
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</H2>
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<P>Emacs is different things to different people. Depending who you
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ask, you'll could get any of the following responses:
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<P>
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<UL>
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<LI>Text Editor</LI>
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<LI>Mail Client</LI>
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<LI>News Reader</LI>
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<LI>Word Processor</LI>
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<LI>Religion</LI>
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<LI>Integrated Development Environment</LI>
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<LI>Whatever you want it to be!
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</LI>
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</UL>
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<P>
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<P>But for our purposes, let's just pretend it's a text editor--an
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amazingly flexible text editor. We'll dig deeper into the question
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later on. Emacs was written by Richard Stallman (founder of the Free
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Software Foundation:
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<A HREF="http://www.fsf.org/">http://www.fsf.org/</A> and the GNU project
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<A HREF="http://www.gnu.org/">http://www.gnu.org/</A>) and he still
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maintains it today.
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<P>
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<P>Emacs is one of the most popular and powerful text editors used on
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Linux (and Unix). It is second in popularity only to <B>vi</B>. It
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is known for it huge feature set, ability to be easily customized, and
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lack of bugs. It's large feature set and ability to be customized
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actually are the result of how Emacs was designed and
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implemented. Without going into all the details, I'll simply point out
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that Emacs isn't ``just an editor''. It is an editor written mostly in
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the programming language <B>Lisp</B>. At the core of Emacs is a
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full-featured Lisp interpreter written in C. Only the most basic and
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low-level pieces of Emacs are written in C. The majority of the editor
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is actually written in Lisp. So, in a sense, Emacs has an entire
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programming language ``built in'' which you can use to customize,
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extend, and change its behavior.
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<P>
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<P>Emacs is also one of the oldest editors around. The fact that is
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has been used by thousands of programmers over the past 20 (?) years
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means that there are many add-on packages available. These add-ons
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allow you to make Emacs do things that Stallman had probably never
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dreamed possible when he first began work on Emacs. More on that
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in a later section.
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<P>
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<P>There are many other web sites and documents which give a better
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overview of Emacs, its history, and related matters. Rather than
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attempt to reproduce much of that here, I suggest that you check out
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some of the places listed in Section
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<A HREF="Emacs-Beginner-HOWTO-6.html#other_resources">Other Resources</A> section of this document.
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<P>
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<H3>Ports and Versions</H3>
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<P>It's worth pointing out that there are actually two different Emacs
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editors: GNU Emacs and XEmacs. Both come from the same heritage and
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share most of the same features. This document focuses on GNU Emacs
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(version 20.3, specifically) but much of what you'll read here will
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apply just as well to XEmacs and earlier versions of GNU
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Emacs. Throughout this document I will simply refer to ``Emacs''. When
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I do so, bear that in mind.
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<P>
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<H3>Getting Emacs</H3>
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<P>Getting Emacs is easy. If you are using a popular Linux
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distribution like Debian, RedHat, Slackware, or any of the others,
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Emacs is probably an optional package that you can install from your
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distribution media. If not, you can get the Emacs source code and
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compile it yourself. Visit the GNU web site for the exact location:
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<A HREF="http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/emacs.html">http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/emacs.html</A><P>
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<HR>
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<A HREF="Emacs-Beginner-HOWTO-2.html">Next</A>
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Previous
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