107 lines
3.8 KiB
HTML
107 lines
3.8 KiB
HTML
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2 Final//EN">
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<HTML>
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<META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="SGML-Tools 1.0.9">
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<TITLE>Emacs Beginner's HOWTO: Popular Packages </TITLE>
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<H2><A NAME="popular_packages"></A> <A NAME="s5">5. Popular Packages </A></H2>
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<P>In addition to the many different modes available for Emacs, there
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are also many add-on <B>packages</B>. I call them packages because
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they're more than just new modes. They often include extra utilities
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or are so large that calling them modes just doesn't seem to do them
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justice. In still other cases, they are software which extends or
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integrates other Emacs modes and packages. The distinction isn't
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entirely clear, but that's okay.
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss5.1">5.1 VM (Mail)</A>
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</H2>
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<P>To quote the VM FAQ:
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<P>
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<BLOCKQUOTE>
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VM (View Mail) is an Emacs subsystem that allows mail to be read and
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disposed of within Emacs. Commands exist to do the normal things
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expected of a mail user agent, such as generating replies, saving
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messages to folders, deleting messages and so on. There are other more
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advanced commands that do tasks like bursting and creating digests,
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message forwarding, and organizing message presentation according to
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various criteria.
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</BLOCKQUOTE>
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<P>
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<P>When I first began using Emacs, I tried VM out for a while. I found
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it to be a great replacement for Pine, Elm, or most any other mail
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program. But I didn't want to use separate programs to read mail and
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news. VM is actively developed and well supported today.
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<P>
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<P>It is available here:
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<A HREF="http://www.wonderworks.com/vm/">http://www.wonderworks.com/vm/</A>.
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss5.2">5.2 Gnus (Mail and News)</A>
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</H2>
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<P>To quote the GNUS Manual:
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<P>
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<BLOCKQUOTE>
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Gnus is a message-reading laboratory. It will let you look at just
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about anything as if it were a newsgroup. You can read mail with it,
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you can browse directories with it, you can ftp with it---you can even
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read news with it!
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</BLOCKQUOTE>
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<P>
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<BLOCKQUOTE>
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Gnus tries to empower people who read news the same way Emacs empowers
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people who edit text. Gnus sets no limits to what the user should be
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allowed to do. Users are encouraged to extend Gnus to make it behave
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like they want it to behave. A program should not control people;
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people should be empowered to do what they want by using (or abusing)
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the program.
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</BLOCKQUOTE>
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<P>
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<P>GNUS is what I currently use for mail and news (as hinted
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above). GNUS is also actively developed and well supported today.
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<P>
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<P>It is available here:
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<A HREF="http://www.gnus.org/">http://www.gnus.org/</A>.
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss5.3">5.3 BBDB (A rolodex)</A>
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</H2>
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<P>BBDB is an Insidious Big Brother Database, a rolodex-like program
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for Emacs that works with most of the popular Emacs Mail packages (VM
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and GNUS included).
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<P>
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<P>It is available here:
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<A HREF="http://pweb.netcom.com/~simmonmt/bbdb/index.html">http://pweb.netcom.com/~simmonmt/bbdb/index.html</A>.
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<P>
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<H2><A NAME="ss5.4">5.4 AucTeX (another TeX mode)</A>
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</H2>
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<P>AucTeX is another mode for editing TeX files.
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<P>
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<P>To quote the AucTeX web site:
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<P>
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<BLOCKQUOTE>
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AUC TeX is an extensible package that supports writing and formatting
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TeX files for most variants of GNU Emacs. Many different macro
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packages are supported, including AMS TeX, LaTeX, and TeXinfo.
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</BLOCKQUOTE>
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<P>
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<P>It is available here:
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<A HREF="http://sunsite.auc.dk/auctex/">http://sunsite.auc.dk/auctex/</A>.
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<P>
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<HR>
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