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<html> <head>
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<title>A New XEmacs Release</title>
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<body bgcolor="#ffe7c7" text="#8e4510">
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<H4>
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"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
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</H4>
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<P> <HR> <P>
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<center><img src="./gx/ayers/xemacs.gif" alt="a new XEmacs logo"></center>
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<br>
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<p>
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<center><h1>XEmacs 19.15</h1></center>
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<center><h4><a href="mailto:layers@vax2.rainis.net">by Larry
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Ayers</a></h4></center>
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<p>The developers of XEmacs, the independently-maintained offshoot of GNU
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Emacs, have released a new version of this versatile editor. Version
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19.15 is the last of the 19.xx series; in the future developmental
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efforts will be focussed on the 20.xx series, which up to the present has been
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evolving in parallel with version 19.
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<p>Aside from many bug-fixes, a good deal of the changes in this version
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involve updates to many of the large extension packages which come bundled
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with the editor. Quite a large bundle it is, weighing in at over eighteen
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megabytes, tarred and gzipped.
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<p>Among the new features are:<br>
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<ul>
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<li>Incorporation of the TM package,which gives MIME reading and writing
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support to mail and usenet news packages.
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<li>Updated versions of Gnus, W3, VM, CC-Mode, Python-mode, and Hyperbole.
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<li>Incorporation of the Auctex TeX/LateX editing package.
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<li>The Custom utility, which attempts to standardise package customization.
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<li>Many documentation updates.
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<li>New version of hm--html-menus, which has an Info file now
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<li>New fancier version of time.el, which shows the time, system load, and
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mail status in the mode-line.
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<li>Replacement of Angeftp and dired with EFS, which merges the two.
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<li>A new Message mode, used by the various mail and news packages.
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<li>Many improvements in configuration and compilation from source.
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<li>Updated Viper (vi-emulation) mode.
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<li>Enhancements and bugfixes for many other packages and modes.
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</ul>
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<p>The members of the XEmacs team have changed with this release; former
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maintainer Chuck Thompson has passed the torch to Steve Baur. The other
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maintainers are now Martin Buchholz and Kyle Jones (author of the VM mail
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package), with Bob Weiner, Chuck Thompson, Ben Wing and Bill Perry helping out
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as well.
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<p>It's interesting to note how the developers of the various extension
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packages and of XEmacs itself have attempted to maintain a certain parallelism
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with Gnu Emacs development. Most extensions, even those written primarily
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with XEmacs in mind, have support for Gnu Emacs built in. The XEmacs team
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attempts to incorporate new features and bug fixes from Gnu Emacs
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development into their version; I wonder if the opposite is true?
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<center><h3>Installation</h3></center>
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<p> Binary packages for 19.15 are available at
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<a href="ftp://ftp.xemacs.org/xemacs">the XEmacs FTP site</a>, but
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there are several reasons why compiling your own can be advantageous. XEmacs
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uses a configure script to adapt the makefiles to your machine. There are
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many possible switches or parameters which can be given to the script
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depending on your needs. The editor supports inlined JPEG, GIF, XPM,
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and PNG images; support for any of these can be disabled. If you don't plan
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on running the W3 browser or using the MIME capabilities of VM or Gnus
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(combined with TM) this might be a good idea. Sound support is another frill
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which not everyone will want. These optional features aren't a burden if you
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have a memory-laden and powerful machine, but they aren't really necessary and
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can be dispensed with if the resources to use them are insufficient. The
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toolbar (and even X-Windows support) can be disabled by the configure script
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if you want a leaner, less memory-hungry executable.
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<p>You will need about 80 mb. of disk space to compile from source; luckily
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most of that can be reclaimed afterwards.
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<p>There's no denying that an XEmacs installation occupies quite a chunk of
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disk space. A new shell-script called <i>gzip-el.sh</i> is supplied with
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version 19.15 which uses the Gnu <b>find</b> utility to recursively probe the
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various LISP subdirectories, gzipping all <i>*.el</i> files which have a
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corresponding byte-compiled <i>*.elc</i> file. This alone will save about
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fourteen megabytes!
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<p>If you have no intention of ever modifying or reading those <i>*.el</i>
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Lisp files you could just delete them all, but that might be rash. Sometimes
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the only documentation for a mode or function is buried in one of those files;
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others can be modified to suit your preferences. A better alternative is to
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become <b>root</b> and, wielding <i>rm</i>, dispose of some of the Lisp
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packages which you don't think you'll ever need. Try to avoid the /lisp/prim
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directory, though, as the essential core files live there. I don't know how
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many times I've removed the Energize, VMS, and MH-E directories from past
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installations; I'm sure I'll be removing them again in the future. A promised
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feature of version 20.1 (which will be the next major release) is the
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separation of some of these packages from the main distribution. This will
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allow the core of XEmacs to be obtained separately, allowing the user to
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decide which of the extensions to download, depending upon his or her needs.
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<center><h3>Customization</h3></center>
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<p>Anyone who has used XEmacs for very long, especially for writing code,
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likely has had the desire to come up with a set of syntax-highlighting colors
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which are both pleasing to the eye and functional. In XEmacs, a "face" is a
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combination of font and color specifications for a certain category of text.
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There are many of these defined; each mode tends to have several of its own as
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well as sharing system-wide faces. It can be quite a time-consuming job
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setting these in your <i>~/.emacs</i> file, especially if you use a dark
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background, in which case many of the default colors won't have sufficient
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contrast. XEmacs 19.14 allowed face modifications by means of the
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<i>edit-faces</i> command. This utility works well, appending the changes
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to your <i>~/.emacs</i> file. Unfortunately the format they are saved in is
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particularly difficult to read if you ever wanted to make a single change
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manually; the lines are very long and the syntax is obtuse and thickety.
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<p>Per Abrahamsen, maintainer of Auctex (another of the bundled packages), has
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written the Custom package in an effort to simplify the customization of
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XEmacs and its many extensions. After typing <i>esc-x customize</i> a buffer
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appears with menu entries for not only faces but other user-definable
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variables. These entries are categorized by package; selecting one causes a
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cascading sub-menu to appear. The first category is just "Emacs", which allows
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global settings to be made. In order for a package to be included in the
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Customize buffer the programmer must include hooks in the LISP code. Most of
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the larger packages, such as Gnus, the VM mail-reader, W3, and EFS (the new
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successor to AngeFTP) have been adapted in this way.
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<p>It is wise to back up any <i>.emacs</i> or <i>.xemacs-options</i> files
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which you are fond of before fooling around with any such auto-customizing
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utilities. That tempting "Options" menu with all its choices will cheerfully
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overwrite your <i>.xemacs-options</i> file if you impulsively select the "Save
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Options" item. Remember, you can always cut-and-paste from the generated file
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into your real one, then move it back. The <b>Custom</b> package is more
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forgiving: it appends its results to the end of your <i>.emacs</i> file. I've
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noticed that often when an XEmacs package such as <b>Custom</b> or <b>W3</b>
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appends to your init file it will drop down several lines from the bottom
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entry before writing its lines. If you are looking at the file, curious as to
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what changes have been made, scroll down past the end; it's easy to miss an
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addition if it's lurking down amongst the superfluous empty lines which XEmacs
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has a penchant for adding to the end of a file.
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<p>One technique which is useful for customizing XEmacs, Fvwm2, or any complex
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piece of Linux software is to assume a different identity. Just create a new
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user (with <i>adduser</i> or equivalent) and log in to the new account. This
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way you have a clean slate and can modify, cut and paste with abandon, all the
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while knowing you can return to your normal login account if things go
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awry. The sample <i>.emacs</i> file which is found in the <i>/etc</i>
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subdirectory of the XEmacs distribution can serve as a good starting point,
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especially if you are new to Emacs-type editors in general.
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<center><h3>Miscellaneous Notes</h3></center>
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<p>To accommodate users who run XEmacs on a grayscale or limited-color
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display, the XEmacs team has included toolbar icons which are rather plain. I
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suspect that most XEmacs users eventually turn off the toolbar (the keyboard
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commands are faster) but if you'd like replacement icons which are
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well-designed, color-map-eating and very stylish, the <a
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href="ftp://afterstep.foo.net/pub/AfterStep/mods">AfterStep FTP site</a> has a
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set of them, in the file <b>NeXT.XEmacs.tar.gz</b>. (A pox on mixed-case
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filenames!) These can be dropped right in to the [XEmacs-root]/etc/toolbar
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directory, overwriting the old ones. Here's a cropped screenshot:<br> <p> <img
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alt="Replacement Toolbar Icons" src="./gx/ayers/baricon.gif"> <p> <hr>
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<p>The XEmacs documentation is voluminous, but there are so many obscure modes
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and features included that to document them all would add megabytes to the
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distribution (plus someone would have to volunteer to do it!). You would be
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surprised at what can be found while browsing through the directories of Lisp
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files. As an example, the other day I happened upon a file called
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<i>xpm-mode.el</i> in the /lisp/modes directory. Curious, I loaded the file
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into XEmacs and saw that it is a colorized mode for directly editing xpm
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icon-files. This is quite an interesting mode, but I'd never heard of it; it
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was contributed to the XEmacs maintainers by Joe Rumsey and Rich Williams in
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1995. Here's a sample window:<br>
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<p><img alt="Xpm-Mode Window" src="./gx/ayers/xpm_mode.gif">
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<p>There are all sorts of obscure modes and packages buried in the <i>lisp</i>
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subdirectories; grepping for various keywords will turn up some interesting
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files.
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<center><h3>Conclusion</h3></center>
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<p>I've been following the late stages of this XEmacs beta cycle and I'm
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impressed by the amount of work involved in putting together such a large,
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complex package. The developers and beta-testers deserve kudos for their
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efforts.
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<p>If you would like to try it out, the source is currently available at
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<a href="ftp://ftp.xemacs.org/pub/xemacs">the home XEmacs site</a>. This site
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will probably be crowded during the first week or two after the release; if
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you are unable to log on a list of mirror sites will be displayed. If you
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would rather not download the massive archive file, just wait a few weeks and
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I'm sure the distribution will show up on various distribution and FTP-archive
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CDROMs.
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<p><hr><p>
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<center><H5>Copyright © 1997, Larry Ayers <BR>
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Published in Issue 16 of the Linux Gazette, April 1997</H5></center>
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<!-- hhmts start -->
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Last modified: Sun 30 Mar 1997
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