19: Emacs

19.F: Windows

Although we covered quite a bit of material in this introduction to using emacs, there is a much more to learn. One great thing about an editor that's been around for awhile is it tends to become abundantly documented. There are all kinds of resources available to you if you do get stuck or want to learn more. In addition to this tutorial, "Coping With Unix" and " UNIXhelp for Users" also have information on emacs. In addition there are a wide variety of online and printed manuals available for emacs.

In additionemacs is self-documenting. This means that it has it's own tutorial and internal help section. To get into the tutorial type the command C-h t. All of the help commands can be accessed by the C-h command. Once you type this command, your are in the help section and emacs asks you for further information on the help search. The following is a summary of some of the help options (type in the following characters after C-h):

   a string    Searches commands for any that contain string
    
   c command   Displays a brief description of command

   f function  Describes a function

   k command   Goes into more detail about information of 
	       command than option c

For example, you can search the help section for a description of the help section itself with the command C-h C-h. The C-h a string command is analogous to the man -k string command in UNIX. Just as in UNIX, this emacs command searches the data base for all matches to you string, whether it be a command you're looking for, or a general description. Playing around with these for a little while now will pay off in the future.

For another kind of help, code>emacs has a spell checker. to start it use the command is M-x spell-buffer, which runs a spell checker in the active buffer.

Congratulations! You have reached the last page of the tutorial. If you have skipped any sections, you may wish to return to the contents and view them now. Otherwise, please feel free to return to this tutorial any time you need additional help. Over time, as you become more familiar with Unix, you will probably turn more often to the more advanced tutorials "Coping with Unix" and "Unix Help for Users" and to the man pages. Someday (probably sooner than you think) you may even become the "person sitting next to you" reference.

19: Emacs

19.F: Windows