Chapter 5. Using The Emacs Editor

This manual is designed to be used with the DECstations and the Emacs text editor. With that in mind, you are probally curious as to how the emacs editor works. It is considerably easier to use than vi and makes great use of the Ctrl key. From now on, I will refer to the Ctrl as C. If any additional keys are necessary, I will use - followed by the key. An example of this is C-x. These will usually be preceded by an explanation of what this will do to your document. This will make it easier later in the chapter.

The emacs appendix has a large library of functions that manipulate the text in an emacs session. Some of the features that make emacs desirable to use are; you can easily make a session full screen. Just click on the big square in the corner of the DECterm window. Emacs makes a backup of every file every time you edit that file. Use the ls command to view the backup file. Look for filename.html~. The tilde, ~ is appended to the end of the file that you were working on when you quit, or the system went down. In any case, if you want the previous version of your file, when you start emacs, make sure that you add the tilde ~ to your entension.

Emacs also has an auto-saving function that is real convenient. While you edit and or compose your document, emacs will periodically save the document. When emacs is saving the document, you will see a message at the command line that says: Auto-Saving. Don't get annoyed if this slows down your typing, it's a real help if the system suddenly crashes. If you want to make a new html file, all you have to do is start an emacs session and emacs will create the file for you. Just follow the steps below to start a session.

How to use Emacs Functions

These commands can be activated by depressing the Ctrl key and the letter key that you want. For example, Ctrl-F moves the cursor forward in the body of the text. And, Ctrl-B moves the cursor backward in the text. IMPORTANT: The meta key M- acts differently than the C- key. You only press the meta key once, do not hold it down. The meta key is defined as F11 on the keyboard. To start emacs, you will type:

emacs filename

There are a few ways to exit emacs. This is the standard way of exiting emacs C-x C-c. Note that this is a two stroke command. That means while you have C depressed, hit x and then c to finish the command. The next way to exit is C-x C-w. This allows you to give a filename that you want emacs to write the file to. And the last, is to use C-z. This suspends the emacs editor until you invoke it again. This last command requires a little more advanced knowlege of the editor, and UNIX. In the next

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