From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Peter S Galbraith Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: Emacs newbie - Syntax Highlighting and Indentation Date: Fri, 14 Nov 2003 20:11:07 -0500 Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Message-ID: <26837.1068858667@mixed> References: NNTP-Posting-Host: deer.gmane.org X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1068858894 15647 80.91.224.253 (15 Nov 2003 01:14:54 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 15 Nov 2003 01:14:54 +0000 (UTC) Cc: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sat Nov 15 02:14:49 2003 Return-path: Original-Received: from monty-python.gnu.org ([199.232.76.173]) by deer.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 1AKp1V-0002ws-00 for ; Sat, 15 Nov 2003 02:14:49 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.24) id 1AKpw7-0004MP-O1 for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Fri, 14 Nov 2003 21:13:19 -0500 Original-Received: from list by monty-python.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.24) id 1AKpvr-0004LY-Ek for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Fri, 14 Nov 2003 21:13:03 -0500 Original-Received: from mail by monty-python.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.24) id 1AKpvL-0004Bf-Dm for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Fri, 14 Nov 2003 21:13:02 -0500 Original-Received: from [66.110.136.11] (helo=mixed.dyndns.org) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.24) id 1AKpvH-0004BS-4H for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Fri, 14 Nov 2003 21:12:27 -0500 Original-Received: by mixed.dyndns.org (Postfix, from userid 1000) id AE48771A34; Fri, 14 Nov 2003 20:11:08 -0500 (EST) Original-Received: from mixed (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by mixed.dyndns.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id AD87B71A32; Fri, 14 Nov 2003 20:11:08 -0500 (EST) Original-To: David Rasmussen In-Reply-To: Message from David Rasmussen of "Sat, 15 Nov 2003 00:15:34 +0100." X-Mailer: MH-E 7.4.2+cvs; nmh 1.1-RC1; GNU Emacs 21.3.1 X-Image-URL: http://people.debian.org/~psg/face.png X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.2 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:14237 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.help:14237 David Rasmussen wrote: > Peter S Galbraith wrote: > > I'm a little disappointed (but not surprised) that everyone replying > > so far says to edit the .emacs file. > > The simple and user-friendly answer is to use the Options menu, enable > > Syntax Highlighting and then Save Options. > > I'm also encouraging new users to use the custom interface rather than > > scaring them with elisp edits. > > I agree completely that there's no need to do things the hard way, if there > is an easy way. I have nothing against menu systems and such that makes a > program more user-friendly. The only reason I wanted to know "the hard > way", is that one of my reasons for learning emacs is that I want to learn > to use a powerful editor that is likely to be available on all sorts of > system, even if I am only logging in with ssh etc. > And I can't be certain that there is this nice menu on all the other > systems that I might use emacs on. So I want to learn to use emacs > "platform independantly". Okay, but the only thing that using the Options menu and saving does (or using customization and saving) is add an entry to your .emacs which you are free to copy to another machine the same way. There's no black magic involved. The nice thing about looking at the custom interface once in a while is that it makes a nice summary of features in one place. You learn a lot about what's available by looking at it.