From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Drew Adams Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: RE: What's the meaning of "^A" in emacs? Date: Wed, 29 Jul 2015 08:11:21 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <796c41be-b137-43a6-b514-d71beb4f12e2@default> References: <20150728134848.GA2384@debian> <87k2tkaruw.fsf@nl106-137-147.student.uu.se> <87d1zb9fp3.fsf@yale.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1438182728 5460 80.91.229.3 (29 Jul 2015 15:12:08 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 29 Jul 2015 15:12:08 +0000 (UTC) To: jorge.alfaro-murillo@yale.edu, help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Wed Jul 29 17:11:55 2015 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1ZKT1P-0002Tr-KI for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Wed, 29 Jul 2015 17:11:55 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:35631 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1ZKT1O-0001U7-R7 for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Wed, 29 Jul 2015 11:11:54 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:33448) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1ZKT10-0001Lm-8I for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Wed, 29 Jul 2015 11:11:34 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1ZKT0v-0000Xf-VF for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Wed, 29 Jul 2015 11:11:30 -0400 Original-Received: from aserp1040.oracle.com ([141.146.126.69]:34357) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1ZKT0v-0000VO-Pr for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Wed, 29 Jul 2015 11:11:25 -0400 Original-Received: from aserv0021.oracle.com (aserv0021.oracle.com [141.146.126.233]) by aserp1040.oracle.com (Sentrion-MTA-4.3.2/Sentrion-MTA-4.3.2) with ESMTP id t6TFBNZW008553 (version=TLSv1 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=OK); Wed, 29 Jul 2015 15:11:23 GMT Original-Received: from userv0121.oracle.com (userv0121.oracle.com [156.151.31.72]) by aserv0021.oracle.com (8.13.8/8.13.8) with ESMTP id t6TFBNOt018886 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=FAIL); Wed, 29 Jul 2015 15:11:23 GMT Original-Received: from abhmp0006.oracle.com (abhmp0006.oracle.com [141.146.116.12]) by userv0121.oracle.com (8.13.8/8.13.8) with ESMTP id t6TFBMm5030745; Wed, 29 Jul 2015 15:11:22 GMT In-Reply-To: <87d1zb9fp3.fsf@yale.edu> X-Priority: 3 X-Mailer: Oracle Beehive Extensions for Outlook 2.0.1.9 (901082) [OL 12.0.6691.5000 (x86)] X-Source-IP: aserv0021.oracle.com [141.146.126.233] X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.4.x-2.6.x [generic] X-Received-From: 141.146.126.69 X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 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 Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:106114 Archived-At: > > When you say "input", do you mean to *insert* them as chars into > > a buffer? If so, just hit C-q first. But I don't think you > > should do this too often (?). >=20 > Yes, why would someone use this? The only thing that I use is the > "form feed" (^L) to divide sections in plain text documents and > then be able to use C-x [ and C-x ] to move between pages. >=20 > Does someone know of any other "control character" use? It is common to use `C-j' when you interactively enter a regexp that contains a newline char (Control J). This is because (vanilla) Emacs binds `C-j' in the minibuffer to a command other than self-insertion. (FWIW - That's a misfeature, but hey, it took a couple decades to get `SPC' to insert in the minibuffer, and it still does so only for file-name input. It will be another decade or several before newline and `?' earn their rightful place as self-inserters.) Similarly, if you want to query-replace something that contains carriage-return (`C-m') chars, then you will use `C-q C-m' (aka `C-q RET') to pass the `C-m' char to the query string. Emacs is very general. The ASCII control chars are, well, just chars. You can use them wherever you want, including in strings. Chars,in strings or otherwise, are not used only for display.