From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Jason Earl Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: A few Emacs newbie questions, need oldbie answers :) Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2004 23:11:25 -0600 Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Message-ID: <874qrfjksi.fsf@smtp.wegointer.net> References: NNTP-Posting-Host: deer.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1082438531 32285 80.91.224.253 (20 Apr 2004 05:22:11 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 20 Apr 2004 05:22:11 +0000 (UTC) Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Tue Apr 20 07:22:02 2004 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 1BFnhp-0006Ag-00 for ; Tue, 20 Apr 2004 07:22:02 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.30) id 1BFnhe-0007Lu-CX for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Tue, 20 Apr 2004 01:21:50 -0400 Original-Received: from list by monty-python.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.30) id 1BFnh6-0007LL-EZ for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Tue, 20 Apr 2004 01:21:16 -0400 Original-Received: from mail by monty-python.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.30) id 1BFngZ-0007Fq-5b for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Tue, 20 Apr 2004 01:21:15 -0400 Original-Received: from [80.91.224.249] (helo=main.gmane.org) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.30) id 1BFngX-0007F3-Ss for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Tue, 20 Apr 2004 01:20:42 -0400 Original-Received: from root by main.gmane.org with local (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 1BFngW-0006qE-00 for ; Tue, 20 Apr 2004 07:20:40 +0200 Original-Received: from dsc02-wei-ut-205-187-215-179.rasserver.net ([205.187.215.179]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Tue, 20 Apr 2004 07:20:40 +0200 Original-Received: from jearl by dsc02-wei-ut-205-187-215-179.rasserver.net with local (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Tue, 20 Apr 2004 07:20:40 +0200 X-Injected-Via-Gmane: http://gmane.org/ Original-To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-Lines: 237 Original-X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org X-Gmane-NNTP-Posting-Host: dsc02-wei-ut-205-187-215-179.rasserver.net Face: iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAADAAAAAwBAMAAAClLOS0AAAAGFBMVEX6+voBAQGioqL////9 /f3n5+fHx8cUFBTSngI1AAAB9UlEQVR4nHWUwW7jIBCGUQtz9158bS3FuUayHwDJmDOyYnJFlvGe aynx63dmCOnG3aBIGL4MzPw/IJbUpvq5X0QQ3GzolY9O2JlGUoAIxrTGGBX0tG21AIcDIw0BaRjA V1FsH3DmoeQI+rThb4HtdgcU0TRd0zQqfmFEUXqHo1Z2CLSkPWCh+aJc5p89uKkpgZqXao3NoM8g vATtM8DN0x77pVQ4ElhhD+xMa5XXVPlTRP+JAe4fIEUCBqo1aAhaC/yBiCM3f+AuDovnGS/q//sx 0VLUVPJFghO+qh350bCcfWiMltpAUMdtuyXZSV0ETds1LcyX5Auq26WsZNtpNGj8TL48tEq9tp7m iz9+BwwMDMo9kHBJYNmB9xyxB/o18OzL+ntzl9Jl2bURJwInKVrrqMDyg2TX7yiKmgVXah1LQlqh dDqLiD6gfiiihtey12OMkYwif/w4RI92jeOAIqpqjWip9McqCDjr4Vg5jekqPDdl6INKh+FsMav1 bEUcqKKbmlmkK/B1KA+YFR+0cozpwPkxVY6nhCstYr4GDz/SRHHIh/oh4h1cM7jsQP0rIt6XWrY0 8WNtzipF5KwQTPyh8nXmP3IdcGT9wxsfNBuo4DWQ7PhUVE7NJ3oyJMyq4qcDRRR+cRqN6rFHPxQ/ Nljgi2fpG2hJAOx1jNo1AAAAAElFTkSuQmCC User-Agent: Gnus/5.1006 (Gnus v5.10.6) Emacs/21.3 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:OohJTmLRl47Aq3kmgWmEM9hZ7pY= X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.4 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:17798 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.help:17798 Deboo writes: > Hi List! > I have limited-time net connection and not very high speed one at > that. So, am putting all my questions in one or two messages and > sending. I hope this won't irritate others and also hope I'll get > quite a few replies when I check next, in 24 hours or so. Sorry for > putting all these in one message. > > In emacs, how to search/get a lisp program (download) and how > to install it and how to load it? E.g., remind.el Most of the Emacs packages I use have Debian packages. This makes installing them as easy as a simple apt command. However, I do have some packages installed manually (and remind.el just happens to be one of them). Generally speaking the correct thing to do is to download the .el files and then follow the instructions provided. In the case of remind.el that means adding a folder to your Emacs load path by putting something similar to the following line in your .emacs file: (setq load-path (cons "~/emacs-lisp" load-path)) You then simply put remind.el in this directory (~/emacs-lisp in my case) and add: (require 'remind) to your .emacs file. There are additional programs that need to be installed for remind.el to work, but the instructions in the remind.el file are pretty clear. > What is the best reminder, PIM and todo list manager avaliable > for emacs (console)? I don't know about best, but I tend to use plain calendar for organization, a plain text file for a todo list and bbdb for a PIM. I took a look at remind.el, planner.el, and others, but they were more than I needed. YMMV. > Is there a way to save all the programs used under emacs > environment get saved under one directory, say .emacs and not > in separate directories? You could certainly have a single directory where all of your emacs packages are installed. In fact, this is how most people who install their own packages handle it (see the remind.el example above). > What is the best way to backup all of these emacs and other > programs' configs and data files? I tend to want backups of my entire home directory. To create a backup of my home directory (/home/jearl) in /tmp (you probably want to store your backups someplace safer), I do: tar -jcvf ~/tmp/backup.tar.bz2 -C /home/ jearl On most any Linux system 'info tar' is your friend. On any other system 'man tar' should get the job done. Of course, if you have anything other than GNU tar then you'll have to work harder, other tar programs generally aren't as featureful. If you are using Windows, install Cygwin. > How to set a particular file (say .todo or any other todo file) > to get autosaved every xx seconds or x minutes? Got me there. > How to get out of an emacs mode? How to get back to normal mode? M-x fundamental-mode > How do I find out what all lisp programs are compiled with my > version of emacs? No idea. > My mouse doesn't copy-paste properly in console so I normally > and I use the screen program so I use the keyboard for > copy-paste operations but it's hard to copy-paste more than one > page at a time. Is there some other way I could do the same in > emacs with less hassles, with the keyboard, many pages at a > time? I tend to cut and paste in Emacs using the keyboard (even in X Windows). Basically I do a C- to set the mark, then I move my point (cursor) to the end of the region I want to copy and when I have selected the region I choose M-w to copy the region or C-w to cut (kill) the region. I then move the point to where I want to paste the text and do a C-y to paste the text. Subsequent M-y commands will cycle through your kill-ring for older bits of text that you copied or killed. If you haven't taken a look at the Emacs tutorial hit 'C-h t' and spend a bit of time learning some other basic Emacs tricks. > What is the best way (or the easiest way) to switch buffers? I tend to do 'C-x b' to switch to the previous buffer or 'C-x C-b' for a list of buffers. > Is there a lisp program to make use of aptitude within emacs? I haven't used it myself, but there is an apt-utils.el that is part of the Debian emacs-goodies package. Since you are using screen, however, you might be better off just running both Emacs and aptitude. I don't know, I don't use either (plain old apt-get is what I tend to use). > How to use rcs/cvs to backup many versions of a file and how to > automatically upload this file to a webserver/webdav space/ftp > server? Emacs has lots of tools for working with rcs/cvs repositories. Try 'M-x cvs-status' or 'C-x v d'. Then read the info files for VC. > I have lots of notes, reminders, todos, lists, and such files under > one directory. I carry it on a mini CD that's got knoppix on it. But > say I need access to my files and have to use windoze to open these > text files, is there a very small program for windoze, running which > would immediately convert all the files from unix to dos format? And > after the work is over, running it again with some other option, > convert all of them back to unix format? I could keep that small > proggy too along, on the CD as well as on my website. This probably sounds heretical, but how about a Windows version of vi (vim)? vi will happily edit both UNIX and DOS line endings (and whatever else), and it is a great file viewer. Plus it is a lot smaller than Emacs. There are also the twin unixtodos and dostounix programs, but then you end up having to actually edit files with something like notepad.exe. Learning enough vi to get along won't kill you, and if you find you like it Emacs + viper is the best vi around (IMHO). > Best thing I could use emacs under dos/windoze if I could, bu it > would be huge to be put on a mini CD. I haven't ever tried that > version, but would like to know user experiences. Actually a slimmed down Emacs isn't so big. > What are the basic differences between the dos/windoze and > unix/linux versions of emacs? The differences get smaller all of the time. The biggest problem is that Emacs expects to be on a UNIXy system. The simple things like directory delimeters ('\' instead of '/') are taken care of, but Emacs does rely on some outside programs for some functionality, and in Windows these programs just aren't there. Emacs + Cygwin gets pretty close, but it isn't nearly as easy to set up and maintain as Emacs is on a Debian GNU/Linux box (where apt does most of the work). However, Emacs on Windows is certainly better than a sharp stick in the eye. > What all configs and files do I have to carry around if I want > emacs everywhere to have the same colors/settings and such? At the very least you are going to want to carry your .emacs file around with you. If you have add-on packages that you use quite a bit you might want to carry around an ~/emacs-lisp directory as well. If you play with the colors using an .Xdefaults file (on X Windows) you'll want to carry that around as well. I believe that this information can now be put in your .emacs file as well, but I don't know. I used to use custom colors, but I decided a while back that I would just get used to the default. Now I prefer the default :). > How to auomatically spell-check while typing text? M-x flyspell-mode If your system is correctly set up this should just work. Under Windows you will probably need to install ispell (or aspell) and tweak your .emacs file. > How to use syntax-highlighting in emacs? Is there syntax- > highlighting in emacs like in vim? C-h v global-font-lock-mode > How to use and set word-wrap in emacs? M-q or M-x auto-fill-mode > How to justify text in emacs? How to format text? There are piles of functions to do this sort of thing. For example, by calling 'M-x set-justification-full' Emacs will now fully justify the paragraph as you type. By playing around it is easy to find 'set-justification-left' and 'set-justification-right'. A little bit of work will also allow you to indent your paragraphs simply by adding spaces to the first line and then hitting tab on the second (that will automatically jump to the /correct' place. Then simply refill the paragraph 'M-q' and Emacs does the rest. Hanging indents are also easy. Simply add the spaces in the right place and Emacs will do the rest intelligently. It really is pretty amazing how talented 'fill-paragraph' is. (and now let's turn off the full justification). And that's really only the tip of the iceberg. Emacs is far more than a simple text editor when it comes to free form text and what it will do for you. > How to use a console-based graphics viewer (zgv or fbi or feh) > from within emacs? No idea. I tend to run X Windows on boxes where I want to view graphics. > How to view pdf files in emacs? I had read somewhere about a > console pdf viewer (using frame buffer), called cpdf and another > similar one called, bmv which views postscript file using frame > buffer. The former I couldn't find. bmv, I haven't able to use > successfully even aftere converting many pdf files to ps. If > anyone uses these or any other console pdf viewer, can he/she > recommend it? Install the pdfutils that come with xpdf and then simply use pdftotext. > I want to load the todoo-mode for all files that are within > ~/todo folder, whichever I load in to emacs anytime. What do I > have to put in .emacs to do this? No idea. > Is there a list of websites and lisp files that I can just > download and then configure and install in to emacs, offline? > If anyone has such a list of such urls, can I please have it? > It will help me, since I can't connect for long to > read/surf/download and such. I like http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki but I don't where you could get a copy for offline perusal. Perhaps wget would help?