can't get "help"

can't get "help"

[cycjec]

 this is the emacs that's installed on a FreeBSD system.

 I get the opening msg "Hold down Control and press h"
 but when I do that  it just eats up the msg about "this
 buffer is for blah blah blah" one character at a time,
 starting at the end.

 I can get a list of commands in an old Mandrake install
 but the cursor seems to be stuck in the scratch buffer,
 I can't scroll down the list.

 I have a book. I have been looking in it but can't 
 find what I want.

 I also can't find how to move to the top or the end
 of a buffer. 

 Any help immensely appreciated. 

Re: can't get "help"

[Joel J. Adamson]

"cycjec"<cycjec@yahoo.com> writes:

>  this is the emacs that's installed on a FreeBSD system.
>
>  I get the opening msg "Hold down Control and press h"
>  but when I do that  it just eats up the msg about "this
>  buffer is for blah blah blah" one character at a time,
>  starting at the end.

Are you using Emacs in X, on a console, or a terminal emulator?  Which
version of Emacs (21, 22?)

Try f1 for help instead of C-h, your terminal may be sending C-h as
delete.  F1 C-f gets you the FAQ

(hopefully you understand the above key notation: "C-x" means "hold
down Control key and press 'x'")

HTH
Joel

-- 
Joel J. Adamson
Biostatistician
Pediatric Psychopharmacology Research Unit
Massachusetts General Hospital
Boston, MA  02114
(617) 643-1432
(303) 880-3109

Re: can't get "help"

[cycjec]

Joel J. Adamson <jadamson@partners.org> wrote:
> "cycjec"<cycjec@yahoo.com> writes:
> 
>>  this is the emacs that's installed on a FreeBSD system.

> Are you using Emacs in X, on a console, or a terminal emulator?  Which
> version of Emacs (21, 22?)

 I'm trying an older version in X, and a newer one (I think)
 in a shell account.  

 The shell account is version 21.3.1  

 M-x emacs-version is how to find that out. I looked in the
 FAQ but haven't yet seen it there.  It's in a back post in
 the NG archive. 

> Try f1 for help instead of C-h, your terminal may be sending C-h as
> delete.  F1 C-f gets you the FAQ

 Thank you. Thank you!

 This works in the X version.  

 I now am perplexed at why 
 Meta-V  scrolls up but the Meta-< and Meta-> don't go to
 the file top or end.   (It's actually the Alt-> and Alt-<
 but the Alt-V works just fine)  

 I get this msg  "No M-x tags search ... in progress"

 The F1 doesn't do *anything* in the shell account emacs,
 which is the newer one, or I have not quite got the right
 rhythm, or something...   half the time the "M-x emacs-version"
 doesn't show up in the bottom line either.

> (hopefully you understand the above key notation: "C-x" means "hold
> down Control key and press 'x'")

 Yes, I can C-x C-f and move around in a file but reading the 
 FAQ or tutorial helps.  (I can do that in the xterm emacs)

Re: can't get "help"

[cycjec]

Joel J. Adamson <jadamson@partners.org> wrote:

> Try f1 for help instead of C-h, your terminal may be sending C-h as
> delete.  F1 C-f gets you the FAQ

On-line Help, Printed Manuals, Other Sources of Help

That's exactly what it's doing.  From the FAQ:
13:  I'm just starting Emacs; how do I do basic editing?

  Type "C-h t" to invoke the self-paced tutorial.  Just typing `C-h' enters
  the help system.

  WARNING: Your system administrator may have changed `C-h' to act like DEL
  to deal with local keyboards.  You can use M-x help-for-help instead to
  invoke help.  To discover what key (if any) invokes help on your system,
  type "M-x where-is RET help-for-help RET".  This will print a
  comma-separated list of key sequences in the echo area.  Ignore the last
  character in each key sequence listed.  Each of the resulting key
  sequences invokes help.

  NOTE: Emacs help works best if it is invoked by a single key whose value
  should be stored in the variable help-char.

Re: can't get "help"

[Joel J. Adamson]

"cycjec"<cycjec@yahoo.com> writes:

> Joel J. Adamson <jadamson@partners.org> wrote:
>> "cycjec"<cycjec@yahoo.com> writes:
>> 
>>>  this is the emacs that's installed on a FreeBSD system.
>
>> Are you using Emacs in X, on a console, or a terminal emulator?  Which
>> version of Emacs (21, 22?)
>
>  I'm trying an older version in X, and a newer one (I think)
>  in a shell account.  

You should ask them (administrators) to upgrade: Emacs 22 includes
lots of improvements.  Emacs 23 (CVS) is even sweeter.  Also, there's
really no reason to run without X, unless you are using a system
without X installed ;)

Which version of FreeBSD?  If you have your own machine, I suggest
installing Emacs and immersing yourself  in it: it's available for
many MANY operating systems, well, at least any of the three you're
likely to have ;)

>> Try f1 for help instead of C-h, your terminal may be sending C-h as
>> delete.  F1 C-f gets you the FAQ
>
>  Thank you. Thank you!
>
>  This works in the X version.  
>
>  I now am perplexed at why 
>  Meta-V  scrolls up but the Meta-< and Meta-> don't go to
>  the file top or end.   (It's actually the Alt-> and Alt-<
>  but the Alt-V works just fine)  
>
>  I get this msg  "No M-x tags search ... in progress"

tags searching is invoked by M-.: your terminal isn't interpreting the
shift key.

I suggest looking on Emacs wiki for dealing with terminal problems, as
these are quite common complains (Emacs doesn't respect the C-h
convention, although I configured it to!).

(global-set-key "\C-h" 'help-command)

in the scratch buffer or your .emacs file will reset C-h to the help
system.  Press "C-x C-e" to evaluate the above expression.

Joel

-- 
Joel J. Adamson
Biostatistician
Pediatric Psychopharmacology Research Unit
Massachusetts General Hospital
Boston, MA  02114
(617) 643-1432
(303) 880-3109