From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: James Freer Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: Emacs for writers (was Emacs users a dying breed?) Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2012 22:47:49 +0100 Message-ID: References: <9809cd1a-9086-4022-af79-732fb6149f20@q5g2000pba.googlegroups.com> <87mx3vzqd7.fsf@friendface.i-did-not-set--mail-host-address--so-tickle-me> <87ipejip09.fsf@gnu.org> <4FE453F0.8040304@easy-emacs.de> <7d431a11-f7fb-42b3-9fe3-4b27d3e41771@g4g2000pbn.googlegroups.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Trace: dough.gmane.org 1340747283 26293 80.91.229.3 (26 Jun 2012 21:48:03 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@dough.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2012 21:48:03 +0000 (UTC) Cc: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org To: rusi Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Tue Jun 26 23:48:02 2012 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 1Sjdc8-0002fZ-Fc for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Tue, 26 Jun 2012 23:48:00 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:41989 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Sjdc8-0006cX-6M for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Tue, 26 Jun 2012 17:48:00 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([208.118.235.92]:43732) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Sjdc3-0006cR-50 for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Tue, 26 Jun 2012 17:47:56 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Sjdc1-0005Ao-E3 for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Tue, 26 Jun 2012 17:47:54 -0400 Original-Received: from mail-ey0-f169.google.com ([209.85.215.169]:62660) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Sjdc1-0005AJ-5O for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Tue, 26 Jun 2012 17:47:53 -0400 Original-Received: by eaan1 with SMTP id n1so182549eaa.0 for ; Tue, 26 Jun 2012 14:47:50 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=20120113; h=mime-version:in-reply-to:references:date:message-id:subject:from:to :cc:content-type:content-transfer-encoding; bh=2+U11pUq68BGX96wCtpZKdfbMcjBZFCMHOIR12hCz+A=; b=acjLQzvz7YV15wDZEg3M6/sSdhFDa2c7NhTUwj6lwx0o/gWEmvIQULhor8mKqDo7kS Z+4sCnAzPrfvJwg3C3BZ7M0rUjLYKGSBuKHhVbMo+mn1Or0jK3+ydc/FM60bt0/OIwhC slPt0GOdCfm3L8VDqVRrzKolw6Rz1o+2zftnMAL12VXBqLCgCCjK7eEo7TBwZkvShT2F 2XbyAXypUkmxZJFzEe8WNqinC3/mIw2TH+eIP2TntJtR4Gj3ezpO3d2N+PlYnNxGawvs ZacjfnybN5JQ8Sr6YgFLX73XSnkpLG1DBV9IKKrm6rFYWSC3Gw5e3ssfm9D1Z1RCtDP3 /Uag== Original-Received: by 10.14.95.136 with SMTP id p8mr3517051eef.131.1340747270356; Tue, 26 Jun 2012 14:47:50 -0700 (PDT) Original-Received: by 10.14.194.67 with HTTP; Tue, 26 Jun 2012 14:47:49 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: Genre and OS details not recognized. X-Received-From: 209.85.215.169 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:85499 Archived-At: On 25 June 2012 10:38, James Freer wrote: > On 25 June 2012 03:58, rusi wrote: >> On Jun 25, 4:19=A0am, James Freer wrote: >> >>> What do i use at present while i'm still trying to get used to vim or >>> emacs - pico for email and bluefish. Both vim and emacs development >>> have gone down strange routes and yet both are popular. >>> >>> james >> >> Ok James lets see if we can get you off the ground with emacs. >> To start with are you on linux? If not whats your OS? >> Next whats your emacs version? To find out do M-x emacs-version RETURN >> where M-x is emacs-funnyspeak for Alt-x or Escape-x. >> Next whats in your init file? Beginners are usually recommended to >> use .emacs (note the .) >> I recommend .emacs.d/init.el >> If all this is trivial to you please excuse; no intent to be >> patronizing here; just dont know at what level you are stuck > > Rusi > > I really appreciate your reply and offer of help. At present i've got > to get a car sorted out so i'll leave it for a couple of days and then > i can be focussed and look these things up. > > thanks > james Hi Rusi Finally got the domestic side under control. I look after my mother with Alzheimer's so i needed to get the car sorted to get her medication. The head gasket had gone and on these cars you've got to take the engine out... which involves quite a bit of work. On to emacs. IT experience: used to do some programming in the 90's and used wordstar for editing but have an engineering degree not computing. Ideal choice for me would be to use Joe or E3 editors but they don't do bookmarks so i was thinking of Vim or emacs. Been using linux ubuntu for about 4 years and about 18 months ago changed to xubuntu... just like the minimal approach switching before Unity came along. Have tried other distros but prefer apt package management. I know my way around xubuntu fairly well although i'm not as technical as a programmer - couldn't call myself a ' geek'. OS: currently using xubuntu 10.04 with emacs 23 installed although i'm just about to install 12.04 on a new pc which will have emacs 24. I'm hoping to set things up before i switch over to the new pc. config files: .emac, .emac.d [i know about hidden files but there are just comments in these both are bare]..emac.d appears to have an 'auto-save' directory and nothing there. For me the requirements are; bookmarks, word count, split windows, wordwrap (linebreak i think it's called (but not saving in that form like nano/pico does)) if possible to remove some of the programming features and things like calculator in order to have a faster app for using with Alpine mail. [I know one can use MH but i don't know that it's as fast as Alpine - i did have a look at it about a year ago but i got lost somewhere setting it up]. Hope that's enough info for the moment. thanks james