From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Xah Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: What does 'run' do in cperl-mode? Date: Fri, 25 Jul 2008 14:55:48 -0700 (PDT) Organization: http://groups.google.com Message-ID: <0bb45e96-f9f3-4451-a457-004bb5930c76@p10g2000prf.googlegroups.com> References: <0ded5ecd-f5f6-4a8e-9d19-f61bf0401022@v39g2000pro.googlegroups.com> <86hcad9ar4.fsf@lifelogs.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1217025650 23806 80.91.229.12 (25 Jul 2008 22:40:50 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 25 Jul 2008 22:40:50 +0000 (UTC) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sat Jul 26 00:41:38 2008 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1KMVyi-0007xf-UA for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sat, 26 Jul 2008 00:41:37 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:37546 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1KMVxp-00046L-7Q for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Fri, 25 Jul 2008 18:40:41 -0400 Original-Path: news.stanford.edu!newsfeed.stanford.edu!postnews.google.com!p10g2000prf.googlegroups.com!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help Original-Lines: 82 Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: 24.6.97.120 Original-X-Trace: posting.google.com 1217022949 15572 127.0.0.1 (25 Jul 2008 21:55:49 GMT) Original-X-Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com Original-NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 25 Jul 2008 21:55:49 +0000 (UTC) Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com Injection-Info: p10g2000prf.googlegroups.com; posting-host=24.6.97.120; posting-account=bRPKjQoAAACxZsR8_VPXCX27T2YcsyMA User-Agent: G2/1.0 X-HTTP-UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X 10_4_11; en) AppleWebKit/525.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.2 Safari/525.22, gzip(gfe), gzip(gfe) Original-Xref: news.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:160593 X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:55940 Archived-At: On Jul 25, 9:41 am, Ted Zlatanov wrote: > On Fri, 25 Jul 2008 07:55:29 -0700 (PDT)Xah wrote: > > X> But you can run it by typing Alt+x shell-command (shortcut Alt+x !) > > Please note that Alt is not the preferred prefix name for Emacs > purposes. It's Meta, abbreviated M (e.g. M-x), for two reasons: > > 1) Meta can be mapped to keys other than Alt > > 2) Meta can be invoked with ESC as well, which is very handy in a > terminal session (I actually use ESC all the time even in a graphical > session) > > Ted Thanks for the info, i think it's good to know. Here're some reason i think emacs should adopt the Alt+=E2=80=B9key=E2=80= =BA or Alt-=E2=80=B9key=E2=80=BA notation throughout its documentation. =E2=80=A2 The Alt+=E2=80=B9key=E2=80=BA or Alt-=E2=80=B9key=E2=80=BA notati= on is universal among Windows and Linux. Which accounts for about 95% of personal computers used word wide. (Apple's computers, which account for about %4 marke share today, also support the Alt key on their keyboards, and OSX's documentation also use =E2=80=B9modifier=E2=80=BA-=E2=80=B9key=E2=80=BA not= ation. Aquamacs, perhaps the most widely used emacs distro on OSX, by default has Alt for Meta too.) (Note that Microsoft Windows used to use the Alt-=E2=80=B9key=E2=80= =BA notation. Only in recent years they changed to the Alt+=E2=80=B9key=E2=80=BA notation= . Arguably, this is a good change.) =E2=80=A2 The Meta name isn't in some linguistic sense superior that covers different modifier keys on different OSes. It was one of the modifier key on obsolete keyboards used by lisp machines in the 1980s. =E2=80=A2 By default on all major OSes in use (Windows and Linux and OSX), emacs maps its Meta to Alt key. So, practically speaking, it works that way. =E2=80=A2 Historically, a =E2=80=9CMeta+=E2=80=B9key=E2=80=BA=E2=80=9D shor= tcut in emacs can also be invoked by =E2=80=9CEsc =E2=80=B9key=E2=80=BA=E2=80=9D or =E2=80=9CCtrl+[=E2=80=9D.= The design was that way mostly because at the time, many terminals do not have or support the Meta key, and Terminal is a primary application in computer use in the 1980s. Today, perhaps all terminal/console/=E2=80=9Ccommand line interface=E2=80=9D apps = support Meta as Alt either by default or in a preference setting. =E2=80=A2 The ability of pressing Esc for Meta might be still useful for so= me people. Users who needed that feature could easily read about it in emacs doc. (I myself used =E2=80=9Cesc =E2=80=B9key=E2=80=BA=E2=80=9D exclu= sively during 1998-2004, mostly because it was a one-brainless solution that works on all telnet apps regardless of hardware, OS, or setup, and i frequently need to use different machine, OS, or remote servers. Today, i dont think i ever press Esc =E2=80=B9key=E2=80=BA for Meta+=E2=80=B9key=E2=80=BA= ) =E2=80=A2 A argument from user interface perspective, is that multiple insignificant options are not good because it increases complexity and causes the user to sidetrack their focus on tasks. KDE and Gnome, solved this problem for linuxes by adopting wholesale Microsoft Window's interface starting about 1998. (before KDE and Gnome, GUI apps on unix use a variety of =E2=80=9CWindows Managers=E2=80=9D that has i= ncompatible User Interfaces.) For some detail related to the Meta key, see: =E2=80=9CWhy Emacs's Keyboard Shortcuts Are Painful=E2=80=9D http://xahlee.org/emacs/emacs_kb_shortcuts_pain.html Xah =E2=88=91 http://xahlee.org/ =E2=98=84