question regarding to 2 features of Emacs

question regarding to 2 features of Emacs

[Jidi Sun]

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am a new user of Emacs, currently I am using it to do Common Lisp 
programming. On the internet I saw pictures of Emacs with different 
colors shown for different parts of function, also it is able to start 
with some spaces from left margin once press Enter key within a 
function. The Emacs version I am using is 21.4.1, but it does not have 
either of above features with it. I am wondering if I need to type some 
commands or change some options to get these two features working.

Thank you for your help,

Jidi Sun

Re: question regarding to 2 features of Emacs

[prad]

On Fri, 13 Mar 2009 15:02:03 +1300
Jidi Sun <jsu25@student.canterbury.ac.nz> wrote:

> On the internet I saw pictures of Emacs with different 
> colors shown for different parts of function,
>
jidi,
you can enable syntax highlight by activating 
M-x font-lock-mode
(http://linux.about.com/od/emacs_doc/a/emacsdoc171.htm)
or you can put it into your .emacs file according to that page

> also it is able to
> start with some spaces from left margin once press Enter key within a 
> function. 
>
i think what you mean is to have automatic indenting which can be done
by C-j instead of enter as long as you have a .el file for the language
you are using (though it is possible to have the enter key do this too
by putting this in your .emacs:
;; Default to auto-indent on Enter
(define-key emacs-lisp-mode-map [(control j)] 'newline)
(define-key emacs-lisp-mode-map [(control m)] 'newline-and-indent)))



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prad

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Re: question regarding to 2 features of Emacs

[Peter Dyballa]

Am 13.03.2009 um 03:02 schrieb Jidi Sun:

> The Emacs version I am using is 21.4.1


I'd first upgrade to an up-to-date version, 22.3 for example.  
Progress happens by updates, not by freeze.

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   Pete

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