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: basic question: going back to dired Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2008 23:04:13 -0700 (PDT) Organization: http://groups.google.com Message-ID: <819feff4-76e3-4bf8-9ece-7b47f099efc2@j22g2000hsf.googlegroups.com> References: <4884DC7F.6060406@gmail.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 1216708895 23265 80.91.229.12 (22 Jul 2008 06:41:35 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2008 06:41:35 +0000 (UTC) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Tue Jul 22 08:42:23 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 1KLBZm-0004pa-UA for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Tue, 22 Jul 2008 08:42:23 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:47914 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1KLBYt-0000yG-QV for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Tue, 22 Jul 2008 02:41:27 -0400 Original-Path: news.stanford.edu!newsfeed.stanford.edu!postnews.google.com!j22g2000hsf.googlegroups.com!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help Original-Lines: 105 Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: 24.6.97.120 Original-X-Trace: posting.google.com 1216706653 25198 127.0.0.1 (22 Jul 2008 06:04:13 GMT) Original-X-Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com Original-NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2008 06:04:13 +0000 (UTC) Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com Injection-Info: j22g2000hsf.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:160431 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:55779 Archived-At: I don't think its a good idea to teach or insist that people adopt emacs's terminologies. In particular, the term buffer is unsuitable and outdated. See the following argument: ---------------------------- Q: The Terminology =E2=80=9Cbuffer=E2=80=9D and =E2=80=9Ckeybinding=E2=80= =9D is good as they are. A: The terminology =E2=80=9Cbuffer=E2=80=9D or =E2=80=9Ckeybinding=E2=80=9D, a= re technical terms having to do with software programing. The term =E2=80=9Ckeybinding=E2=80=9D refer= s to the association of a keystroke with a command in a technical, software application programing context. That is to say, a programer =E2=80=9Cbind= =E2=80=9D a keystroke event to a command in a software application. The term =E2=80=9Cbuffer=E2=80=9D refers to a abstract, temporary area for storing d= ata, in the context of programing or computer science. These terms are irrelevant to the users of a software application. As a user of a text editor, he works with files. The terms =E2=80=9Copened file=E2=80=9D or =E2=80=9Cuntitled file=E2=80=9D are more appropriate than = =E2=80=9Cbuffer=E2=80=9D. Since emacs is also used for many things beside reading files or writing to files, for example, file management, ftp/sftp, shell, email, irc etc., the proper term can be =E2=80=9Cpanel=E2=80=9D, =E2=80=9Cwindow=E2=80=9D, o= r =E2=80=9Cwork area=E2=80=9D. (All modern editors and IDEs use these terms, even though they are all buffers too) And, the term =E2=80=9Ckeyboard shortcut=E2=80=9D refers to typing of a key= - combination to activate a command. It is also more appropriate than =E2=80=9Cbinding=E2=80=9D or =E2=80=9Ckeybinding=E2=80=9D. Although concepts like =E2=80=9Cbuffer=E2=80=9D and =E2=80=9Ckeybinding=E2= =80=9D are seemingly interchangeable with =E2=80=9Cpanel=E2=80=9D or =E2=80=9Ckeyboard shortcut= =E2=80=9D, but their contexts set them apart. This is why in all modern software application's user documentations, terms like =E2=80=9Cbuffer=E2=80=9D or = =E2=80=9Ckeybinding=E2=80=9D are not to be seen but =E2=80=9Cwindows, panes, tabs, workspace, and keyboa= rd shortcuts=E2=80=9D. The reason emacs uses the technical terminologies throughout is because when emacs started in the 1980s, there really isn't any other text editors or even software applications. And, emacs users are all computer scientists and programers. Note that Emacs does officially recognize the term Keyboard Shortcut. The following is a excerpt from glossary section of the official emacs manual from emacs 22: Keyboard Shortcut A keyboard shortcut is a key sequence (q.v.) which invokes a command. What some programs call "assigning a keyboard shortcut," Emacs calls "binding a key sequence." See `binding.' ------------------- from =E2=80=9CModernization of Emacs=E2=80=9D http://xahlee.org/emacs/modernization.html Xah =E2=88=91 http://xahlee.org/ =E2=98=84 On Jul 21, 4:21 pm, Bastien wrote: > Ben Aurel writes: > > My question is simple: When I list some files in dired mode I select on= e > > file to edit. Now how can I close this file and go back to dired withou= t > > closing emacs? > > Don't think in terms of "file". When editing a "file", you really edit > a buffer* containing the content of the file. To "close" the file > generally means to save the buffer and to kill the buffer. > > If you just want to "go back" to dired, you just need to switch back to > the buffer containing the directory listing: C-x b RET > > If you want to "close the file", then first save the buffer with C-x C-s > then kill the buffer with C-x k RET and you should be back to the buffer > containing the directory listing. > > HTH, > > * Press `C-x C-e' after the closing parenthesis to jump to the info page > describing the concept of "buffer" inside GNU Emacs: > > (info "(emacs)Buffers") > > -- > Bastien