Re: How to get rid of the tool bar

[kai.grossjohann@uni-duisburg.de (Kai Großjohann)]

Zaphod Beeblebrox <kagyukid@despam.yahoo.com> writes:

> It's only some because I've not spent the time wading into the
> plethora of stuff Emacs is capable of.  I couldn't make use of the
> information in the NEWS file (I don't even use the menus at the
> top).

What does the NEWS file have to do with the menus at the top?

> All those references to lisp code assume knowledge I don't have and
> don't help if I don't know where to use them.

The NEWS file is divided into sections.  You can just skip the Lisp
stuff.  Here is the part about the toolbar.  I found it by searching
for "tool" in the NEWS file.

/----
| ** Tool bar support.
| 
| Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X.  For details
| of how to define a tool bar, see the page describing Lisp-level
| changes.  Tool-bar global minor mode controls whether or not it is
| displayed and is on by default.  The appearance of the bar is improved
| if Emacs has been built with XPM image support.  Otherwise monochrome
| icons will be used.
| 
| To make the tool bar more useful, we need contributions of extra icons
| for specific modes (with copyright assignments).
\----

It says that "tool-bar global minor mode" allows you to turn it off.
What's a minor mode?  I do C-h i d m Emacs RET to open the Emacs
manual, then type i for an index search, then "minor mode" as the
search string.  This gives me a couple of false positives, but just
hitting comma (as instructed) finally brings me to the node
"(emacs)Minor Modes" which has the following:

/----
|    Minor modes are optional features which you can turn on or off.  For
| example, Auto Fill mode is a minor mode in which <SPC> breaks lines
| between words as you type.  All the minor modes are independent of each
| other and of the selected major mode.  Most minor modes say in the mode
| line when they are on; for example, `Fill' in the mode line means that
| Auto Fill mode is on.
| 
|    Append `-mode' to the name of a minor mode to get the name of a
| command function that turns the mode on or off.  Thus, the command to
| enable or disable Auto Fill mode is called `M-x auto-fill-mode'.  These
| commands are usually invoked with `M-x', but you can bind keys to them
| if you wish.  With no argument, the function turns the mode on if it was
| off and off if it was on.  This is known as "toggling".  A positive
| argument always turns the mode on, and an explicit zero argument or a
| negative argument always turns it off.
\----

So, M-x auto-fill-mode RET turns on (or off) auto fill mode.  So what
is the command for turning on (or off) tool-bar mode?

> My .emacs file doesn't have any define-key statements, so I was
> reluctant to tinker with structures I don't understand.

What does the tool-bar have to do with define-key statements?
-- 
Ambibibentists unite!