emacs new user.

emacs new user.

[Moofar]

I'm a junior in college and a CS major, and after having tried a couple
different editors/ide's before, I decided it was time to get good with a
good text editor and stick with it. So I've been learning emacs. I have
found many things in emacs I like, yet I have gotten stuck so many times
trying to learn something and spent so long getting unstuck, that I'm
thinking its just not worth it. Any thoughts?
Here's a simple question that has frustrated me and I think may be the straw
that breaks the camels back, where can I see a list of all the minor and
major modes I have and the commands to enable them? 
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Re: emacs new user.

[Leo]

On 2007-09-24 17:46 +0100, Moofar wrote:
> I'm a junior in college and a CS major, and after having tried a
> couple different editors/ide's before, I decided it was time to get
> good with a good text editor and stick with it. So I've been learning
> emacs. I have found many things in emacs I like, yet I have gotten
> stuck so many times trying to learn something and spent so long
> getting unstuck, that I'm thinking its just not worth it. Any
> thoughts?  Here's a simple question that has frustrated me and I think
> may be the straw that breaks the camels back, where can I see a list
> of all the minor and major modes I have and the commands to enable
> them?

Emacs is worth your time.

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RE: emacs new user.

[Drew Adams]

> where can I see a list of all the minor and
> major modes I have and the commands to enable them?

The Emacs manual would be a start.

There are lots and lots of major and minor modes. Do you program in Fortran?
If not, do you want to know that there is a major mode for it?

If you are interested in generally exploring and finding out what's
available, then start with the Emacs manual. If you want to know about
available modes for a particular context, then you might also check Emacs
Wiki.

Suggestion: If your goal is to learn to use Emacs, start by aiming at what
you might want to do with it, rather than trying to know all of the possible
modes.

Always and always, the Emacs manual is your friend. So is the help system:
C-h C-h. Talk to it and listen to what it says back.

Re: emacs new user.

[Bastien]

Moofar <smallnow@gmail.com> writes:

> Here's a simple question that has frustrated me and I think may be the
> straw that breaks the camels back, where can I see a list of all the
> minor and major modes I have and the commands to enable them?

C-h a ".+-mode$" will show you a list of all major and minor modes.

-- 
Bastien

Re: emacs new user.

[Thien-Thi Nguyen]

() Moofar <smallnow@gmail.com>
() Mon, 24 Sep 2007 09:46:39 -0700 (PDT)

   Any thoughts?

CS covers both algorithms and heuristics.  if your mode of learning
results in frustration, try varying it either algorithmically or
heuristically.  then, you will not need to learn emacs (or CS), but
let it flow into/around you.

on the other hand, if frustration is what you want, then emacs is
certainly up to the task.  brows knitted, confidence slitted, a nest
of features fitted, or a bag of bugs blitted?  what is more humbling
than silently mumbling C-x C-f src/FOO.c and steering a course into
mystery?

thi

Re: emacs new user.

[Ken Goldman]

Perhaps you should tell us what editing task you're having trouble with.

It sounds like you have a problem and have already decided that listing 
major and minor modes is the solution.  There may be a better solution.

I've been using emacs for perhaps 15 years and never needed to list modes.

Moofar wrote:
> I'm a junior in college and a CS major, and after having tried a couple
> different editors/ide's before, I decided it was time to get good with a
> good text editor and stick with it. So I've been learning emacs. I have
> found many things in emacs I like, yet I have gotten stuck so many times
> trying to learn something and spent so long getting unstuck, that I'm
> thinking its just not worth it. Any thoughts?
> Here's a simple question that has frustrated me and I think may be the straw
> that breaks the camels back, where can I see a list of all the minor and
> major modes I have and the commands to enable them? 

Re: emacs new user.

[Moofar]

Your responses have been very welcome. Just knowing that there is an active
forum on the internet makes a huge difference. I have been reading the help
files and I know I just need to keep on reading and learning. 

I do have one question that would just be very helpful to get me started. I
am working on a file in C, xxx.c and the auto indentation feature is not
working or not turned on. The c mode is enabled and other functions are
working. I'm reading about the c mode options and options in general through
in the documentation to figure it out, but an easy answer would be a huge
help.
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Re: emacs new user.

[Moofar]

Also, I just feel like saying, its so awesome to be learning a program that I
can do so much with and uses the keyboard only as the primary mode of input.
Usually, I learn a program, then try to change over to using commands on the
keyboard in a time consuming and incomplete process.

Oh, and for the previous question, I made a init.el with the line
(setq indent-line-function 'indent-relative-maybe).

The curly braces { are auto indented, but not my text.
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Re: emacs new user.

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2007 15:01:15 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Moofar <smallnow@gmail.com>
> Cc: 
> 
> I do have one question that would just be very helpful to get me started. I
> am working on a file in C, xxx.c and the auto indentation feature is not
> working or not turned on.

Perhaps it only looks like auto indentation is not working, because
you expect it to indent when you press RET (the Enter key).  If so,
try pressing C-j instead.  Also try TAB on a line that already has
some text to reindent it.  Did those two work?

> The c mode is enabled and other functions are working. I'm reading
> about the c mode options and options in general through in the
> documentation to figure it out, but an easy answer would be a huge
> help.

C Mode is fully documented in a separate manual, "ccmode".

Re: emacs new user.

[Colin S. Miller]

Moofar wrote:
> Your responses have been very welcome. Just knowing that there is an active
> forum on the internet makes a huge difference. I have been reading the help
> files and I know I just need to keep on reading and learning. 
> 
> I do have one question that would just be very helpful to get me started. I
> am working on a file in C, xxx.c and the auto indentation feature is not
> working or not turned on. The c mode is enabled and other functions are
> working. I'm reading about the c mode options and options in general through
> in the documentation to figure it out, but an easy answer would be a huge
> help.

Moofar,

Adding this to your .emacs file might help

(add-hook 'c-mode-common-hook '(lambda ()
                                  (c-set-style "whitesmith")
                                  (turn-on-auto-fill)
                                  (turn-on-font-lock)
                                  (setq fill-column 77)
                                  (setq indent-tabs-mode nil)
                                  (flyspell-prog-mode)
                                 ))


This changes c-mode to
1) Whitesmith indent style; this has the curly brackets on their own line,
and lined-up with the preceding control block, indent is the default of 4 characters.

2) Autoindent is enabled; the next line will default to the correct indentation when you press enter.
3) Syntax highlighting is enabled
4) Code auto-wraps to the next line at 77 characters
5) Spaces are used instead of tab characters for indenting
6) Spell checking is enabled (if ispell/aspell is installed; it will be on unix systems but not MS-Windows systems)


This is for XEmacs; it should work on GNU Emacs, but I can't guarantee this.

HTH,
Colin S. Miller

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Re: emacs new user.

[Stefan Arentz]

"Colin S. Miller" <no-spam-thank-you@csmiller.demon.co.uk> writes:

...

> 6) Spell checking is enabled (if ispell/aspell is installed; it will
> be on unix systems but not MS-Windows systems)

This one is awesome. I had not used flyspell-prog-mode before.

Is there also a hook available that makes it possible to run
flyspell-buffer after a source file has been loaded?

I would like to run the spell checking automatically as part of
opening a source file in the editor.

 S.