Barry's Emacs User Guide

This document describes the use and customisation of Barry's Emacs display editor:

There is also other documentation supplied with Barry's Emacs.

The Barry's Emacs software and documentation is Copyright © 1980-2016 Barry Scott.

This document is intended for all users of Barry's Emacs.

Other Emacs documentation

The Barry's Emacs Programmer's Guide describes how to extend Emacs using the Mock Lisp programming language.

The Barry's Emacs Mock Lisp Reference Manual contains an alphabetically ordered list of all Emacs functions and variables available in the Mock Lisp programming language.

The Barry's Emacs Extensions Reference Manual documents the Emacs extensions (packages, subsystems and libraries) that are distributed with Barry's Emacs.

Conventions

Throughout this text, key sequences are described as causing specific actions to occur (functions to run, for example). These key sequences are those set up when Emacs is started (they are the default key bindings).

Key sequences are displayed with each key separated by a dash. When using these sequences, do not include the dashes. The dashes are displayed for clarity only.

Many Emacs key sequences use Control keys. These are indicated by a caret character (^) appearing in the key sequence. For example, to type the ^O key sequence, press and hold down the Ctrl key and simlutaneously press the O key. The special sequence ^^ is used in some Emacs key sequences. To type ^^, press and hold down the Ctrl key, then simultaneously type the ^ key.

Many other Emacs key sequences use Escape keys. These are indicated with an ESC- in the key sequence. For example, to type the ESC-e key sequence, press the key labelled ESC, then press the e key. Note that ESC- key sequences are case-sensitive; this means that ESC-e is not the same as ESC-E.

Different typefaces used in this book are used to distinguish between normal text and special symbols. These are described as follows:

Return The following special characters are displayed as shown: Return, Delete, Escape, Tab, Backspace, Linefeed and Space.
This is an example
All examples and system displays are shown like this.
execute-mlisp-file All keystroke sequences, function names, command names and variable names are displayed in this typeface.