outline

Why learn an editor?

• As a web author, you should know something about UNIX and be able to work in the UNIX environment
• This mean learning an editor as much of your work will be in a text editor
• Three most popular are vi, pico and emacs

Pico

• A little text editor packaged with pine
• You will outgrow quickly as it does not support keyboard macros, multiple files or quick HTML commands

Vi

• Better than pico in a sense, however commands are a bit odd
• Has an edit mode and command mode
• Pressing a key gives a different response in the different modes
• Easy to forget which mode you are in

Why Emacs?

• Has a number of features that make it will suited to web programming
  -an html mode
  -ability to look at directories from within the editor

More Features

• -ability to have multiple windows open at once
  -running a command line shell without leaving the editor
  -easy creation of keyboard macros
  -online menus and powerful keystroke commands
  -powerful programming language

Using the Menus

• Activated by using F10, if that doesn't work use Esc then ` (accent character, NOT the ' single quote/apostrophe)
• The menu will show you the keystroke sequence that is a lot faster to use than the menu

Using Keystroke Sequences

• Emacs uses a control key to execute many commands
• Emacs is so powerful, and there are so many commands, that the control key with other keys will still not give you access to all the commands

Keystroke Strategies

• Control commands
  -the control key works as you would expect, is almost always held down as you press other keys
  -holding the control key and then pressing the 'f' key moves one character to the left
  -Emacs documentation shows as: C-f

Get me out of here!!

• C-g means 'cancel current command'
• If you are having strange things happen in Emacs, C-g is a good bet

More Complex Control Commands

• The control key does not give you enough functionality on its own
• C-x s allows you to save a file (C=the Ctrl key, x= the x key, s = the s key)
• The C-x is a special command that says "housekeeping command coming"
• Most commands that deal with controlling Emacs itself begin with C-x

The Meta Key

• 'Secondary' control key, 'alt' key on Windows, 'Apple' key on Macs
• This key can be used to run other Emacs commands
• The most common way to use the meta key, however, is the Esc key
• Not used exactly at the Ctrl key, press the Meta key (Esc or Alt), release then hit the next key
  -example: M-f press Esc, release, press 'f' key

The M-x commands

• Every command in Emacs has a long, English-like name
• If you want to run a particular command, use M-x to run the command by its full name, you will receive a selection to choose from

Online Help

• Best way to learn is by doing
• To use the online help
  -enter Emacs and type C-h t
• This loads a text file from which you will learn to move the curser around, copy/paste text, save/load files, etc.

Online Help (continued)

• C-h calls the 'command-apropos' command which is an index in a more traditional help system
  -it allows you to type in a word or phrase and returns a list of commands that contain that phrase
  -scroll through the list to the command needed

Essential Commands

• Key	Command	What it does
  C-h	help-command	enters the online help
  C-x C-s	save-buffer	saves file
  C-x C-c	save-buffer-kill-emacs	Exit emacs
  C-x u	advertised-undo	undo last edit(can repeat)
  C-g	keyboard-quit	abort current command
  C-x u	advertised-undo	undo last edit(can repeat)
  C-f(right arrow)	forward-char	move forward one character

More Commands

• Key	Command	What it does
  C-b(left arrow)	backward-char	moves backward one character
  C-p(up arrow)	previous-line	move up one line
  C-n(down arrow)	next-line	move down one line
  M-f	forward-word	move forward one word
  M-b	backward-word	move backwards one word
  C-v	scroll-up	move forward one screen
  M-v	scroll-down	move backward one screen

References