The AVIDD-O Cluster

Using the GNUEmacs Editor

GNUEmacs is the Free Software Foundation version of Emacs, written by the author of the original (PDP-10) Emacs, Richard Stallman. GNUEmacs retains all the functionality of other Emacs editors, but it is also customizable and extendable by modifying its Lisp editing commands. GNUEmacs is designed to work well with XWindows, but it also functions with ASCII terminals.

GNUemacs has an extensive interactive help facility, but the facility assumes that you know how to manipulate Emacs windows and buffers. Ctrl/h enters the Help facility. Help Tutorial (Ctrl/h t) requests an interactive tutorial which can teach beginners the fundamentals of Emacs in a few minutes. Help Apropos (Ctrl/h a) helps you find a command givine its functionality. Help Character (Ctrl/h c) describes a given character's effect, and Help Function (Ctrl/h f) describes a given Lisp function specified by name.

Here are a few of the frequently used GNUEmacs commands (please note, the "Meta" key is most likely the "Esc" on the top left corner of your keyboard): 


 Ctrl/h           Help window
 Ctrl/x 1         exit Help window
 Ctrl/h a         show commands matching a string
 Ctrl/h c         show command executed by a keystroke
 Ctrl/x Ctrl/c    exit emacs
 Ctrl/x Ctrl/f    read in a file
 Ctrl/x Ctrl/s    save file back to disk
 Ctrl/f           move forward a character
 Ctrl/b           move backward a character
 Meta/f           move forward a word
 Meta/b           move backward a word
 Ctrl/n           move to next line
 Ctrl/p           move to previous line
 Ctrl/a           move to beginning of line
 Ctrl/p           move to end of line
 Ctrl/v           scroll to next screen
 Meta/v           scroll to previous screen
 Ctrl/s           search forward
 Ctrl/r           search backward
 DEL              delete previous character
 Ctrl/d           delete next character
 Meta/DEL         delete previous word
 Meta/d           delete next word
 Ctl/w            delete region
 Ctl/y            yank back last deletion
 Meta/y           replace last yank with previous deletion
 Ctrl/x b         select another buffer
 Ctrl/x Ctrl/b    list all buffers
 Ctrl/x i         insert file into this buffer
 Ctrl/x Ctrl/w    write buffer to file
 Ctrl/x k         kill a buffer
 Meta/$           check spelling of current word
 Ctrl/@           set a mark here
 Ctrl/x h         mark buffer
 Ctrl/x Ctrl/x    exchange point and mark
 Meta/!           execute a shell command
For more information about using GNUEmacs, type man emacs.