Talk:Emacs
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A good link to a list of binaries would be appreciated (especially for Windows as emacs is installed in Unix/Linux anyhow) --Hirzel
I have added a link to the GNU Emacs FAQ For Windows, which has instructions for getting the Windows binaries. I think it is inadvisable to link directly to the binaries, or even FTP directories, as those are subject to change. -- CYD
Thank you! --Hirzel
What we need is a Wikipedia Emacs mode, that allows pages to be viewed and edited with the greatest of ease...
- Wikipedia mode for Emacs. Fredrik (talk) 18:38, 5 Jun 2004 (UTC)
Can anything objective be said about the pros and cons of GNU Emacs vs. Xemacs in their native Win 95/98/ME implementations? (Ditto Win NT/2000/XP implementations). I think many stuck on Windows, but eager to give Common Lisp a try, find deciding between the two emacsen as difficult as learning the emacs way.
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Emacs First Aid or Using Emacs
This section should not expand into a howto. I would be willing to go there but for that it does not feel encyclopedic. I suggest the bare minimum be included. I see nothing wrong with titleing the section "Using Emacs", and having it be a minimal introduction, but my preference would be to have the table titled "Emacs First Aid" and have it contain the 'get out of trouble' commands. To that end I'd include only the original 3 appearing in the table save-buffers-kill-emacs, undo, and abort. Seems to me that expanding the table beyond this to include file-find, save-some-buffers, kill-buffer means that C-x 1 delete-other-windows, C-x o other-window, C-x b switch-to-buffer, C-x C-b list-buffers must also be included.
So, should the table be "First Aid" or a repertoire of basic commands?
The trouble with emacs is that occasionally you wander into some part of the program you're not familiar with and 'get stuck'. This is why it's useful to include some "First Aid" in the Wikipediea, the goal is a useful article. Delete-other-windows, other-window, switch-to-buffer,and list-buffers are very handy to get out of trouble as you can fairly easily accidentally get into 'buffer land' before you know what to do there. I'd include these in a 'First Aid' table, but the question is where to stop. My initial critera, leading to the list: save & exit, undo, and abort, was to consider what situation could not be recovered with just "save & exit".
Perhaps a link to a short list of emacs commands should be included in the external references. Googling for "emacs cheat sheet" comes up with some useful ones. (My vote for least appreciated command goes to C-x q.)
I think that a link to external non-encyclopedic information should be used rather than including it in the encyclopedia.
Additionally, I found two errors: an omission of a word in the Internals section (apparently the author felt that no verb fit the purpose, and thus decided against using one); and the fact that Emacs considers multiple buffers in the same frame to be windows. The term frame was used incorrectly in that regard. A text-mode Emacs has exactly one frame, while a graphical-mode Emacs has one or more frames, which are displayed as separate windows on the user's system; Emacs 'windows' are separate buffers visible simultaneously within one frame.
Emacs is self-documenting. It contains its own help system
'Self documenting'? Surely not? Containing its own help system surely doesn't mean that it 'self documents'? The Recycling Troll 02:31, 4 Oct 2004 (UTC)
- "Self documenting" has been part of the Emacs description for, aproximately, ever, including back when build-in documentation was the rare exception. If you feel the phrase is wrong, you need to come up with better arguments than "surely". Per Abrahamsen 06:47, 2004 Oct 5 (UTC)
- His comment is based on the fact that emacs is not self documenting in the sense that emacs itself does not write its own documentation, but rather the people that maintain it. -- Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason (https://academickids.com:443/encyclopedia/index.php?title=User_talk:%C6var_Arnfj%F6r%F0_Bjarmason&action=edit§ion=new) 08:23, 2004 Oct 5 (UTC)
- Indeed. The meaning of 'self-documenting' has changed; most applications have help files now. (The help files for vim are now larger than the application ...) - David Gerard 15:21, 5 Oct 2004 (UTC)
- I was not aware of this new meaning. Is Javadoc code considered self-documenting? Or "litterate programming" in general? Apart from a large "help file", Emacs is also "self-documenting" in the sense that each function and variable have an easely available documentation string which is part of the code, rather than in a seperate file. Emacs will even show some documentations for a function that lack such a string, like the fact that it exists, where it is defined, and what arguments it takes. Per Abrahamsen 16:14, 2004 Oct 6 (UTC)
Church of Emacs
This article should make at least a passing reference to the church of EMACS and the editor war. Or has the see also category at the bottom of articles dissapeared? --[[User:Sunborn|]] 13:00, 5 Oct
- Editor wars is linked in the intro. Church of EMACS is a redirect to Editor wars - David Gerard 15:21, 5 Oct 2004 (UTC)
- Yeah, I guess. I would prefer it if there was an actual mention that there was parody religion based on the editor. However, it is perfectly fine as is. --[[User:Sunborn|]] 22:59, 5 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Emacs and hypertext
Could anyone tell when and by whom Emacs began to do with hypertext? --KYPark 16:19, 20 Apr 2005 (UTC)
Confusing
"Some people make a distinction between the lower-case word emacs, which is used to refer to Emacs-like editors (particularly GNU Emacs and XEmacs), and the capitalized word Emacs, which is used to refer to GNU Emacs."
Is GNU Emacs emacs or Emacs ? --Humpback 01:48, 30 Apr 2005 (UTC)