-Copyright (c) 1985 Richard M. Stallman. See end for copying conditions.
+$Id: tutorial,v 1.5 2008/07/30 17:39:31 kjell Exp $
-You are looking at the Emacs tutorial.
+The mg Tutorial
+---------------
-Emacs commands generally involve the CONTROL key or the META (ESC)
-key. Rather than write out META or CONTROL each time we want you to
-prefix a character, we'll use the following abbreviations:
+The mg editor is a public domain editor intended to loosely resemble GNU Emacs,
+while still retaining fast speed and a small memory footprint.
- C-<chr> means hold the CONTROL key while typing the character <chr>
- Thus, C-f would be: hold the CONTROL key and type f.
- M-<chr> means type <ESC>, release it, then type the character <chr>.
+Most mg commands involve using the Control (sometimes labelled "Ctrl") or the
+Meta (sometimes labelled "Alt") key. We will use the following conventions in
+this tutorial:
-The characters ">>" at the left margin indicate directions for you to
-try using a command. For instance:
+ C-<chr> means hold down the Control key while typing the character <chr>.
+ M-<chr> means hold down the Meta key while typing the character <chr>.
->> Now type C-v (View next screen) to move to the next screen.
- (go ahead, do it by depressing the control key and v together).
- From now on, you'll be expected to do this whenever you finish
- reading the screen.
+If you don't have a Meta key, you can use Esc instead. Press and release the
+Esc key and type <chr>. This is equivalent to M-<chr>.
-Note that there is an overlap when going from screen to screen; this
-provides some continuity when moving through the file.
+The first thing to learn is how to move up and down a document. To move your
+cursor down, use the down-arrow cursor key or C-n (Control and n)
-The first thing that you need to know is how to move around from
-place to place in the file. You already know how to move forward a
-screen, with C-v. To move backwards a screen, type M-v (type <ESC>v).
+>> Now type C-n multiple times and move your cursor past this line.
->> Try typing M-v and then C-v to move back and forth a few times.
+Congratulations. You have now learned how to move your cursor down. Note how
+mg has redrawn your screen so that the cursor is now in the middle of the
+screen. This is a feature of mg, which allows you to see the lines before and
+after the current cursor position.
+To move your cursor up, you can use the up-arrow cursor key or C-p (Control and
+p).
-SUMMARY
--------
-
-The following commands are useful for viewing screenfuls:
-
- C-v Move forward one screenful
- M-v Move backward one screenful
- C-l Clear screen and redisplay everything
- putting the text near the cursor at the center.
- (That's control-L, not control-1.
- There is no such character as control-1.)
-
->> Find the cursor and remember what text is near it.
- Then type a C-l.
- Find the cursor again and see what text is near it now.
-
-
-BASIC CURSOR CONTROL
---------------------
-
-Getting from screenful to screenful is useful, but how do you
-reposition yourself within a given screen to a specific place? There
-are several ways you can do this. One way (not the best, but the most
-basic) is to use the commands previous, backward, forward and next.
-As you can imagine these commands (which are given to Emacs as C-p,
-C-b, C-f, and C-n respectively) move the cursor from where it
-currently is to a new place in the given direction. It is also
-possible to move the cursor with the arrow keys, but this requires you
-move your hand from the keyboard, it is also not supported on other
-machines that do support Emacs. Emacs runs on everything from a CP/M
-machine to large mainframes. Here then, in a more graphical form are
-the commands:
-
- Previous line, C-p
- :
- :
- Backward, C-b .... Current cursor position .... Forward, C-f
- :
- :
- Next line, C-n
-
->> Move the cursor to the line in the middle of that diagram
- and type C-l to see the whole diagram centered in the screen.
-
-You'll probably find it easy to think of these by letter. P for
-previous, N for next, B for backward and F for forward. These are
-the basic cursor positioning commands and you'll be using them ALL
-the time so it would be of great benefit if you learn them now.
-
->> Do a few C-n's to bring the cursor down to this line.
-
->> Move into the line with C-f's and then up with C-p's.
- See what C-p does when the cursor is in the middle of the line.
-
->> Try to C-b at the beginning of a line. Do a few more C-b's.
- Then do C-f's back to the end of the line and beyond.
-
-When you go off the top or bottom of the screen, the text beyond
-the edge is shifted onto the screen so that your instructions can
-be carried out while keeping the cursor on the screen.
-
->> Try to move the cursor off the bottom of the screen with C-n and
- see what happens.
-
-If moving by characters is too slow, you can move by words. M-f
-(ESC-f) moves forward a word and M-b moves back a word.
-
->> Type a few M-f's and M-b's. Intersperse them with C-f's and C-b's.
-
-Notice the parallel between C-f and C-b on the one hand, and M-f and
-M-b on the other hand. Very often Meta characters are used for
-operations related to English text whereas Control characters operate
-on the basic textual units that are independent of what you are
-editing (characters, lines, etc). C-a and C-e move to the beginning or
-end of a line.
-
->> Try a couple of C-a's, and then a couple of C-e's.
- See how repeated C-a's do nothing.
-
-Two other simple cursor motion commands are M-< (Meta Less-than),
-which moves to the beginning of the file, and M-> (Meta Greater-than),
-which moves to the end of the file. You probably don't need to try
-them, since finding this spot again will be boring. On most terminals
-the "<" is above the comma and you must use the shift key to type it.
-On these terminals you must use the shift key to type M-< also;
-without the shift key, you would be typing M-comma.
-
-The location of the cursor in the text is also called "point". To
-paraphrase, the cursor shows on the screen where point is located in
-the text.
+>> Try using C-p and C-n to move up and down and then move past this line.
-Here is a summary of simple moving operations including the word and
-sentence moving commands:
+The next commands to learn are how to move your cursor left and right. To do
+this, you can use the left-arrow and right-arrow cursor keys. Alternatively,
+you can use C-b and C-f to do this.
- C-f Move forward a character
- C-b Move backward a character
+>> Practise using the arrow keys or C-b and C-f on this line.
- M-f Move forward a word
- M-b Move backward a word
+To make it easy to remember these commands, it helps to remember by letter:
+P - Previous line, N - Next line, B - Backwards and F - Forward.
- c-n Move to next line
- C-p Move to previous line
+Now that you've learned how to move single characters at a time, next we learn
+how to move one word at a time. To do this, you can use M-f (Meta and f) or
+M-b (Meta and b) to move forwards and backwards, one word at a time.
- C-a Move to beginning of line
- C-e Move to end of line
+>> Try moving one word at a time by using M-f and M-b on this line.
- M-< Go to beginning of file
- M-> Go to end of file
+Notice how the Ctrl and Meta key combinations perform related functions. C-f
+moves one letter forward, whereas M-f moves one word forward. There are many
+key combinations in mg, where C-<chr> will perform one function and M-<chr>
+will perform a similar related function.
->> Try all of these commands now a few times for practice.
- Since the last two will take you away from this screen,
- you can come back here with M-v's and C-v's. These are
- the most often used commands.
+Next, we will learn how to refresh and redraw the screen.
-Like all other commands in Emacs, these commands can be given
-arguments which cause them to be executed repeatedly. The way you
-give a command a repeat count is by typing C-u and then the digits
-before you type the command.
+>> Now move the cursor down to this line and then type C-l (that's Control and
+ lowercase L) to refresh the screen.
-For instance, C-u 8 C-f moves forward eight characters.
+Note that C-l refreshes the screen and centers it on the line you typed it on.
->> Try giving a suitable argument to C-n or C-p to come as close
- as you can to this line in one jump.
+To move to the beginning or end of a line, you can use the Home and End keys,
+or you can use C-a and C-e to move to the beginning and end.
-The only apparent exception to this is the screen moving commands,
-C-v and M-v. When given an argument, they scroll the screen up or
-down by that many lines, rather than screenfuls. This proves to be
-much more useful.
+>> Use C-a and C-e to move to the beginning and end of this line.
->> Try typing C-u 8 C-v now.
+The next commands we will learn is how to move up and down, one page at a time.
+To do this, you can use the Page Up (sometimes labelled PgUp) and Page Down
+(sometimes labelled PgDn) keys. You can also use C-v and M-v to do this. C-v
+moves the cursor down one page and M-v moves it up one page.
-Did it scroll the screen up by 8 lines? If you would like to
-scroll it down you can give an argument to M-v.
+>> Try using M-v and C-v to move up and down, one page at a time.
+The final two motion commands we will learn are M-< (Meta-Less than) and
+M-> (Meta-Greater than) which move you to the beginning and end of this file.
+You may not want to try that now as you will probably lose your place in this
+tutorial. Note that on most terminals, < is above the , key, so you'll need
+to press the Shift key to type <.
-WHEN EMACS IS HUNG
+Movement Summary
-----------------
-If Emacs gets into an infinite (or simply very long) computation which
-you don't want to finish, you can stop it safely by typing C-g.
-You can also use C-g to discard a numeric argument or the beginning of
-a command that you don't want to finish.
-
->> Type C-u 100 to make a numeric arg of 100, then type C-g.
- Now type C-f. How many characters does it move?
- If you have typed an <ESC> by mistake, you can get rid of it
- with a C-g.
-
-WINDOWS
--------
-
-Emacs can have several windows, each displaying its own text.
-At this stage it is better not to go into the techniques of
-using multiple windows. But you do need to know how to get
-rid of extra windows that may appear to display help or
-output from certain commands. It is simple:
-
- C-x 1 One window (i.e., kill all other windows).
-
-That is Control-x followed by the digit 1.
-C-x 1 makes the window which the cursor is in become
-the full screen, by getting rid of any other windows.
-
->> Move the cursor to this line and type C-l (Control-L).
->> Type M-x. The cursor will move to the bottom of the screen.
->> Type the words "describe-bindings" and hit return.
- See how this window shrinks, while a new one appears
- to display which functions are connected to which keys.
-
->> Type C-x 1 and see the documentation listing window disappear.
-
-
-INSERTING AND DELETING
+The following is a summary of the movement commands we've learned so far:
+
+ C-f Move forward one character (can also use right arrow key)
+ C-b Move backward one character (can also use left arrow key)
+ C-p Move up one line (can also use up arrow key)
+ C-n Move down one line (can also use down arrow key)
+ M-f Move forward one word
+ M-b Move backward one word
+ C-a Move to beginning of line (can also use Home key)
+ C-e Move to end of line (can also use End key)
+ C-v Move forward one page (can also use PgDn/Page Down key)
+ M-v Move backward one page (can also use PgUp/Page Up key)
+ M-< Move to beginning of file
+ M-> Move to end of file.
+
+Now that you've mastered the basics of moving around in mg, you can cause mg
+to execute these commands multiple times. The way to do this is to type
+C-u followed by some digits followed by a movement command.
+
+>> Type C-u 5 C-f to move forward 5 characters.
+
+In general, C-u allows you to execute any command multiple times, not just
+cursor motion commands. The only exception to this rule are C-v and M-v.
+When using these two commands with an argument, they move the cursor by that
+many lines instead of pages.
+
+Cancelling mg commands
----------------------
-If you want to insert text, just type it. Characters which you can
-see, such as A, 7, *, etc. are taken by Emacs as text and inserted
-immediately. Type <Return> (the carriage-return key) to insert a
-Newline character.
-
-You can delete the last character you typed by typing <DEL>. More
-generally, <DEL> deletes the character immediately before the current
-cursor position.
-
->> Do this now, type a few characters and then delete them
- by typing <DEL> a few times. Don't worry about this file
- being changed; you won't affect the master tutorial. This is just
- a copy of it.
-
->> Now start typing text until you reach the right margin, and keep
- typing. When a line of text gets too big for one line on the
- screen, the line of text is "continued" off the edge of the screen.
- The dollar sign at the right margin indicates a line which has
- been continued.
->> Use <DEL>s to delete the text until the line fits on one screen
- line again. The continuation mark goes away.
-
->> Move the cursor to the beginning of a line and type <DEL>. This
- deletes the newline before the line and merges the line onto
- the previous line. The resulting line may be too long to fit, in
- which case it has a continuation mark.
->> Type <Return> to reinsert the Newline you deleted.
-
-Remember that most Emacs commands can be given a repeat count;
-this includes characters which insert themselves.
-
->> Try that now -- type C-u 8 * and see what happens.
-
-You've now learned the most basic way of typing something in
-Emacs and correcting errors. You can delete by words or lines
-as well. Here is a summary of the delete operations:
-
- <DEL> delete the character just before the cursor
- C-d delete the next character after the cursor
-
- M-<DEL> kill the word immediately before the cursor
- M-d kill the next word after the cursor
-
- C-k kill from the cursor position to end of line
-
-Notice that <DEL> and C-d vs M-<DEL> and M-d extend the parallel
-started by C-f and M-f (well, <DEL> isn't really a control
-character, but let's not worry about that).
-
-Now suppose you kill something, and then you decide that you want to
-get it back? Well, whenever you kill something bigger than a
-character, Emacs saves it for you. To yank it back, use C-y. You
-can kill text in one place, move elsewhere, and then do C-y; this is
-a good way to move text around. Note that the difference
-between "Killing" and "Deleting" something is that "Killed" things
-can be yanked back, and "Deleted" things cannot. Generally, the
-commands that can destroy a lot of text save it, while the ones that
-attack only one character, or nothing but blank lines and spaces, do
-not save.
+If you have started typing out a command that you didn't mean to finish, you
+can use the C-g command to cancel the command immediately.
-For instance, type C-n a couple times to position the cursor
-at some line on this screen.
+>> For example, type C-u 50 and then type C-g to cancel the C-u command.
+>> Type Esc and then C-g to cancel the Esc key.
->> Do this now, move the cursor and kill that line with C-k.
+In general, you can use C-g to stop any mg commands. You may type it multiple
+times if you wish. You should see the word "Quit" appear in the bottom of the
+screen when you type C-g indicating that a command was cancelled.
-Note that a single C-k kills the contents of the line, and a second
-C-k kills the line itself, and make all the other lines move up. If
-you give C-k a repeat count, it kills that many lines AND their
-contents.
+In general, when in doubt, use C-g to get out of trouble.
-The text that has just disappeared is saved so that you can
-retrieve it. To retrieve the last killed text and put it where
-the cursor currently is, type C-y.
-
->> Try it; type C-y to yank the text back.
-
-Think of C-y as if you were yanking something back that someone
-took away from you. Notice that if you do several C-k's in a row
-the text that is killed is all saved together so that one C-y will
-yank all of the lines.
-
->> Do this now, type C-k several times.
-
-Now to retrieve that killed text:
-
->> Type C-y. Then move the cursor down a few lines and type C-y
- again. You now see how to copy some text.
-
-
-FILES
------
-
-In order to make the text you edit permanent, you must put it in a
-file. Otherwise, it will go away when your invocation of Emacs goes
-away. You put your editing in a file by "finding" the file. What
-finding means is that you see the contents of the file in your Emacs;
-and, loosely speaking, what you are editing is the file itself.
-However, the changes still don't become permanent until you "save" the
-file. This is so you can have control to avoid leaving a half-changed
-file around when you don't want to.
-
-If you look near the bottom of the screen you will see a line that
-begins and ends with dashes, and contains the string:
- "Mg: TUTORIAL"
-Your copy of the Emacs tutorial is called "TUTORIAL". Whatever
-file you find, that file's name will appear in that precise
-spot.
-
-The commands for finding and saving files are unlike the other
-commands you have learned in that they consist of two characters.
-They both start with the character Control-x. There is a whole series
-of commands that start with Control-x; many of them have to do with
-files, buffers, and related things, and all of them consist of
-Control-x followed by some other character.
-
-Another thing about the command for finding a file is that you have
-to say what file name you want. We say the command "reads an argument
-from the terminal" (in this case, the argument is the name of the
-file). After you type the command
-
- C-x C-f Find a file
-
-Emacs asks you to type the file name. It echoes on the bottom line of
-the screen. When you type <Return> to end the file name it disappears.
-
->> Type C-x C-f, then type C-g. This cancels the C-x C-f command
- that was using the minibuffer. So you do not find any file.
-
-In a little while the file contents appear on the screen. You can
-edit the contents. When you wish to make the changes permanent,
-issue the command
-
- C-x C-s Save the file
-
-The contents of Emacs are written into the file.
-
-When saving is finished, Emacs prints the name of the file written.
-You should save fairly often, so that you will not lose very much
-work if the system should crash.
-
->> Type C-x C-s, saving your copy of the tutorial.
- This should print "Wrote TUTORIAL" at the bottom of the screen.
-
-To make a new file, just find it "as if" it already existed. Then
-start typing in the text. When you ask to "save" the file, Emacs
-will really create the file with the text that you have inserted.
->From then on, you can consider yourself to be editing an already
-existing file.
-
-
-BUFFERS
+Windows
-------
-If you find a second file with C-x C-f, the first file remains inside
-Emacs. This way you can get quite a number of files inside Emacs.
-
-The object inside Emacs which holds the text read from one file
-is called a "buffer." Finding a file makes a new buffer inside Emacs.
-To see a list of the buffers that exist in Emacs, type
+The mg editor can support several windows at the same time, each one displaying
+different text. To split a screen into two horizontal windows use C-x 2 to do
+this. To return to one window, use C-x 1 to close the other windows and only
+keep the current window.
- C-x C-b List buffers
+>> Use C-x 2 to split the screen into two windows.
->> Try C-x C-b now.
+>> Use C-x o to move from one window to the other. You can scroll up and down
+ in each window using the cursor keys or C-n and C-p keys.
-See how each buffer has a name, and it may also have a file name
-for the file whose contents it holds. Some buffers do not correspond
-to files. For example, the buffer named "*Buffer List*" does
-not have any file. It is the buffer which contains the buffer
-list that was made by C-x C-b. ANY text you see in an Emacs window
-has to be in some buffer.
+>> Use C-x 1 to restore back to one window.
->> Type C-x 1 to get rid of the buffer list.
+Inserting/Deleting Text
+-----------------------
-If you make changes to the text of one file, then find another file,
-this does not save the first file. Its changes remain inside Emacs,
-in that file's buffer. The creation or editing of the second file's
-buffer has no effect on the first file's buffer. This is very useful,
-but it also means that you need a convenient way to save the first
-file's buffer. It would be a nuisance to have to switch back to
-it with C-x C-f in order to save it with C-x C-s. So we have
+To insert text anywhere, simply move your cursor to the appropriate position
+and begin typing. To delete characters, use the backspace key. If you use
+M-<backspace (Meta and backspace key), you will delete one word instead
+of one character at a time.
- C-x s Save some buffers
+To delete characters to the right of the cursor, you can use C-d to delete
+characters to the right of the current position. If you use M-d instead of
+C-d, you can delete one word at a time instead of one character at a time.
-C-x s goes through the list of all the buffers you have
-and finds the ones that contain files you have changed.
-For each such buffer, C-x s asks you whether to save it.
+>> Try inserting and deleting characters and words on this line.
+Note that if you type too many characters on a single line, the line will
+scroll off the screen and you will see a $ on the line to indicate that the
+line is too long to fit on the screen at one time.
-EXTENDING THE COMMAND SET
--------------------------
-
-There are many, many more Emacs commands than could possibly be put
-on all the control and meta characters. Emacs gets around this with
-the X (eXtend) command. This comes in two flavors:
+To delete a line at a time, you can use C-k to kill the line from the current
+cursor position to the end of the line. You can type C-k multiple times to
+kill many lines.
+
+You can issue insert or delete commands multiple times using C-u. For example,
+C-u 10 e will type out eeeeeeeeee, C-u 4 M-d will delete four words to the
+right of the cursor and so on.
+
+To undo any operation, you can use C-_ (That's control-underscore).
+
+Now if you kill something that you didn't mean to, you can yank it back from
+the dead by using C-y. In general, when you kill something bigger than a single
+character, mg saves it in a buffer somewhere and you can restore it by using
+C-y. This is useful for moving text around. You can kill text in one place,
+move your cursor to the new location and then use C-y to paste it there.
+
+Search for Text
+---------------
+
+To search for text, type C-s followed by the text you wish to search for. Note
+that as you start typing the characters, mg automatically searches as you type
+the characters.
+
+To continue searching the text you're looking for, type C-s to find the next
+instance. To search in reverse, type C-r instead of C-s. If you type C-s or
+C-r twice, it will simply search for the last text that you searched for.
+
+To stop searching for text, simply use the cursor keys (or C-f, C-b etc.) or
+C-g to stop the search operation.
+
+>> Use C-s foo to search for "foo" in the text. You can use C-s again to
+ find other instances of foo in the file.
+
+Note that if a word cannot be found, it will say Failing I-search: at the
+bottom of the screen. Typing C-s again will wrap the search around from the
+top of the file and begin searching from there.
+
+Replace Text
+------------
+
+To replace text, use M-%. You will be prompted for the text to search for and
+the text to replace it with. You will then be taken to the first instance of
+text from the current position. At this point you can do one of the following:
+
+ y - Replace the text at this instance and search for more items
+ n - Skip this instance and search for more items
+ . or Enter - Stop replacing text (You can also use C-g)
+ ! - Replace all the instances without prompting at each one.
+
+>> Try replacing "frobnitz" with "zutwalt" on this line.
+
+Cut/Copy/Paste Text
+-------------------
+
+As explained above, you can cut regions using C-k to kill multiple lines. To
+paste the text that you just cut, simply move your cursor to the point and
+then type C-y to restore the text. You may type C-y multiple times to restore
+the text. Hence, to copy text, you can use C-k to kill all the lines, use C-y
+to restore it immediately, then move to the region you want to copy it to and
+then type C-y again to restore the last cut text block again.
+
+Another way to cut or copy chunks of text is to first position your cursor at
+the starting point of the chunk of text. Then type C-space to mark this as the
+starting point to cut or copy. Then move the cursor to the end point of the
+text chunk that you wish to manipulate. Then type C-w to cut the region, or
+M-w to copy the region. If you wish to cancel marking a block of text, simply
+type C-g to cancel the operation.
+
+To paste the region that you've cut or copied above, simply move your cursor
+to the desired location and then type C-y to paste it.
+
+Status Line
+-----------
+
+At the bottom of your screen is a reverse highlighted line. This is the status
+line and lets you know some useful information about the file you're editing.
+
+On the status line, you should see "Mg: tutorial". This lets you know that
+you're editing a file named "tutorial". If you've edited this file and not
+saved it, it should have a "**" to the left of those words. If this file is
+read-only, you should see a "%%" to the left of those words.
+
+To the right of the status line, you should see L followed by digits and C
+followed by some more digits. These indicate the line number and column number
+of the file that your cursor is currently on. If you move the cursor around,
+you should see the line and column number change.
+
+In the middle of the screen, you should see the word "(fundamental)" which
+indicates that the current editing mode is "fundamental-mode". The mg editor
+also supports a c-mode that is more suited to editing C code. There are also
+some other useful editing modes for different situations. See the man pages
+for mg(1) to learn about the various editing modes.
+
+Opening and Saving Files
+------------------------
+
+To open a file, you can use C-x C-f. You will then be prompted for a file name.
+If you type a file name that doesn't already exist, a new file will be opened
+for you. If the file name already exists, then it will be opened for you and
+you can begin editing it. Note that you do not need to type the whole file
+name for an existing file. You can type part of the file name and then press
+the TAB key. If there is only file name that matches, mg will fill in the rest
+of the file name for you. If there are multiple files, mg will display that
+the choice is ambiguous. If you type the TAB key again, mg will show you all
+the available choices for file names.
+
+NOTE: If you type C-x f instead of C-x C-f, you can use C-g to cancel the
+Set-Fill-Column command. You can also use C-g to cancel the C-x C-f command
+if you don't wish to open a new file.
+
+To save the file once you've edited it, use C-x C-s to save the file. When
+mg is done saving the file, you should see the words "Wrote /path/to/file"
+in the bottom of your screen. In general, it is a good idea to save quite
+often. When you save a file, mg saves a backup of the file with a tilde (~)
+character at the end.
+
+Buffers
+-------
- C-x Character eXtend. Followed by one character.
- M-x Named command eXtend. Followed by a long name.
+The mg editor is capable of editing multiple files at the same time. When you
+open a second file with C-x C-f, the first file is still being edited by mg.
+You can list all the buffers that are opened by mg by typing C-x C-b. The
+screen should divide into two and the top window will list the buffers that
+are currently open. Use C-x o to switch to the top window (we already learned
+this key combination above in the Windows section) and then use the arrow keys
+to move to the buffer you wish to switch to and then type the Enter key to
+select that buffer. Then use C-x 1 to switch back to only one window.
-These are commands that are generally useful but used less than the
-commands you have already learned about. You have already seen two
-of them: the file commands C-x C-f to Find and C-x C-s to Save.
-Another example is the command to tell Emacs that you'd like to stop
-editing and get rid of Emacs. The command to do this is C-x C-c.
-(Don't worry; it offers to save each changed file before it kills the
-Emacs.)
+You may also move back to the last opened buffer by using C-x b to toggle back
+and forth between two buffers. Note the difference between C-x b and C-x C-b.
-C-z is the usual way to exit Emacs, because it is always better not to
-kill the Emacs if you are going to do any more editing. On systems
-which allow it, C-z exits from Emacs to a CLI but does not destroy the
-Emacs; you can resume editing by ending that CLI or depth arranging.
+>> Use C-x C-f to open a new file
+>> Use C-x b to switch back and forth between that buffer and this one.
-You would use C-x C-c if you were running out of memory. You would
-also use it to exit an Emacs invoked under mail handling programs and
-other random utilities, since they may not believe you have really
-finished using the Emacs if it continues to exist.
+To edit files in multiple windows, use C-x 2 to split the screen into two
+windows. Then use C-x C-f to open a new file in one of the two windows. You
+can then switch between the two windows using C-x o. You can switch between
+buffers in any window using C-x b. To go back to one window, use C-x 1.
-There are many C-x commands. The ones you know are:
+To kill any buffer, use C-x k. You will be prompted for the buffer to kill.
+By default, the current buffer is selected as the one to kill. You may also
+type another buffer name or use C-g to cancel the operation.
- C-x C-f Find file.
- C-x C-s Save file.
- C-x C-b List buffers.
- C-x C-c Quit Emacs.
+Extended Commands
+-----------------
-Named eXtended commands are commands which are used even less
-frequently, or commands which are used only in certain modes. These
-commands are usually called "functions". An example is the function
-replace-string, which globally replaces one string with another. When
-you type M-x, Emacs prompts you at the bottom of the screen with
-M-x and you should type the name of the function you wish to call; in
-this case, "query-replace". Just type "que<TAB>" and Emacs will
-complete the name. End the command name with <Return>.
-Then type the two "arguments"--the string to be replaced, and the string
-to replace it with--each one ended with a Return.
+The mg editor has several extended commands, more than what can be covered
+by the Control and Meta keys. The mg editor gets around this by using what is
+called the X (eXtend) command. There are two forms of this:
->> Move the cursor to the blank line two lines below this one.
- Then type M-x repl s<Return>changed<Return>altered<Return>.
+ C-x Character eXtension. Followed by one character.
+ M-x Named character eXtension. Followed by a long command.
- Notice how this line has changed: you've replaced
- the word c-h-a-n-g-e-d with "altered" wherever it occurred
- after the cursor.
+You've already seen C-x C-f and C-x C-s to open and save a file. There are
+other longer commands. For instance, you can also open a file by typing
+M-x open-file Enter. When you type a command using M-x, mg prompts you for
+the command at the bottom of the screen. You can type out the whole command
+if you wish, or you can type out part of the command and then use the TAB key
+for autocompleting the command.
+For instance, to replace text, you can type M-x repl TAB enter to execute
+the replace-text command. To cancel this command, type C-g.
-MODE LINE
----------
+To see a list of all available mg(1) commands, consult the man pages.
-If Emacs sees that you are typing commands slowly it shows them to you
-at the bottom of the screen in an area called the "echo area." The echo
-area contains the bottom line of the screen. The line immediately above
-it is called the MODE LINE. The mode line says something like
+Exiting mg
+----------
---**-Mg: TUTORIAL (fundamental)------------------------
+To exit mg temporarily and return to the shell, use C-z. This will take you
+back to the command shell. To return back to mg, type fg in the shell and you
+will be returned to your mg session.
-This is a very useful "information" line.
+To exit mg permanently, type C-x C-c. If you have any unsaved buffers, you
+will be asked if you wish to save them or not.
-The stars near the front mean that you have made changes to the text.
-Right after you visit or save a file, there are no stars, just dashes.
+Conclusion
+----------
-The part of the mode line inside the parentheses is to tell you what
-modes you are in. The default mode is fundamental which is what you
-are in now. It is an example of a "mode". There are several modes in
-Emacs for editing different styles of text, such as indent, bsmap,
-fill, etc. Each mode makes a few commands behave differently.
+This tutorial is meant to get new users up and running with mg. There is more
+information available via the mg(1) man pages. If you have any suggestions for
+improvement, please don't hesitate to drop a message or (better still) submit
+a diff listing.
-One mode which is very useful, especially for editing English text, is
-Auto Fill mode. When this mode is on, Emacs breaks the line in
-between words automatically whenever the line gets too long. You can
-turn this mode on by doing M-x auto-fill-mode<Return>. When the mode
-is on, you can turn it off by doing M-x auto-fill-mode<Return>.
+History
+-------
->> Type M-x auto-fill-mode<Return> now. Then insert a line of "asdf "
- over again until you see it divide into two lines. You must put in
- spaces between them because Auto Fill breaks lines only at spaces.
+mg is a public-domain text editor. It was originally based on
+MicroEMACS, but has since moved to more closely resemble GNU Emacs while
+still maintaining a small memory footprint and fast speed.
-The margin is usually set at 70 characters, but you can change it
-with the C-x f command. You should give the margin setting you want
-as a numeric argument.
+* Nov 16, 1986: First release to mod.sources
+* Mar 3, 1987: First Release (mg1a) via comp.sources.unix
+* May 26, 1988: Second release: (mg2a) via comp.sources.misc
+* Jan 26, 1992: Linux port released by Charles Hedrick. This version
+ later makes its way onto tsx-11, Infomagic, and various other Linux
+ repositories.
+* Feb 25, 2000: First import into the OpenBSD tree, where it is
+ currently maintained
->> Type C-x f with an argument of 20. (C-u 2 0 C-x f).
- Then type in some text and see Emacs fill lines of 20
- characters with it. Then set the margin back to 70 using
- C-x f again.
+The mg editor was originally named MicroGNUEmacs. The name was changed
+to "mg" at the request of Richard Stallman, as this software is
+entirely unrelated to the GNU project.
-If you make changes in the middle of a paragraph, Auto Fill mode
-does not re-fill it for you.
-To re-fill the paragraph, type M-q (Meta-q) with the cursor inside
-that paragraph.
+Author Info
+-----------
->> Move the cursor into the previous paragraph and type M-q.
+Original Author of this document: Mayukh Bose,
+Date last updated: 2008-07-29
-SEARCHING
+Copyright
---------
-Emacs can do searches for strings (these are groups of contiguous
-characters or words) either forward through the file or backward
-through it. To search for the string means that you are trying to
-locate it somewhere in the file and have Emacs show you where the
-occurrences of the string exist. This type of search is somewhat
-different from what you may be familiar with. It is a search that is
-performed as you type in the thing to search for. The command to
-initiate a search is C-s for forward search, and C-r for reverse
-search. BUT WAIT! Don't do them now. When you type C-s you'll
-notice that the string "I-search" appears as a prompt in the echo
-area. This tells you that Emacs is in what is called an incremental
-search waiting for you to type the thing that you want to search for.
-<ESC> terminates a search.
-
->> Now type C-s to start a search. SLOWLY, one letter at a time,
- type the word 'cursor', pausing after you type each
- character to notice what happens to the cursor.
->> Type C-s to find the next occurrence of "cursor".
->> Now type <DEL> four times and see how the cursor moves.
->> Type <ESC> to terminate the search.
-
-Did you see what happened? Emacs, in an incremental search, tries to
-go to the occurrence of the string that you've typed out so far. To go
-to the next occurrence of 'cursor' just type C-s again. If no such
-occurrence exists Emacs beeps and tells you that it is a failing
-search. C-g would also terminate the search.
-
-If you are in the middle of an incremental search and type <DEL>,
-you'll notice that the last character in the search string is erased
-and the search backs up to the last place of the search. For
-instance, suppose you currently have typed 'cu' and you see that your
-cursor is at the first occurrence of 'cu'. If you now type <DEL>,
-the 'u' on the search line is erased and you'll be repositioned in the
-text to the occurrence of 'c' where the search took you before you
-typed the 'u'. This provides a useful means for backing up while you
-are searching.
-
-If you are in the middle of a search and happen to type a control
-character (other than a C-s or C-r, which tell Emacs to search for the
-next occurrence of the string), the search is terminated.
-
-The C-s starts a search that looks for any occurrence of the search
-string AFTER the current cursor position. But what if you want to
-search for something earlier in the text? To do this, type C-r for
-Reverse search. Everything that applies to C-s applies to C-r except
-that the direction of the search is reversed.
-
-If your incremental search fails and you type C-s or C-r again
-(without changing your search direction), Emacs will wrap the
-search around to the beginning (or end, if searching backwards) of
-the buffer and search from there.
-
-GETTING MORE HELP
------------------
-
-In this tutorial we have tried to supply just enough information to
-get you started using Emacs. There is so much available in Emacs that
-it would be impossible to explain it all here. However, you may want
-to learn more about Emacs since it has numerous desirable features
-that you don't know about yet.
-
-
-CONCLUSION
-----------
-
-Remember, to exit Emacs permanently use C-x C-c. To exit to a shell
-temporarily, so that you can come back in, use C-z.
-
-This tutorial is meant to be understandable to all new users, so if
-you found something unclear, don't sit and blame yourself - complain!
-
-
-COPYING
--------
+None. This document is in the public domain.
-This tutorial, like all of GNU Emacs, is copyrighted, and comes with
-permission to distribute copies on certain conditions:
-
-Copyright (c) 1985 Richard M. Stallman
-
- Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
- of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
- copyright notice and permission notice are preserved,
- and that the distributor grants the recipient permission
- for further redistribution as permitted by this notice.
-
- Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
- of this document, or of portions of it,
- under the above conditions, provided also that they
- carry prominent notices stating who last altered them.
-
-The conditions for copying Emacs itself are slightly different
-but in the same spirit. Please read the file COPYING and then
-do give copies of GNU Emacs to your friends.
-Help stamp out ownership of software by using, writing,
-and sharing free software!
-
-Mg itself is public domain, and may be given away freely. See the
-README file about differences from GNU emacs, and why Mg exists.
-
-*******************************************************************************
-*** This document heavily cut by Randy M. Spencer to apply to ***
-*** Mg written my Mike Meyer and gang. It was released ***
-*** at the AAA users group meeting in Lafayette CA, an Amiga Users ***
-*** Group. My profound thanks to Richard Stallman for his work, I ***
-*** am proud to carry his initials. ***
-*** Additional modifications were done by Robert A. Larson for Mg ***
-*** version 2a, mainly the name change from MicroGnuEmacs to Mg. ***
-*******************************************************************************
-
-See other files accompanying this for more system specific information.
projects / openbsd / commitdiff