   emacs is whacked yo
  Okay I've heard a lot of hype about emacs and so now I'm attempting to become "acquainted" with it. I looked at GNU's online manual for it, and its several thousand pages long, and quite frankly that, scares me. So I figured I'd post my 4 or 5 questions here and maybe you guys can lend some help.1. What does it mean to "fill" or to "auto-fill?" I believe it is similar to a so-called "word wrap" for justifying paragraphs of text, but I can't seem to find the answer anywhere. What is the syntax for these commands: (a) to fill a given paragraph, and (b) to turn on auto-fill?2. How do I insert a file at the end of a file I am currently viewing? Note that I am *not* looking to create a second buffer.3. How do I highlight a region of text?4. When I'm inside a file, and I want to open another file and create a second "buffer" on screen, what is the syntax for this command?5. Then, after I've used that second buffer for whatever I need, how do I "kill" it and remove it from screen (so that the original file is the only open buffer)?-hisDudeness   
  Ya know, ive been using emacs for varous things for 4 years and i couldn't tell you how to do a single thing. That's because its so bloated that i end up trial-and-error'ing everything.I switched to kEdit and breeze through things.Sorry i can't help,Dave   ;  not sure where you heard this hype about emacs, but I'll let you in on a secret ... coding in emacs is like developing for 360 on an Apple II.  Why would you use such a stripped down environment when you can get a fully featured IDE like Visual Studio 2k5 express for free?  Not only is it far more intuitive to use, it allows you to be more productive, and it has great debugging capabilities.  Don't use outdated tools if you can help it, but then again, that's just my opinion.   ;Quote:Original post by Morpheus011... coding in emacs is like developing for 360 on an Apple II.  Well this is total bullcrap, sir.;Quote:Original post by Morpheus011Why would you use such a stripped down environment when you can get a fully featured IDE like Visual Studio 2k5 express for free?  Not only is it far more intuitive to use, it allows you to be more productive, and it has great debugging capabilities.Stripped down?! You've never used Emacs, have you?Quote:Don't use outdated tools if you can help it, but then again, that's just my opinion.Outdated? Emacs is actively developed.   ;Quote:Why would you use such a stripped down environment when you can get a fully featured IDE like Visual Studio 2k5 express for free? Excellent question Morpheus011. Answer: Because my UNIX Operating Systems professor wants me to use emacs. :-)Please help.;  well that's a totally different story.  Have you looked into cygwin at all?  It might be easier for you to get the hang of quickly.  But shouldn't you know how to use a compiler before they teach you how to program in one?  If you already are using something else that you are more comfortable with, like Vi or something, then stick with that, the hassle of learning a new compiler environment might outweigh the benefits of using it for a class.And yes Roboguy, I've used emacs before, which is the reason I was so quick to suggest a good IDE such as Visual Studio.  I challenge you to develop a game faster in emacs than you can in Visual Studio.  Best case scenario you will be able to do it _as_ fast, but certainly no faster unless you have absolutely no experience with VS.I don't think it's total bull crap to suggest someone use an industry wide tool that is industry wide for a good reason.EDIT:  I realized I still didn't really answer any of your questions, my suggestion would be to search around on google or the like for emacs, I'm sure there are sites dedicated to it.  You may have better luck out on the net.  This looks like a good place to start -- http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/keith/tcl-course/emacs-tutorial.htmlsorry, don't know how to linkify   ;  It takes a few years, but once you learn Emacs well, nothing will ever be able to replace it.M-x = Meta key and xC-x = Control key and x>> 1. What does it mean to "fill" or to "auto-fill?" I believe it is similar to a so-called "word wrap" for justifying paragraphs of text, but I can't seem to find the answer anywhere. What is the syntax for these commands: (a) to fill a given paragraph, and (b) to turn on auto-fill?If a buffer is set to auto-fill, once a line gets over a certain number of characters it will automatically be wrapped to a new line.  Just like "word wrap."  Turn it on by typing "M-x auto-fill-mode" To fill a paragraph, put the cursor on the paragraph and type "M-x fill-paragraph"  (Might be set to M-q)>> 2. How do I insert a file at the end of a file I am currently viewing? Note that I am *not* looking to create a second buffer.C-x i>> 3. How do I highlight a region of text?C-spacebar to set the beginning of the mark, then navigate normally.>> 4. When I'm inside a file, and I want to open another file and create a second "buffer" on screen, what is the syntax for this command?Technically a new buffer is created whenever you open a new file.  To display a second "window" type C-x 2 to create a window underneath the current one, C-x 3 to create a new window beside the current one.>> 5. Then, after I've used that second buffer for whatever I need, how do I "kill" it and remove it from screen (so that the original file is the only open buffer)?C-x 1 will make the current window the only one open, C-x 0 will kill the current window.--cam   ;  thanks guys!   ;Quote:Original post by RoboguyQuote:Don't use outdated tools if you can help it, but then again, that's just my opinion.Outdated? Emacs is actively developed.<opinion>I heard that vi is also actively developped. It doesn't mean that vi is not outdated.Emacs compares rather badly to the new breed of IDE. Sure, if you are good at lisp (ie if you are this kind of geek that put everything between parenthesis - including your real life) you can do whatever you want in emacs - meta-x-ing rules. But since most users are, well, users, they don't want to dirty their hand with obscure references to symbols that are dead (is "defun" the shortening for "defunct"?). Moreover, in a world were virtualy anyone agrees that Ctrl+S is a good shortcut to open a file, emacs continues to propose the good ol' "C-x s" dumb shortcut that you have to lookup in the documentation. Compare to VS.NET: how many of you are using the integrated macro evaluator to deeply modify the behavior of the editor? I guess the percentage is near 0. Frankly: the only real thing that is really comparable to emacs is the diplodocus: it's big, it's powerful, it's beautiful. But it's dead.</opinion>BTW do emacs guys realize that they are the only people on earth that knows about the existence of a "meta" key on their keyboard? (and what is, finally, a meta key? Is it is a key that defines the other keys?)   