1 .TH XEMACS 1 "1998 January 13"
4 xemacs \- Emacs: The Next Generation
8 .I command-line switches
17 compatible with and containing many improvements over
20 written by Richard Stallman of the Free Software Foundation. It was
21 originally based on an early release of
24 and has tracked subsequent releases of
26 as they have become available.
28 The primary documentation of
33 which you can read on-line using Info, a subsystem of
35 Please look there for complete and up-to-date documentation.
36 Complete documentation on using Emacs Lisp is available on-line
38 .I XEmacs Lisp Programmer's
40 Both manuals also can be printed out nicely using the
44 The user functionality of
46 encompasses everything other
48 editors do, and it is easily extensible since its
49 editing commands are written in Lisp.
52 has an extensive interactive help facility,
53 but the facility assumes that you know how to manipulate
56 CTRL-h enters the Help facility. Help Tutorial (CTRL-h t)
57 requests an interactive tutorial which can teach beginners the fundamentals
61 Help Apropos (CTRL-h a) helps you
62 find a command given its functionality, Help Key Binding (CTRL-h k)
63 describes a given key sequence's effect, and Help Function (CTRL-h f)
64 describes a given Lisp function specified by name. You can also
65 look up key sequences in the
66 .I XEmacs Reference Manual
67 using Lookup Key Binding (CTRL-h CTRL-k),
68 and look up Lisp functions in the
69 .I XEmacs Lisp Programmer's Manual
70 using Lookup Function (CTRL-h CTRL-f). All of these help functions,
71 and more, are available on the Help menu if you are using a window
75 has extensive GUI (graphical user interface) support when running under
76 a window system such as
78 including multiple frames (top-level windows), a menubar, a toolbar,
79 horizontal and vertical scrollbars, dialog boxes, and extensive mouse
83 has full support for multiple fonts and colors, variable-width fonts,
84 and variable-height lines, and allows for pixmaps to be inserted into
85 a buffer. (This is used in the W3 web-browsing package and in some
86 of the debugger and outlining interfaces, among other things.)
89 Undo can undo several steps of modification to your buffers, so it is
90 easy to recover from editing mistakes.
93 many special packages handle mail reading (VM, MH-E and RMail) and
94 sending (Mail), Usenet news reading and posting (GNUS), World Wide Web
95 browsing (W3), specialized modes for editing source code in all common
96 programming languages, syntax highlighting for many languages
97 (Font-Lock), compiling (Compile), running subshells within
99 windows (Shell), outline editing (Outline), running a Lisp read-eval-print
100 loop (Lisp-Interaction-Mode), and automated psychotherapy (Doctor).
102 There is an extensive reference manual, but users of other Emacsen
103 should have little trouble adapting even without a copy. Users new to
104 Emacs will be able to use basic features fairly rapidly by studying
105 the tutorial and using the self-documentation features.
109 XEmacs accepts all standard X Toolkit command line options when run in
110 an X Windows environment. In addition, the following options are accepted
111 (when options imply a sequence of actions to perform, they are
112 performed in the order encountered):
117 as the terminal instead of using stdin/stdout. This implies
121 Edit in batch mode. The editor will send messages to stdout. You
127 options to specify files to execute and functions to call.
130 Inhibit the use of any window-system-specific display code: use the
134 Enter the debugger if an error occurs loading the init file.
137 Do not map the initial frame.
140 Do not load the site-specific init file (site-start.el).
142 .B \-q, \-no\-init\-file
143 Do not load an init file.
145 .B \-no-early-packages
146 Do not process the early packages.
149 Load no extra files at startup. Equivalent to the combination of
157 .BI \-u " user, " \-user " user"
167 Go to the line specified by
169 (do not insert a space between the "+" sign and the number).
172 Print a help message and exit.
175 Print the version number and exit.
177 .BI \-f " function, " \-funcall " function"
178 Execute the lisp function
181 .BI \-l " file, " \-load " file"
182 Load the Lisp code in the file
186 Evaluate the Lisp form
189 .BI \-i " file, " \-insert " file"
192 into the current buffer.
200 .SM Using XEmacs with X
203 has been tailored to work well with the X window system.
206 from under X windows, it will create its own X window to
207 display in. You will probably want to start the editor
208 as a background process
209 so that you can continue using your original window.
212 can be started with the following standard X options:
214 .BI \-geometry " ##x##+##+##"
215 Specify the geometry of the initial window. The ##'s represent a number;
216 the four numbers are width (characters), height (characters), X offset
217 (pixels), and Y offset (pixels), respectively. Partial specifications of
222 are also allowed. (The geometry
223 specification is in the standard X format; see
225 for more information.)
228 Specifies that the initial window should initially appear iconified.
231 Specifies the program name which should be used when looking up
232 defaults in the user's X resources.
234 .BI \-title " title, " \-T " title, " \-wn " title"
235 Specifies the title which should be assigned to the
239 .BI \-d " displayname, " \-display " displayname"
242 window on the display specified by
244 Must be the first option specified in the command line.
246 .BI \-font " font, " \-fn " font"
249 window's font to that specified by
251 You will find the various
254 .I /usr/lib/X11/fonts
257 works with either fixed- or variable-width fonts, but will probably
258 look better with a fixed-width font.
260 .BI \-scrollbar\-width " pixels"
261 Specify the width of the vertical scrollbars.
263 .BI \-scrollbar\-height " pixels"
264 Specify the height of the horizontal scrollbars.
266 .BI \-bw " pixels, " \-borderwidth " pixels"
269 window's border width to the number of pixels specified by
271 Defaults to one pixel on each side of the window.
273 .BI \-ib " pixels, " \-internal\-border\-width " pixels"
274 Specify the width between a frame's border and its text, in pixels.
275 Defaults to one pixel on each side of the window.
277 .BI \-fg " color, " \-foreground " color"
278 Sets the color of the text.
281 .I /usr/lib/X11/rgb.txt
285 .BI \-bg " color, " \-background " color"
286 Sets the color of the window's background.
288 .BI \-bd " color, " \-bordercolor " color"
289 Sets the color of the window's border.
292 Sets the color of the mouse pointer.
295 Sets the color of the text cursor.
298 Reverses the foreground and background colors (reverse video). Consider
299 explicitly setting the foreground and background colors instead of using
302 .BI \-xrm " argument"
303 This allows you to set an arbitrary resource on the command line.
305 should be a resource specification, as might as in your
311 You can also set resources, i.e.
313 default values, for your
321 Use the following format:
327 Emacs*EmacsFrame.keyword:value
331 specifies the default value of
333 (Some resources need the former format; some the latter.)
335 You can also set resources for a particular frame by using the
338 Emacs*framename.keyword:value
342 is the resource name assigned to that particular frame.
343 (Certain packages, such as VM, give their frames unique resource
344 names, in this case "VM".)
347 lets you set default values for the following keywords:
349 .B default.attributeFont (\fPclass\fB Face.AttributeFont)
350 Sets the window's text font.
352 .B default.attributeForeground (\fPclass\fB Face.AttributeForeground)
353 Sets the window's text color.
355 .B default.attributeBackground (\fPclass\fB Face.AttributeBackground)
356 Sets the window's background color.
358 .B \fIface\fB.attributeFont (\fPclass\fB Face.AttributeFont)
361 which should be the name of a face. Common face names are
363 .in +\w'right-margin'u+12n
364 .ta \w'right-margin'u+4n
365 .ti -\w'right-margin'u+4n
368 .ti -\w'right-margin'u+4n
371 .ti -\w'right-margin'u+4n
374 .ti -\w'right-margin'u+4n
375 italic Italicized text.
377 .ti -\w'right-margin'u+4n
378 bold-italic Bold and italicized text.
380 .ti -\w'right-margin'u+4n
381 modeline Modeline text.
383 .ti -\w'right-margin'u+4n
384 zmacs-region Text selected with the mouse.
386 .ti -\w'right-margin'u+4n
387 highlight Text highlighted when the mouse passes over.
389 .ti -\w'right-margin'u+4n
390 left-margin Text in the left margin.
392 .ti -\w'right-margin'u+4n
393 right-margin Text in the right margin.
395 .ti -\w'right-margin'u+4n
396 isearch Text highlighted during incremental search.
398 .ti -\w'right-margin'u+4n
399 info-node Text of Info menu items.
401 .ti -\w'right-margin'u+4n
402 info-xref Text of Info cross references.
404 .B \fIface\fB.attributeForeground (\fPclass\fB Face.AttributeForeground)
405 Sets the foreground color for
408 .B \fIface\fB.attributeBackground (\fPclass\fB Face.AttributeBackground)
409 Sets the background color for
412 .B \fIface\fB.attributeBackgroundPixmap (\fPclass\fB Face.AttributeBackgroundPixmap)
413 Sets the background pixmap (stipple) for
416 .B \fIface\fB.attributeUnderline (\fPclass\fB Face.AttributeUnderline)
419 should be underlined.
421 .B reverseVideo (\fPclass\fB ReverseVideo)
424 the window will be displayed in reverse video. Consider
425 explicitly setting the foreground and background colors instead
426 of using this resources.
428 .B borderWidth (\fPclass\fB BorderWidth)
429 Sets the window's border width in pixels.
431 .B internalBorderWidth (\fPclass\fB InternalBorderWidth)
432 Sets the window's internal border width in pixels.
434 .B borderColor (\fPclass\fB BorderColor)
435 Sets the color of the window's border.
437 .B cursorColor (\fPclass\fB Foreground)
438 Sets the color of the window's text cursor.
440 .B pointerColor (\fPclass\fB Foreground)
441 Sets the color of the window's mouse cursor.
443 .B geometry (\fPclass\fB Geometry)
444 Sets the geometry of the
446 window (as described above).
448 .B iconic (\fPclass\fB Iconic)
451 window will initially appear as an icon.
453 .B menubar (\fPclass\fB Menubar)
456 window will have a menubar. Defaults to true.
458 .B initiallyUnmapped (\fPclass\fB InitiallyUnmapped)
461 will leave the initial frame unmapped when it starts up.
463 .B barCursor (\fPclass\fB BarCursor)
464 Whether the cursor should be a bar instead of the traditional box.
466 .B title (\fPclass\fB Title)
467 Sets the title of the
471 .B iconName (\fPclass\fB Title)
472 Sets the icon name for the
476 .B scrollBarWidth (\fPclass\fB ScrollBarWidth)
477 Sets the width of the vertical scrollbars, in pixels. A width of 0
478 means no vertical scrollbars.
480 .B scrollBarHeight (\fPclass\fB ScrollBarHeight)
481 Sets the height of the horizontal scrollbars, in pixels. A height of 0
482 means no horizontal scrollbars.
484 .B scrollBarPlacement (\fPclass\fB ScrollBarPlacement)
485 Sets the position of vertical and horizontal scrollbars. Should be one
486 of the strings "top-left", "bottom-left", "top-right", or "bottom-right".
487 The default is "bottom-right" for the Motif and Lucid scrollbars and
488 "buttom-left" for the Athena scrollbars.
490 .B topToolBarHeight (\fPclass\fB TopToolBarHeight)
491 Sets the height of the top toolbar, in pixels. 0 means no top toolbar.
493 .B bottomToolBarHeight (\fPclass\fB BottomToolBarHeight)
494 Sets the height of the bottom toolbar, in pixels. 0 means no
497 .B leftToolBarWidth (\fPclass\fB LeftToolBarWidth)
498 Sets the width of the left toolbar, in pixels. 0 means no left toolbar.
500 .B rightToolBarWidth (\fPclass\fB RightToolBarWidth)
501 Sets the width of the right toolbar, in pixels. 0 means no right toolbar.
503 .B topToolBarShadowColor (\fPclass\fB TopToolBarShadowColor)
504 Sets the color of the top shadows for the toolbars. (For all toolbars,
505 \fBnot\fR just the toolbar at the top of the frame.)
507 .B bottomToolBarShadowColor (\fPclass\fB BottomToolBarShadowColor)
508 Sets the color of the bottom shadows for the toolbars. (For all toolbars,
509 \fBnot\fR just the toolbar at the bottom of the frame.)
511 .B topToolBarShadowPixmap (\fPclass\fB TopToolBarShadowPixmap)
512 Sets the pixmap of the top shadows for the toolbars. (For all toolbars,
513 \fBnot\fR just the toolbar at the top of the frame.) If set, this
514 resource overrides the corresponding color resource.
516 .B bottomToolBarShadowPixmap (\fPclass\fB BottomToolBarShadowPixmap)
517 Sets the pixmap of the bottom shadows for the toolbars. (For all toolbars,
518 \fBnot\fR just the toolbar at the bottom of the frame.) If set, this
519 resource overrides the corresponding color resource.
521 .B toolBarShadowThickness (\fPclass\fB ToolBarShadowThickness)
522 Thickness of the shadows around the toolbars, in pixels.
524 .B visualBell (\fPclass\fB VisualBell)
525 Whether XEmacs should flash the screen rather than making an audible beep.
527 .B bellVolume (\fPclass\fB BellVolume)
528 Volume of the audible beep. Range is 0 through 100.
530 .B useBackingStore (\fPclass\fB UseBackingStore)
533 should set the backing-store attribute of the
535 windows it creates. This increases the memory usage of the
537 server but decreases the amount of
539 traffic necessary to update the screen, and is useful when the
542 server goes over a low-bandwidth line such as a modem connection.
544 .B textPointer (\fPclass\fB Cursor)
545 The cursor to use when the mouse is over text.
547 .B selectionPointer (\fPclass\fB Cursor)
548 The cursor to use when the mouse is over a mouse-highlighted
551 .B spacePointer (\fPclass\fB Cursor)
552 The cursor to use when the mouse is over a blank space in a buffer (that
553 is, after the end of a line or after the end-of-file).
555 .B modeLinePointer (\fPclass\fB Cursor)
556 The cursor to use when the mouse is over a mode line.
558 .B gcPointer (\fPclass\fB Cursor)
559 The cursor to display when a garbage-collection is in progress.
561 .B scrollbarPointer (\fPclass\fB Cursor)
562 The cursor to use when the mouse is over the scrollbar.
564 .B pointerColor (\fPclass\fB Foreground)
565 The foreground color of the mouse cursor.
567 .B pointerBackground (\fPclass\fB Background)
568 The background color of the mouse cursor.
572 The following lists the mouse button bindings for the
576 .in +\w'CTRL-SHIFT-middle'u+4n
577 .ta \w'CTRL-SHIFT-middle'u+4n
578 .ti -\w'CTRL-SHIFT-middle'u+4n
579 MOUSE BUTTON FUNCTION
581 .ti -\w'CTRL-SHIFT-middle'u+4n
582 left Set point or make a text selection.
584 .ti -\w'CTRL-SHIFT-middle'u+4n
587 .ti -\w'CTRL-SHIFT-middle'u+4n
588 right Pop up a menu of options.
590 .ti -\w'CTRL-SHIFT-middle'u+4n
591 SHIFT-left Extend a selection.
593 .ti -\w'CTRL-SHIFT-middle'u+4n
594 CTRL-left Make a selection and insert it at point.
596 .ti -\w'CTRL-SHIFT-middle'u+4n
597 CTRL-middle Set point and move selected text there.
599 .ti -\w'CTRL-SHIFT-middle'u+4n
600 CTRL-SHIFT-left Make a selection, delete it, and insert it at point.
602 .ti -\w'CTRL-SHIFT-middle'u+4n
603 META-left Make a rectangular selection.
605 Lisp code is read at startup from the user's init file,
608 /usr/local/info - files for the Info documentation browser
611 to refer to. The complete text of the
612 .I XEmacs Reference Manual
614 .I XEmacs Lisp Programmer's Manual
615 is included in a convenient tree structured form.
617 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-$VERSION/info - the Info files may be here instead.
619 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-$VERSION/src - C source files and object files.
620 (May not be present.)
622 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-$VERSION/lisp/* - Lisp source files and compiled files
623 that define most editing commands. The files are contained in subdirectories,
624 categorized by function or individual package. Some are preloaded;
625 others are autoloaded from these directories when used.
627 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-$VERSION/etc - some files of information, pixmap
628 files, other data files used by certain packages, etc.
630 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-$VERSION/$CONFIGURATION - various programs that are used
633 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-$VERSION/$CONFIGURATION/DOC -
634 contains the documentation strings for the Lisp primitives and
635 preloaded Lisp functions of \fIXEmacs\fP.
636 They are stored here to reduce the size of \fIXEmacs\fP proper.
639 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-$VERSION/etc/SERVICE - lists people offering
640 various services to assist users of \fIXEmacs\fP,
641 including education, troubleshooting, porting and customization.
643 /usr/local/lib/xemacs/lock - holds lock files that are made for all
644 files being modified in
646 to prevent simultaneous modification of one file by two users.
648 /usr/local/lib/xemacs/site-lisp - locally-provided Lisp files.
650 /usr/lib/X11/rgb.txt - list of valid X color names.
653 There is a newsgroup, comp.emacs.xemacs, for reporting
655 bugs and fixes and requesting help. But before reporting something
656 as a bug, please try to be sure that it really is a bug, not a
657 misunderstanding or a deliberate feature. We ask you to read the section
658 ``Reporting XEmacs Bugs'' near the end of the reference manual (or Info
659 system) for hints on how and when to report bugs. Also, include the version
662 you are running and the system you are running it on
663 in \fIevery\fR bug report that you send in. Finally, the more you can
664 isolate the cause of a bug and the conditions it happens under, the more
665 likely it is to be fixed, so please take the time to do so.
667 The newsgroup is bidirectionally gatewayed to and from the mailing list
668 xemacs@xemacs.org. You can read the list instead of the newsgroup if
669 you do not have convenient Usenet news access. To request to be added
670 to the mailing list, send mail to xemacs-request@xemacs.org. (Do not
671 send mail to the list itself.)
675 maintainers read the newsgroup regularly and will attempt to
676 fix bugs reported in a timely fashion. However, not every message will
677 get a response from one of the maintainers. Note that there are many
678 people other than the maintainers who read the newsgroup, and will usually
679 be of assistance in helping with any problems encountered.
681 If you need more personal assistance than can be provided by the
682 newsgroup, look in the SERVICE file (see above) for a list of people
685 For more information about XEmacs mailing lists, see the
686 file /usr/local/lib/xemacs-$VERSION/etc/MAILINGLISTS.
690 is free; anyone may redistribute copies of
693 anyone under the terms stated in the
695 General Public License,
696 a copy of which accompanies each copy of
699 appears in the reference manual.
703 may sometimes be received packaged with distributions of Unix systems,
704 but it is never included in the scope of any license covering those
705 systems. Such inclusion violates the terms on which distribution
706 is permitted. In fact, the primary purpose of the General Public
707 License is to prohibit anyone from attaching any other restrictions
711 X(1), xlsfonts(1), xterm(1), xrdb(1), emacs(1), vi(1)
716 Steve Baur <steve@xemacs.org>,
717 Martin Buchholz <martin@xemacs.org>,
718 Richard Mlynarik <mly@adoc.xerox.com>,
719 Hrvoje Niksic <hniksic@srce.hr>,
720 Chuck Thompson <cthomp@xemacs.org>,
721 Ben Wing <wing@666.com>,
722 Jamie Zawinski <jwz@netscape.com>,
724 It was based on an early version of
727 written by Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> of the Free Software
728 Foundation, and has tracked subsequent releases of
730 as they have become available. It was originally written by Lucid, Inc.
731 (now defunct) and was called
735 Chuck Thompson wrote the
737 redisplay engine, maintains the
739 FTP and WWW sites, and has put out all releases of
741 since 19.11 (the first release called
743 Ben Wing wrote the Asian-language support, the on-line documentation
744 (including this man page and much of the FAQ), the external widget code,
745 and retooled or rewrote most of the basic, low-level
747 subsystems. Jamie Zawinski put out all releases of
750 from the first (19.0) through the last (19.10), and was the primary
751 code contributor for all of these releases. Richard Mlynarik rewrote
754 Lisp-object allocation system, improved the keymap and minibuffer code,
755 and did the initial synching of
761 Many others have also contributed significantly. For more detailed
762 information, including a long history of \fIXEmacs\fP from multiple
763 viewpoints and pretty pictures and bios of the major \fIXEmacs\fP
764 contributors, see the
766 (the About XEmacs option on the Help menu).
768 For more information about \fIXEmacs\fP, see the
771 look in the file /usr/local/lib/xemacs-$VERSION/etc/NEWS,
772 or point your Web browser at
774 http://www.xemacs.org/
776 for up-to-the-minute information about \fIXEmacs\fP.
780 FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) can be found at the Web site just listed.
781 A possibly out-of-date version is also accessible through the Info system
782 inside of \fIXEmacs\fP.
784 The latest version of \fIXEmacs\fP can be downloaded using anonymous
787 ftp://ftp.xemacs.org/pub/xemacs/
789 or from a mirror site near you. Mirror sites are listed in the file
790 etc/FTP in the XEmacs distribution or see the Web site for an up-to-date
791 list of mirror sites.