1 \input texinfo.tex @c -*-texinfo-*-
3 @setfilename ../info/xemacs-faq.info
4 @settitle Frequently asked questions about XEmacs
10 @subtitle Frequently asked questions about XEmacs @* Last Modified: $Date: 1998/05/03 10:22:33 $
12 @author Tony Rossini <arossini@@stat.sc.edu>
13 @author Ben Wing <wing@@666.com>
14 @author Chuck Thompson <cthomp@@xemacs.org>
15 @author Steve Baur <steve@@xemacs.org>
16 @author Andreas Kaempf <andreas@@sccon.com>
17 @author Christian Nyb@o{} <chr@@mediascience.no>
21 @node Top, Introduction, (dir), (dir)
23 @unnumbered Introduction
25 This is the guide to the XEmacs Frequently Asked Questions list---a
26 compendium of questions and answers pertaining to one of the finest
27 programs ever written. It is much more than just a Text Editor.
29 This FAQ is freely redistributable. I take no liability for the
30 correctness and safety of any procedures or advice given here. This
31 FAQ is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY
32 WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
33 FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
35 If you have a Web browser, the official hypertext version is at
39 @uref{http://www.xemacs.org/faq/xemacs-faq.html}.
41 This version is somewhat nicer than the unofficial hypertext versions
42 that are archived at Utrecht, Oxford, Smart Pages, and other FAQ
47 This document is available in several different formats:
50 @uref{xemacs-faq.txt, As a single ASCII file}, produced by
51 @code{makeinfo --no-headers}
53 @uref{xemacs-faq.dvi, As a .dvi file}, as used with
54 @uref{http://www.tug.org, TeX.}
56 As a PostScript file @uref{xemacs-faq-a4.ps, in A4 format},
57 as well as in @uref{xemacs-faq-letter.ps, letter format}
59 In html format, @uref{xemacs-faq_1.html, split by chapter}, or in
60 @uref{xemacs-faq.html, one monolithic} document.
62 The canonical version of the FAQ is the texinfo document
63 @uref{xemacs-faq.texi, man/xemacs-faq.texi}.
65 If you do not have makeinfo installed, you may @uref{xemacs-faq.info,
66 download the faq} in info format, and install it in @file{<XEmacs
67 library directory>/info/}. For example in
68 @file{/usr/local/lib/xemacs-20.4/info/}.
76 @c end ifset points to CANONICAL
79 * Introduction:: Introduction, Policy, Credits.
80 * Installation:: Installation and Trouble Shooting.
81 * Customization:: Customization and Options.
82 * Subsystems:: Major Subsystems.
83 * Miscellaneous:: The Miscellaneous Stuff.
84 * Current Events:: What the Future Holds.
88 --- The Detailed Node Listing ---
90 Introduction, Policy, Credits
92 * Q1.0.1:: What is XEmacs?
93 * Q1.0.2:: What is the current version of XEmacs?
94 * Q1.0.3:: Where can I find it?
95 * Q1.0.4:: Why Another Version of Emacs?
96 * Q1.0.5:: Why Haven't XEmacs and GNU Emacs Merged?
97 * Q1.0.6:: Where can I get help?
98 * Q1.0.7:: Where is the mailing list archived?
99 * Q1.0.8:: How do you pronounce XEmacs?
100 * Q1.0.9:: What does XEmacs look like?
101 * Q1.0.10:: Is there a port of XEmacs to Microsoft ('95 or NT)?
102 * Q1.0.11:: Is there a port of XEmacs to the Macintosh?
103 * Q1.0.12:: Is there a port of XEmacs to NextStep?
104 * Q1.0.13:: Is there a port of XEmacs to OS/2?
105 * Q1.0.14:: Where can I get a printed copy of the XEmacs users manual?
108 * Q1.1.1:: What is the FAQ editorial policy?
109 * Q1.1.2:: How do I become a Beta Tester?
110 * Q1.1.3:: How do I contribute to XEmacs itself?
113 * Q1.2.1:: Who wrote XEmacs?
114 * Q1.2.2:: Who contributed to this version of the FAQ?
115 * Q1.2.3:: Who contributed to the FAQ in the past?
117 Internationalization:
118 * Q1.3.1:: What is the status of XEmacs v20?
119 * Q1.3.2:: What is the status of Asian-language support, aka @var{mule}?
120 * Q1.3.3:: How do I type non-ASCII characters?
121 * Q1.3.4:: Can XEmacs messages come out in a different language?
122 * Q1.3.5:: Please explain the various input methods in MULE/XEmacs 20.0
123 * Q1.3.6:: How do I portably code for MULE/XEmacs 20.0?
124 * Q1.3.7:: How about Cyrillic Modes?
127 * Q1.4.1:: What is a @file{.emacs} and is there a sample one?
128 * Q1.4.2:: Can I use the same @file{.emacs} with the other Emacs?
129 * Q1.4.3:: Any good XEmacs tutorials around?
130 * Q1.4.4:: May I see an example of a useful XEmacs Lisp function?
131 * Q1.4.5:: And how do I bind it to a key?
132 * Q1.4.6:: What's the difference between a macro and a function?
133 * Q1.4.7:: Why options saved with 19.13 don't work with 19.14 or later?
135 Installation and Trouble Shooting
137 * Q2.0.1:: Running XEmacs without installing.
138 * Q2.0.2:: XEmacs is too big.
139 * Q2.0.3:: Compiling XEmacs with Netaudio.
140 * Q2.0.4:: Problems with Linux and ncurses.
141 * Q2.0.5:: Do I need X11 to run XEmacs?
142 * Q2.0.6:: I'm having strange crashes. What do I do?
143 * Q2.0.7:: Libraries in non-standard locations.
144 * Q2.0.8:: can't resolve symbol _h_errno
145 * Q2.0.9:: Where do I find external libraries?
146 * Q2.0.10:: After I run configure I find a coredump, is something wrong?
147 * Q2.0.11:: XEmacs can't resolve host names.
148 * Q2.0.12:: Why can't I strip XEmacs?
149 * Q2.0.13:: Can't link XEmacs on Solaris with Gcc.
150 * Q2.0.14:: Make on HP/UX 9 fails after linking temacs
153 * Q2.1.1:: XEmacs just crashed on me!
154 * Q2.1.2:: Cryptic Minibuffer messages.
155 * Q2.1.3:: Translation Table Syntax messages at Startup.
156 * Q2.1.4:: Startup warnings about deducing proper fonts?
157 * Q2.1.5:: XEmacs cannot connect to my X Terminal.
158 * Q2.1.6:: XEmacs just locked up my Linux X server.
159 * Q2.1.7:: HP Alt key as Meta.
160 * Q2.1.8:: got (wrong-type-argument color-instance-p nil)!
161 * Q2.1.9:: XEmacs causes my OpenWindows 3.0 server to crash.
162 * Q2.1.10:: Warnings from incorrect key modifiers.
163 * Q2.1.11:: Can't instantiate image error... in toolbar
164 * Q2.1.12:: Regular Expression Problems on DEC OSF1.
165 * Q2.1.13:: HP/UX 10.10 and @code{create_process} failure
166 * Q2.1.14:: @kbd{C-g} doesn't work for me. Is it broken?
167 * Q2.1.15:: How to debug an XEmacs problem with a debugger.
168 * Q2.1.16:: XEmacs crashes in @code{strcat} on HP/UX 10.
169 * Q2.1.17:: @samp{Marker does not point anywhere}.
170 * Q2.1.18:: 19.14 hangs on HP/UX 10.10.
171 * Q2.1.19:: XEmacs does not follow the local timezone.
172 * Q2.1.20:: @samp{Symbol's function definition is void: hkey-help-show.}
173 * Q2.1.21:: Every so often the XEmacs frame freezes.
174 * Q2.1.22:: XEmacs seems to take a really long time to do some things.
175 * Q2.1.23:: Movemail on Linux does not work for XEmacs 19.15 and later.
177 Customization and Options
179 * Q3.0.1:: What version of Emacs am I running?
180 * Q3.0.2:: How do I evaluate Elisp expressions?
181 * Q3.0.3:: @code{(setq tab-width 6)} behaves oddly.
182 * Q3.0.4:: How can I add directories to the @code{load-path}?
183 * Q3.0.5:: How to check if a lisp function is defined?
184 * Q3.0.6:: Can I force the output of @code{(face-list)} to a buffer?
185 * Q3.0.7:: Font selections don't get saved after @code{Save Options}.
186 * Q3.0.8:: How do I make a single minibuffer frame?
187 * Q3.0.9:: What is @code{Customize}?
189 X Window System & Resources:
190 * Q3.1.1:: Where is a list of X resources?
191 * Q3.1.2:: How can I detect a color display?
192 * Q3.1.3:: @code{(set-screen-width)} worked in 19.6, but not in 19.13?
193 * Q3.1.4:: Specifying @code{Emacs*EmacsScreen.geometry} in @file{.emacs} does not work in 19.15?
194 * Q3.1.5:: How can I get the icon to just say @samp{XEmacs}?
195 * Q3.1.6:: How can I have the window title area display the full path?
196 * Q3.1.7:: @samp{xemacs -name junk} doesn't work?
197 * Q3.1.8:: @samp{-iconic} doesn't work.
199 Textual Fonts & Colors:
200 * Q3.2.1:: How can I set color options from @file{.emacs}?
201 * Q3.2.2:: How do I set the text, menu and modeline fonts?
202 * Q3.2.3:: How can I set the colors when highlighting a region?
203 * Q3.2.4:: How can I limit color map usage?
204 * Q3.2.5:: My tty supports color, but XEmacs doesn't use them.
205 * Q3.2.6:: Can I have pixmap backgrounds in XEmacs?
208 * Q3.3.1:: How can I make the modeline go away?
209 * Q3.3.2:: How do you have XEmacs display the line number in the modeline?
210 * Q3.3.3:: How do I get XEmacs to put the time of day on the modeline?
211 * Q3.3.4:: How do I turn off current chapter from AUC TeX modeline?
212 * Q3.3.5:: How can one change the modeline color based on the mode used?
214 Multiple Device Support:
215 * Q3.4.1:: How do I open a frame on another screen of my multi-headed display?
216 * Q3.4.2:: Can I really connect to a running XEmacs after calling up over a modem? How?
219 * Q3.5.1:: How can I bind complex functions (or macros) to keys?
220 * Q3.5.2:: How can I stop down-arrow from adding empty lines to the bottom of my buffers?
221 * Q3.5.3:: How do I bind C-. and C-; to scroll one line up and down?
222 * Q3.5.4:: Globally binding @kbd{Delete}?
223 * Q3.5.5:: Scrolling one line at a time.
224 * Q3.5.6:: How to map @kbd{Help} key alone on Sun type4 keyboard?
225 * Q3.5.7:: How can you type in special characters in XEmacs?
226 * Q3.5.8:: Why does @code{(global-set-key [delete-forward] 'delete-char)} complain?
227 * Q3.5.9:: How do I make the Delete key delete forward?
228 * Q3.5.10:: Can I turn on @dfn{sticky} modifier keys?
229 * Q3.5.11:: How do I map the arrow keys?
232 * Q3.6.1:: Is there a way to make the bar cursor thicker?
233 * Q3.6.2:: Is there a way to get back the old block cursor where the cursor covers the character in front of the point?
234 * Q3.6.3:: Can I make the cursor blink?
236 The Mouse and Highlighting:
237 * Q3.7.1:: How can I turn off Mouse pasting?
238 * Q3.7.2:: How do I set control/meta/etc modifiers on mouse buttons?
239 * Q3.7.3:: Clicking the left button does not do anything in buffer list.
240 * Q3.7.4:: How can I get a list of buffers when I hit mouse button 3?
241 * Q3.7.5:: Why does cut-and-paste not work between XEmacs and a cmdtool?
242 * Q3.7.6:: How I can set XEmacs up so that it pastes where the text cursor is?
243 * Q3.7.7:: How do I select a rectangular region?
244 * Q3.7.8:: Why does @kbd{M-w} take so long?
246 The Menubar and Toolbar:
247 * Q3.8.1:: How do I get rid of the menu (or menubar)?
248 * Q3.8.2:: Can I customize the basic menubar?
249 * Q3.8.3:: How do I control how many buffers are listed in the menu @code{Buffers} list?
250 * Q3.8.4:: Resources like @code{Emacs*menubar*font} are not working?
251 * Q3.8.5:: How can I bind a key to a function to toggle the toolbar?
254 * Q3.9.1:: How can I disable the scrollbar?
255 * Q3.9.2:: How can one use resources to change scrollbar colors?
256 * Q3.9.3:: Moving the scrollbar can move the point; can I disable this?
257 * Q3.9.4:: How can I get automatic horizontal scrolling?
260 * Q3.10.1:: How can I turn off or change highlighted selections?
261 * Q3.10.2:: How do I get that typing on an active region removes it?
262 * Q3.10.3:: Can I turn off the highlight during isearch?
263 * Q3.10.4:: How do I turn off highlighting after @kbd{C-x C-p} (mark-page)?
264 * Q3.10.5:: The region disappears when I hit the end of buffer while scrolling.
268 * Q4.0.1:: How do I set up VM to retrieve remote mail using POP?
269 * Q4.0.2:: How do I get VM to filter mail for me?
270 * Q4.0.3:: How can I get VM to automatically check for new mail?
271 * Q4.0.4:: [This question intentionally left blank]
272 * Q4.0.5:: How do I get my outgoing mail archived?
273 * Q4.0.6:: I have various addresses at which I receive mail. How can I tell VM to ignore them when doing a "reply-all"?
274 * Q4.0.7:: Is there a mailing list or FAQ for VM?
275 * Q4.0.8:: Remote mail reading with VM.
276 * Q4.0.9:: rmail or VM gets an error incorporating new mail.
277 * Q4.0.10:: How do I make VM stay in a single frame?
278 * Q4.0.11:: How do I make VM or mh-e display graphical smilies?
279 * Q4.0.12:: Customization of VM not covered in the manual or here.
281 Web browsing with W3:
282 * Q4.1.1:: What is W3?
283 * Q4.1.2:: How do I run W3 from behind a firewall?
284 * Q4.1.3:: Is it true that W3 supports style sheets and tables?
286 Reading Netnews and Mail with Gnus:
287 * Q4.2.1:: GNUS, (ding) Gnus, Gnus 5, September Gnus, Red Gnus, Quassia Gnus, argh!
288 * Q4.2.2:: [This question intentionally left blank]
289 * Q4.2.3:: How do I make Gnus stay within a single frame?
290 * Q4.2.4:: How do I customize the From: line?
293 * Q4.3.1:: How can I read and/or compose MIME messages?
294 * Q4.3.2:: What is TM and where do I get it?
295 * Q4.3.3:: Why isn't this @code{movemail} program working?
296 * Q4.3.4:: Movemail is also distributed by Netscape? Can that cause problems?
297 * Q4.3.5:: Where do I find pstogif (required by tm)?
299 Sparcworks, EOS, and WorkShop:
300 * Q4.4.1:: What is SPARCworks, EOS, and WorkShop
303 * Q4.5.1:: What is/was Energize?
306 * Q4.6.1:: What is Infodock?
308 Other Unbundled Packages:
309 * Q4.7.1:: What is AUC TeX? Where do you get it?
310 * Q4.7.2:: Are there any Emacs Lisp Spreadsheets?
311 * Q4.7.3:: Byte compiling AUC TeX on XEmacs 19.14
312 * Q4.7.4:: Problems installing AUC TeX
313 * Q4.7.5:: Is there a reason for an Emacs package not to be included in XEmacs?
314 * Q4.7.6:: Is there a MatLab mode?
316 The Miscellaneous Stuff
318 * Q5.0.1:: How can I do source code highlighting using font-lock?
319 * Q5.0.2:: I do not like cc-mode. How do I use the old c-mode?
320 * Q5.0.3:: How do I get @samp{More} Syntax Highlighting on by default?
321 * Q5.0.4:: How can I enable auto-indent?
322 * Q5.0.5:: How can I get XEmacs to come up in text/auto-fill mode by default?
323 * Q5.0.6:: How do I start up a second shell buffer?
324 * Q5.0.7:: Telnet from shell filters too much.
325 * Q5.0.8:: Why does edt emulation not work?
326 * Q5.0.9:: How can I emulate VI and use it as my default mode?
327 * Q5.0.10:: [This question intentionally left blank]
328 * Q5.0.11:: Filladapt doesn't work in 19.15?
329 * Q5.0.12:: How do I disable gnuserv from opening a new frame?
330 * Q5.0.13:: How do I start gnuserv so that each subsequent XEmacs is a client?
331 * Q5.0.14:: Strange things are happening in Shell Mode.
332 * Q5.0.15:: Where do I get the latest CC Mode?
333 * Q5.0.16:: I find auto-show-mode disconcerting. How do I turn it off?
334 * Q5.0.17:: How can I get two instances of info?
335 * Q5.0.18:: I upgraded to XEmacs 19.14 and gnuserv stopped working
336 * Q5.0.19:: Is there something better than LaTeX mode?
337 * Q5.0.20:: Is there a way to start a new XEmacs if there's no gnuserv running, and otherwise use gnuclient?
339 Emacs Lisp Programming Techniques:
340 * Q5.1.1:: The difference in key sequences between XEmacs and GNU Emacs?
341 * Q5.1.2:: Can I generate "fake" keyboard events?
342 * Q5.1.3:: Could you explain @code{read-kbd-macro} in more detail?
343 * Q5.1.4:: What is the performance hit of @code{let}?
344 * Q5.1.5:: What is the recommended use of @code{setq}?
345 * Q5.1.6:: What is the typical misuse of @code{setq} ?
346 * Q5.1.7:: I like the the @code{do} form of cl, does it slow things down?
347 * Q5.1.8:: I like recursion, does it slow things down?
348 * Q5.1.9:: How do I put a glyph as annotation in a buffer?
349 * Q5.1.10:: @code{map-extents} won't traverse all of my extents!
350 * Q5.1.11:: My elisp program is horribly slow. Is there an easy way to find out where it spends time?
353 * Q5.2.1:: How do I turn off the sound?
354 * Q5.2.2:: How do I get funky sounds instead of a boring beep?
355 * Q5.2.3:: What's NAS, how do I get it?
356 * Q5.2.4:: Sunsite sounds don't play.
359 * Q5.3.1:: How do you make XEmacs indent CL if-clauses correctly?
360 * Q5.3.2:: Fontifying hangs when editing a postscript file.
361 * Q5.3.3:: How can I print WYSIWYG a font-locked buffer?
362 * Q5.3.4:: Getting @kbd{M-x lpr} to work with postscript printer.
363 * Q5.3.5:: How do I specify the paths that XEmacs uses for finding files?
364 * Q5.3.6:: [This question intentionally left blank]
365 * Q5.3.7:: Can I have the end of the buffer delimited in some way?
366 * Q5.3.8:: How do I insert today's date into a buffer?
367 * Q5.3.9:: Are only certain syntactic character classes available for abbrevs?
368 * Q5.3.10:: How can I get those oh-so-neat X-Face lines?
369 * Q5.3.11:: How do I add new Info directories?
370 * Q5.3.12:: What do I need to change to make printing work?
372 What the Future Holds
374 * Q6.0.1:: What is new in 20.2?
375 * Q6.0.2:: What is new in 20.3?
376 * Q6.0.3:: What is new in 20.4?
377 * Q6.0.4:: Procedural changes in XEmacs development.
381 @node Introduction, Installation, Top, Top
382 @unnumbered 1 Introduction, Policy, Credits
384 Learning XEmacs is a lifelong activity. Even people who have used Emacs
385 for years keep discovering new features. Therefore this document cannot
386 be complete. Instead it is aimed at the person who is either
387 considering XEmacs for their own use, or has just obtained it and is
388 wondering what to do next. It is also useful as a reference to
391 The previous maintainer of the FAQ was @email{rossini@@stat.sc.edu,
392 Anthony Rossini}, who started it, after getting tired of hearing JWZ
393 complain about repeatedly having to answer questions.
394 @email{ben@@666.com, Ben Wing} and @email{cthomp@@xemacs.org, Chuck
395 Thompson}, the principal authors of XEmacs, then took over and Ben did
396 a massive update reorganizing the whole thing. At which point Anthony
397 took back over, but then had to give it up again. Some of the other
398 contributors to this FAQ are listed later in this document.
400 The previous version was converted to hypertext format, and edited by
401 @email{steve@@altair.xemacs.org, Steven L. Baur}. It was converted back to
402 texinfo by @email{hniksic@@srce.hr, Hrvoje Niksic}.
404 The FAQ was then maintained by @email{andreas@@sccon.com, Andreas
405 Kaempf}, who passed it on to @email{faq@@xemacs.org, Christian
406 Nyb@o{}}, the current FAQ maintainer.
408 If you notice any errors or items which should be added or amended to
409 this FAQ please send email to @email{faq@@xemacs.org, Christian
410 Nyb@o{}}. Include @samp{XEmacs FAQ} on the Subject: line.
414 * Q1.0.1:: What is XEmacs?
415 * Q1.0.2:: What is the current version of XEmacs?
416 * Q1.0.3:: Where can I find it?
417 * Q1.0.4:: Why Another Version of Emacs?
418 * Q1.0.5:: Why Haven't XEmacs and GNU Emacs Merged?
419 * Q1.0.6:: Where can I get help?
420 * Q1.0.7:: Where is the mailing list archived?
421 * Q1.0.8:: How do you pronounce XEmacs?
422 * Q1.0.9:: What does XEmacs look like?
423 * Q1.0.10:: Is there a port of XEmacs to Microsoft ('95 or NT)?
424 * Q1.0.11:: Is there a port of XEmacs to the Macintosh?
425 * Q1.0.12:: Is there a port of XEmacs to NextStep?
426 * Q1.0.13:: Is there a port of XEmacs to OS/2?
427 * Q1.0.14:: Where can I get a printed copy of the XEmacs users manual?
430 * Q1.1.1:: What is the FAQ editorial policy?
431 * Q1.1.2:: How do I become a Beta Tester?
432 * Q1.1.3:: How do I contribute to XEmacs itself?
435 * Q1.2.1:: Who wrote XEmacs?
436 * Q1.2.2:: Who contributed to this version of the FAQ?
437 * Q1.2.3:: Who contributed to the FAQ in the past?
439 Internationalization:
440 * Q1.3.1:: What is the status of XEmacs v20?
441 * Q1.3.2:: What is the status of Asian-language support, aka @var{mule}?
442 * Q1.3.3:: How do I type non-ASCII characters?
443 * Q1.3.4:: Can XEmacs messages come out in a different language?
444 * Q1.3.5:: Please explain the various input methods in MULE/XEmacs 20.0
445 * Q1.3.6:: How do I portably code for MULE/XEmacs 20.0?
446 * Q1.3.7:: How about Cyrillic Modes?
449 * Q1.4.1:: What is a @file{.emacs} and is there a sample one?
450 * Q1.4.2:: Can I use the same @file{.emacs} with the other Emacs?
451 * Q1.4.3:: Any good XEmacs tutorials around?
452 * Q1.4.4:: May I see an example of a useful XEmacs Lisp function?
453 * Q1.4.5:: And how do I bind it to a key?
454 * Q1.4.6:: What's the difference between a macro and a function?
455 * Q1.4.7:: Why options saved with 19.13 don't work with 19.14 or later?
458 @node Q1.0.1, Q1.0.2, Introduction, Introduction
459 @unnumberedsec 1.0: Introduction
460 @unnumberedsubsec Q1.0.1: What is XEmacs?
463 An alternative to GNU Emacs, originally based on an early alpha version
464 of FSF's version 19, and has diverged quite a bit since then. XEmacs
465 was known as Lucid Emacs through version 19.10. Almost all features of
466 GNU Emacs are supported in XEmacs. The maintainers of XEmacs actively
467 track changes to GNU Emacs while also working to add new features.
469 @node Q1.0.2, Q1.0.3, Q1.0.1, Introduction
470 @unnumberedsubsec Q1.0.2: What is the current version of XEmacs?
472 XEmacs 20.4 is a minor upgrade from 20.3, containing many bugfixes. It
473 was released in February 1998.
475 XEmacs 19.16 was the last release of v19, released in November, 1997,
476 which was also the last version without international language support.
478 @node Q1.0.3, Q1.0.4, Q1.0.2, Introduction
479 @unnumberedsubsec Q1.0.3: Where can I find it?
481 The canonical source and binaries is found via anonymous FTP at:
484 @uref{ftp://ftp.xemacs.org/pub/xemacs/}
487 @node Q1.0.4, Q1.0.5, Q1.0.3, Introduction
488 @unnumberedsubsec Q1.0.4: Why Another Version of Emacs?
490 For a detailed description of the differences between GNU Emacs and
491 XEmacs and a detailed history of XEmacs, check out the
493 @uref{http://www.xemacs.org/NEWS.html, NEWS file}
496 However, here is a list of some of the reasons why we think you might
504 The XEmacs maintainers are generally more receptive to suggestions than
505 the GNU Emacs maintainers.
508 Many more bundled packages than GNU Emacs
511 Binaries are available for many common operating systems.
514 Face support on TTY's.
520 Better Motif compliance.
523 Some internationalization support (including full MULE support, if
527 Variable-width fonts.
530 Variable-height lines.
533 Marginal annotations.
539 XEmacs can be used as an Xt widget, and can be embedded within another
543 Horizontal and vertical scrollbars (using real toolkit scrollbars).
546 Better APIs (and performance) for attaching fonts, colors, and other
550 The ability to embed arbitrary graphics in a buffer.
553 Completely compatible (at the C level) with the Xt-based toolkits.
556 First production Web Browser supporting Style Sheets.
559 @node Q1.0.5, Q1.0.6, Q1.0.4, Introduction
560 @unnumberedsubsec Q1.0.5: Why Haven't XEmacs and GNU Emacs Merged?
562 There are currently irreconcilable differences in the views about
563 technical, programming, design and organizational matters between RMS
564 and the XEmacs development team which provide little hope for a merge to
565 take place in the short-term future.
567 If you have a comment to add regarding the merge, it is a good idea to
568 avoid posting to the newsgroups, because of the very heated flamewars
569 that often result. Mail your questions to @email{xemacs-beta@@xemacs.org} and
570 @email{bug-gnu-emacs@@prep.ai.mit.edu}.
572 @node Q1.0.6, Q1.0.7, Q1.0.5, Introduction
573 @unnumberedsubsec Q1.0.6: Where can I get help?
575 Probably the easiest way, if everything is installed, is to use info, by
576 pressing @kbd{C-h i}, or selecting @code{Emacs Info} from the Help Menu.
578 Also, @kbd{M-x apropos} will look for commands for you.
580 Try reading this FAQ, examining the regular GNU Emacs FAQ (which can be
581 found with the Emacs 19 distribution) as well as at
582 @uref{http://www.eecs.nwu.edu/emacs/faq/} and reading the Usenet group
585 If that does not help, try posting your question to comp.emacs.xemacs.
586 Please @strong{do not} post XEmacs related questions to gnu.emacs.help.
588 If you cannot post or read Usenet news, there is a corresponding mailing
589 list which is available. It can be subscribed to by sending a message
590 with a subject of @samp{subscribe} to @email{xemacs-request@@xemacs.org}
591 for subscription information and @email{xemacs@@xemacs.org} to send messages
594 To cancel a subscription, you @strong{must} use the xemacs-request
595 address. Send a message with a subject of @samp{unsubscribe} to be
598 @node Q1.0.7, Q1.0.8, Q1.0.6, Introduction
599 @unnumberedsubsec Q1.0.7: Where is the mailing list archived?
601 The mailing list was archived in the directory
603 @uref{ftp://ftp.xemacs.org/pub/mlists/}.
606 However, this archive is out of date. The current mailing list server
607 supports an @code{archive} feature, which may be utilized.
609 @node Q1.0.8, Q1.0.9, Q1.0.7, Introduction
610 @unnumberedsubsec Q1.0.8: How do you pronounce XEmacs?
612 I pronounce it @samp{Eks eemax}.
614 @node Q1.0.9, Q1.0.10, Q1.0.8, Introduction
615 @unnumberedsubsec Q1.0.9: What does XEmacs look like?
617 Screen snapshots are available in the WWW version of the FAQ.
619 @uref{http://www.xemacs.org/faq/xemacs-faq.html}
622 @node Q1.0.10, Q1.0.11, Q1.0.9, Introduction
623 @unnumberedsubsec Q1.0.10: Is there a port of XEmacs to Microsoft ('95 or NT)?
625 Thanks to efforts of many people, coordinated by
626 @email{davidh@@wr.com.au, David Hobley} and @email{marcpa@@cam.org, Marc
627 Paquette}, beta versions of XEmacs now run on 32-bit Windows platforms
628 (NT and 95). The current betas require having an X server to run
629 XEmacs; however, a native NT/95 port is in alpha, thanks to
630 @email{jhar@@tardis.ed.ac.uk, Jonathan Harris}.
632 Although some features are still unimplemented, XEmacs 21.0 will support
635 The NT development is now coordinated by a mailing list at
636 @email{xemacs-nt@@xemacs.org}.
638 If you are willing to contribute or want to follow the progress, mail to
642 @email{xemacs-nt-request@@xemacs.org} to subscribe.
644 Furthermore, Altrasoft is seeking corporate and government sponsors to
645 help fund a fully native port of XEmacs to Windows 95 and NT using
646 full-time, senior-level staff working under a professionally managed
647 project structure. See @uref{http://www.altrasoft.com/, the Altrasoft
648 web site} for more details
649 or contact Altrasoft directly at 1-888-ALTSOFT.
652 The closest existing port is @dfn{Win-Emacs}, which is based on Lucid
653 Emacs 19.6. Available from @uref{http://www.pearlsoft.com/}.
655 There's a port of GNU Emacs (not XEmacs) at
657 @uref{http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/voelker/ntemacs.html}.
660 @node Q1.0.11, Q1.0.12, Q1.0.10, Introduction
661 @unnumberedsubsec Q1.0.11: Is there a port of XEmacs to the Macintosh?
664 There has been a port to the MachTen environment of XEmacs 19.13, but no
665 patches have been submitted to the maintainers to get this in the
666 mainstream distribution.
668 For the MacOS, there is a port of
669 @uref{ftp://ftp.cs.cornell.edu/pub/parmet/, Emacs 18.59}.
671 @node Q1.0.12, Q1.0.13, Q1.0.11, Introduction
672 @unnumberedsubsec Q1.0.12: Is there a port of XEmacs to NextStep?
674 Carl Edman, apparently no longer at @email{cedman@@princeton.edu}, did
675 the port of GNU Emacs to NeXTstep and expressed interest in doing the
676 XEmacs port, but never went any farther.
678 @node Q1.0.13, Q1.0.14, Q1.0.12, Introduction
679 @unnumberedsubsec Q1.0.13: Is there a port of XEmacs to OS/2?
681 No, and there is no news of anyone working on it.
683 @node Q1.0.14, Q1.1.1, Q1.0.13, Introduction
684 @unnumberedsubsec Q1.0.14: Where can I obtain a printed copy of the XEmacs users manual?
686 Altrasoft Associates, a firm specializing in Emacs-related support and
687 development, will be maintaining the XEmacs user manual. The firm plans
688 to begin publishing printed copies of the manual soon.
689 @c This used to say `March 1997'!
692 Web: @uref{http://www.xemacs.com}
693 E-mail: @email{info@@xemacs.com}
697 @node Q1.1.1, Q1.1.2, Q1.0.14, Introduction
698 @unnumberedsec 1.1: Policies
699 @unnumberedsubsec Q1.1.1: What is the FAQ editorial policy?
701 The FAQ is actively maintained and modified regularly. All links should
704 Changes are displayed on a monthly basis. @dfn{Months}, for this
705 purpose are defined as the 5th of the month through the 5th of the
706 month. Preexisting questions that have been changed are marked as such.
707 Brand new questions are tagged.
709 All submissions are welcome. E-mail submissions
714 @email{faq@@xemacs.org, Christian Nyb@o{}}.
716 Please make sure that @samp{XEmacs FAQ} appears on the Subject: line.
717 If you think you have a better way of answering a question, or think a
718 question should be included, I'd like to hear about it. Questions and
719 answers included into the FAQ will be edited for spelling and grammar,
720 and will be attributed. Answers appearing without attribution are
721 either from versions of the FAQ dated before May 1996, or are from one
722 of the four people listed at the top of this document. Answers quoted
723 from Usenet news articles will always be attributed, regardless of the
726 @node Q1.1.2, Q1.1.3, Q1.1.1, Introduction
727 @unnumberedsubsec Q1.1.2: How do I become a Beta Tester?
729 Send an email message to @email{xemacs-beta-request@@xemacs.org} with a
730 subject line of @samp{subscribe}.
732 Be prepared to get your hands dirty, as beta testers are expected to
733 identify problems as best they can.
735 @node Q1.1.3, Q1.2.1, Q1.1.2, Introduction
736 @unnumberedsubsec Q1.1.3: How do I contribute to XEmacs itself?
738 Ben Wing @email{ben@@666.com} writes:
741 BTW if you have a wish list of things that you want added, you have to
742 speak up about it! More specifically, you can do the following if you
743 want a feature added (in increasing order of usefulness):
747 Make a posting about a feature you want added.
750 Become a beta tester and make more postings about those same features.
753 Convince us that you're going to use the features in some cool and
757 Come up with a clear and well-thought-out API concerning the features.
760 Write the code to implement a feature and send us a patch.
763 (not that we're necessarily requiring you to write the code, but we can
767 @node Q1.2.1, Q1.2.2, Q1.1.3, Introduction
768 @unnumberedsec 1.2: Credits
769 @unnumberedsubsec Q1.2.1: Who wrote XEmacs?
771 XEmacs is the result of the time and effort of many people. The
772 developers responsible for the 19.16/20.x releases are:
775 @item @email{martin@@xemacs.org, Martin Buchholz}
777 <br><img src="mrb.jpeg" alt="Portrait of Martin Buchholz"><br>
781 @item @email{steve@@altair.xemacs.org, Steve Baur}
784 <br><img src="steve.gif" alt="Portrait of Steve Baur"><br>
788 @item @email{hniksic@@srce.hr, Hrvoje Niksic}
791 <br><img src="hniksic.jpeg" alt="Portrait of Hrvoje Niksic"><br>
796 The developers responsible for the 19.14 release are:
799 @item @email{cthomp@@xemacs.org, Chuck Thompson}
801 <br><img src="cthomp.jpeg" alt="Portrait of Chuck Thompson"><br>
804 Chuck was Mr. XEmacs from 19.11 through 19.14, and is responsible
805 for XEmacs becoming a widely distributed program over the Internet.
807 @item @email{ben@@666.com, Ben Wing}
809 <br><img src="wing.gif" alt="Portrait of Ben Wing"><br>
816 @item @email{jwz@@netscape.com, Jamie Zawinski}
818 <br><img src="jwz.gif" alt="Portrait of Jamie Zawinski"><br>
821 Jamie Zawinski was Mr. Lucid Emacs from 19.0 through 19.10, the last
822 release actually named Lucid Emacs. Richard Mlynarik was crucial to
823 most of those releases.
825 @item @email{mly@@adoc.xerox.com, Richard Mlynarik}
828 Along with many other contributors, partially enumerated in the
829 @samp{About XEmacs} option in the Help menu.
831 @node Q1.2.2, Q1.2.3, Q1.2.1, Introduction
832 @unnumberedsubsec Q1.2.2: Who contributed to this version of the FAQ?
834 The following people contributed valuable suggestions to building this
835 version of the FAQ (listed in alphabetical order):
838 @item @email{steve@@xemacs.org, SL Baur}
840 @item @email{hniksic@@srce.hr, Hrvoje Niksic}
842 @item @email{Aki.Vehtari@@hut.fi, Aki Vehtari}
846 @node Q1.2.3, Q1.3.1, Q1.2.2, Introduction
847 @unnumberedsubsec Q1.2.3: Who contributed to the FAQ in the past?
849 This is only a partial list, as many names were lost in a hard disk
853 @item @email{binge@@aloft.att.com, Curtis.N.Bingham}
855 @item @email{rjc@@cogsci.ed.ac.uk, Richard Caley}
857 @item @email{cognot@@ensg.u-nancy.fr, Richard Cognot}
859 @item @email{wgd@@martigny.ai.mit.edu, William G. Dubuque}
861 @item @email{eeide@@cs.utah.edu, Eric Eide}
863 @item @email{cflatter@@nrao.edu, Chris Flatters}
865 @item @email{ginsparg@@adra.com, Evelyn Ginsparg}
867 @item @email{hall@@aplcenmp.apl.jhu.edu, Marty Hall}
869 @item @email{dkindred@@cmu.edu, Darrell Kindred}
871 @item @email{dmoore@@ucsd.edu, David Moore}
873 @item @email{arup+@@cmu.edu, Arup Mukherjee}
875 @item @email{nickel@@prz.tu-berlin.de, Juergen Nickelsen}
877 @item @email{powell@@csl.ncsa.uiuc.edu, Kevin R. Powell}
879 @item @email{dworkin@@ccs.neu.edu, Justin Sheehy}
881 @item @email{stig@@hackvan.com, Stig}
883 @item @email{Aki.Vehtari@@hut.fi, Aki Vehtari}
886 @node Q1.3.1, Q1.3.2, Q1.2.3, Introduction
887 @unnumberedsec 1.3: Internationalization
888 @unnumberedsubsec Q1.3.1: What is the status of XEmacs v20?
890 XEmacs v20 is the version of XEmacs that includes MULE (Asian-language)
891 support. XEmacs 20.0 was released in February 1997, followed by XEmacs
892 20.2 in May, XEmacs 20.3 in November and XEmacs 20.4 in February 1998. When compiled without MULE
893 support, 20.4 is approximately as stable as 19.16, and probably faster
894 (due to additional optimization work.)
896 As of XEmacs 20.3, version 20 is @emph{the} supported version of
897 XEmacs. This means that 19.16 will optionally receive stability fixes
898 (if any), but that all the real development work will be done on the v20
901 The incompatible changes in XEmacs 20 include the additional byte-codes,
902 new primitive data types (@code{character}, @code{char-table}, and
903 @code{range-table}). This means that the character-integer equivalence
904 inherent to all the previous Emacs and XEmacs releases no longer
907 However, to avoid breaking old code, many functions that should normally
908 accept characters work with integers, and vice versa. For more
909 information, see the Lisp reference manual. Here is a relevant excerpt,
910 for your convenience.
913 In XEmacs version 19, and in all versions of FSF GNU Emacs, a
914 @dfn{character} in XEmacs Lisp is nothing more than an integer.
915 This is yet another holdover from XEmacs Lisp's derivation from
916 vintage-1980 Lisps; modern versions of Lisp consider this equivalence
917 a bad idea, and have separate character types. In XEmacs version 20,
918 the modern convention is followed, and characters are their own
919 primitive types. (This change was necessary in order for @sc{MULE},
920 i.e. Asian-language, support to be correctly implemented.)
922 Even in XEmacs version 20, remnants of the equivalence between
923 characters and integers still exist; this is termed the @dfn{char-int
924 confoundance disease}. In particular, many functions such as @code{eq},
925 @code{equal}, and @code{memq} have equivalent functions (@code{old-eq},
926 @code{old-equal}, @code{old-memq}, etc.) that pretend like characters
927 are integers are the same. Byte code compiled under any version 19
928 Emacs will have all such functions mapped to their @code{old-} equivalents
929 when the byte code is read into XEmacs 20. This is to preserve
930 compatibility -- Emacs 19 converts all constant characters to the equivalent
931 integer during byte-compilation, and thus there is no other way to preserve
932 byte-code compatibility even if the code has specifically been written
933 with the distinction between characters and integers in mind.
935 Every character has an equivalent integer, called the @dfn{character
936 code}. For example, the character @kbd{A} is represented as the
937 @w{integer 65}, following the standard @sc{ASCII} representation of
938 characters. If XEmacs was not compiled with @sc{MULE} support, the
939 range of this integer will always be 0 to 255 -- eight bits, or one
940 byte. (Integers outside this range are accepted but silently truncated;
941 however, you should most decidedly @emph{not} rely on this, because it
942 will not work under XEmacs with @sc{MULE} support.) When @sc{MULE}
943 support is present, the range of character codes is much
944 larger. (Currently, 19 bits are used.)
946 FSF GNU Emacs uses kludgy character codes above 255 to represent
947 keyboard input of @sc{ASCII} characters in combination with certain
948 modifiers. XEmacs does not use this (a more general mechanism is
949 used that does not distinguish between @sc{ASCII} keys and other
950 keys), so you will never find character codes above 255 in a
951 non-@sc{MULE} XEmacs.
953 Individual characters are not often used in programs. It is far more
954 common to work with @emph{strings}, which are sequences composed of
958 @node Q1.3.2, Q1.3.3, Q1.3.1, Introduction
959 @unnumberedsubsec Q1.3.2: What is the status of Asian-language support, aka MULE?
961 The MULE support works OK but still needs a fair amount of work before
962 it's really solid. We could definitely use some help here, esp. people
963 who speak Japanese and will use XEmacs/MULE to work with Japanese and
964 have some experience with E-Lisp.
966 As the fundings on Mule have stopped, the Mule part of XEmacs is currently
967 looking for a full-time maintainer. If you can provide help here, or
968 are willing to fund the work, please mail to @email{xemacs-beta@@xemacs.org}.
972 @node Q1.3.3, Q1.3.4, Q1.3.2, Introduction
973 @unnumberedsubsec Q1.3.3: How do I type non-ASCII characters?
975 See question 3.5.7 (@xref{Q3.5.7}) in part 3 of this FAQ.
977 @node Q1.3.4, Q1.3.5, Q1.3.3, Introduction
978 @unnumberedsubsec Q1.3.4: Can XEmacs messages come out in a different language?
980 The message-catalog support has mostly been written but doesn't
981 currently work. The first release of XEmacs 20 will @emph{not} support
982 it. However, menubar localization @emph{does} work, even in 19.14. To
983 enable it, add to your @file{Emacs} file entries like this:
986 Emacs*XlwMenu.resourceLabels: True
987 Emacs*XlwMenu.file.labelString: Fichier
988 Emacs*XlwMenu.openInOtherWindow.labelString: In anderem Fenster offnen
991 The name of the resource is derived from the non-localized entry by
992 removing punctuation and capitalizing as above.
994 @node Q1.3.5, Q1.3.6, Q1.3.4, Introduction
995 @unnumberedsubsec Q1.3.5: Please explain the various input methods in MULE/XEmacs 20.0
997 @email{morioka@@jaist.ac.jp, MORIOKA Tomohiko} writes:
1000 Original Mule supports the following input methods: Wnn4, Wnn6, Canna, SJ3
1001 and XIM. Interfaces for Wnn and SJ3 uses the @code{egg} user
1002 interface. Interface for Canna does not use @samp{egg}. I don't know
1003 about XIM. It is to support ATOK, of course, it may work for another
1006 Wnn supports Japanese, Chinese and Korean. It is made by OMRON and Kyôto
1007 university. It is a powerful and complex system. Wnn4 is free and Wnn6
1010 Canna supports only Japanese. It is made by NEC. It is a simple and
1011 powerful system. Canna uses only grammar (Wnn uses grammar and
1012 probability between words), so I think Wnn is cleverer than Canna,
1013 however Canna users made a good grammar and dictionary. So for standard
1014 modern Japanese, Canna seems cleverer than Wnn4. In addition, the UNIX
1015 version of Canna is free (now there is a Microsoft Windows version).
1017 SJ3 supports only Japanese. It is made by Sony. XIM supports was made
1018 to use ATOK (a major input method in personal computer world). XIM is
1019 the standard for accessing input methods bundled in Japanese versions of
1020 Solaris. (XEmacs 20 will support XIM input).
1022 Egg consists of following parts:
1026 Input character Translation System (ITS) layer.
1027 It translates ASCII inputs to Kana/PinYin/Hangul characters.
1030 Kana/PinYin/Hangul to Kanji transfer layer.
1031 It is interface layer for network Kana-Kanji server (Wnn and Sj3).
1034 These input methods are modal, namely there are mode, alphabet mode and
1035 Kana-Kanji transfer mode. However there are mode-less input methods for
1036 Egg and Canna. @samp{Boiled-egg} is a mode-less input method running on
1037 Egg. For Canna, @samp{canna.el} has a tiny boiled-egg like command,
1038 @code{(canna-boil)}, and there are some boiled-egg like utilities. In
1039 addition, it was planned to make an abstraction for all transfer type
1040 input methods. However authors of input methods are busy, so maybe this
1041 plan is stopped. Perhaps after Mule merged GNU Emacs will be released,
1042 it will be continued.
1045 @node Q1.3.6, Q1.3.7, Q1.3.5, Introduction
1046 @unnumberedsubsec Q1.3.6: How do I portably code for MULE/XEmacs 20?
1048 @email{morioka@@jaist.ac.jp, MORIOKA Tomohiko} writes:
1051 MULE and XEmacs are quite different. So the application
1052 implementor must write separate code for these mule variants.
1054 MULE and the next version of Emacs are similar but the symbols are very
1055 different---requiring separate code as well.
1057 Namely we must support 3 kinds of mule variants and 4 or 5 or 6 kinds of
1058 emacs variants... (;_;) I'm shocked, so I wrote a wrapper package called
1059 @code{emu} to provide a common interface.
1061 I have the following suggestions about dealing with mule variants:
1065 @code{(featurep 'mule)} @code{t} on all mule variants
1068 @code{(boundp 'MULE)} is @code{t} on only MULE. Maybe the next version
1069 of Emacs will not have this symbol.
1072 MULE has a variable @code{mule-version}. Perhaps the next version of
1073 Emacs will have this variable as well.
1076 Following is a sample to distinguish mule variants:
1079 (if (featurep 'mule)
1080 (cond ((boundp 'MULE)
1081 ;; for original Mule
1083 ((string-match "XEmacs" emacs-version)
1084 ;; for XEmacs with Mule
1087 ;; for next version of Emacs
1089 ;; for old emacs variants
1094 @node Q1.3.7, Q1.4.1, Q1.3.6, Introduction
1095 @unnumberedsubsec Q1.3.7: How about Cyrillic Modes?
1097 @email{ilya@@math.ohio-state.edu, Ilya Zakharevich} writes:
1100 There is a cyrillic mode in the file @file{mysetup.zip} in
1104 @uref{ftp://ftp.math.ohio-state.edu/pub/users/ilya/emacs/}. This is a
1105 modification to @email{ava@@math.jhu.ed, Valery Alexeev's} @file{russian.el}
1106 which can be obtained from
1109 @uref{http://ftpsearch.ntnu.no/?query=russian.el.Z}.
1112 @email{d.barsky@@ee.surrey.ac.uk, Dima Barsky} writes:
1115 There is another cyrillic mode for both GNU Emacs and XEmacs by
1116 @email{manin@@camelot.mssm.edu, Dmitrii
1121 @uref{http://kulichki-lat.rambler.ru/centrolit/manin/cyr.el}.
1122 @c Link above, <URL:http://camelot.mssm.edu/~manin/cyr.el> was dead.
1123 @c Changed to russian host instead
1126 @email{rebecca.ore@@op.net, Rebecca Ore} writes:
1129 The fullest resource I found on Russian language use (in and out of
1130 XEmacs) is @uref{http://sunsite.oit.unc.edu/sergei/Software/Software.html}
1133 @node Q1.4.1, Q1.4.2, Q1.3.7, Introduction
1134 @unnumberedsec 1.4: Getting Started, Backing up & Recovery
1135 @unnumberedsubsec Q1.4.1: What is a @file{.emacs} and is there a sample one?
1137 The @file{.emacs} file is used to customize XEmacs to your tastes. No
1138 two are alike, nor are they expected to be alike, but that's the point.
1139 The XEmacs distribution contains an excellent starter example in the etc
1140 directory called @file{sample.emacs}. Copy this file from there to your
1141 home directory and rename it @file{.emacs}. Then edit it to suit.
1143 Starting with 19.14, you may bring the @file{sample.emacs} into an
1144 XEmacs buffer by selecting @samp{Help->Sample .emacs} from the menubar.
1145 To determine the location of the @file{etc} directory type the command
1146 @kbd{C-h v data-directory @key{RET}}.
1148 @node Q1.4.2, Q1.4.3, Q1.4.1, Introduction
1149 @unnumberedsubsec Q1.4.2: Can I use the same @file{.emacs} with the other Emacs?
1151 Yes. The sample @file{.emacs} included in the XEmacs distribution will
1152 show you how to handle different versions and flavors of Emacs.
1154 @node Q1.4.3, Q1.4.4, Q1.4.2, Introduction
1155 @unnumberedsubsec Q1.4.3: Any good tutorials around?
1157 There's the XEmacs tutorial available from the Help Menu, or by typing
1158 @kbd{C-h t}. To check whether it's available in a non-english language,
1159 type @kbd{C-u C-h t TAB}, type the first letters of your preferred
1160 language, then type @key{RET}.
1162 There's an Emacs Lisp tutorial at
1165 @uref{ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu/emacs-lisp-intro-1.04.tar.gz}.
1168 @email{erik@@petaxp.rug.ac.be, Erik Sundermann} has made a tutorial web
1173 @uref{http://petaxp.rug.ac.be/~erik/xemacs/}.
1175 @node Q1.4.4, Q1.4.5, Q1.4.3, Introduction
1176 @unnumberedsubsec Q1.4.4: May I see an example of a useful XEmacs Lisp function?
1178 The following function does a little bit of everything useful. It does
1179 something with the prefix argument, it examines the text around the
1180 cursor, and it's interactive so it may be bound to a key. It inserts
1181 copies of the current word the cursor is sitting on at the cursor. If
1182 you give it a prefix argument: @kbd{C-u 3 M-x double-word} then it will
1186 (defun double-word (count)
1187 "Insert a copy of the current word underneath the cursor"
1189 (let (here there string)
1194 (setq there (point))
1195 (setq string (buffer-substring here there)))
1201 The best way to see what is going on here is to let XEmacs tell you.
1202 Put the code into an XEmacs buffer, and do a @kbd{C-h f} with the cursor
1203 sitting just to the right of the function you want explained. Eg. move
1204 the cursor to the SPACE between @code{interactive} and @samp{"*p"} and
1205 hit @kbd{C-h f} to see what the function @code{interactive} does. Doing
1206 this will tell you that the @code{*} requires a writable buffer, and
1207 @code{p} converts the prefix argument to a number, and
1208 @code{interactive} allows you to execute the command with @kbd{M-x}.
1210 @node Q1.4.5, Q1.4.6, Q1.4.4, Introduction
1211 @unnumberedsubsec Q1.4.5: And how do I bind it to a key?
1213 To bind to a key do:
1216 (global-set-key "\C-cd" 'double-word)
1219 Or interactively, @kbd{M-x global-set-key} and follow the prompts.
1221 @node Q1.4.6, Q1.4.7, Q1.4.5, Introduction
1222 @unnumberedsubsec Q1.4.6: What's the difference between a macro and a function?
1224 Quoting from the Lisp Reference (a.k.a @dfn{Lispref}) Manual:
1226 @dfn{Macros} enable you to define new control constructs and other
1227 language features. A macro is defined much like a function, but instead
1228 of telling how to compute a value, it tells how to compute another Lisp
1229 expression which will in turn compute the value. We call this
1230 expression the @dfn{expansion} of the macro.
1232 Macros can do this because they operate on the unevaluated expressions
1233 for the arguments, not on the argument values as functions do. They can
1234 therefore construct an expansion containing these argument expressions
1237 Do not confuse the two terms with @dfn{keyboard macros}, which are
1238 another matter, entirely. A keyboard macro is a key bound to several
1239 other keys. Refer to manual for details.
1241 @node Q1.4.7, , Q1.4.6, Introduction
1242 @unnumberedsubsec Q1.4.7: How come options saved with 19.13 don't work with 19.14 or later?
1244 There's a problem with options of the form:
1247 (add-spec-list-to-specifier (face-property 'searchm-field 'font)
1251 saved by a 19.13 XEmacs that causes a 19.14 XEmacs grief. You must
1252 delete these options. XEmacs 19.14 and later no longer write the
1253 options directly to @file{.emacs} which should allow us to deal with
1254 version incompatibilities better in the future.
1256 Options saved under XEmacs 19.13 are protected by code that specifically
1257 requires a version 19 XEmacs. This won't be a problem unless you're
1258 using XEmacs v20. You should consider changing the code to read:
1262 ((and (string-match "XEmacs" emacs-version)
1263 (boundp 'emacs-major-version)
1264 (or (and (= emacs-major-version 19)
1265 (>= emacs-minor-version 12))
1266 (>= emacs-major-version 20)))
1271 @node Installation, Customization, Introduction, Top
1272 @unnumbered 2 Installation and Trouble Shooting
1274 This is part 2 of the XEmacs Frequently Asked Questions list. This
1275 section is devoted to Installation, Maintenance and Trouble Shooting.
1279 * Q2.0.1:: Running XEmacs without installing.
1280 * Q2.0.2:: XEmacs is too big.
1281 * Q2.0.3:: Compiling XEmacs with Netaudio.
1282 * Q2.0.4:: Problems with Linux and ncurses.
1283 * Q2.0.5:: Do I need X11 to run XEmacs?
1284 * Q2.0.6:: I'm having strange crashes. What do I do?
1285 * Q2.0.7:: Libraries in non-standard locations.
1286 * Q2.0.8:: can't resolve symbol _h_errno
1287 * Q2.0.9:: Where do I find external libraries?
1288 * Q2.0.10:: After I run configure I find a coredump, is something wrong?
1289 * Q2.0.11:: XEmacs can't resolve host names.
1290 * Q2.0.12:: Why can't I strip XEmacs?
1291 * Q2.0.13:: Can't link XEmacs on Solaris with Gcc.
1292 * Q2.0.14:: Make on HP/UX 9 fails after linking temacs
1295 * Q2.1.1:: XEmacs just crashed on me!
1296 * Q2.1.2:: Cryptic Minibuffer messages.
1297 * Q2.1.3:: Translation Table Syntax messages at Startup.
1298 * Q2.1.4:: Startup warnings about deducing proper fonts?
1299 * Q2.1.5:: XEmacs cannot connect to my X Terminal.
1300 * Q2.1.6:: XEmacs just locked up my Linux X server.
1301 * Q2.1.7:: HP Alt key as Meta.
1302 * Q2.1.8:: got (wrong-type-argument color-instance-p nil)!
1303 * Q2.1.9:: XEmacs causes my OpenWindows 3.0 server to crash.
1304 * Q2.1.10:: Warnings from incorrect key modifiers.
1305 * Q2.1.11:: Can't instantiate image error... in toolbar
1306 * Q2.1.12:: Regular Expression Problems on DEC OSF1.
1307 * Q2.1.13:: HP/UX 10.10 and @code{create_process} failure
1308 * Q2.1.14:: @kbd{C-g} doesn't work for me. Is it broken?
1309 * Q2.1.15:: How to debug an XEmacs problem with a debugger.
1310 * Q2.1.16:: XEmacs crashes in @code{strcat} on HP/UX 10.
1311 * Q2.1.17:: @samp{Marker does not point anywhere}.
1312 * Q2.1.18:: 19.14 hangs on HP/UX 10.10.
1313 * Q2.1.19:: XEmacs does not follow the local timezone.
1314 * Q2.1.20:: @samp{Symbol's function definition is void: hkey-help-show.}
1315 * Q2.1.21:: Every so often the XEmacs frame freezes.
1316 * Q2.1.22:: XEmacs seems to take a really long time to do some things.
1317 * Q2.1.23:: Movemail on Linux does not work for XEmacs 19.15 and later.
1320 @node Q2.0.1, Q2.0.2, Installation, Installation
1321 @unnumberedsec 2.0: Installation
1322 @unnumberedsubsec Q2.0.1: Running XEmacs without installing
1323 The @file{INSTALL} file says that up to 108 MB of space is needed
1324 temporarily during installation! How can I just try it out?
1326 XEmacs will run in place without requiring installation and copying of
1327 the Lisp directories, and without having to specify a special build-time
1328 flag. It's the copying of the Lisp directories that requires so much
1329 space. XEmacs is largely written in Lisp.
1331 A good method is to make a shell alias for xemacs:
1334 alias xemacs=/i/xemacs-20.2/src/xemacs
1337 (You will obviously use whatever directory you downloaded the source
1338 tree to instead of @file{/i/xemacs-20.2}).
1340 This will let you run XEmacs without massive copying.
1342 @node Q2.0.2, Q2.0.3, Q2.0.1, Installation
1343 @unnumberedsubsec Q2.0.2: XEmacs is too big
1345 Although this entry has been written for XEmacs 19.13, most of it still
1348 @email{steve@@altair.xemacs.org, Steve Baur} writes:
1351 The 45MB of space required by the installation directories can be
1352 reduced dramatically if desired. Gzip all the .el files. Remove all
1353 the packages you'll never want to use (or even ones you do like the two
1354 obsolete mailcrypts and Gnus 4 in 19.13). Remove the TexInfo manuals.
1355 Remove the Info (and use just hardcopy versions of the manual). Remove
1356 most of the stuff in etc. Remove or gzip all the source code. Gzip or
1357 remove the C source code. Configure it so that copies are not made of
1358 the support lisp. I'm not advocating any of these things, just pointing
1359 out ways to reduce the disk requirements if desired.
1361 Now examine the space used by directory:
1364 0 /usr/local/bin/xemacs
1365 2048 /usr/local/bin/xemacs-19.13
1367 1546 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-19.13/i486-miranova-sco3.2v4.2
1368 1158 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-19.13/i486-unknown-linux1.2.13
1371 You need to keep these. XEmacs isn't stripped by default in
1372 installation, you should consider stripping. That will save you about
1376 207 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-19.13/etc/w3
1377 122 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-19.13/etc/sounds
1378 18 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-19.13/etc/sparcworks
1379 159 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-19.13/etc/vm
1380 6 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-19.13/etc/e
1381 21 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-19.13/etc/eos
1382 172 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-19.13/etc/toolbar
1383 61 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-19.13/etc/ns
1384 43 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-19.13/etc/gnus
1387 These are support directories for various packages. In general they
1388 match a directory under ./xemacs-19.13/lib/xemacs-19.13/lisp/. If you
1389 do not require the package, you may delete or gzip the support too.
1392 1959 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-19.13/etc
1393 175 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-19.13/lisp/bytecomp
1394 340 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-19.13/lisp/calendar
1395 342 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-19.13/lisp/comint
1396 517 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-19.13/lisp/dired
1397 42 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-19.13/lisp/electric
1398 212 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-19.13/lisp/emulators
1399 238 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-19.13/lisp/energize
1400 289 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-19.13/lisp/gnus
1401 457 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-19.13/lisp/ilisp
1402 1439 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-19.13/lisp/modes
1403 2276 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-19.13/lisp/packages
1404 1040 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-19.13/lisp/prim
1405 176 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-19.13/lisp/pcl-cvs
1406 154 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-19.13/lisp/rmail
1407 3 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-19.13/lisp/epoch
1408 45 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-19.13/lisp/term
1409 860 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-19.13/lisp/utils
1410 851 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-19.13/lisp/vm
1411 13 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-19.13/lisp/vms
1412 157 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-19.13/lisp/x11
1413 19 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-19.13/lisp/tooltalk
1414 14 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-19.13/lisp/sunpro
1415 291 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-19.13/lisp/games
1416 198 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-19.13/lisp/edebug
1417 619 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-19.13/lisp/w3
1418 229 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-19.13/lisp/eos
1419 55 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-19.13/lisp/iso
1420 59 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-19.13/lisp/mailcrypt
1421 187 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-19.13/lisp/eterm
1422 356 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-19.13/lisp/ediff
1423 408 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-19.13/lisp/hyperbole/kotl
1424 1262 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-19.13/lisp/hyperbole
1425 247 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-19.13/lisp/hm--html-menus
1426 161 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-19.13/lisp/mh-e
1427 299 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-19.13/lisp/viper
1428 53 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-19.13/lisp/oobr/tree-x
1429 4 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-19.13/lisp/oobr/tree-nx/English.lproj/DocWindow.nib
1430 3 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-19.13/lisp/oobr/tree-nx/English.lproj/InfoPanel.nib
1431 3 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-19.13/lisp/oobr/tree-nx/English.lproj/TreeView.nib
1432 11 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-19.13/lisp/oobr/tree-nx/English.lproj
1433 53 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-19.13/lisp/oobr/tree-nx
1434 466 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-19.13/lisp/oobr
1435 14142 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-19.13/lisp
1438 These are all Emacs Lisp source code and bytecompiled object code. You
1439 may safely gzip everything named *.el here. You may remove any package
1440 you don't use. @emph{Nothing bad will happen if you delete a package
1441 that you do not use}. You must be sure you do not use it though, so be
1442 conservative at first.
1444 Possible candidates for deletion include w3 (newer versions exist, or
1445 you may just use Lynx or Netscape for web browsing), games, hyperbole,
1446 mh-e, hm--html-menus (better packages exist), vm, viper, oobr, gnus (new
1447 versions exist), etc. Ask yourself, @emph{Do I ever want to use this
1448 package?} If the answer is no, then it is a candidate for removal.
1450 First, gzip all the .el files. Then go about package by package and
1451 start gzipping the .elc files. Then run XEmacs and do whatever it is
1452 you normally do. If nothing bad happens, then delete the directory. Be
1453 conservative about deleting directories, and it would be handy to have a
1454 backup tape around in case you get too zealous.
1456 @file{prim}, @file{modes}, @file{packages}, and @file{utils} are four
1457 directories you definitely do @strong{not} want to delete, although
1458 certain packages can be removed from them if you do not use them.
1461 1972 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-19.13/info
1464 These are online texinfo sources. You may either gzip them or remove
1465 them. In either case, @kbd{C-h i} (info mode) will no longer work.
1468 20778 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-19.13
1471 The 20MB achieved is less than half of what the full distribution takes up,
1472 @strong{and} can be achieved without deleting a single file.
1475 @email{boffi@@hp735.stru.polimi.it, Giacomo Boffi} provides this procedure:
1478 Substitute @file{/usr/local/lib/} with the path where the xemacs tree is
1479 rooted, then use this script:
1484 r=/usr/local/lib/xemacs-19.13/lisp
1486 cd $r ; rm -f cmpr ; touch cmpr
1491 if test -d $d ; then
1494 # compress (remove) only (ONLY) the sources that have a
1495 # corresponding compiled file --- do not (DO NOT)
1496 # touch other sources
1497 if test -f $@{f@}c ; then gzip -v9 $f >> $r/cmpr ; fi
1506 A step beyond would be substituting @samp{rm -f} for @samp{gzip -v9},
1507 but you have to be desperate for removing the sources (remember that
1508 emacs can access compressed files transparently).
1510 Also, a good megabyte could easily be trimmed from the $r/../etc
1511 directory, e.g., the termcap files, some O+NEWS, others that I don't
1516 XEmacs 21.0 will unbundle the lisp hierarchy and allow the installer
1517 to choose exactly how much support code gets installed.
1520 @node Q2.0.3, Q2.0.4, Q2.0.2, Installation
1521 @unnumberedsubsec Q2.0.3: Compiling XEmacs with Netaudio.
1523 What is the best way to compile XEmacs with the netaudio system, since I
1524 have got the netaudio system compiled but installed at a weird place, I
1525 am not root. Also in the READMEs it does not say anything about
1526 compiling with the audioserver?
1528 You should only need to add some stuff to the configure command line.
1529 To tell it to compile in netaudio support: @samp{--with-sound=both}, or
1530 @samp{--with-sound=nas} if you don't want native sound support for some
1531 reason.) To tell it where to find the netaudio includes and libraries:
1534 --site-libraries=WHATEVER
1535 --site-includes=WHATEVER
1538 Then (fingers crossed) it should compile and it will use netaudio if you
1539 have a server running corresponding to the X server. The netaudio server
1540 has to be there when XEmacs starts. If the netaudio server goes away and
1541 another is run, XEmacs should cope (fingers crossed, error handling in
1542 netaudio isn't perfect).
1544 BTW, netaudio has been renamed as it has a name clash with something
1545 else, so if you see references to NAS or Network Audio System, it's the
1546 same thing. It also might be found at
1547 @uref{ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/audio/nas/}.
1549 @node Q2.0.4, Q2.0.5, Q2.0.3, Installation
1550 @unnumberedsubsec Q2.0.4: Problems with Linux and ncurses.
1552 On Linux 1.3.98 with termcap 2.0.8 and the ncurses that came with libc
1553 5.2.18, XEmacs 20.0b20 is unable to open a tty device:
1557 Initialization error:
1561 Terminal type `xterm' undefined (or can't access database?)
1564 @email{ben@@666.com, Ben Wing} writes:
1567 Your ncurses configuration is messed up. Your /usr/lib/terminfo is a
1568 bad pointer, perhaps to a CD-ROM that is not inserted.
1571 @node Q2.0.5, Q2.0.6, Q2.0.4, Installation
1572 @unnumberedsubsec Q2.0.5: Do I need X11 to run XEmacs?
1574 No. The name @dfn{XEmacs} is unfortunate in the sense that it is
1575 @strong{not} an X Window System-only version of Emacs. Starting with
1576 19.14 XEmacs has full color support on a color capable character
1579 @node Q2.0.6, Q2.0.7, Q2.0.5, Installation
1580 @unnumberedsubsec Q2.0.6: I'm having strange crashes. What do I do?
1582 There have been a variety of reports of crashes due to compilers with
1583 buggy optimizers. Please see the @file{PROBLEMS} file that comes with
1584 XEmacs to read what it says about your platform.
1586 @node Q2.0.7, Q2.0.8, Q2.0.6, Installation
1587 @unnumberedsubsec Q2.0.7: Libraries in non-standard locations
1589 I have x-faces, jpeg, xpm etc. all in different places. I've tried
1590 space-separated, comma-separated, several --site-libraries, all to no
1594 --site-libraries='/path/one /path/two /path/etc'
1597 @node Q2.0.8, Q2.0.9, Q2.0.7, Installation
1598 @unnumberedsubsec Q2.0.8: can't resolve symbol _h_errno
1600 You are using the Linux/ELF distribution of XEmacs 19.14, and your ELF
1601 libraries are out of date. You have the following options:
1605 Upgrade your libc to at least 5.2.16 (better is 5.2.18, 5.3.12, or
1609 Patch the XEmacs binary by replacing all occurrences of
1610 @samp{_h_errno^@@} with
1614 @samp{h_errno^@@^@@}. Any version of Emacs will
1615 suffice. If you don't understand how to do this, don't do it.
1618 Rebuild XEmacs yourself -- any working ELF version of libc should be
1622 @email{hniksic@@srce.hr, Hrvoje Niksic} writes:
1625 Why not use a Perl one-liner for No. 2?
1628 perl -pi -e 's/_h_errno\0/h_errno\0\0/g' \
1629 /usr/local/bin/xemacs-19.14
1632 NB: You @emph{must} patch @file{/usr/local/bin/xemacs-19.14}, and not
1633 @file{xemacs} because @file{xemacs} is a link to @file{xemacs-19.14};
1634 the Perl @samp{-i} option will cause unwanted side-effects if applied to
1638 @email{steve@@xemacs.org, SL Baur} writes:
1641 If you build against a recent libc-5.4 (late enough to have caused
1642 problems earlier in the beta cycle) and then run with an earlier version
1647 xemacs: can't resolve symbol '__malloc_hook'
1648 zsh: 7942 segmentation fault (core dumped) xemacs
1651 (Example binary compiled against libc-5.4.23 and run with libc-5.4.16).
1653 The solution is to upgrade to at least libc-5.4.23. Sigh. Drat.
1656 @node Q2.0.9, Q2.0.10, Q2.0.8, Installation
1657 @unnumberedsubsec Q2.0.9: Where do I find external libraries?
1659 All external libraries used by XEmacs can be found at the XEmacs FTP
1664 @uref{ftp://ftp.xemacs.org/pub/xemacs/aux/}.
1666 @c Changed June Link above, <URL:ftp://ftp.xemacs.org/pub/aux/> was dead.
1667 @c This list is a pain in the you-know-what to keep in synch with the
1669 The canonical locations (at the time of this writing) are as follows:
1673 @uref{ftp://ftp.uu.net/graphics/jpeg/}. Version 6a is current.
1674 @c Check from host with legal IP address
1676 @uref{ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/libraries/}. Version 3.4j is current.
1677 Older versions of this package are known to cause XEmacs crashes.
1680 @uref{ftp://ftp.sgi.com/graphics/tiff/}. v3.4 is current. The latest
1681 beta is v3.4b035. There is a HOWTO here.
1684 @uref{ftp://ftp.uu.net/graphics/png/}. 0.89c is current. XEmacs
1685 requires a fairly recent version to avoid using temporary files.
1686 @c Check from host with legal IP address
1688 @uref{ftp://swrinde.nde.swri.edu/pub/png/src/}
1691 @uref{ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/faces/compface/}. This library has
1692 been frozen for about 6 years, and is distributed without version
1693 numbers. @emph{It should be compiled with the same options that X11 was
1694 compiled with on your system}. The version of this library at
1695 XEmacs.org includes the @file{xbm2xface.pl} script, written by
1696 @email{stig@@hackvan.com}, which may be useful when generating your own xface.
1699 @uref{ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/audio/nas/}.
1700 Version 1.2p5 is current. There is a FAQ here.
1703 @node Q2.0.10, Q2.0.11, Q2.0.9, Installation
1704 @unnumberedsubsec Q2.0.10: After I run configure I find a core dump, is something wrong?
1706 Not necessarily. If you have GNU sed 3.0 you should downgrade it to
1707 2.05. From the @file{README} at prep.ai.mit.edu:
1710 sed 3.0 has been withdrawn from distribution. It has major revisions,
1711 which mostly seem to be improvements; but it turns out to have bugs too
1712 which cause trouble in some common cases.
1714 Tom Lord won't be able to work fixing the bugs until May. So in the
1715 mean time, we've decided to withdraw sed 3.0 from distribution and make
1716 version 2.05 once again the recommended version.
1719 It has also been observed that the vfork test on Solaris will leave a
1722 @node Q2.0.11, Q2.0.12, Q2.0.10, Installation
1723 @unnumberedsubsec Q2.0.11: XEmacs doesn't resolve hostnames.
1725 This is the result of a long-standing problem with SunOS and the fact
1726 that stock SunOS systems do not ship with DNS resolver code in libc.
1728 @email{ckd@@loiosh.kei.com, Christopher Davis} writes:
1731 That's correct [The SunOS 4.1.3 precompiled binaries don't do name
1732 lookup]. Since Sun figured that everyone used NIS to do name lookups
1733 (that DNS thing was apparently only a passing fad, right?), the stock
1734 SunOS 4.x systems don't have DNS-based name lookups in libc.
1736 This is also why Netscape ships two binaries for SunOS 4.1.x.
1738 The best solution is to compile it yourself; the configure script will
1739 check to see if you've put DNS in the shared libc and will then proceed
1740 to link against the DNS resolver library code.
1743 @node Q2.0.12, Q2.0.13, Q2.0.11, Installation
1744 @unnumberedsubsec Q2.0.12: Why can't I strip XEmacs?
1746 @email{cognot@@fronsac.ensg.u-nancy.fr, Richard Cognot} writes:
1749 Because of the way XEmacs (and every other Emacsen, AFAIK) is built. The
1750 link gives you a bare-boned emacs (called temacs). temacs is then run,
1751 preloading some of the lisp files. The result is then dumped into a new
1752 executable, named xemacs, which will contain all of the preloaded lisp
1755 Now, during the dump itself, the executable (code+data+symbols) is
1756 written on disk using a special unexec() function. This function is
1757 obviously heavily system dependent. And on some systems, it leads to an
1758 executable which, although valid, cannot be stripped without damage. If
1759 memory serves, this is especially the case for AIX binaries. On other
1760 architecture it might work OK.
1762 The Right Way to strip the emacs binary is to strip temacs prior to
1763 dumping xemacs. This will always work, although you can do that only if
1764 you install from sources (as temacs is @file{not} part of the binary
1768 @email{nat@@nataa.fr.eu.org, Nat Makarevitch} writes:
1775 [ ./configure; make ]
1787 cp src/xemacs /usr/local/bin/xemacs
1790 cp lib-src/DOC-19.16-XEmacs
1794 /usr/local/lib/xemacs-19.16/i586-unknown-linuxaout
1798 @node Q2.0.13, Q2.0.14, Q2.0.12, Installation
1799 @unnumberedsubsec Q2.0.13: Problems linking with Gcc on Solaris
1801 There are known difficulties linking with Gnu ld on Solaris. A typical
1802 error message might look like:
1805 unexec(): dlopen(../dynodump/dynodump.so): ld.so.1: ./temacs:
1806 fatal: relocation error:
1807 symbol not found: main: referenced in ../dynodump/dynodump.so
1810 @email{martin@@xemacs.org, Martin Buchholz} writes:
1813 You need to specify @samp{-fno-gnu-linker} as part of your flags to pass
1814 to ld. Future releases of XEmacs will try to do this automatically.
1817 @node Q2.0.14, Q2.1.1, Q2.0.13, Installation
1818 @unnumberedsubsec Q2.0.14: Make on HP/UX 9 fails after linking temacs
1820 Problem when building xemacs-19.16 on hpux 9:
1822 @email{cognot@@ensg.u-nancy.fr, Richard Cognot} writes:
1825 make on hpux fails after linking temacs with a message:
1828 "make: don't know how to make .y."
1831 Solution: This is a problem with HP make revision 70.X. Either use GNU
1832 make, or install PHCO_6552, which will bring make to revision
1837 @node Q2.1.1, Q2.1.2, Q2.0.14, Installation
1838 @unnumberedsec 2.1: Trouble Shooting
1839 @unnumberedsubsec Q2.1.1: Help! XEmacs just crashed on me!
1841 First of all, don't panic. Whenever XEmacs crashes, it tries extremely
1842 hard to auto-save all of your files before dying. (The main time that
1843 this will not happen is if the machine physically lost power or if you
1844 killed the XEmacs process using @code{kill -9}). The next time you try
1845 to edit those files, you will be informed that a more recent auto-save
1846 file exists. You can use @kbd{M-x recover-file} to retrieve the
1847 auto-saved version of the file.
1849 Starting with 19.14, you may use the command @kbd{M-x recover-session}
1850 after a crash to pick up where you left off.
1852 Now, XEmacs is not perfect, and there may occasionally be times, or
1853 particular sequences of actions, that cause it to crash. If you can
1854 come up with a reproducible way of doing this (or even if you have a
1855 pretty good memory of exactly what you were doing at the time), the
1856 maintainers would be very interested in knowing about it. Post a
1857 message to comp.emacs.xemacs or send mail to @email{crashes@@xemacs.org}.
1858 Please note that the @samp{crashes} address is exclusively for crash
1861 If at all possible, include a stack backtrace of the core dump that was
1862 produced. This shows where exactly things went wrong, and makes it much
1863 easier to diagnose problems. To do this, you need to locate the core
1864 file (it's called @file{core}, and is usually sitting in the directory
1865 that you started XEmacs from, or your home directory if that other
1866 directory was not writable). Then, go to that directory and execute a
1870 gdb `which xemacs` core
1873 and then issue the command @samp{where} to get the stack backtrace. You
1874 might have to use @code{dbx} or some similar debugger in place of
1875 @code{gdb}. If you don't have any such debugger available, complain to
1876 your system administrator.
1878 It's possible that a core file didn't get produced, in which case you're
1879 out of luck. Go complain to your system administrator and tell him not
1880 to disable core files by default. Also @xref{Q2.1.15} for tips and
1881 techniques for dealing with a debugger.
1883 When making a problem report make sure that:
1887 Report @strong{all} of the information output by XEmacs during the
1891 You mention what O/S & Hardware you are running XEmacs on.
1894 What version of XEmacs you are running.
1897 What build options you are using.
1900 If the problem is related to graphics, we will also need to know what
1901 version of the X Window System you are running, and what window manager
1905 If the problem happened on a tty, please include the terminal type.
1908 @node Q2.1.2, Q2.1.3, Q2.1.1, Installation
1909 @unnumberedsubsec Q2.1.2: Cryptic Minibuffer messages.
1911 When I try to use some particular option of some particular package, I
1912 get a cryptic error in the minibuffer.
1914 If you can't figure out what's going on, select Options/General
1915 Options/Debug on Error from the Menubar and then try and make the error
1916 happen again. This will give you a backtrace that may be enlightening.
1917 If not, try reading through this FAQ; if that fails, you could try
1918 posting to comp.emacs.xemacs (making sure to include the backtrace) and
1919 someone may be able to help. If you can identify which Emacs lisp
1920 source file the error is coming from you can get a more detailed stack
1921 backtrace by doing the following:
1925 Visit the .el file in an XEmacs buffer.
1928 Issue the command @kbd{M-x eval-current-buffer}.
1931 Reproduce the error.
1934 Depending on the version of XEmacs, you may either select Edit->Show
1935 Messages (19.13 and earlier) or Help->Recent Keystrokes/Messages (19.14
1936 and later) from the menubar to see the most recent messages. This
1937 command is bound to @kbd{C-h l} by default.
1939 @node Q2.1.3, Q2.1.4, Q2.1.2, Installation
1940 @unnumberedsubsec Q2.1.3: Translation Table Syntax messages at Startup
1942 I get tons of translation table syntax error messages during startup.
1943 How do I get rid of them?
1945 There are two causes of this problem. The first usually only strikes
1946 people using the prebuilt binaries. The culprit in both cases is the
1947 file @file{XKeysymDB}.
1951 The binary cannot find the @file{XKeysymDB} file. The location is
1952 hardcoded at compile time so if the system the binary was built on puts
1953 it a different place than your system does, you have problems. To fix,
1954 set the environment variable @var{XKEYSYMDB} to the location of the
1955 @file{XKeysymDB} file on your system or to the location of the one
1956 included with XEmacs which should be at
1960 @file{<xemacs_root_directory>/lib/xemacs-19.16/etc/XKeysymDB}.
1963 The binary is finding the XKeysymDB but it is out-of-date on your system
1964 and does not contain the necessary lines. Either ask your system
1965 administrator to replace it with the one which comes with XEmacs (which
1966 is the stock R6 version and is backwards compatible) or set your
1967 @var{XKEYSYMDB} variable to the location of XEmacs's described above.
1970 @node Q2.1.4, Q2.1.5, Q2.1.3, Installation
1971 @unnumberedsubsec Q2.1.4: Startup warnings about deducing proper fonts?
1973 How can I avoid the startup warnings about deducing proper fonts?
1975 This is highly dependent on your installation, but try with the
1976 following font as your base font for XEmacs and see what it does:
1979 -adobe-courier-medium-r-*-*-*-120-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1
1982 More precisely, do the following in your resource file:
1985 Emacs.default.attributeFont: \
1986 -adobe-courier-medium-r-*-*-*-120-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1
1989 If you just don't want to see the @samp{*Warnings*} buffer at startup
1990 time, you can set this:
1993 (setq display-warning-minimum-level 'error)
1996 The buffer still exists; it just isn't in your face.
1998 @node Q2.1.5, Q2.1.6, Q2.1.4, Installation
1999 @unnumberedsubsec Q2.1.5: XEmacs cannot connect to my X Terminal!
2001 Help! I can not get XEmacs to display on my Envizex X-terminal!
2003 Try setting the @var{DISPLAY} variable using the numeric IP address of
2004 the host you are running XEmacs from.
2006 @node Q2.1.6, Q2.1.7, Q2.1.5, Installation
2007 @unnumberedsubsec Q2.1.6: XEmacs just locked up my Linux X server!
2009 There have been several reports of the X server locking up under Linux.
2010 In all reported cases removing speedo and scaled fonts from the font
2011 path corrected the problem. This can be done with the command
2014 It is possible that using a font server may also solve the problem.
2016 @node Q2.1.7, Q2.1.8, Q2.1.6, Installation
2017 @unnumberedsubsec Q2.1.7: HP Alt key as Meta.
2019 How can I make XEmacs recognize the Alt key of my HP workstation as a
2022 Put the following line into a file and load it with xmodmap(1) before
2026 remove Mod1 = Mode_switch
2029 @node Q2.1.8, Q2.1.9, Q2.1.7, Installation
2030 @unnumberedsubsec Q2.1.8: got (wrong-type-argument color-instance-p nil)
2032 @email{nataliek@@rd.scitec.com.au, Natalie Kershaw} writes:
2035 I am trying to run xemacs 19.13 under X11R4. Whenever I move the mouse I
2036 get the following error. Has anyone seen anything like this? This
2037 doesn't occur on X11R5.
2041 (error "got (wrong-type-argument color-instance-p nil)
2042 and I don't know why!")
2046 @email{map01kd@@gold.ac.uk, dinos} writes:
2049 I think this is due to undefined resources; You need to define color
2050 backgrounds and foregrounds into your @file{.../app-defaults/Emacs}
2054 *Foreground: Black ;everything will be of black on grey95,
2055 *Background: Grey95 ;unless otherwise specified.
2056 *cursorColor: Red3 ;red3 cursor with grey95 border.
2057 *pointerColor: Red3 ;red3 pointer with grey95 border.
2061 Natalie Kershaw adds:
2064 What fixed the problem was adding some more colors to the X color
2065 database (copying the X11R5 colors over), and also defining the
2066 following resources:
2069 xemacs*cursorColor: black
2070 xemacs*pointerColor: black
2073 With the new colors installed the problem still occurs if the above
2074 resources are not defined.
2076 If the new colors are not present then an additional error occurs on
2077 XEmacs startup, which says @samp{Color Red3} not defined.
2080 @node Q2.1.9, Q2.1.10, Q2.1.8, Installation
2081 @unnumberedsubsec Q2.1.9: XEmacs causes my OpenWindows 3.0 server to crash.
2083 The OpenWindows 3.0 server is incredibly buggy. Your best bet is to
2084 replace it with one from the generic MIT X11 release. You might also
2085 try disabling parts of your @file{.emacs}, like enabling background
2088 @node Q2.1.10, Q2.1.11, Q2.1.9, Installation
2089 @unnumberedsubsec Q2.1.10: Warnings from incorrect key modifiers.
2091 The following information comes from the @file{PROBLEMS} file that comes
2094 If you're having troubles with HP/UX it is because HP/UX defines the
2095 modifiers wrong in X. Here is a shell script to fix the problem; be
2096 sure that it is run after VUE configures the X server.
2100 xmodmap 2> /dev/null - << EOF
2101 keysym Alt_L = Meta_L
2102 keysym Alt_R = Meta_R
2107 keysym Mode_switch = NoSymbol
2109 keysym Meta_R = Mode_switch
2110 add mod2 = Mode_switch
2114 @node Q2.1.11, Q2.1.12, Q2.1.10, Installation
2115 @unnumberedsubsec Q2.1.11: @samp{Can't instantiate image error...} in toolbar
2118 @email{expt@@alanine.ram.org, Dr. Ram Samudrala} writes:
2120 I just installed the XEmacs (20.4-2) RPMS that I downloaded from
2121 @uref{http://www.xemacs.org/}. Everything works fine, except that when
2122 I place my mouse over the toolbar, it beeps and gives me this message:
2125 Can't instantiate image (probably cached):
2126 [xbm :mask-file "/usr/include/X11/bitmaps/leftptrmsk :mask-data
2127 (16 16 <strange control characters> ...
2130 @email{kyle_jones@@wonderworks.com, Kyle Jones} writes:
2132 This is problem specific to some Chips and Technologies video
2133 chips, when running XFree86. Putting
2135 @code{Option "sw_cursor"}
2137 in @file{XF86Config} gets rid of the problem.
2140 @node Q2.1.12, Q2.1.13, Q2.1.11, Installation
2141 @unnumberedsubsec Q2.1.12: Problems with Regular Expressions on DEC OSF1.
2143 I have xemacs 19.13 running on an alpha running OSF1 V3.2 148 and ispell
2144 would not run because it claimed the version number was incorrect
2145 although it was indeed OK. I traced the problem to the regular
2148 @email{douglask@@dstc.edu.au, Douglas Kosovic} writes:
2151 Actually it's a DEC cc optimization bug that screws up the regexp
2154 Rebuilding using the @samp{-migrate} switch for DEC cc (which uses a
2155 different sort of optimization) works fine.
2158 See @file{xemacs-19_13-dunix-3_2c.patch} at the following URL on how to
2159 build with the @samp{-migrate} flag:
2162 @uref{http://www-digital.cern.ch/carney/emacs/emacs.html}
2163 @c Link above, <URL:http://www-digital.cern.ch/carney/emacs/emacs.html> is
2164 @c dead. And the directory `carney' is empty.
2170 NOTE: There have been a variety of other problems reported that are
2171 fixed in this fashion.
2173 @node Q2.1.13, Q2.1.14, Q2.1.12, Installation
2174 @unnumberedsubsec Q2.1.13: HP/UX 10.10 and @code{create_process} failure.
2176 @email{Dave.Carrigan@@ipl.ca, Dave Carrigan} writes:
2179 With XEmacs 19.13 and HP/UX 10.10, anything that relies on the
2180 @code{create_process} function fails. This breaks a lot of things
2181 (shell-mode, compile, ange-ftp, to name a few).
2184 @email{johnson@@dtc.hp.com, Phil Johnson} writes:
2187 This is a problem specific to HP-UX 10.10. It only occurs when XEmacs
2188 is compiled for shared libraries (the default), so you can work around
2189 it by compiling a statically-linked binary (run configure with
2190 @samp{--dynamic=no}).
2192 I'm not sure whether the problem is with a particular shared library or
2193 if it's a kernel problem which crept into 10.10.
2196 @email{cognot@@ensg.u-nancy.fr, Richard Cognot} writes:
2199 I had a few problems with 10.10. Apparently, some of them were solved by
2200 forcing a static link of libc (manually).
2203 @node Q2.1.14, Q2.1.15, Q2.1.13, Installation
2204 @unnumberedsubsec Q2.1.14: @kbd{C-g} doesn't work for me. Is it broken?
2206 @email{ben@@666.com, Ben Wing} writes:
2209 @kbd{C-g} does work for most people in most circumstances. If it
2210 doesn't, there are only two explanations:
2214 The code is wrapped with a binding of @code{inhibit-quit} to
2215 @code{t}. @kbd{Ctrl-Shift-G} should still work, I think.
2218 SIGIO is broken on your system, but BROKEN_SIGIO isn't defined.
2221 To test #2, try executing @code{(while t)} from the @samp{*scratch*}
2222 buffer. If @kbd{C-g} doesn't interrupt, then you're seeing #2.
2225 @email{terra@@diku.dk, Morten Welinder} writes:
2228 On some (but @emph{not} all) machines a hung XEmacs can be revived by
2229 @code{kill -FPE <pid>}. This is a hack, of course, not a solution.
2230 This technique works on a Sun4 running 4.1.3_U1. To see if it works for
2231 you, start another XEmacs and test with that first. If you get a core
2232 dump the method doesn't work and if you get @samp{Arithmetic error} then
2236 @node Q2.1.15, Q2.1.16, Q2.1.14, Installation
2237 @unnumberedsubsec Q2.1.15: How to Debug an XEmacs problem with a debugger
2239 If XEmacs does crash on you, one of the most productive things you can
2240 do to help get the bug fixed is to poke around a bit with the debugger.
2241 Here are some hints:
2245 First of all, if the crash is at all reproducible, consider very
2246 strongly recompiling your XEmacs with debugging symbols, with no
2247 optimization, and with the configure options @samp{--debug=yes} and
2248 @samp{--error-checking=all}. This will make your XEmacs run somewhat
2249 slower but make it a lot more likely to catch the problem earlier
2250 (closer to its source), and a lot easier to determine what's going on
2254 If you're able to run XEmacs under a debugger and reproduce the crash
2255 (if it's inconvenient to do this because XEmacs is already running or is
2256 running in batch mode as part of a bunch of scripts, consider attaching
2257 to the existing process with your debugger; most debuggers let you do
2258 this by substituting the process ID for the core file when you invoke
2259 the debugger from the command line, or by using the @code{attach}
2260 command or something similar), here are some things you can do:
2263 If XEmacs is hitting an assertion failure, put a breakpoint on
2264 @code{assert_failed()}.
2267 If XEmacs is hitting some weird Lisp error that's causing it to crash
2268 (e.g. during startup), put a breakpoint on @code{signal_1()}---this is
2269 declared static in eval.c.
2272 Internally, you will probably see lots of variables that hold objects of
2273 type @code{Lisp_Object}. These are exactly what they appear to be,
2274 i.e. references to Lisp objects. Printing them out with the debugger
2275 probably won't be too useful---you'll likely just see a number. To
2276 decode them, do this:
2279 call debug_print (OBJECT)
2282 where @var{OBJECT} is whatever you want to decode (it can be a variable,
2283 a function call, etc.). This will print out a readable representation
2284 on the TTY from which the xemacs process was invoked.
2287 If you want to get a Lisp backtrace showing the Lisp call
2291 call debug_backtrace ()
2295 Using @code{debug_print} and @code{debug_backtrace} has two
2296 disadvantages - it can only be used with a running xemacs process, and
2297 it cannot display the internal C structure of a Lisp Object. Even if
2298 all you've got is a core dump, all is not lost.
2300 If you're using GDB, there are some macros in the file
2301 @file{src/gdbinit} in the XEmacs source distribution that should make it
2302 easier for you to decode Lisp objects. Copy this file to
2303 @file{~/.gdbinit}, or @code{source} it from @file{~/.gdbinit}, and use
2304 the macros defined therein. In particular, use the @code{pobj} macro to
2305 print the internal C representation of a lisp object. This will work
2306 with a core file or not-yet-run executable. The aliases @code{ldp} and
2307 @code{lbt} are provided for conveniently calling @code{debug_print} and
2308 @code{debug_backtrace}.
2310 If you are using Sun's @file{dbx} debugger, there is an equivalent file
2311 @file{src/dbxrc} to copy to or source from @file{~/.dbxrc}.
2314 If you're using a debugger to get a C stack backtrace and you're seeing
2315 stack traces with some of the innermost frames mangled, it may be due to
2316 dynamic linking. (This happens especially under Linux.) Consider
2317 reconfiguring with @samp{--dynamic=no}. Also, sometimes (again under
2318 Linux), stack backtraces of core dumps will have the frame where the
2319 fatal signal occurred mangled; if you can obtain a stack trace while
2320 running the XEmacs process under a debugger, the stack trace should be
2323 @email{1CMC3466@@ibm.mtsac.edu, Curtiss} suggests upgrading to ld.so version 1.8
2324 if dynamic linking and debugging is a problem on Linux.
2327 If you're using a debugger to get a C stack backtrace and you're
2328 getting a completely mangled and bogus stack trace, it's probably due to
2329 one of the following:
2333 Your executable has been stripped. Bad news. Tell your sysadmin not to
2334 do this---it doesn't accomplish anything except to save a bit of disk
2335 space, and makes debugging much much harder.
2338 Your stack is getting trashed. Debugging this is hard; you have to do a
2339 binary-search type of narrowing down where the crash occurs, until you
2340 figure out exactly which line is causing the problem. Of course, this
2341 only works if the bug is highly reproducible.
2344 If your stack trace has exactly one frame in it, with address 0x0, this
2345 could simply mean that XEmacs attempted to execute code at that address,
2346 e.g. through jumping to a null function pointer. Unfortunately, under
2347 those circumstances, GDB under Linux doesn't know how to get a stack
2348 trace. (Yes, this is the third Linux-related problem I've mentioned. I
2349 have no idea why GDB under Linux is so bogus. Complain to the GDB
2350 authors, or to comp.os.linux.development.system). Again, you'll have to
2351 use the narrowing-down process described above.
2354 If you compiled 19.14 with @samp{--debug} (or by default in later
2355 versions), you will get a Lisp backtrace output when XEmacs crashes, so
2356 you'll have something useful.
2361 If you compile with the newer gcc variants gcc-2.8 or egcs, you will
2362 also need gdb 4.17. Earlier releases of gdb can't handle the debug
2363 information generated by the newer compilers.
2366 The above information on using @file{src/gdbinit} works for XEmacs-21.0
2367 and above. For older versions of XEmacs, there are different
2368 @file{gdbinit} files provided in the @file{src} directory. Use the one
2369 corresponding to the configure options used when building XEmacs.
2373 @node Q2.1.16, Q2.1.17, Q2.1.15, Installation
2374 @unnumberedsubsec Q2.1.16: XEmacs crashes in @code{strcat} on HP/UX 10
2376 >From the problems database (through
2377 @uref{http://support.mayfield.hp.com/}):
2380 Problem Report: 5003302299
2383 System/Model: 9000/700
2384 Product Name: HPUX S800 10.0X
2385 Product Vers: 9245XB.10.00
2387 Description: strcat(3C) may read beyond
2388 end of source string, can cause SIGSEGV
2391 *** PROBLEM TEXT ***
2392 strcat(3C) may read beyond the source string onto an unmapped page,
2393 causing a segmentation violation.
2396 @node Q2.1.17, Q2.1.18, Q2.1.16, Installation
2397 @unnumberedsubsec Q2.1.17: @samp{Marker does not point anywhere}
2399 As with other errors, set @code{debug-on-error} to @code{t} to get the
2400 backtrace when the error occurs. Specifically, two problems have been
2401 reported (and fixed).
2405 A problem with line-number-mode in XEmacs 19.14 affected a large number
2406 of other packages. If you see this error message, turn off
2410 A problem with some early versions of Gnus 5.4 caused this error.
2414 @node Q2.1.18, Q2.1.19, Q2.1.17, Installation
2415 @unnumberedsubsec Q2.1.18: 19.14 hangs on HP/UX 10.10.
2417 @email{cognot@@ensg.u-nancy.fr, Richard Cognot} writes:
2420 For the record, compiling on hpux 10.10 leads to a hang in Gnus when
2421 compiled with optimization on.
2423 I've just discovered that my hpux 10.01 binary was working less well
2424 than expected. In fact, on a 10.10 system, @code{(while t)} was not
2425 interrupted by @kbd{C-g}. I defined @code{BROKEN_SIGIO} and recompiled on
2426 10.10, and... the hang is now gone.
2428 As far as configure goes, this will be a bit tricky: @code{BROKEN_SIGIO}
2429 is needed on 10.10, but @strong{not} on 10.01: if I run my 10.01 binary
2430 on a 10.01 machine, without @code{BROKEN_SIGIO} being defined, @kbd{C-g}
2434 @email{cognot@@ensg.u-nancy.fr, Richard Cognot} adds:
2437 Apparently somebody has found the reason why there is this
2442 interrupted...} message for each event. For some reason, libcurses
2443 reimplements a @code{select()} system call, in a highly broken fashion.
2444 The fix is to add a -lc to the link line @emph{before} the
2445 -lxcurses. XEmacs will then use the right version of @code{select()}.
2449 @email{af@@biomath.jussieu.fr, Alain Fauconnet} writes:
2452 The @emph{real} solution is to @emph{not} link -lcurses in! I just
2453 changed -lcurses to -ltermcap in the Makefile and it fixed:
2457 The @samp{poll: interrupted system call} message.
2460 A more serious problem I had discovered in the meantime, that is the
2461 fact that subprocess handling was seriously broken: subprocesses
2462 e.g. started by AUC TeX for TeX compilation of a buffer would
2463 @emph{hang}. Actually they would wait forever for emacs to read the
2464 socket which connects stdout...
2468 @node Q2.1.19, Q2.1.20, Q2.1.18, Installation
2469 @unnumberedsubsec Q2.1.19: XEmacs does not follow the local timezone.
2471 When using one of the prebuilt binaries many users have observed that
2472 XEmacs uses the timezone under which it was built, but not the timezone
2473 under which it is running. The solution is to add:
2476 (set-time-zone-rule "MET")
2479 to your @file{.emacs} or the @file{site-start.el} file if you can.
2480 Replace @code{MET} with your local timezone.
2482 @node Q2.1.20, Q2.1.21, Q2.1.19, Installation
2483 @unnumberedsubsec Q2.1.20: @samp{Symbol's function definition is void: hkey-help-show.}
2485 This is a problem with a partially loaded hyperbole. Try adding:
2488 (require 'hmouse-drv)
2491 where you load hyperbole and the problem should go away.
2493 @node Q2.1.21, Q2.1.22, Q2.1.20, Installation
2494 @unnumberedsubsec Q2.1.21: Every so often the XEmacs frame freezes
2496 This problem has been fixed in 19.15, and was due to a not easily
2497 reproducible race condition.
2499 @node Q2.1.22, Q2.1.23, Q2.1.21, Installation
2500 @unnumberedsubsec Q2.1.22: XEmacs seems to take a really long time to do some things
2502 @email{dmoore@@ucsd.edu, David Moore} writes:
2505 Two things you can do:
2509 When you see it going mad like this, you might want to use gdb from an
2510 'xterm' to attach to the running process and get a stack trace. To do
2514 gdb /path/to/xemacs/xemacs ####
2517 Where @code{####} is the process id of your xemacs, instead of
2518 specifying the core. When gdb attaches, the xemacs will stop [1] and
2519 you can type `where' in gdb to get a stack trace as usual. To get
2520 things moving again, you can just type `quit' in gdb. It'll tell you
2521 the program is running and ask if you want to quit anyways. Say 'y' and
2522 it'll quit and have your emacs continue from where it was at.
2526 Turn on debug-on-quit early on. When you think things are going slow
2527 hit C-g and it may pop you in the debugger so you can see what routine
2528 is running. Press `c' to get going again.
2530 debug-on-quit doesn't work if something's turned on inhibit-quit or in
2531 some other strange cases.
2534 @node Q2.1.23, , Q2.1.22, Installation
2535 @unnumberedsubsec Q2.1.23: Movemail on Linux does not work for XEmacs 19.15 and later.
2537 Movemail used to work fine in 19.14 but has stopped working in 19.15
2538 and 20.x. I am using Linux.
2540 @email{steve@@xemacs.org, SL Baur} writes:
2543 Movemail on Linux used to default to using flock file locking. With
2544 19.15 and later versions it now defaults to using @code{.lock} file
2545 locking. If this is not appropriate for your system, edit src/s/linux.h
2546 and uncomment the line that reads:
2549 #define MAIL_USE_FLOCK
2553 @node Customization, Subsystems, Installation, Top
2554 @unnumbered 3 Customization and Options
2556 This is part 3 of the XEmacs Frequently Asked Questions list. This
2557 section is devoted to Customization and screen settings.
2560 Customization---Emacs Lisp and @file{.emacs}:
2561 * Q3.0.1:: What version of Emacs am I running?
2562 * Q3.0.2:: How do I evaluate Elisp expressions?
2563 * Q3.0.3:: @code{(setq tab-width 6)} behaves oddly.
2564 * Q3.0.4:: How can I add directories to the @code{load-path}?
2565 * Q3.0.5:: How to check if a lisp function is defined?
2566 * Q3.0.6:: Can I force the output of @code{(face-list)} to a buffer?
2567 * Q3.0.7:: Font selections don't get saved after @code{Save Options}.
2568 * Q3.0.8:: How do I make a single minibuffer frame?
2569 * Q3.0.9:: What is @code{Customize}?
2571 X Window System & Resources:
2572 * Q3.1.1:: Where is a list of X resources?
2573 * Q3.1.2:: How can I detect a color display?
2574 * Q3.1.3:: @code{(set-screen-width)} worked in 19.6, but not in 19.13?
2575 * Q3.1.4:: Specifying @code{Emacs*EmacsScreen.geometry} in @file{.emacs} does not work in 19.15?
2576 * Q3.1.5:: How can I get the icon to just say @samp{XEmacs}?
2577 * Q3.1.6:: How can I have the window title area display the full path?
2578 * Q3.1.7:: @samp{xemacs -name junk} doesn't work?
2579 * Q3.1.8:: @samp{-iconic} doesn't work.
2581 Textual Fonts & Colors:
2582 * Q3.2.1:: How can I set color options from @file{.emacs}?
2583 * Q3.2.2:: How do I set the text, menu and modeline fonts?
2584 * Q3.2.3:: How can I set the colors when highlighting a region?
2585 * Q3.2.4:: How can I limit color map usage?
2586 * Q3.2.5:: My tty supports color, but XEmacs doesn't use them.
2587 * Q3.2.6:: Can I have pixmap backgrounds in XEmacs?
2590 * Q3.3.1:: How can I make the modeline go away?
2591 * Q3.3.2:: How do you have XEmacs display the line number in the modeline?
2592 * Q3.3.3:: How do I get XEmacs to put the time of day on the modeline?
2593 * Q3.3.4:: How do I turn off current chapter from AUC TeX modeline?
2594 * Q3.3.5:: How can one change the modeline color based on the mode used?
2596 3.4 Multiple Device Support:
2597 * Q3.4.1:: How do I open a frame on another screen of my multi-headed display?
2598 * Q3.4.2:: Can I really connect to a running XEmacs after calling up over a modem? How?
2601 * Q3.5.1:: How can I bind complex functions (or macros) to keys?
2602 * Q3.5.2:: How can I stop down-arrow from adding empty lines to the bottom of my buffers?
2603 * Q3.5.3:: How do I bind C-. and C-; to scroll one line up and down?
2604 * Q3.5.4:: Globally binding @kbd{Delete}?
2605 * Q3.5.5:: Scrolling one line at a time.
2606 * Q3.5.6:: How to map @kbd{Help} key alone on Sun type4 keyboard?
2607 * Q3.5.7:: How can you type in special characters in XEmacs?
2608 * Q3.5.8:: Why does @code{(global-set-key [delete-forward] 'delete-char)} complain?
2609 * Q3.5.9:: How do I make the Delete key delete forward?
2610 * Q3.5.10:: Can I turn on @dfn{sticky} modifier keys?
2611 * Q3.5.11:: How do I map the arrow keys?
2614 * Q3.6.1:: Is there a way to make the bar cursor thicker?
2615 * Q3.6.2:: Is there a way to get back the old block cursor where the cursor covers the character in front of the point?
2616 * Q3.6.3:: Can I make the cursor blink?
2618 The Mouse and Highlighting:
2619 * Q3.7.1:: How can I turn off Mouse pasting?
2620 * Q3.7.2:: How do I set control/meta/etc modifiers on mouse buttons?
2621 * Q3.7.3:: Clicking the left button does not do anything in buffer list.
2622 * Q3.7.4:: How can I get a list of buffers when I hit mouse button 3?
2623 * Q3.7.5:: Why does cut-and-paste not work between XEmacs and a cmdtool?
2624 * Q3.7.6:: How I can set XEmacs up so that it pastes where the text cursor is?
2625 * Q3.7.7:: How do I select a rectangular region?
2626 * Q3.7.8:: Why does @kbd{M-w} take so long?
2628 The Menubar and Toolbar:
2629 * Q3.8.1:: How do I get rid of the menu (or menubar)?
2630 * Q3.8.2:: Can I customize the basic menubar?
2631 * Q3.8.3:: How do I control how many buffers are listed in the menu @code{Buffers} list?
2632 * Q3.8.4:: Resources like @code{Emacs*menubar*font} are not working?
2633 * Q3.8.5:: How can I bind a key to a function to toggle the toolbar?
2636 * Q3.9.1:: How can I disable the scrollbar?
2637 * Q3.9.2:: How can one use resources to change scrollbar colors?
2638 * Q3.9.3:: Moving the scrollbar can move the point; can I disable this?
2639 * Q3.9.4:: How can I get automatic horizontal scrolling?
2642 * Q3.10.1:: How can I turn off or change highlighted selections?
2643 * Q3.10.2:: How do I get that typing on an active region removes it?
2644 * Q3.10.3:: Can I turn off the highlight during isearch?
2645 * Q3.10.4:: How do I turn off highlighting after @kbd{C-x C-p} (mark-page)?
2646 * Q3.10.5:: The region disappears when I hit the end of buffer while scrolling.
2649 @node Q3.0.1, Q3.0.2, Customization, Customization
2650 @unnumberedsec 3.0: Customization -- Emacs Lisp and .emacs
2651 @unnumberedsubsec Q3.0.1: What version of Emacs am I running?
2653 How can @file{.emacs} determine which of the family of Emacsen I am
2656 To determine if you are currently running GNU Emacs 18, GNU Emacs 19,
2657 XEmacs 19, XEmacs 20, or Epoch, and use appropriate code, check out the
2658 example given in @file{etc/sample.emacs}. There are other nifty things
2661 For all new code, all you really need to do is:
2664 (defvar running-xemacs (string-match "XEmacs\\|Lucid" emacs-version))
2667 @node Q3.0.2, Q3.0.3, Q3.0.1, Customization
2668 @unnumberedsubsec Q3.0.2: How can I evaluate Emacs-Lisp expressions?
2670 I know I can evaluate Elisp expressions from @code{*scratch*} buffer
2671 with @kbd{C-j} after the expression. How do I do it from another
2674 Press @kbd{M-:} (the default binding of @code{eval-expression}), and
2675 enter the expression to the minibuffer. In XEmacs prior to 19.15
2676 @code{eval-expression} used to be a disabled command by default. If
2677 this is the case, upgrade your XEmacs.
2679 @node Q3.0.3, Q3.0.4, Q3.0.2, Customization
2680 @unnumberedsubsec Q3.0.3: @code{(setq tab-width 6)} behaves oddly.
2682 If you put @code{(setq tab-width 6)} in your @file{.emacs} file it does
2683 not work! Is there a reason for this? If you do it at the EVAL prompt
2684 it works fine!! How strange.
2686 Use @code{setq-default} instead, since @code{tab-width} is
2689 @node Q3.0.4, Q3.0.5, Q3.0.3, Customization
2690 @unnumberedsubsec Q3.0.4: How can I add directories to the @code{load-path}?
2692 Here are two ways to do that, one that puts your directories at the
2693 front of the load-path, the other at the end:
2696 ;;; Add things at the beginning of the load-path, do not add
2697 ;;; duplicate directories:
2698 (pushnew "bar" load-path :test 'equal)
2700 (pushnew "foo" load-path :test 'equal)
2702 ;;; Add things at the end, unconditionally
2703 (setq load-path (nconc load-path '("foo" "bar")))
2706 @email{keithh@@nortel.ca, keith (k.p.) hanlan} writes:
2709 To add directories using Unix shell metacharacters use
2710 @file{expand-file-name} like this:
2713 (push (expand-file-name "~keithh/.emacsdir") load-path)
2717 @node Q3.0.5, Q3.0.6, Q3.0.4, Customization
2718 @unnumberedsubsec Q3.0.5: How to check if a lisp function is defined?
2720 Use the following elisp:
2726 It's almost always a mistake to test @code{emacs-version} or any similar
2729 Instead, use feature-tests, such as @code{featurep}, @code{boundp},
2730 @code{fboundp}, or even simple behavioral tests, eg.:
2733 (defvar foo-old-losing-code-p
2734 (condition-case nil (progn (losing-code t) nil)
2735 (wrong-number-of-arguments t)))
2738 There is an incredible amount of broken code out there which could work
2739 much better more often in more places if it did the above instead of
2740 trying to divine its environment from the value of one variable.
2742 @node Q3.0.6, Q3.0.7, Q3.0.5, Customization
2743 @unnumberedsubsec Q3.0.6: Can I force the output of @code{(face-list)} to a buffer?
2745 It would be good having it in a buffer, as the output of
2746 @code{(face-list)} is too wide to fit to a minibuffer.
2748 Evaluate the expression in the @samp{*scratch*} buffer with point after
2749 the rightmost paren and typing @kbd{C-j}.
2751 If the minibuffer smallness is the only problem you encounter, you can
2752 simply press @kbd{C-h l} to get the former minibuffer contents in a
2755 @node Q3.0.7, Q3.0.8, Q3.0.6, Customization
2756 @unnumberedsubsec Q3.0.7: Font selections in don't get saved after @code{Save Options}.
2758 For XEmacs 19.14 and previous:
2760 @email{mannj@@ll.mit.edu, John Mann} writes:
2763 You have to go to Options->Menubar Appearance and unselect
2764 @samp{Frame-Local Font Menu}. If this option is selected, font changes
2765 are only applied to the @emph{current} frame and do @emph{not} get saved
2766 when you save options.
2769 For XEmacs 19.15 and later:
2771 Implement the above as well as set the following in your @file{.emacs}
2774 (setq options-save-faces t)
2777 @node Q3.0.8, Q3.0.9, Q3.0.7, Customization
2778 @unnumberedsubsec Q3.0.8: How do I get a single minibuffer frame?
2780 @email{acs@@acm.org, Vin Shelton} writes:
2783 (setq initial-frame-plist '(minibuffer nil))
2784 (setq default-frame-plist '(minibuffer nil))
2785 (setq default-minibuffer-frame
2790 menubar-visible-p nil
2791 default-toolbar-visible-p nil
2795 has-modeline-p nil)))
2796 (frame-notice-user-settings)
2799 @strong{Please note:} The single minibuffer frame may not be to everyone's
2800 taste, and there any number of other XEmacs options settings that may
2801 make it difficult or inconvenient to use.
2803 @node Q3.0.9, Q3.1.1, Q3.0.8, Customization
2804 @unnumberedsubsec Q3.0.9: What is @code{Customize}?
2806 Starting with XEmacs 20.2 there is new system 'Customize' for customizing
2809 You can access @code{Customize} from the @code{Options} menu
2810 or invoking one of customize commands by typing eg.
2811 @kbd{M-x customize}, @kbd{M-x customize-face},
2812 @kbd{M-x customize-variable} or @kbd{M-x customize-apropos}.
2814 Starting with XEmacs 20.3 there is also new `browser' mode for Customize.
2815 Try it out with @kbd{M-x customize-browse}
2817 @node Q3.1.1, Q3.1.2, Q3.0.9, Customization
2818 @unnumberedsec 3.1: X Window System & Resources
2819 @unnumberedsubsec Q3.1.1: Where is a list of X resources?
2821 Search through the @file{NEWS} file for @samp{X Resources}. A fairly
2822 comprehensive list is given after it.
2824 In addition, an @file{app-defaults} file is supplied,
2825 @file{etc/Emacs.ad} listing the defaults. The file
2826 @file{etc/sample.Xdefaults} gives a set of defaults that you might
2827 consider. It is essentially the same as @file{etc/Emacs.ad} but some
2828 entries are slightly altered. Be careful about installing the contents
2829 of this file into your @file{.Xdefaults} or @file{.Xresources} file if
2830 you use GNU Emacs under X11 as well.
2832 @node Q3.1.2, Q3.1.3, Q3.1.1, Customization
2833 @unnumberedsubsec Q3.1.2: How can I detect a color display?
2835 You can test the return value of the function @code{(device-class)}, as
2839 (when (eq (device-class) 'color)
2840 (set-face-foreground 'font-lock-comment-face "Grey")
2841 (set-face-foreground 'font-lock-string-face "Red")
2846 @node Q3.1.3, Q3.1.4, Q3.1.2, Customization
2847 @unnumberedsubsec Q3.1.3: @code{(set-screen-width)} worked in 19.6, but not in 19.13?
2849 In Lucid Emacs 19.6 I did @code{(set-screen-width @var{characters})} and
2850 @code{(set-screen-height @var{lines})} in my @file{.emacs} instead of
2851 specifying @code{Emacs*EmacsScreen.geometry} in my
2855 @file{.Xdefaults} but
2856 this does not work in XEmacs 19.13.
2858 These two functions now take frame arguments:
2861 (set-frame-width (selected-frame) @var{characters})
2862 (set-frame-height (selected-frame) @var{lines})
2865 @node Q3.1.4, Q3.1.5, Q3.1.3, Customization
2866 @unnumberedsubsec Q3.1.4: Specifying @code{Emacs*EmacsScreen.geometry} in @file{.emacs} does not work in 19.15?
2868 In XEmacs 19.11 I specified @code{Emacs*EmacsScreen.geometry} in
2869 my @file{.emacs} but this does not work in XEmacs 19.15.
2871 We have switched from using the term @dfn{screen} to using the term
2874 The correct entry for your @file{.Xdefaults} is now:
2877 Emacs*EmacsFrame.geometry
2880 @node Q3.1.5, Q3.1.6, Q3.1.4, Customization
2881 @unnumberedsubsec Q3.1.5: How can I get the icon to just say @samp{XEmacs}?
2883 I'd like the icon to just say @samp{XEmacs}, and not include the name of
2884 the current file in it.
2886 Add the following line to your @file{.emacs}:
2889 (setq frame-icon-title-format "XEmacs")
2892 @node Q3.1.6, Q3.1.7, Q3.1.5, Customization
2893 @unnumberedsubsec Q3.1.6: How can I have the window title area display the full path?
2895 I'd like to have the window title area display the full directory/name
2896 of the current buffer file and not just the name.
2898 Add the following line to your @file{.emacs}:
2901 (setq frame-title-format "%S: %f")
2904 A more sophisticated title might be:
2907 (setq frame-title-format
2908 '("%S: " (buffer-file-name "%f"
2909 (dired-directory dired-directory "%b"))))
2912 That is, use the file name, or the dired-directory, or the buffer name.
2914 @node Q3.1.7, Q3.1.8, Q3.1.6, Customization
2915 @unnumberedsubsec Q3.1.7: @samp{xemacs -name junk} doesn't work?
2917 When I run @samp{xterm -name junk}, I get an xterm whose class name
2918 according to xprop, is @samp{junk}. This is the way it's supposed to
2919 work, I think. When I run @samp{xemacs -name junk} the class name is
2920 not set to @samp{junk}. It's still @samp{emacs}. What does
2921 @samp{xemacs -name} really do? The reason I ask is that my window
2922 manager (fvwm) will make a window sticky and I use XEmacs to read my
2923 mail. I want that XEmacs window to be sticky, without having to use the
2924 window manager's function to set the window sticky. What gives?
2926 @samp{xemacs -name} sets the application name for the program (that is,
2927 the thing which normally comes from @samp{argv[0]}). Using @samp{-name}
2928 is the same as making a copy of the executable with that new name. The
2929 @code{WM_CLASS} property on each frame is set to the frame-name, and the
2930 application-class. So, if you did @samp{xemacs -name FOO} and then
2931 created a frame named @var{BAR}, you'd get an X window with WM_CLASS =
2932 @code{( "BAR", "Emacs")}. However, the resource hierarchy for this
2936 Name: FOO .shell .container .BAR
2937 Class: Emacs .TopLevelEmacsShell.EmacsManager.EmacsFrame
2940 instead of the default
2943 Name: xemacs.shell .container .emacs
2944 Class: Emacs .TopLevelEmacsShell.EmacsManager.EmacsFrame
2948 It is arguable that the first element of WM_CLASS should be set to the
2949 application-name instead of the frame-name, but I think that's less
2950 flexible, since it does not give you the ability to have multiple frames
2951 with different WM_CLASS properties. Another possibility would be for
2952 the default frame name to come from the application name instead of
2953 simply being @samp{emacs}. However, at this point, making that change
2954 would be troublesome: it would mean that many users would have to make
2955 yet another change to their resource files (since the default frame name
2956 would suddenly change from @samp{emacs} to @samp{xemacs}, or whatever
2957 the executable happened to be named), so we'd rather avoid it.
2959 To make a frame with a particular name use:
2962 (make-frame '((name . "the-name")))
2965 @node Q3.1.8, Q3.2.1, Q3.1.7, Customization
2966 @unnumberedsubsec Q3.1.8: @samp{-iconic} doesn't work.
2968 When I start up XEmacs using @samp{-iconic} it doesn't work right.
2969 Using @samp{-unmapped} on the command line, and setting the
2970 @code{initiallyUnmapped} X Resource don't seem to help much either...
2972 @email{ben@@666.com, Ben Wing} writes:
2975 Ugh, this stuff is such an incredible mess that I've about given up
2976 getting it to work. The principal problem is numerous window-manager
2980 @node Q3.2.1, Q3.2.2, Q3.1.8, Customization
2981 @unnumberedsec 3.2: Textual Fonts & Colors
2982 @unnumberedsubsec Q3.2.1: How can I set color options from @file{.emacs}?
2984 How can I set the most commonly used color options from my @file{.emacs}
2985 instead of from my @file{.Xdefaults}?
2990 (set-face-background 'default "bisque") ; frame background
2991 (set-face-foreground 'default "black") ; normal text
2992 (set-face-background 'zmacs-region "red") ; When selecting w/
2994 (set-face-foreground 'zmacs-region "yellow")
2995 (set-face-font 'default "*courier-bold-r*120-100-100*")
2996 (set-face-background 'highlight "blue") ; Ie when selecting
2998 (set-face-foreground 'highlight "yellow")
2999 (set-face-background 'modeline "blue") ; Line at bottom
3001 (set-face-foreground 'modeline "white")
3002 (set-face-font 'modeline "*bold-r-normal*140-100-100*")
3003 (set-face-background 'isearch "yellow") ; When highlighting
3005 (set-face-foreground 'isearch "red")
3006 (setq x-pointer-foreground-color "black") ; Adds to bg color,
3008 (setq x-pointer-background-color "blue") ; This is color
3013 @node Q3.2.2, Q3.2.3, Q3.2.1, Customization
3014 @unnumberedsubsec Q3.2.2: How do I set the text, menu and modeline fonts?
3016 Note that you should use @samp{Emacs.} and not @samp{Emacs*} when
3017 setting face values.
3019 In @file{.Xdefaults}:
3022 Emacs.default.attributeFont: -*-*-medium-r-*-*-*-120-*-*-m-*-*-*
3023 Emacs*menubar*font: fixed
3024 Emacs.modeline.attributeFont: fixed
3027 This is confusing because modeline is a face, and can be found listed
3028 with all faces in the current mode by using @kbd{M-x set-face-font
3029 (enter) ?}. It uses the face specification of @code{attributeFont},
3030 while menubar is a normal X thing that uses the specification
3031 @code{font}. With Motif it may be necessary to use @code{fontList}
3032 instead of @code{font}.
3034 @node Q3.2.3, Q3.2.4, Q3.2.2, Customization
3035 @unnumberedsubsec Q3.2.3: How can I set the colors when highlighting a region?
3037 How can I set the background/foreground colors when highlighting a
3040 You can change the face @code{zmacs-region} either in your
3044 Emacs.zmacs-region.attributeForeground: firebrick
3045 Emacs.zmacs-region.attributeBackground: lightseagreen
3048 or in your @file{.emacs}:
3051 (set-face-background 'zmacs-region "red")
3052 (set-face-foreground 'zmacs-region "yellow")
3055 @node Q3.2.4, Q3.2.5, Q3.2.3, Customization
3056 @unnumberedsubsec Q3.2.4: How can I limit color map usage?
3058 I'm using Netscape (or another color grabber like XEmacs);
3059 is there anyway to limit the number of available colors in the color map?
3061 XEmacs 19.13 didn't have such a mechanism (unlike netscape, or other
3062 color-hogs). One solution is to start XEmacs prior to netscape, since
3063 this will prevent Netscape from grabbing all colors (but Netscape will
3064 complain). You can use the flags for Netscape, like -mono, -ncols <#>
3065 or -install (for mono, limiting to <#> colors, or for using a private
3066 color map). Since Netscape will take the entire colormap and never
3067 release it, the only reasonable way to run it is with @samp{-install}.
3069 If you have the money, another solution would be to use a truecolor or
3072 Starting with XEmacs 19.14, XEmacs uses the closest available color if
3073 the colormap is full, so it's O.K. now to start Netscape first.
3075 @node Q3.2.5, Q3.2.6, Q3.2.4, Customization
3076 @unnumberedsubsec Q3.2.5: My tty supports color, but XEmacs doesn't use them.
3078 XEmacs tries to automatically determine whether your tty supports color,
3079 but sometimes guesses wrong. In that case, you can make XEmacs Do The
3080 Right Thing using this Lisp code:
3083 (if (eq 'tty (device-type))
3084 (set-device-class nil 'color))
3087 @node Q3.2.6, Q3.3.1, Q3.2.5, Customization
3088 @unnumberedsubsec Q3.2.6: Can I have pixmap backgrounds in XEmacs?
3090 @email{jvillaci@@wahnsinnig.extreme.indiana.edu, Juan Villacis} writes:
3093 There are several ways to do it. For example, you could specify a
3094 default pixmap image to use in your @file{~/.Xresources}, e.g.,
3098 Emacs*EmacsFrame.default.attributeBackgroundPixmap: /path/to/image.xpm
3102 and then reload ~/.Xresources and restart XEmacs. Alternatively,
3103 since each face can have its own pixmap background, a better way
3104 would be to set a face's pixmap within your XEmacs init file, e.g.,
3107 (set-face-background-pixmap 'default "/path/to/image.xpm")
3108 (set-face-background-pixmap 'bold "/path/to/another_image.xpm")
3111 and so on. You can also do this interactively via @kbd{M-x edit-faces}.
3115 @unnumberedsec 3.3: The Modeline
3116 @node Q3.3.1, Q3.3.2, Q3.2.6, Customization
3117 @unnumberedsubsec Q3.3.1: How can I make the modeline go away?
3120 (set-specifier has-modeline-p nil)
3123 Starting with XEmacs 19.14 the modeline responds to mouse clicks, so if
3124 you haven't liked or used the modeline in the past, you might want to
3125 try the new version out.
3127 @node Q3.3.2, Q3.3.3, Q3.3.1, Customization
3128 @unnumberedsubsec Q3.3.2: How do you have XEmacs display the line number in the modeline?
3130 Add the following line to your @file{.emacs} file to display the
3134 (line-number-mode 1)
3137 Use the following to display the column number:
3140 (column-number-mode 1)
3143 Or select from the @code{Options} menu
3147 @code{Customize->Emacs->Editing->Basics->Line Number Mode}
3152 @code{Customize->Emacs->Editing->Basics->Column Number Mode}
3154 Or type @kbd{M-x customize @key{RET} editing-basics @key{RET}}.
3156 @node Q3.3.3, Q3.3.4, Q3.3.2, Customization
3157 @unnumberedsubsec Q3.3.3: How do I get XEmacs to put the time of day on the modeline?
3159 Add the following line to your @file{.emacs} file to display the
3166 See @code{Customize} from the @code{Options} menu for customization.
3168 @node Q3.3.4, Q3.3.5, Q3.3.3, Customization
3169 @unnumberedsubsec Q3.3.4: How do I turn off current chapter from AUC TeX modeline?
3171 With AUC TeX, fast typing is hard because the current chapter, section
3172 etc. are given in the modeline. How can I turn this off?
3174 It's not AUC TeX, it comes from @code{func-menu} in @file{func-menu.el}.
3175 Add this code to your @file{.emacs} to turn it off:
3178 (setq fume-display-in-modeline-p nil)
3181 Or just add a hook to @code{TeX-mode-hook} to turn it off only for TeX
3185 (add-hook 'TeX-mode-hook
3186 '(lambda () (setq fume-display-in-modeline-p nil)))
3189 @email{dhughes@@origin-at.co.uk, David Hughes} writes:
3192 If you have 19.14 or later, try this instead; you'll still get the
3193 function name displayed in the modeline, but it won't attempt to keep
3194 track when you modify the file. To refresh when it gets out of synch,
3195 you simply need click on the @samp{Rescan Buffer} option in the
3199 (setq-default fume-auto-rescan-buffer-p nil)
3203 @node Q3.3.5, Q3.4.1, Q3.3.4, Customization
3204 @unnumberedsubsec Q3.3.5: How can one change the modeline color based on the mode used?
3206 You can use something like the following:
3209 (add-hook 'lisp-mode-hook
3211 (set-face-background 'modeline "red" (current-buffer))))
3214 Then, when editing a Lisp file (i.e. when in Lisp mode), the modeline
3215 colors change from the default set in your @file{.emacs}. The change
3216 will only be made in the buffer you just entered (which contains the
3217 Lisp file you are editing) and will not affect the modeline colors
3225 The hook is the mode name plus @code{-hook}. eg. c-mode-hook,
3226 c++-mode-hook, emacs-lisp-mode-hook (used for your @file{.emacs} or a
3227 @file{xx.el} file), lisp-interaction-mode-hook (the @samp{*scratch*}
3228 buffer), text-mode-hook, etc.
3231 Be sure to use @code{add-hook}, not @code{(setq c-mode-hook xxxx)},
3232 otherwise you will erase anything that anybody has already put on the
3236 You can also do @code{(set-face-font 'modeline @var{font})},
3237 eg. @code{(set-face-font 'modeline "*bold-r-normal*140-100-100*"
3238 (current-buffer))} if you wish the modeline font to vary based on the
3242 This works in 19.15 as well, but there are additional modeline faces,
3243 @code{modeline-buffer-id}, @code{modeline-mousable}, and
3244 @code{modeline-mousable-minor-mode}, which you may want to customize.
3246 @node Q3.4.1, Q3.4.2, Q3.3.5, Customization
3247 @unnumberedsec 3.4: Multiple Device Support
3248 @unnumberedsubsec Q3.4.1: How do I open a frame on another screen of my multi-headed display?
3250 The support for this was revamped for 19.14. Use the command
3251 @kbd{M-x make-frame-on-display}. This command is also on the File menu
3254 XEmacs 19.14 and later also have the command @code{make-frame-on-tty}
3255 which will establish a connection to any tty-like device. Opening the
3256 TTY devices should be left to @code{gnuclient}, though.
3258 @node Q3.4.2, Q3.5.1, Q3.4.1, Customization
3259 @unnumberedsubsec Q3.4.2: Can I really connect to a running XEmacs after calling up over a modem? How?
3261 If you're not running at least XEmacs 19.14, you can't. Otherwise check
3262 out the @code{gnuattach} program supplied with XEmacs. Starting with
3263 XEmacs 20.3, @code{gnuattach} and @code{gnudoit} functionality is
3264 provided by @code{gnuclient}.
3266 Also @xref{Q5.0.12}.
3268 @node Q3.5.1, Q3.5.2, Q3.4.2, Customization
3269 @unnumberedsec 3.5: The Keyboard
3270 @unnumberedsubsec Q3.5.1: How can I bind complex functions (or macros) to keys?
3272 As an example, say you want the @kbd{paste} key on a Sun keyboard to
3273 insert the current Primary X selection at point. You can accomplish this
3277 (define-key global-map [f18] 'x-insert-selection)
3280 However, this only works if there is a current X selection (the
3281 selection will be highlighted). The functionality I like is for the
3282 @kbd{paste} key to insert the current X selection if there is one,
3283 otherwise insert the contents of the clipboard. To do this you need to
3284 pass arguments to @code{x-insert-selection}. This is done by wrapping
3285 the call in a 'lambda form:
3288 (global-set-key [f18]
3289 (lambda () (interactive) (x-insert-selection t nil)))
3292 This binds the f18 key to a @dfn{generic} functional object. The
3293 interactive spec is required because only interactive functions can be
3296 For the FAQ example you could use:
3299 (global-set-key [(control ?.)]
3300 (lambda () (interactive) (scroll-up 1)))
3301 (global-set-key [(control ? ;)]
3302 (lambda () (interactive) (scroll-up -1)))
3305 This is fine if you only need a few functions within the lambda body.
3306 If you're doing more it's cleaner to define a separate function as in
3307 question 3.5.3 (@xref{Q3.5.3}).
3309 @node Q3.5.2, Q3.5.3, Q3.5.1, Customization
3310 @unnumberedsubsec Q3.5.2: How can I stop down-arrow from adding empty lines to the bottom of my buffers?
3312 Add the following line to your @file{.emacs} file:
3315 (setq next-line-add-newlines nil)
3318 This has been the default setting in XEmacs for some time.
3320 @node Q3.5.3, Q3.5.4, Q3.5.2, Customization
3321 @unnumberedsubsec Q3.5.3: How do I bind C-. and C-; to scroll one line up and down?
3323 Add the following (Thanks to @email{mly@@adoc.xerox.com, Richard Mlynarik} and
3324 @email{wayne@@zen.cac.stratus.com, Wayne Newberry}) to @file{.emacs}:
3327 (defun scroll-up-one-line ()
3331 (defun scroll-down-one-line ()
3335 (global-set-key [(control ?.)] 'scroll-up-one-line) ; C-.
3336 (global-set-key [(control ? ;)] 'scroll-down-one-line) ; C-;
3339 The key point is that you can only bind simple functions to keys; you
3340 can not bind a key to a function that you're also passing arguments to.
3341 (@xref{Q3.5.1} for a better answer).
3343 @node Q3.5.4, Q3.5.5, Q3.5.3, Customization
3344 @unnumberedsubsec Q3.5.4: Globally binding @kbd{Delete}?
3346 I cannot manage to globally bind my @kbd{Delete} key to something other
3347 than the default. How does one do this?
3352 (message "You hit DELETE"))
3354 (global-set-key 'delete 'foo)
3357 However, some modes explicitly bind @kbd{Delete}, so you would need to
3358 add a hook that does @code{local-set-key} for them. If what you want to
3359 do is make the Backspace and Delete keys work more PC/Motif-like, then
3360 take a look at the @file{delbs.el} package.
3362 New in XEmacs 19.14 is a variable called @code{key-translation-map}
3363 which makes it easier to bind @kbd{Delete}. @file{delbs.el} is a
3364 good example of how to do this correctly.
3366 Also @xref{Q3.5.10}.
3368 @node Q3.5.5, Q3.5.6, Q3.5.4, Customization
3369 @unnumberedsubsec Q3.5.5: Scrolling one line at a time.
3371 Can the cursor keys scroll the screen a line at a time, rather than the
3372 default half page jump? I tend it to find it disorienting.
3377 (defun scroll-one-line-up (&optional arg)
3378 "Scroll the selected window up (forward in the text) one line (or N lines)."
3380 (scroll-up (or arg 1)))
3382 (defun scroll-one-line-down (&optional arg)
3383 "Scroll the selected window down (backward in the text) one line (or N)."
3385 (scroll-down (or arg 1)))
3387 (global-set-key [up] 'scroll-one-line-up)
3388 (global-set-key [down] 'scroll-one-line-down)
3391 The following will also work but will affect more than just the cursor
3392 keys (i.e. @kbd{C-n} and @kbd{C-p}):
3395 (setq scroll-step 1)
3398 Starting with XEmacs-20.3 you can also change this with Customize.
3399 Select from the @code{Options} menu
3400 @code{Customize->Emacs->Environment->Windows->Scroll Step...} or type
3401 @kbd{M-x customize @key{RET} windows @key{RET}}.
3403 @node Q3.5.6, Q3.5.7, Q3.5.5, Customization
3404 @unnumberedsubsec Q3.5.6: How to map @kbd{Help} key alone on Sun type4 keyboard?
3406 The following works in GNU Emacs 19:
3409 (global-set-key [help] 'help-command);; Help
3412 The following works in XEmacs 19.15 with the addition of shift:
3415 (global-set-key [(shift help)] 'help-command);; Help
3418 But it doesn't work alone. This is in the file @file{PROBLEMS} which
3419 should have come with your XEmacs installation: @emph{Emacs ignores the
3420 @kbd{help} key when running OLWM}.
3422 OLWM grabs the @kbd{help} key, and retransmits it to the appropriate
3427 @code{XSendEvent}. Allowing Emacs to react to synthetic
3428 events is a security hole, so this is turned off by default. You can
3429 enable it by setting the variable @code{x-allow-sendevents} to t. You
3430 can also cause fix this by telling OLWM to not grab the help key, with
3431 the null binding @code{OpenWindows.KeyboardCommand.Help:}.
3433 @node Q3.5.7, Q3.5.8, Q3.5.6, Customization
3434 @unnumberedsubsec Q3.5.7: How can you type in special characters in XEmacs?
3436 One way is to use the package @code{x-compose}. Then you can use
3437 sequences like @kbd{Compose " a} to get ä, etc.
3439 Another way is to use the @code{iso-insert} package, provided in XEmacs
3440 19.15 and later. Then you can use sequences like @kbd{C-x 8 " a} to get
3443 @email{glynn@@sensei.co.uk, Glynn Clements} writes:
3446 It depends upon your X server.
3448 Generally, the simplest way is to define a key as Multi_key with
3450 @c hey, show some respect, willya -- there's xkeycaps, isn't there? --
3453 xmodmap -e 'keycode 0xff20 = Multi_key'
3456 You will need to pick an appropriate keycode. Use xev to find out the
3457 keycodes for each key.
3459 [NB: On a `Windows' keyboard, recent versions of XFree86 automatically
3460 define the right `Windows' key as Multi_key'.]
3462 Once you have Multi_key defined, you can use e.g.
3471 Also, recent versions of XFree86 define various AltGr-<key>
3472 combinations as dead keys, i.e.
3474 AltGr [ => dead_diaeresis
3475 AltGr ] => dead_tilde
3476 AltGr ; => dead_acute
3480 Running @samp{xmodmap -pk} will list all of the defined keysyms.
3483 @node Q3.5.8, Q3.5.9, Q3.5.7, Customization
3484 @unnumberedsubsec Q3.5.8: Why does @code{(global-set-key [delete-forward] 'delete-char)} complain?
3486 Why does @code{(define-key global-map [ delete-forward ] 'delete-char)}
3487 complain of not being able to bind an unknown key?
3492 (define-key global-map [delete_forward] 'delete-char)
3497 What you are seeing above is a bug due to code that is trying to check
3498 for GNU Emacs syntax like:
3500 (define-key global-map [C-M-a] 'delete-char)
3502 which otherwise would cause no errors but would not result in the
3505 This bug has been fixed in 19.14.
3507 @node Q3.5.9, Q3.5.10, Q3.5.8, Customization
3508 @unnumberedsubsec Q3.5.9: How do I make the Delete key delete forward?
3510 With XEmacs-20.2 use the @code{delbs} package:
3516 This will give you the functions @code{delbs-enable-delete-forward} to
3517 set things up, and @code{delbs-disable-delete-forward} to revert to
3518 ``normal'' behavior. Note that @code{delbackspace} package is obsolete.
3520 Starting with XEmacs-20.3 better solution is to set variable
3521 @code{delete-key-deletes-forward} to t. You can also change this with
3522 Customize. Select from the @code{Options} menu
3523 @code{Customize->Emacs->Editing->Basics->Delete Key Deletes Forward} or
3524 type @kbd{M-x customize @key{RET} editing-basics @key{RET}}.
3528 @node Q3.5.10, Q3.5.11, Q3.5.9, Customization
3529 @unnumberedsubsec Q3.5.10: Can I turn on @dfn{sticky} modifier keys?
3531 Yes, with @code{(setq modifier-keys-are-sticky t)}. This will give the
3532 effect of being able to press and release Shift and have the next
3533 character typed come out in upper case. This will affect all the other
3534 modifier keys like Control and Meta as well.
3536 @email{ben@@666.com, Ben Wing} writes:
3539 One thing about the sticky modifiers is that if you move the mouse out
3540 of the frame and back in, it cancels all currently ``stuck'' modifiers.
3543 @node Q3.5.11, Q3.6.1, Q3.5.10, Customization
3544 @unnumberedsubsec Q3.5.11: How do I map the arrow keys?
3546 Say you want to map @kbd{C-@key{right}} to forward-word:
3548 @email{sds@@usa.net, Sam Steingold} writes:
3552 ; both XEmacs and Emacs
3553 (define-key global-map [(control right)] 'forward-word)
3558 (define-key global-map [C-right] 'forward-word)
3563 (define-key global-map (kbd "C-<right>") 'forward-word)
3569 @node Q3.6.1, Q3.6.2, Q3.5.11, Customization
3570 @unnumberedsec 3.6: The Cursor
3571 @unnumberedsubsec Q3.6.1: Is there a way to make the bar cursor thicker?
3573 I'd like to have the bar cursor a little thicker, as I tend to "lose" it
3576 For a 1 pixel bar cursor, use:
3582 For a 2 pixel bar cursor, use:
3585 (setq bar-cursor 'anything-else)
3588 Starting with XEmacs-20.3 you can also change these with Customize.
3589 Select from the @code{Options} menu
3590 @code{Customize->Emacs->Environment->Display->Bar Cursor...} or type
3591 @kbd{M-x customize @key{RET} display @key{RET}}.
3593 You can use a color to make it stand out better:
3596 Emacs*cursorColor: Red
3599 @node Q3.6.2, Q3.6.3, Q3.6.1, Customization
3600 @unnumberedsubsec Q3.6.2: Is there a way to get back the block cursor?
3603 (setq bar-cursor nil)
3606 Starting with XEmacs-20.3 you can also change this with Customize.
3607 Select from the @code{Options} menu
3608 @code{Customize->Emacs->Environment->Display->Bar Cursor...} or type
3609 @kbd{M-x customize @key{RET} display @key{RET}}.
3611 @node Q3.6.3, Q3.7.1, Q3.6.2, Customization
3612 @unnumberedsubsec Q3.6.3: Can I make the cursor blink?
3614 If you are running a version of XEmacs older than 19.14, no. Otherwise
3615 you can do the following:
3621 This function toggles between a steady cursor and a blinking cursor.
3622 You may also set this mode from the menu bar by selecting @samp{Options
3623 => Frame Appearance => Blinking Cursor}. Remember to save options.
3625 @node Q3.7.1, Q3.7.2, Q3.6.3, Customization
3626 @unnumberedsec 3.7: The Mouse and Highlighting
3627 @unnumberedsubsec Q3.7.1: How can I turn off Mouse pasting?
3629 I keep hitting the middle mouse button by accident and getting stuff
3630 pasted into my buffer so how can I turn this off?
3632 Here is an alternative binding, whereby the middle mouse button selects
3633 (but does not cut) the expression under the mouse. Clicking middle on a
3634 left or right paren will select to the matching one. Note that you can
3635 use @code{define-key} or @code{global-set-key}.
3638 (defun mouse-set-point-and-select (event)
3639 "Sets the point at the mouse location, then marks following form"
3641 (mouse-set-point event)
3643 (define-key global-map [button2] 'mouse-set-point-and-select)
3646 @node Q3.7.2, Q3.7.3, Q3.7.1, Customization
3647 @unnumberedsubsec Q3.7.2: How do I set control/meta/etc modifiers on mouse buttons?
3649 Use, for instance, @code{[(meta button1)]}. For example, here is a common
3650 setting for Common Lisp programmers who use the bundled @code{ilisp}
3651 package, whereby meta-button1 on a function name will find the file where
3652 the function name was defined, and put you at that location in the source
3655 [Inside a function that gets called by the lisp-mode-hook and
3659 (local-set-key [(meta button1)] 'edit-definitions-lisp)
3662 @node Q3.7.3, Q3.7.4, Q3.7.2, Customization
3663 @unnumberedsubsec Q3.7.3: Clicking the left button does not do anything in buffer list.
3665 I do @kbd{C-x C-b} to get a list of buffers and the entries get
3666 highlighted when I move the mouse over them but clicking the left mouse
3667 does not do anything.
3669 Use the middle mouse button.
3671 @node Q3.7.4, Q3.7.5, Q3.7.3, Customization
3672 @unnumberedsubsec Q3.7.4: How can I get a list of buffers when I hit mouse button 3?
3674 The following code will replace the default popup on button3:
3677 (global-set-key [button3] 'popup-buffer-menu)
3680 @node Q3.7.5, Q3.7.6, Q3.7.4, Customization
3681 @unnumberedsubsec Q3.7.5: Why does cut-and-paste not work between XEmacs and a cmdtool?
3683 We don't know. It's a bug. There does seem to be a work-around,
3684 however. Try running xclipboard first. It appears to fix the problem
3685 even if you exit it. (This should be mostly fixed in 19.13, but we
3686 haven't yet verified that).
3688 @node Q3.7.6, Q3.7.7, Q3.7.5, Customization
3689 @unnumberedsubsec Q3.7.6: How I can set XEmacs up so that it pastes where the text cursor is?
3691 By default XEmacs pastes X selections where the mouse pointer is. How
3694 Examine the function @code{mouse-yank}, by typing @kbd{C-h f mouse-yank
3697 To get XEmacs to paste at the text cursor, add this your @file{.emacs}:
3700 (setq mouse-yank-at-point t)
3703 Starting with XEmacs-20.2 you can also change this with Customize.
3704 Select from the @code{Options} menu
3705 @code{Customize->Emacs->Editing->Mouse->Yank At Point...} or type
3706 @kbd{M-x customize @key{RET} mouse @key{RET}}.
3708 @node Q3.7.7, Q3.7.8, Q3.7.6, Customization
3709 @unnumberedsubsec Q3.7.7: How do I select a rectangular region?
3711 Just select the region normally, then use the rectangle commands (e.g.
3712 @code{kill-rectangle} on it. The region does not highlight as a
3713 rectangle, but the commands work just fine.
3715 To actually sweep out rectangular regions with the mouse you can use
3716 @code{mouse-track-do-rectangle} which is assigned to @kbd{M-button1}.
3717 Then use rectangle commands.
3719 You can also do the following to change default behavior to sweep out
3720 rectangular regions:
3723 (setq mouse-track-rectangle-p t)
3726 Starting with XEmacs-20.2 you can also change this with Customize.
3727 Select from the @code{Options} menu
3728 @code{Customize->Emacs->Editing->Mouse->Track Rectangle...} or type
3729 @kbd{M-x customize @key{RET} mouse @key{RET}}.
3733 mouse-track-do-rectangle: (event)
3734 -- an interactive compiled Lisp function.
3735 Like `mouse-track' but selects rectangles instead of regions.
3738 @node Q3.7.8, Q3.8.1, Q3.7.7, Customization
3739 @unnumberedsubsec Q3.7.8: Why does @kbd{M-w} take so long?
3741 It actually doesn't. It leaves the region visible for a second so that
3742 you can see what area is being yanked. If you start working, though, it
3743 will immediately complete its operation. In other words, it will only
3744 delay for a second if you let it.
3746 @node Q3.8.1, Q3.8.2, Q3.7.8, Customization
3747 @unnumberedsec 3.8: The Menubar and Toolbar
3748 @unnumberedsubsec Q3.8.1: How do I get rid of the menu (or menubar)?
3750 If you are running XEmacs 19.13 and earlier, add this command to your
3757 Starting with XEmacs 19.14 the preferred method is:
3760 (set-specifier menubar-visible-p nil)
3763 @node Q3.8.2, Q3.8.3, Q3.8.1, Customization
3764 @unnumberedsubsec Q3.8.2: Can I customize the basic menubar?
3766 For an extensive menubar, add this line to your @file{.emacs}:
3769 (load "big-menubar")
3772 If you'd like to write your own, this file provides as good a set of
3773 examples as any to start from. The file is located in
3774 @file{lisp/packages/big-menubar.el} in the XEmacs installation
3777 @node Q3.8.3, Q3.8.4, Q3.8.2, Customization
3778 @unnumberedsubsec Q3.8.3: How do I control how many buffers are listed in the menu @code{Buffers List}?
3780 Add the following to your @file{.emacs} (suit to fit):
3783 (setq buffers-menu-max-size 20)
3786 For no limit, use an argument of @samp{nil}.
3788 Starting with XEmacs-20.3 you can also change this with Customize.
3789 Select from the @code{Options} menu
3790 @code{Customize->Emacs->Environment->Menu->Buffers Menu->Max Size...} or
3791 type @kbd{M-x customize @key{RET} buffers-menu @key{RET}}.
3793 @node Q3.8.4, Q3.8.5, Q3.8.3, Customization
3794 @unnumberedsubsec Q3.8.4: Resources like @code{Emacs*menubar*font} are not working?
3796 I am trying to use a resource like @code{Emacs*menubar*font} to set the
3797 font of the menubar but it's not working.
3799 If you are using the real Motif menubar, this resource is not
3800 recognized; you have to say:
3803 Emacs*menubar*fontList: FONT
3806 If you are using the Lucid menubar, the former resource will be
3807 recognized only if the latter resource is unset. This means that the
3817 Emacs*menubar*font: FONT
3820 even though the latter is more specific.
3822 @node Q3.8.5, Q3.9.1, Q3.8.4, Customization
3823 @unnumberedsubsec Q3.8.5: How can I bind a key to a function to toggle the toolbar?
3828 (defun my-toggle-toolbar ()
3830 (set-specifier default-toolbar-visible-p
3831 (not (specifier-instance default-toolbar-visible-p))))
3832 (global-set-key "\C-xT" 'my-toggle-toolbar)
3835 There are redisplay bugs in 19.14 that may make the preceding result in
3836 a messed-up display, especially for frames with multiple windows. You
3837 may need to resize the frame before XEmacs completely realizes the
3838 toolbar is really gone.
3840 Thanks to @email{martin@@xemacs.org, Martin Buchholz} for the correct
3843 @node Q3.9.1, Q3.9.2, Q3.8.5, Customization
3844 @unnumberedsec 3.9: Scrollbars
3845 @unnumberedsubsec Q3.9.1: How can I disable the scrollbar?
3847 To disable them for all frames, add the following line to
3848 your @file{.Xdefaults}:
3851 Emacs.scrollBarWidth: 0
3854 Or select from the @code{Options} menu @code{Frame Appearance->Scrollbars}.
3855 Remember to save options.
3857 To turn the scrollbar off on a per-frame basis, use the following
3861 (set-specifier scrollbar-width 0 (selected-frame))
3864 You can actually turn the scrollbars on at any level you want by
3865 substituting for (selected-frame) in the above command. For example, to
3866 turn the scrollbars off only in a single buffer:
3869 (set-specifier scrollbar-width 0 (current-buffer))
3872 In XEmacs versions prior to 19.14, you had to use the hairier construct:
3875 (set-specifier scrollbar-width (cons (selected-frame) 0))
3878 @node Q3.9.2, Q3.9.3, Q3.9.1, Customization
3879 @unnumberedsubsec Q3.9.2: How can one use resources to change scrollbar colors?
3881 Here's a recap of how to use resources to change your scrollbar colors:
3886 Emacs*XmScrollBar.Background: skyblue
3887 Emacs*XmScrollBar.troughColor: lightgray
3891 Emacs*Scrollbar.Foreground: skyblue
3892 Emacs*Scrollbar.Background: lightgray
3895 Note the capitalization of @code{Scrollbar} for the Athena widget.
3897 @node Q3.9.3, Q3.9.4, Q3.9.2, Customization
3898 @unnumberedsubsec Q3.9.3: Moving the scrollbar can move the point; can I disable this?
3900 When I move the scrollbar in an XEmacs window, it moves the point as
3901 well, which should not be the default behavior. Is this a bug or a
3902 feature? Can I disable it?
3904 The current behavior is a feature, not a bug. Point remains at the same
3905 buffer position as long as that position does not scroll off the screen.
3906 In that event, point will end up in either the upper-left or lower-left
3909 This cannot be changed.
3911 @node Q3.9.4, Q3.10.1, Q3.9.3, Customization
3912 @unnumberedsubsec Q3.9.4: How can I get automatic horizontal scrolling?
3914 By the same token, how can I turn it off in specific modes?
3916 To do this, add to your @file{.emacs} file:
3919 (require 'auto-show)
3922 Then do @code{(setq truncate-lines t)} in the mode-hooks for any modes
3923 in which you want lines truncated.
3925 More precisely: If @code{truncate-lines} is nil, horizontal scrollbars
3926 will never appear. Otherwise, they will appear only if the value of
3927 @code{scrollbar-height} for that buffer/window/etc. is non-zero. If you
3931 (set-specifier scrollbar-height 0)
3934 then horizontal scrollbars will not appear in truncated buffers unless
3935 the package specifically asked for them.
3937 Automatic horizontal scrolling is now standard, starting with 19.14.
3939 @node Q3.10.1, Q3.10.2, Q3.9.4, Customization
3940 @unnumberedsec 3.10: Text Selections
3941 @unnumberedsubsec Q3.10.1: How can I turn off or change highlighted selections?
3943 The @code{zmacs} mode allows for what some might call gratuitous
3944 highlighting for selected regions (either by setting mark or by using
3945 the mouse). This is the default behavior. To turn off, add the
3946 following line to your @file{.emacs} file:
3949 (setq zmacs-regions nil)
3952 Starting with XEmacs-20.2 you can also change this with Customize. Select
3953 from the @code{Options} menu @code{Customize->Emacs->Editing->Basics->Zmacs
3954 Regions} or type @kbd{M-x customize @key{RET} editing-basics @key{RET}}.
3956 To change the face for selection, look at @code{Options->Customize} on
3959 @node Q3.10.2, Q3.10.3, Q3.10.1, Customization
3960 @unnumberedsubsec Q3.10.2: How do I get that typing on an active region removes it?
3962 I want to change things so that if I select some text and start typing,
3963 the typed text replaces the selected text, similar to Motif.
3965 You want to use something called @dfn{pending delete}. Pending delete
3966 is what happens when you select a region (with the mouse or keyboard)
3967 and you press a key to replace the selected region by the key you typed.
3968 Usually backspace kills the selected region.
3970 To get this behavior, add the following line to your @file{.emacs}:
3973 (turn-on-pending-delete)
3976 Note that this will work with both Backspace and Delete.
3978 @node Q3.10.3, Q3.10.4, Q3.10.2, Customization
3979 @unnumberedsubsec Q3.10.3: Can I turn off the highlight during isearch?
3981 I do not like my text highlighted while I am doing isearch as I am not
3982 able to see what's underneath. How do I turn it off?
3984 Put the following in your @file{.emacs}:
3987 (setq isearch-highlight nil)
3990 Starting with XEmacs-20.2 you can also change this with Customize. Type
3991 @kbd{M-x customize-variable @key{RET} isearch-highlight @key{RET}}.
3993 Note also that isearch-highlight affects query-replace and ispell.
3994 Instead of disabling isearch-highlight you may find that a better
3995 solution consists of customizing the @code{isearch} face.
3997 @node Q3.10.4, Q3.10.5, Q3.10.3, Customization
3998 @unnumberedsubsec Q3.10.4: How do I turn off highlighting after @kbd{C-x C-p} (mark-page)?
4000 Put this in your @code{.emacs}:
4003 (setq zmacs-regions nil)
4006 @strong{Warning: This command turns off all region highlighting.}
4008 Also @xref{Q3.10.1}.
4010 @node Q3.10.5, , Q3.10.4, Customization
4011 @unnumberedsubsec Q3.10.5: The region disappears when I hit the end of buffer while scrolling.
4013 This has been fixed by default starting with XEmacs-20.3.
4015 With older versions you can turn this feature (if it indeed is a feature)
4019 (defadvice scroll-up (around scroll-up freeze)
4021 (let ((zmacs-region-stays t))
4025 (end-of-buffer (goto-char (point-max))))
4028 (defadvice scroll-down (around scroll-down freeze)
4030 (let ((zmacs-region-stays t))
4034 (beginning-of-buffer (goto-char (point-min))))
4038 Thanks to @email{raman@@adobe.com, T. V. Raman} for assistance in deriving this
4041 @node Subsystems, Miscellaneous, Customization, Top
4042 @unnumbered 4 Major Subsystems
4044 This is part 4 of the XEmacs Frequently Asked Questions list. This
4045 section is devoted to major XEmacs subsystems.
4048 Reading Mail with VM:
4049 * Q4.0.1:: How do I set up VM to retrieve remote mail using POP?
4050 * Q4.0.2:: How do I get VM to filter mail for me?
4051 * Q4.0.3:: How can I get VM to automatically check for new mail?
4052 * Q4.0.4:: [This question intentionally left blank]
4053 * Q4.0.5:: How do I get my outgoing mail archived?
4054 * Q4.0.6:: I have various addresses at which I receive mail. How can I tell VM to ignore them when doing a "reply-all"?
4055 * Q4.0.7:: Is there a mailing list or FAQ for VM?
4056 * Q4.0.8:: Remote mail reading with VM.
4057 * Q4.0.9:: rmail or VM gets an error incorporating new mail.
4058 * Q4.0.10:: How do I make VM stay in a single frame?
4059 * Q4.0.11:: How do I make VM or mh-e display graphical smilies?
4060 * Q4.0.12:: Customization of VM not covered in the manual or here.
4062 Web browsing with W3:
4063 * Q4.1.1:: What is W3?
4064 * Q4.1.2:: How do I run W3 from behind a firewall?
4065 * Q4.1.3:: Is it true that W3 supports style sheets and tables?
4067 Reading Netnews and Mail with Gnus:
4068 * Q4.2.1:: GNUS, (ding) Gnus, Gnus 5, September Gnus, Red Gnus,argh!
4069 * Q4.2.2:: [This question intentionally left blank]
4070 * Q4.2.3:: How do I make Gnus stay within a single frame?
4071 * Q4.2.4:: How do I customize the From: line?
4074 * Q4.3.1:: How can I read and/or compose MIME messages?
4075 * Q4.3.2:: What is TM and where do I get it?
4076 * Q4.3.3:: Why isn't this @code{movemail} program working?
4077 * Q4.3.4:: Movemail is also distributed by Netscape? Can that cause problems?
4078 * Q4.3.5:: Where do I find pstogif (required by tm)?
4080 Sparcworks, EOS, and WorkShop:
4081 * Q4.4.1:: What is SPARCworks, EOS, and WorkShop
4084 * Q4.5.1:: What is/was Energize?
4087 * Q4.6.1:: What is Infodock?
4089 Other Unbundled Packages:
4090 * Q4.7.1:: What is AUC TeX? Where do you get it?
4091 * Q4.7.2:: Are there any Emacs Lisp Spreadsheets?
4092 * Q4.7.3:: Byte compiling AUC TeX on XEmacs 19.14
4093 * Q4.7.4:: Problems installing AUC TeX
4094 * Q4.7.5:: Is there a reason for an Emacs package not to be included in XEmacs?
4095 * Q4.7.6:: Is there a MatLab mode?
4098 @node Q4.0.1, Q4.0.2, Subsystems, Subsystems
4099 @unnumberedsec 4.0: Reading Mail with VM
4100 @unnumberedsubsec Q4.0.1: How do I set up VM to retrieve mail from a remote site using POP?
4102 Use @code{vm-spool-files}, like this for example:
4105 (setq vm-spool-files '("/var/spool/mail/wing"
4106 "netcom23.netcom.com:110:pass:wing:MYPASS"))
4109 Of course substitute your actual password for MYPASS.
4111 @node Q4.0.2, Q4.0.3, Q4.0.1, Subsystems
4112 @unnumberedsubsec Q4.0.2: How do I get VM to filter mail for me?
4114 One possibility is to use procmail to split your mail before it gets to
4115 VM. I prefer this personally, since there are many strange and
4116 wonderful things one can do with procmail. Procmail may be found at
4117 @uref{ftp://ftp.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/pub/packages/procmail/}.
4119 Also see the Mail Filtering FAQ at:
4123 @uref{ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/mail/filtering-faq}.
4125 @c <URL:http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/mail/filtering-faq/faq.html>
4128 @node Q4.0.3, Q4.0.4, Q4.0.2, Subsystems
4129 @unnumberedsubsec Q4.0.3: How can I get VM to automatically check for new mail?
4131 @email{turner@@lanl.gov, John Turner} writes:
4137 (setq vm-auto-get-new-mail 60)
4141 @node Q4.0.4, Q4.0.5, Q4.0.3, Subsystems
4142 @unnumberedsubsec Q4.0.4: [This question intentionally left blank]
4144 Obsolete question, left blank to avoid renumbering.
4146 @node Q4.0.5, Q4.0.6, Q4.0.4, Subsystems
4147 @unnumberedsubsec Q4.0.5: How do I get my outgoing mail archived?
4150 (setq mail-archive-file-name "~/outbox")
4153 @node Q4.0.6, Q4.0.7, Q4.0.5, Subsystems
4154 @unnumberedsubsec Q4.0.6: I have various addresses at which I receive mail. How can I tell VM to ignore them when doing a "reply-all"?
4156 Set @code{vm-reply-ignored-addresses} to a list, like
4159 (setq vm-reply-ignored-addresses
4160 '("wing@@nuspl@@nvwls.cc.purdue.edu,netcom[0-9]*.netcom.com"
4161 "wing@@netcom.com" "wing@@666.com"))
4164 Note that each string is a regular expression.
4166 @node Q4.0.7, Q4.0.8, Q4.0.6, Subsystems
4167 @unnumberedsubsec Q4.0.7: Is there a mailing list or FAQ for VM?
4169 A FAQ for VM exists at @uref{http://www.cyberpass.net/~gorkab/vmfaq.htm}.
4171 VM has its own newsgroups gnu.emacs.vm.info and gnu.emacs.vm.bug.
4173 @node Q4.0.8, Q4.0.9, Q4.0.7, Subsystems
4174 @unnumberedsubsec Q4.0.8: Remote mail reading with VM.
4176 My mailbox lives at the office on a big honkin server. My regular INBOX
4177 lives on my honkin desktop machine. I now can PPP to the office from
4178 home which is far from honking... I'd like to be able to read mail at
4179 home without storing it here and I'd like to use xemacs and VM at
4180 home... Is there a recommended setup?
4182 @email{nuspl@@nvwls.cc.purdue.edu, Joseph J. Nuspl Jr.} writes:
4185 There are several ways to do this.
4189 Set your display to your home machine and run dxpc or one of the other X
4193 NFS mount your desktop machine on your home machine and modify your pop
4194 command on your home machine to rsh to your desktop machine and actually
4198 Run a POP server on your desktop machine as well and do a sort of two
4203 @email{wmperry@@monolith.spry.com, William Perry} adds:
4206 Or you could run a pop script periodically on your desktop machine, and
4207 just use ange-ftp or NFS to get to your mailbox. I used to do this all
4208 the time back at IU.
4211 @node Q4.0.9, Q4.0.10, Q4.0.8, Subsystems
4212 @unnumberedsubsec Q4.0.9: rmail or VM gets an error incorporating new mail.
4214 Quoting the XEmacs PROBLEMS file:
4217 rmail and VM get new mail from @file{/usr/spool/mail/$USER} using a
4218 program called @code{movemail}. This program interlocks with
4219 @code{/bin/mail} using the protocol defined by @code{/bin/mail}.
4221 There are two different protocols in general use. One of them uses the
4222 @code{flock} system call. The other involves creating a lock file;
4223 @code{movemail} must be able to write in @file{/usr/spool/mail} in order
4224 to do this. You control which one is used by defining, or not defining,
4225 the macro @code{MAIL_USE_FLOCK} in @file{config.h} or the m- or s- file
4228 @strong{IF YOU DON'T USE THE FORM OF INTERLOCKING THAT IS NORMAL ON YOUR
4229 SYSTEM, YOU CAN LOSE MAIL!}
4231 If your system uses the lock file protocol, and fascist restrictions
4232 prevent ordinary users from writing the lock files in
4233 @file{/usr/spool/mail}, you may need to make @code{movemail} setgid to a
4234 suitable group such as @samp{mail}. You can use these commands (as
4242 If your system uses the lock file protocol, and fascist restrictions
4243 prevent ordinary users from writing the lock files in
4244 @file{/usr/spool/mail}, you may need to make @code{movemail} setgid to a
4245 suitable group such as @code{mail}. To do this, use the following
4246 commands (as root) after doing the make install.
4253 Installation normally copies movemail from the build directory to an
4254 installation directory which is usually under @file{/usr/local/lib}.
4255 The installed copy of @code{movemail} is usually in the directory
4256 @file{/usr/local/lib/emacs/VERSION/TARGET}. You must change the group
4257 and mode of the installed copy; changing the group and mode of the build
4258 directory copy is ineffective.
4261 @node Q4.0.10, Q4.0.11, Q4.0.9, Subsystems
4262 @unnumberedsubsec Q4.0.10: How do I make VM stay in a single frame?
4264 John.@email{Cooper@@Eng.Sun.COM, John S Cooper} writes:
4268 ; Don't use multiple frames
4269 (setq vm-frame-per-composition nil)
4270 (setq vm-frame-per-folder nil)
4271 (setq vm-frame-per-edit nil)
4272 (setq vm-frame-per-summary nil)
4276 @node Q4.0.11, Q4.0.12, Q4.0.10, Subsystems
4277 @unnumberedsubsec Q4.0.11: How do I make VM or mh-e display graphical smilies?
4279 For mh-e use the following:
4282 (add-hook 'mh-show-mode-hook '(lambda ()
4283 (smiley-region (point-min)
4287 @email{bill@@carpenter.ORG, WJCarpenter} writes:
4288 For VM use the following:
4290 (autoload 'smiley-region "smiley" nil t)
4291 (add-hook 'vm-select-message-hook
4293 (smiley-region (point-min)
4297 For tm use the following:
4299 (autoload 'smiley-buffer "smiley" nil t)
4300 (add-hook 'mime-viewer/plain-text-preview-hook 'smiley-buffer)
4303 @node Q4.0.12, Q4.1.1, Q4.0.11, Subsystems
4304 @unnumberedsubsec Q4.0.12: Customization of VM not covered in the manual, or here.
4306 @email{boffi@@hp735.stru.polimi.it, giacomo boffi} writes:
4309 The meta-answer is to look into the file @file{vm-vars.el}, in the vm
4310 directory of the lisp library.
4312 @file{vm-vars.el} contains, initializes and carefully describes, with
4313 examples of usage, the plethora of user options that @emph{fully}
4314 control VM's behavior.
4316 Enter vm-vars, @code{forward-search} for toolbar, find the variables
4317 that control the toolbar placement, appearance, existence, copy to your
4318 @file{.emacs} or @file{.vm} and modify according to the detailed
4321 The above also applies to all the various features of VM: search for
4322 some keywords, maybe the first you conjure isn't appropriate, find the
4323 appropriate variables, copy and experiment.
4326 @node Q4.1.1, Q4.1.2, Q4.0.12, Subsystems
4327 @unnumberedsec 4.1: Web browsing with W3
4328 @unnumberedsubsec Q4.1.1: What is W3?
4330 W3 is an advanced graphical browser written in Emacs lisp that runs on
4331 XEmacs. It has full support for cascaded style sheets, and more...
4333 It has a home web page at
4334 @uref{http://www.cs.indiana.edu/elisp/w3/docs.html}.
4336 @node Q4.1.2, Q4.1.3, Q4.1.1, Subsystems
4337 @unnumberedsubsec Q4.1.2: How do I run W3 from behind a firewall?
4339 There is a long, well-written, detailed section in the W3 manual that
4340 describes how to do this. Look in the section entitled "Firewalls".
4342 @node Q4.1.3, Q4.2.1, Q4.1.2, Subsystems
4343 @unnumberedsubsec Q4.1.3: Is it true that W3 supports style sheets and tables?
4345 Yes, and much more. W3, as distributed with the latest XEmacs is a
4346 full-featured web browser.
4348 @node Q4.2.1, Q4.2.2, Q4.1.3, Subsystems
4349 @unnumberedsec 4.2: Reading Netnews and Mail with Gnus
4350 @unnumberedsubsec Q4.2.1: GNUS, (ding) Gnus, Gnus 5, September Gnus, Red Gnus, Quassia Gnus, argh!
4352 The Gnus numbering issues are not meant for mere mortals to know them.
4353 If you feel you @emph{must} enter the muddy waters of Gnus, visit the
4354 excellent FAQ, maintained by Justin Sheehy, at:
4357 @uref{http://www.ccs.neu.edu/software/contrib/gnus/}
4360 See also Gnus home page
4362 @uref{http://www.gnus.org/}
4365 @node Q4.2.2, Q4.2.3, Q4.2.1, Subsystems
4366 @unnumberedsubsec Q4.2.2: This question intentionally left blank.
4368 Obsolete question, left blank to avoid renumbering.
4370 @node Q4.2.3, Q4.2.4, Q4.2.2, Subsystems
4371 @unnumberedsubsec Q4.2.3: How do I make Gnus stay within a single frame?
4373 The toolbar code to start Gnus opens the new frame---and it's a feature
4374 rather than a bug. If you don't like it, but would still like to click
4375 on the seemly icon, use the following code:
4378 (defun toolbar-news ()
4382 It will redefine the callback function of the icon to just call
4383 @code{gnus}, without all the fancy frame stuff.
4385 @node Q4.2.4, Q4.3.1, Q4.2.3, Subsystems
4386 @unnumberedsubsec Q4.2.4: How do I customize the From: line?
4388 How do I change the @code{From:} line? I have set gnus-user-from-line
4391 Gail Gurman <gail.gurman@@sybase.com>
4393 @noindent , but XEmacs Gnus doesn't use
4396 Gail Mara Gurman @email{gailg@@deall}
4398 @noindent and then complains
4399 that it's incorrect. Also, as you perhaps can see, my Message-ID is
4400 screwy. How can I change that?
4402 @email{larsi@@ifi.uio.no, Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen} writes:
4405 Set @code{user-mail-address} to @samp{gail.gurman@@sybase.com} or
4406 @code{mail-host-address} to @samp{sybase.com}.
4409 @node Q4.3.1, Q4.3.2, Q4.2.4, Subsystems
4410 @unnumberedsec 4.3: Other Mail & News
4411 @unnumberedsubsec Q4.3.1: How can I read and/or compose MIME messages?
4414 VM supports MIME natively.
4416 You probably want to use the Tools for MIME (tm). @xref{Q4.3.2} for
4419 @email{trey@@cs.berkeley.edu, Trey Jackson} has an Emacs & MIME web page at
4423 @uref{http://bmrc.berkeley.edu/~trey/emacs/mime.html}.
4426 Another possibility is RMIME. You may find RMIME at
4430 @uref{http://www.cinti.net/~rmoody/rmime/index.html}.
4433 @node Q4.3.2, Q4.3.3, Q4.3.1, Subsystems
4434 @unnumberedsubsec Q4.3.2: What is TM and where do I get it?
4436 TM stands for @dfn{Tools for MIME} and not Tiny MIME. TM integrates
4437 with all major XEmacs packages like Gnus (all flavors), VM, MH-E, and
4438 mailcrypt. It provides totally transparent and trouble-free MIME
4439 support. When appropriate a message will be decoded in place in an
4442 TM now comes as a package with XEmacs 19.16 and XEmacs 20.2.
4444 TM was written by @email{morioka@@jaist.ac.jp, MORIOKA Tomohiko} and
4445 @email{shuhei-k@@jaist.ac.jp, KOBAYASHI
4448 It is based on the work of @email{umerin@@mse.kyutech.ac.jp, UMEDA
4449 Masanobu}, the original writer of GNUS.
4451 The following information is from the @file{README}:
4453 @dfn{tm} is a MIME package for GNU Emacs.
4454 tm has following functions:
4457 @item MIME style multilingual header.
4458 @item MIME message viewer (mime/viewer-mode).
4459 @item MIME message composer (mime/editor-mode).
4460 @item MIME extenders for mh-e, GNUS, RMAIL and VM.
4463 tm is available from following anonymous ftp sites:
4465 @item @uref{ftp://ftp.jaist.ac.jp/pub/GNU/elisp/mime/} (Japan).
4466 @item @uref{ftp://ftp.nis.co.jp/pub/gnu/emacs-lisp/tm/} (Japan).
4467 @c The host above is unknown.
4469 @item @uref{ftp://ftp.nisiq.net/pub/gnu/emacs-lisp/tm/} (US).
4470 @item @uref{ftp://ftp.miranova.com/pub/gnus/jaist.ac.jp/} (US).
4471 @item @uref{ftp://ftp.unicamp.br/pub/mail/mime/tm/} (Brasil).
4472 @item @uref{ftp://ftp.th-darmstadt.de/pub/editors/GNU-Emacs/lisp/mime/} (Germany).
4473 @item @uref{ftp://ftp.tnt.uni-hannover.de/pub/editors/xemacs/contrib/} (Germany).
4476 Don't let the installation procedure & instructions stop you from trying
4477 this package out---it's much simpler than it looks, and once installed,
4480 @node Q4.3.3, Q4.3.4, Q4.3.2, Subsystems
4481 @unnumberedsubsec Q4.3.3: Why isn't this @code{movemail} program working?
4483 Ben Wing @email{ben@@666.com} writes:
4486 It wasn't chown'ed/chmod'd correctly.
4489 @node Q4.3.4, Q4.3.5, Q4.3.3, Subsystems
4490 @unnumberedsubsec Q4.3.4: Movemail is also distributed by Netscape? Can that cause problems?
4492 @email{steve@@altair.xemacs.org, Steve Baur} writes:
4495 Yes. Always use the movemail installed with your XEmacs. Failure to do
4496 so can result in lost mail.
4499 Please refer to @email{jwz@@netscape.com, Jamie Zawinski's} notes at
4503 @uref{http://home.netscape.com/eng/mozilla/2.0/relnotes/demo/movemail.html}.
4504 In particular, this document will show you how to make Netscape use the
4505 version of movemail configured for your system by the person who built
4508 @node Q4.3.5, Q4.4.1, Q4.3.4, Subsystems
4509 @unnumberedsubsec Q4.3.5: Where do I find pstogif (required by tm)?
4511 pstogif is part of the latex2html package.
4513 @email{vroonhof@@math.ethz.ch, Jan Vroonhof} writes:
4515 latex2html is best found at the CTAN hosts and their mirrors
4520 @file{tex-archive/support/latex2html}.
4525 @item @uref{ftp://ftp.tex.ac.uk/tex-archive/support/latex2html/}.
4526 @item @uref{ftp://ftp.dante.de/tex-archive/support/latex2html/}.
4529 There is a good mirror at ftp.cdrom.com;
4533 @uref{ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/tex/ctan/support/latex2html/}.
4535 @node Q4.4.1, Q4.5.1, Q4.3.5, Subsystems
4536 @unnumberedsec 4.4: Sparcworks, EOS, and WorkShop
4537 @unnumberedsubsec Q4.4.1: What is SPARCworks, EOS, and WorkShop?
4539 @email{turner@@lanl.gov, John Turner} writes:
4542 SPARCworks is SunSoft's development environment, comprising compilers
4543 (C, C++, FORTRAN 77, Fortran 90, Ada, and Pascal), a debugger, and other
4544 tools such as TeamWare (for configuration management), MakeTool, etc.
4547 See @uref{http://www.sun.com/software/Developer-products/}
4550 EOS stands for "Era on SPARCworks", but I don't know what Era stands
4553 EOS is the integration of XEmacs with the SPARCworks debugger. It
4554 allows one to use an XEmacs frame to view code (complete with
4555 fontification, etc.), set breakpoints, print variables, etc., while
4556 using the SPARCworks debugger. It works very well and I use it all the
4559 @email{cthomp@@xemacs.org, Chuck Thompson} writes:
4562 Era stood for "Emacs Rewritten Again". It was what we were calling the
4563 modified version of Lucid Emacs for Sun when I was dragged, er, allowed
4564 to work on this wonderful editor.
4567 @email{martin@@xemacs.org, Martin Buchholz} writes:
4570 EOS is being replaced with a new graphical development environment
4571 called Sun WorkShop, which is currently (07/96) in Alpha Test. For more
4576 @uref{http://www.sun.com/software/Products/Developer-products/programs.html}.
4579 @node Q4.5.1, Q4.6.1, Q4.4.1, Subsystems
4580 @unnumberedsec 4.5: Energize
4581 @unnumberedsubsec Q4.5.1: What is/was Energize?
4583 @email{gray@@meteor.harlequin.com, David N Gray} writes:
4585 The files in @file{lisp/energize} are to enable Emacs to interface with
4586 the "Energize Programming System", a C and C++ development environment,
4587 which was a product of Lucid, Inc. Tragically, Lucid went out of
4588 business in 1994, so although Energize is still a great system, if you
4589 don't already have it, there isn't any way to get it now. (Unless you
4590 happen to be in Japan; INS Engineering may still be selling it there.
4591 Tartan bought the rights to sell it in the rest of the world, but never
4595 @node Q4.6.1, Q4.7.1, Q4.5.1, Subsystems
4596 @unnumberedsec 4.6: Infodock
4597 @unnumberedsubsec Q4.6.1: What is Infodock?
4599 InfoDock is an integrated productivity toolset, mainly aimed at
4600 technical people. It is developed and supported by InfoDock
4601 Associates, a firm that offers custom support and development
4602 for InfoDock, XEmacs and GNU Emacs. ( @uref{http://www.infodock.com},
4603 @email{info@@infodock.com}, +1 408 243 3300).
4605 InfoDock is built atop the XEmacs variant of GNU Emacs and so has all of
4606 the power of Emacs, but with an easier to use and more comprehensive
4607 menu-based user interface. The bottom portion of this text describes
4608 how it differs from XEmacs and GNU Emacs from the Free Software
4611 InfoDock is aimed at people who want a free, turn-key productivity
4612 environment. Although InfoDock is customizable, it is not intended for
4613 people who like basic versions of Emacs which need to be customized
4614 extensively for local use; standard Emacs distributions are better for
4615 such uses. InfoDock is for those people who want a complete,
4616 pre-customized environment in one package, which they need not touch
4617 more than once or twice a year to update to new revisions.
4619 InfoDock is pre-built for SPARC SunOS/Solaris systems, PA-RISC HP-UX,
4620 and Intel Linux systems. It is intended for use on a color display,
4621 although most features will work on monochrome monitors. Simply unpack
4622 InfoDock according to the instructions in the ID-INSTALL file and you
4625 The InfoDock Manual is concise, yet sufficient as a user guide for users
4626 who have never used an Emacs-type editor before. For users who are
4627 already familiar with Emacs, it supplements the information in the GNU
4630 InfoDock menus are much more extensive and more mature than standard
4631 Emacs menus. Each menu offers a @samp{Manual} item which displays
4632 documentation associated with the menu's functions.
4635 Four types of menubars are provided:
4638 An extensive menubar providing access to global InfoDock commands.
4640 Mode-specific menubars tailored to the current major mode.
4642 A simple menubar for basic editing to help novices get started with InfoDock.
4644 The standard XEmacs menubar.
4647 Most modes also include mode-specific popup menus. Additionally, region and
4648 rectangle popup menus are included.
4650 @samp{Hyperbole}, the everyday information manager, is a core part of
4651 InfoDock. This provides context-sensitive mouse keys, a rolodex-type
4652 contact manager, programmable hypertext buttons, and an autonumbered
4653 outliner with embedded hyperlink anchors.
4655 The @samp{OO-Browser}, a multi-language object-oriented code browser, is a
4656 standard part of InfoDock.
4658 InfoDock saves a more extensive set of user options than other Emacs
4661 InfoDock inserts a useful file header in many file types, showing the
4662 author, summary, and last modification time of each file. A summary
4663 program can then be used to summarize all of the files in a directory,
4664 for easy MANIFEST file creation.
4666 Your working set of buffers is automatically saved and restored (if you
4667 answer yes to a prompt) between InfoDock sessions.
4669 Refined color choices for code highlighting are provided for both dark and
4670 light background display frames.
4672 The @kbd{C-z} key prefix performs frame-based commands which parallel the
4673 @kbd{C-x} key prefix for window-based commands.
4675 The Smart Menu system is included for producing command menus on dumb
4678 Lisp libraries are better categorized according to function.
4680 Extensions and improvements to many areas of Emacs are included, such as:
4681 paragraph filling, mail reading with Rmail, shell handling, outlining, code
4682 highlighting and browsing, and man page browsing.
4684 InfoDock questions, answers and discussion should go to the mail list
4688 @email{infodock@@infodock.com}. Use
4689 @email{infodock-request@@infodock.com} to be added or removed from the
4690 list. Always include your InfoDock version number when sending help
4693 InfoDock is available across the Internet via anonymous FTP. To get
4694 it, first move to a directory into which you want the InfoDock archive
4695 files placed. We will call this <DIST-DIR>.
4701 Ftp to ftp.xemacs.org (Internet Host ID = 128.174.252.16):
4704 prompt> ftp ftp.xemacs.org
4707 Login as @samp{anonymous} with your own <user-id>@@<site-name> as a password.
4710 Name (ftp.xemacs.org): anonymous
4711 331 Guest login ok, send your complete e-mail address as password.
4712 Password: -<your-user-id>@@<your-domain>
4713 230 Guest login ok, access restrictions apply.
4716 Move to the location of the InfoDock archives:
4719 ftp> cd pub/infodock
4722 Set your transfer mode to binary:
4733 Interactive mode off.
4736 Retrieve the InfoDock archives that you want, either by using a
4737 @samp{get <file>} for each file you want or by using the following to
4738 get a complete distribution, including all binaries:
4741 ftp> mget ID-INSTALL
4745 Close the FTP connection:
4752 Read the @file{ID-INSTALL} file which you just retrieved for
4753 step-by-step installation instructions.
4755 @node Q4.7.1, Q4.7.2, Q4.6.1, Subsystems
4756 @unnumberedsec 4.7: Other Unbundled Packages
4757 @unnumberedsubsec Q4.7.1: What is AUC TeX? Where do you get it?
4759 AUC TeX is a package written by @email{abraham@@dina.kvl.dk, Per Abrahamsen}.
4760 Starting with XEmacs 19.16, AUC TeX is bundled with XEmacs. The
4761 following information is from the @file{README} and website.
4763 AUC TeX is an extensible package that supports writing and formatting
4764 TeX files for most variants of GNU Emacs. Many different macro packages
4765 are supported, including AMS TeX, LaTeX, and TeXinfo.
4767 The most recent version is always available by ftp at
4771 @uref{ftp://sunsite.auc.dk/packages/auctex/auctex.tar.gz}.
4773 In case you don't have access to anonymous ftp, you can get it by an
4774 email request to @email{ftpmail@@decwrl.dec.com}.
4776 WWW users may want to check out the AUC TeX page at
4780 @uref{http://sunsite.auc.dk/auctex/}.
4782 @node Q4.7.2, Q4.7.3, Q4.7.1, Subsystems
4783 @unnumberedsubsec Q4.7.2: Are there any Emacs Lisp Spreadsheets?
4785 Yes. Check out @dfn{dismal} (which stands for Dis' Mode Ain't Lotus) at
4789 @uref{ftp://cs.nyu.edu/pub/local/fox/dismal/}.
4791 @node Q4.7.3, Q4.7.4, Q4.7.2, Subsystems
4792 @unnumberedsubsec Q4.7.3: Byte compiling AUC TeX on XEmacs 19.14.
4794 @email{bruncott@@dormeur.inria.fr, Georges Brun-Cottan} writes:
4797 When byte compiling auctex-9.4g, you must use the command:
4800 xemacs -batch -l lpath.el
4804 @node Q4.7.4, Q4.7.5, Q4.7.3, Subsystems
4805 @unnumberedsubsec Q4.7.4: Problems installing AUC TeX.
4807 @email{vroonhof@@math.ethz.ch, Jan Vroonhof} writes:
4810 AUC TeX works fine on both stock Emacs and XEmacs has been doing so for
4811 a very very long time. This is mostly due to the work of
4812 @email{abraham@@dina.kvl.dk, Per Abrahamsen} (clap clap) in particular his @file{easymenu}
4813 package. Which leads to what is probably the problem...
4816 Most problems with AUC TeX are one of two things:
4820 The TeX-lisp-directory in @file{tex-site.el} and the makefile don't
4823 Fix: make sure you configure AUC TeX properly @strong{before} installing.
4826 You have an old version of easymenu.el in your path.
4828 Fix: use @code{locate-library} and remove old versions to make sure it
4829 @strong{only} finds the one that came with XEmacs.
4833 @node Q4.7.5, Q4.7.6, Q4.7.4, Subsystems
4834 @unnumberedsubsec Q4.7.5: Is there a reason for an Emacs package not to be included in XEmacs?
4836 The reason for an Emacs package not to be included in XEmacs is
4837 usually one or more of the following:
4841 The package has not been ported to XEmacs. This will typically happen
4842 when it uses GNU-Emacs-specific features, which make it fail under
4845 Porting a package to XEmacs can range from a trivial amount of change to
4846 a partial or full rewrite. Fortunately, the authors of modern packages
4847 usually choose to support both Emacsen themselves.
4850 The package has been decided not to be appropriate for XEmacs. It may
4851 have an equivalent or better replacement within XEmacs, in which case
4852 the developers may choose not to burden themselves with supporting an
4855 Each package bundled with XEmacs means more work for the maintainers,
4856 whether they want it or not. If you are ready to take over the
4857 maintenance responsibilities for the package you port, be sure to say
4858 so -- we will more likely include it.
4861 The package simply hasn't been noted by the XEmacs development. If
4862 that's the case, the messages like yours are very useful for attracting
4866 The package was noted by the developers, but they simply haven't yet
4867 gotten around to including/porting it. Wait for the next release or,
4868 even better, offer your help. It will be gladly accepted and
4872 @node Q4.7.6, , Q4.7.5, Subsystems
4873 @unnumberedsubsec Q4.7.5: Is there a MatLab mode?
4875 Is there any way I can get syntax highlighting for MatLab .m files?
4876 Can I "teach" emacs what words are MatLab commands, comments, etc. ?
4878 @email{elsner@@mathematik.tu-chemnitz.de, Ulrich Elsner} writes:
4880 One way to do this (and much more) is by using the
4884 @uref{ftp://ftp.mathworks.com/pub/contrib/v5/tools/matlab.el, matlab mode}.
4886 Instructions on how to install this mode are included in this file.
4890 @node Miscellaneous, Current Events, Subsystems, Top
4891 @unnumbered 5 The Miscellaneous Stuff
4893 This is part 5 of the XEmacs Frequently Asked Questions list. This
4894 section is devoted to anything that doesn't fit neatly into the other
4898 Major & Minor Modes:
4899 * Q5.0.1:: How can I do source code highlighting using font-lock?
4900 * Q5.0.2:: I do not like cc-mode. How do I use the old c-mode?
4901 * Q5.0.3:: How do I get @samp{More} Syntax Highlighting on by default?
4902 * Q5.0.4:: How can I enable auto-indent?
4903 * Q5.0.5:: How can I get XEmacs to come up in text/auto-fill mode by default?
4904 * Q5.0.6:: How do I start up a second shell buffer?
4905 * Q5.0.7:: Telnet from shell filters too much.
4906 * Q5.0.8:: Why does edt emulation not work?
4907 * Q5.0.9:: How can I emulate VI and use it as my default mode?
4908 * Q5.0.10:: [This question intentionally left blank]
4909 * Q5.0.11:: Filladapt doesn't work in 19.15?
4910 * Q5.0.12:: How do I disable gnuserv from opening a new frame?
4911 * Q5.0.13:: How do I start gnuserv so that each subsequent XEmacs is a client?
4912 * Q5.0.14:: Strange things are happening in Shell Mode.
4913 * Q5.0.15:: Where do I get the latest CC Mode?
4914 * Q5.0.16:: I find auto-show-mode disconcerting. How do I turn it off?
4915 * Q5.0.17:: How can I get two instances of info?
4916 * Q5.0.18:: I upgraded to XEmacs 19.14 and gnuserv stopped working
4917 * Q5.0.19:: Is there something better than LaTeX mode?
4918 * Q5.0.20:: Is there a way to start a new XEmacs if there's no gnuserv running, and otherwise use gnuclient?
4920 Emacs Lisp Programming Techniques:
4921 * Q5.1.1:: The difference in key sequences between XEmacs and GNU Emacs?
4922 * Q5.1.2:: Can I generate "fake" keyboard events?
4923 * Q5.1.3:: Could you explain @code{read-kbd-macro} in more detail?
4924 * Q5.1.4:: What is the performance hit of @code{let}?
4925 * Q5.1.5:: What is the recommended use of @code{setq}?
4926 * Q5.1.6:: What is the typical misuse of @code{setq}?
4927 * Q5.1.7:: I like the the @code{do} form of cl, does it slow things down?
4928 * Q5.1.8:: I like recursion, does it slow things down?
4929 * Q5.1.9:: How do I put a glyph as annotation in a buffer?
4930 * Q5.1.10:: @code{map-extents} won't traverse all of my extents!
4931 * Q5.1.11:: My elisp program is horribly slow. Is there an easy way to find out where it spends time?
4934 * Q5.2.1:: How do I turn off the sound?
4935 * Q5.2.2:: How do I get funky sounds instead of a boring beep?
4936 * Q5.2.3:: What's NAS, how do I get it?
4937 * Q5.2.4:: Sunsite sounds don't play.
4940 * Q5.3.1:: How do you make XEmacs indent CL if-clauses correctly?
4941 * Q5.3.2:: Fontifying hangs when editing a postscript file.
4942 * Q5.3.3:: How can I print WYSIWYG a font-locked buffer?
4943 * Q5.3.4:: Getting @kbd{M-x lpr} to work with postscript printer.
4944 * Q5.3.5:: How do I specify the paths that XEmacs uses for finding files?
4945 * Q5.3.6:: [This question intentionally left blank]
4946 * Q5.3.7:: Can I have the end of the buffer delimited in some way?
4947 * Q5.3.8:: How do I insert today's date into a buffer?
4948 * Q5.3.9:: Are only certain syntactic character classes available for abbrevs?
4949 * Q5.3.10:: How can I get those oh-so-neat X-Face lines?
4950 * Q5.3.11:: How do I add new Info directories?
4951 * Q5.3.12:: What do I need to change to make printing work?
4954 @node Q5.0.1, Q5.0.2, Miscellaneous, Miscellaneous
4955 @unnumberedsec 5.0: Major & Minor Modes
4956 @unnumberedsubsec Q5.0.1: How can I do source code highlighting using font-lock?
4958 For most modes, font-lock is already set up and just needs to be turned
4959 on. This can be done by @kbd{M-x font-lock-mode}, or by having XEmacs
4960 automatically start it by adding lines like:
4963 (add-hook 'emacs-lisp-mode-hook 'turn-on-font-lock)
4964 (add-hook 'dired-mode-hook 'turn-on-font-lock)
4967 to your @file{.emacs}. See the file @file{etc/sample.emacs} for more
4970 See also @code{Syntax Highlighting} from the @code{Options} menu.
4971 Remember to save options.
4973 @node Q5.0.2, Q5.0.3, Q5.0.1, Miscellaneous
4974 @unnumberedsubsec Q5.0.2: I do not like cc-mode. How do I use the old c-mode?
4976 Well, first off, consider if you really want to do this. cc-mode is
4977 much more powerful than the old c-mode. If you're having trouble
4978 getting your old offsets to work, try using @code{c-set-offset} instead.
4979 You might also consider using the package @code{cc-compat}.
4981 But, if you still insist, add the following lines to your @file{.emacs}:
4984 (fmakunbound 'c-mode)
4985 (makunbound 'c-mode-map)
4986 (fmakunbound 'c++-mode)
4987 (makunbound 'c++-mode-map)
4988 (makunbound 'c-style-alist)
4989 (load-library "old-c-mode")
4990 (load-library "old-c++-mode")
4993 This must be done before any other reference is made to either c-mode or
4996 @node Q5.0.3, Q5.0.4, Q5.0.2, Miscellaneous
4997 @unnumberedsubsec Q5.0.3: How do I get @samp{More} Syntax Highlighting on by default?
4999 Use the following code in your @file{.emacs}:
5002 (setq-default font-lock-maximum-decoration t)
5005 In versions of XEmacs prior to 19.14, you had to use a kludgy solution
5009 (setq c-font-lock-keywords c-font-lock-keywords-2
5010 c++-font-lock-keywords c++-font-lock-keywords-2
5011 lisp-font-lock-keywords lisp-font-lock-keywords-2)
5014 It will work for C, C++ and Lisp.
5016 See also @code{Syntax Highlighting} from the @code{Options} menu.
5017 Remember to save options.
5019 @node Q5.0.4, Q5.0.5, Q5.0.3, Miscellaneous
5020 @unnumberedsubsec Q5.0.4: How can I enable auto-indent?
5022 Put the following line in your @file{.emacs}:
5025 (setq indent-line-function 'indent-relative-maybe)
5028 If you want to get fancy, try the @code{filladapt} package available
5029 standard with XEmacs. Put this into your @file{.emacs}:
5032 (require 'filladapt)
5033 (add-hook 'text-mode-hook 'turn-on-filladapt-mode)
5037 You can customize filling and adaptive filling with Customize.
5038 Select from the @code{Options} menu
5039 @code{Customize->Emacs->->Editing->Fill->Fill...}
5040 or type @kbd{M-x customize @key{RET} fill @key{RET}}.
5042 Note that well-behaving text-lookalike modes will run
5043 @code{text-mode-hook} by default (e.g. that's what Message does). For
5044 the nasty ones, you'll have to provide the @code{add-hook}s yourself.
5046 Please note that the @code{fa-extras} package is no longer useful.
5048 @node Q5.0.5, Q5.0.6, Q5.0.4, Miscellaneous
5049 @unnumberedsubsec Q5.0.5: How can I get XEmacs to come up in text/auto-fill mode by default?
5051 Try the following lisp in your @file{.emacs}:
5054 (setq default-major-mode 'text-mode)
5055 (setq text-mode-hook 'turn-on-auto-fill)
5058 @strong{WARNING}: note that changing the value of
5059 @code{default-major-mode} from @code{fundamental-mode} can break a large
5060 amount of built-in code that expects newly created buffers to be in
5061 @code{fundamental-mode}. (Changing from @code{fundamental-mode} to
5062 @code{text-mode} might not wreak too much havoc, but changing to
5063 something more exotic like a lisp-mode would break many Emacs packages).
5065 Note that Emacs by default starts up in buffer @code{*scratch*} in
5066 @code{initial-major-mode}, which defaults to
5067 @code{lisp-interaction-mode}. Thus adding the following form to your
5068 Emacs init file will cause the initial @code{*scratch*} buffer to be put
5069 into auto-fill'ed @code{text-mode}:
5072 (setq initial-major-mode
5075 (turn-on-auto-fill)))
5078 Note that after your init file is loaded, if
5079 @code{inhibit-startup-message} is @code{nil} (the default) and the
5080 startup buffer is @code{*scratch*} then the startup message will be
5081 inserted into @code{*scratch*}; it will be removed after a timeout by
5082 erasing the entire @code{*scratch*} buffer. Keep in mind this default
5083 usage of @code{*scratch*} if you desire any prior manipulation of
5084 @code{*scratch*} from within your Emacs init file. In particular,
5085 anything you insert into @code{*scratch*} from your init file will be
5086 later erased. Also, if you change the mode of the @code{*scratch*}
5087 buffer, be sure that this will not interfere with possible later
5088 insertion of the startup message (e.g. if you put @code{*scratch*} into
5089 a nonstandard mode that has automatic font lock rules, then the startup
5090 message might get fontified in a strange foreign manner, e.g. as code in
5091 some programming language).
5093 @node Q5.0.6, Q5.0.7, Q5.0.5, Miscellaneous
5094 @unnumberedsubsec Q5.0.6: How do I start up a second shell buffer?
5096 In the @code{*shell*} buffer:
5099 M-x rename-buffer @key{RET} *shell-1* @key{RET}
5103 This will then start a second shell. The key is that no buffer named
5104 @samp{*shell*} can exist. It might be preferable to use @kbd{M-x
5105 rename-uniquely} to rename the @code{*shell*} buffer instead of @kbd{M-x
5108 @node Q5.0.7, Q5.0.8, Q5.0.6, Miscellaneous
5109 @unnumberedsubsec Q5.0.7: Telnet from shell filters too much
5111 I'm using the Emacs @kbd{M-x shell} function, and I would like to invoke
5112 and use a telnet session within it. Everything works fine except that
5113 now all @samp{^M}'s are filtered out by Emacs. Fixes?
5115 Use @kbd{M-x rsh} or @kbd{M-x telnet} to open remote sessions rather
5116 than doing rsh or telnet within the local shell buffer. Starting with
5117 XEmacs-20.3 you can also use @kbd{M-x ssh} to open secure remote session
5118 if you have @code{ssh} installed.
5120 @node Q5.0.8, Q5.0.9, Q5.0.7, Miscellaneous
5121 @unnumberedsubsec Q5.0.8: Why does edt emulation not work?
5123 We don't know, but you can use tpu-edt emulation instead, which works
5124 fine and is a little fancier than the standard edt emulation. To do
5125 this, add the following line to your @file{.emacs}:
5131 If you don't want it to replace @kbd{C-h} with an edt-style help menu
5135 (global-set-key [(control h)] 'help-for-help)
5138 @node Q5.0.9, Q5.0.10, Q5.0.8, Miscellaneous
5139 @unnumberedsubsec Q5.0.9: How can I emulate VI and use it as my default mode?
5141 Our recommended VI emulator is viper. To make viper-mode the default,
5142 add this to your @file{.emacs}:
5148 @email{kifer@@CS.SunySB.EDU, Michael Kifer} writes:
5151 This should be added as close to the top of @file{.emacs} as you can get
5152 it, otherwise some minor modes may not get viper-ized.
5155 @node Q5.0.10, Q5.0.11, Q5.0.9, Miscellaneous
5156 @unnumberedsubsec Q5.0.10: [This question intentionally left blank]
5158 Obsolete question, left blank to avoid renumbering
5160 @node Q5.0.11, Q5.0.12, Q5.0.10, Miscellaneous
5161 @unnumberedsubsec Q5.0.11: Filladapt doesn't work in 19.15
5163 Filladapt 2.x is included in 19.15. In it filladapt is now a minor
5164 mode and minor modes are traditionally off by default. The following
5165 added to your @file{.emacs} will turn it on for all buffers:
5168 (setq-default filladapt-mode t)
5171 Use @code{turn-on-filladapt-mode} to turn Filladapt on in particular
5172 major modes, like this:
5175 (add-hook 'text-mode-hook 'turn-on-filladapt-mode)
5178 @node Q5.0.12, Q5.0.13, Q5.0.11, Miscellaneous
5179 @unnumberedsubsec Q5.0.12: How do I disable gnuserv from opening a new frame?
5181 If you set the @code{gnuserv-frame} variable to the frame that should be
5182 used to display buffers that are pulled up, a new frame will not be
5183 created. For example, you could put
5186 (setq gnuserv-frame (selected-frame))
5189 early on in your @file{.emacs}, to ensure that the first frame created
5190 is the one used for your gnuserv buffers.
5192 Starting in 19.15, there is an option to set the gnuserv target to
5193 the current frame. See
5194 @code{Options->"Other Window" Location->Make current frame gnuserv target}
5196 Starting with XEmacs-20.3 you can also change this with Customize.
5197 Select from the @code{Options} menu
5198 @code{Customize->Emacs->Environment->Gnuserv->Gnuserv Frame...} or type
5199 @kbd{M-x customize @key{RET} gnuserv @key{RET}}.
5202 @node Q5.0.13, Q5.0.14, Q5.0.12, Miscellaneous
5203 @unnumberedsubsec Q5.0.13: How do I start gnuserv so that each subsequent XEmacs is a client?
5205 Put the following in your @file{.emacs} file to start the server:
5211 Start your first XEmacs as usual. After that, you can do:
5214 gnuclient randomfilename
5217 from the command line to get your existing XEmacs process to open a new
5218 frame and visit randomfilename in that window. When you're done editing
5219 randomfilename, hit @kbd{C-x #} to kill the buffer and get rid of the
5222 See also man page of gnuclient.
5224 @node Q5.0.14, Q5.0.15, Q5.0.13, Miscellaneous
5225 @unnumberedsubsec Q5.0.14: Strange things are happening in Shell Mode.
5227 Sometimes (i.e. it's not repeatable, and I can't work out why it
5228 happens) when I'm typing into shell mode, I hit return and only a
5229 portion of the command is given to the shell, and a blank prompt is
5230 returned. If I hit return again, the rest of the previous command is
5233 @email{martin@@xemacs.org, Martin Buchholz} writes:
5236 There is a known problem with interaction between @code{csh} and the
5237 @code{filec} option and XEmacs. You should add the following to your
5241 if ( "$TERM" == emacs || "$TERM" == unknown ) unset filec
5245 @node Q5.0.15, Q5.0.16, Q5.0.14, Miscellaneous
5246 @unnumberedsubsec Q5.0.15: Where do I get the latest CC Mode?
5248 @email{bwarsaw@@cnri.reston.va.us, Barry A. Warsaw} writes:
5251 This can be had from @uref{http://www.python.org/ftp/emacs/}.
5254 @node Q5.0.16, Q5.0.17, Q5.0.15, Miscellaneous
5255 @unnumberedsubsec Q5.0.16: I find auto-show-mode disconcerting. How do I turn it off?
5257 @code{auto-show-mode} controls whether or not a horizontal scrollbar
5258 magically appears when a line is too long to be displayed. This is
5259 enabled by default. To turn it off, put the following in your
5263 (setq auto-show-mode nil)
5264 (setq-default auto-show-mode nil)
5267 @node Q5.0.17, Q5.0.18, Q5.0.16, Miscellaneous
5268 @unnumberedsubsec Q5.0.17: How can I get two instances of info?
5270 You can't. The @code{info} package does not provide for multiple info buffers.
5272 @node Q5.0.18, Q5.0.19, Q5.0.17, Miscellaneous
5273 @unnumberedsubsec Q5.0.18: I upgraded to XEmacs 19.14 and gnuserv stopped working.
5275 @email{daku@@nortel.ca, Mark Daku} writes:
5278 It turns out I was using an older version of gnuserv. The installation
5279 didn't put the binary into the public bin directory. It put it in
5283 @file{lib/xemacs-19.14/hppa1.1-hp-hpux9.05/gnuserv}. Shouldn't it have
5284 been put in @file{bin/hppa1.1-hp-hpux9.0}?
5287 @node Q5.0.19, Q5.0.20, Q5.0.18, Miscellaneous
5288 @unnumberedsubsec Q5.0.19: Is there something better than LaTeX mode?
5290 @email{dak@@fsnif.neuroinformatik.ruhr-uni-bochum.de, David Kastrup} writes:
5293 The standard TeX modes leave much to be desired, and are somewhat
5294 leniently maintained. Serious TeX users use AUC TeX (@xref{Q4.7.1}).
5297 @node Q5.0.20, Q5.1.1, Q5.0.19, Miscellaneous
5298 @unnumberedsubsec Q5.0.20: Is there a way to start a new XEmacs if there's no gnuserv running, and otherwise use gnuclient?
5300 @email{vroonhof@@math.ethz.ch, Jan Vroonhof} writes:
5302 Here is one of the solutions, we have this in a script called
5303 @file{etc/editclient.sh}.
5306 if gnuclient -batch -eval t >/dev/null 2>&1
5308 exec gnuclient $@{1+"$@@"@}
5310 xemacs -unmapped -f gnuserv-start &
5311 until gnuclient -batch -eval t >/dev/null 2>&1
5315 exec gnuclient $@{1+"$@@"@}
5319 Note that there is a known problem when running XEmacs and 'gnuclient
5320 -nw' on the same TTY.
5323 @node Q5.1.1, Q5.1.2, Q5.0.20, Miscellaneous
5324 @unnumberedsec 5.1: Emacs Lisp Programming Techniques
5325 @unnumberedsubsec Q5.1.1: What is the difference in key sequences between XEmacs and GNU Emacs?
5327 @email{clerik@@naggum.no, Erik Naggum} writes;
5330 Emacs has a legacy of keyboards that produced characters with modifier
5331 bits, and therefore map a variety of input systems into this scheme even
5332 today. XEmacs is instead optimized for X events. This causes an
5333 incompatibility in the way key sequences are specified, but both Emacs
5334 and XEmacs will accept a key sequence as a vector of lists of modifiers
5335 that ends with a key, e.g., to bind @kbd{M-C-a}, you would say
5336 @code{[(meta control a)]} in both Emacsen. XEmacs has an abbreviated
5337 form for a single key, just (meta control a). Emacs has an abbreviated
5338 form for the Control and the Meta modifiers to string-characters (the
5339 ASCII characters), as in @samp{\M-\C-a}. XEmacs users need to be aware
5340 that the abbreviated form works only for one-character key sequences,
5341 while Emacs users need to be aware that the string-character is rather
5342 limited. Specifically, the string-character can accommodate only 256
5343 different values, 128 of which have the Meta modifier and 128 of which
5344 have not. In each of these blocks, only 32 characters have the Control
5345 modifier. Whereas @code{[(meta control A)]} differs from @code{[(meta
5346 control a)]} because the case differs, @samp{\M-\C-a} and @samp{\M-\C-A}
5347 do not. Programmers are advised to use the full common form, both
5348 because it is more readable and less error-prone, and because it is
5349 supported by both Emacsen.
5352 Another (even safer) way to be sure of the key-sequences is to use the
5353 @code{read-kbd-macro} function, which takes a string like @samp{C-c
5354 <up>}, and converts it to the internal key representation of the Emacs
5355 you use. The function is available both on XEmacs and GNU Emacs.
5357 @node Q5.1.2, Q5.1.3, Q5.1.1, Miscellaneous
5358 @unnumberedsubsec Q5.1.2: Can I generate "fake" keyboard events?
5360 I wonder if there is an interactive function that can generate
5361 @dfn{fake} keyboard events. This way, I could simply map them inside
5367 (defun cg--generate-char-event (ch)
5368 "Generate an event, as if ch has been typed"
5369 (dispatch-event (character-to-event ch)))
5371 ;; Backspace and Delete stuff
5372 (global-set-key [backspace]
5373 (lambda () (interactive) (cg--generate-char-event 127)))
5374 (global-set-key [unknown_keysym_0x4]
5375 (lambda () (interactive) (cg--generate-char-event 4)))
5378 @node Q5.1.3, Q5.1.4, Q5.1.2, Miscellaneous
5379 @unnumberedsubsec Q5.1.3: Could you explain @code{read-kbd-macro} in more detail?
5381 The @code{read-kbd-macro} function returns the internal Emacs
5382 representation of a human-readable string (which is its argument).
5386 (read-kbd-macro "C-c C-a")
5387 @result{} [(control ?c) (control ?a)]
5389 (read-kbd-macro "C-c C-. <up>")
5390 @result{} [(control ?c) (control ?.) up]
5393 In GNU Emacs the same forms will be evaluated to what GNU Emacs
5394 understands internally---the sequences @code{"\C-x\C-c"} and @code{[3
5395 67108910 up]}, respectively.
5397 The exact @dfn{human-readable} syntax is defined in the docstring of
5398 @code{edmacro-mode}. I'll repeat it here, for completeness.
5401 Format of keyboard macros during editing:
5403 Text is divided into @dfn{words} separated by whitespace. Except for
5404 the words described below, the characters of each word go directly as
5405 characters of the macro. The whitespace that separates words is
5406 ignored. Whitespace in the macro must be written explicitly, as in
5407 @kbd{foo @key{SPC} bar @key{RET}}.
5411 The special words @kbd{RET}, @kbd{SPC}, @kbd{TAB}, @kbd{DEL}, @kbd{LFD},
5412 @kbd{ESC}, and @kbd{NUL} represent special control characters. The
5413 words must be written in uppercase.
5416 A word in angle brackets, e.g., @code{<return>}, @code{<down>}, or
5417 @code{<f1>}, represents a function key. (Note that in the standard
5418 configuration, the function key @code{<return>} and the control key
5419 @key{RET} are synonymous.) You can use angle brackets on the words
5420 @key{RET}, @key{SPC}, etc., but they are not required there.
5423 Keys can be written by their @sc{ascii} code, using a backslash followed
5424 by up to six octal digits. This is the only way to represent keys with
5428 One or more prefixes @kbd{M-} (meta), @kbd{C-} (control), @kbd{S-}
5429 (shift), @kbd{A-} (alt), @kbd{H-} (hyper), and @kbd{s-} (super) may
5430 precede a character or key notation. For function keys, the prefixes
5431 may go inside or outside of the brackets: @code{C-<down>} @equiv{}
5432 @code{<C-down>}. The prefixes may be written in any order: @kbd{M-C-x}
5433 @equiv{} @kbd{C-M-x}.
5435 Prefixes are not allowed on multi-key words, e.g., @kbd{C-abc}, except
5436 that the Meta prefix is allowed on a sequence of digits and optional
5437 minus sign: @kbd{M--123} @equiv{} @kbd{M-- M-1 M-2 M-3}.
5440 The @code{^} notation for control characters also works: @kbd{^M}
5444 Double angle brackets enclose command names: @code{<<next-line>>} is
5445 shorthand for @kbd{M-x next-line @key{RET}}.
5448 Finally, @code{REM} or @code{;;} causes the rest of the line to be
5449 ignored as a comment.
5452 Any word may be prefixed by a multiplier in the form of a decimal number
5453 and @code{*}: @code{3*<right>} @equiv{} @code{<right> <right> <right>},
5454 and @code{10*foo} @equiv{}
5458 @code{foofoofoofoofoofoofoofoofoofoo}.
5460 Multiple text keys can normally be strung together to form a word, but
5461 you may need to add whitespace if the word would look like one of the
5462 above notations: @code{; ; ;} is a keyboard macro with three semicolons,
5463 but @code{;;;} is a comment. Likewise, @code{\ 1 2 3} is four keys but
5464 @code{\123} is a single key written in octal, and @code{< right >} is
5465 seven keys but @code{<right>} is a single function key. When in doubt,
5469 @node Q5.1.4, Q5.1.5, Q5.1.3, Miscellaneous
5470 @unnumberedsubsec Q5.1.4: What is the performance hit of @code{let}?
5472 In most cases, not noticeable. Besides, there's no avoiding
5473 @code{let}---you have to bind your local variables, after all. Some
5474 pose a question whether to nest @code{let}s, or use one @code{let} per
5475 function. I think because of clarity and maintenance (and possible
5476 future implementation), @code{let}-s should be used (nested) in a way to
5477 provide the clearest code.
5479 @node Q5.1.5, Q5.1.6, Q5.1.4, Miscellaneous
5480 @unnumberedsubsec Q5.1.5: What is the recommended use of @code{setq}?
5483 @item Global variables
5485 You will typically @code{defvar} your global variable to a default
5486 value, and use @code{setq} to set it later.
5488 It is never a good practice to @code{setq} user variables (like
5489 @code{case-fold-search}, etc.), as it ignores the user's choice
5490 unconditionally. Note that @code{defvar} doesn't change the value of a
5491 variable if it was bound previously. If you wish to change a
5492 user-variable temporarily, use @code{let}:
5495 (let ((case-fold-search nil))
5496 ... ; code with searches that must be case-sensitive
5500 You will notice the user-variables by their docstrings beginning with an
5501 asterisk (a convention).
5503 @item Local variables
5505 Bind them with @code{let}, which will unbind them (or restore their
5506 previous value, if they were bound) after exiting from the @code{let}
5507 form. Change the value of local variables with @code{setq} or whatever
5508 you like (e.g. @code{incf}, @code{setf} and such). The @code{let} form
5509 can even return one of its local variables.
5514 ;; iterate through the elements of the list returned by
5515 ;; `hairy-function-that-returns-list'
5516 (let ((l (hairy-function-that-returns-list)))
5518 ... do something with (car l) ...
5522 Another typical usage includes building a value simply to work with it.
5525 ;; Build the mode keymap out of the key-translation-alist
5526 (let ((inbox (file-truename (expand-file-name box)))
5528 ... code dealing with inbox ...
5532 This piece of code uses the local variable @code{inbox}, which becomes
5533 unbound (or regains old value) after exiting the form. The form also
5534 returns the value of @code{inbox}, which can be reused, for instance:
5537 (setq foo-processed-inbox
5542 @node Q5.1.6, Q5.1.7, Q5.1.5, Miscellaneous
5543 @unnumberedsubsec Q5.1.6: What is the typical misuse of @code{setq} ?
5545 A typical misuse is probably @code{setq}ing a variable that was meant to
5546 be local. Such a variable will remain bound forever, never to be
5547 garbage-collected. For example, the code doing:
5550 (defun my-function (whatever)
5552 ... build a large list ...
5556 does a bad thing, as @code{a} will keep consuming memory, never to be
5557 unbound. The correct thing is to do it like this:
5560 (defun my-function (whatever)
5561 (let (a) ; default initialization is to nil
5562 ... build a large list ...
5563 ... and exit, unbinding `a' in the process ...)
5566 Not only is this prettier syntactically, but it makes it possible for
5567 Emacs to garbage-collect the objects which @code{a} used to reference.
5569 Note that even global variables should not be @code{setq}ed without
5570 @code{defvar}ing them first, because the byte-compiler issues warnings.
5571 The reason for the warning is the following:
5574 (defun flurgoze nil) ; ok, global internal variable
5577 (setq flurghoze t) ; ops! a typo, but semantically correct.
5578 ; however, the byte-compiler warns.
5580 While compiling toplevel forms:
5581 ** assignment to free variable flurghoze
5584 @node Q5.1.7, Q5.1.8, Q5.1.6, Miscellaneous
5585 @unnumberedsubsec Q5.1.7: I like the the @code{do} form of cl, does it slow things down?
5587 It shouldn't. Here is what Dave Gillespie has to say about cl.el
5591 Many of the advanced features of this package, such as @code{defun*},
5592 @code{loop}, and @code{setf}, are implemented as Lisp macros. In
5593 byte-compiled code, these complex notations will be expanded into
5594 equivalent Lisp code which is simple and efficient. For example, the
5602 are expanded at compile-time to the Lisp forms
5606 (setcar p (cons x (car p)))
5609 which are the most efficient ways of doing these respective operations
5610 in Lisp. Thus, there is no performance penalty for using the more
5611 readable @code{incf} and @code{push} forms in your compiled code.
5613 @emph{Interpreted} code, on the other hand, must expand these macros
5614 every time they are executed. For this reason it is strongly
5615 recommended that code making heavy use of macros be compiled. (The
5616 features labelled @dfn{Special Form} instead of @dfn{Function} in this
5617 manual are macros.) A loop using @code{incf} a hundred times will
5618 execute considerably faster if compiled, and will also garbage-collect
5619 less because the macro expansion will not have to be generated, used,
5620 and thrown away a hundred times.
5622 You can find out how a macro expands by using the @code{cl-prettyexpand}
5626 @node Q5.1.8, Q5.1.9, Q5.1.7, Miscellaneous
5627 @unnumberedsubsec Q5.1.8: I like recursion, does it slow things down?
5629 Yes. Emacs byte-compiler cannot do much to optimize recursion. But
5630 think well whether this is a real concern in Emacs. Much of the Emacs
5631 slowness comes from internal mechanisms such as redisplay, or from the
5632 fact that it is an interpreter.
5634 Please try not to make your code much uglier to gain a very small speed
5635 gain. It's not usually worth it.
5637 @node Q5.1.9, Q5.1.10, Q5.1.8, Miscellaneous
5638 @unnumberedsubsec Q5.1.9: How do I put a glyph as annotation in a buffer?
5640 Here is a solution that will insert the glyph annotation at the
5641 beginning of buffer:
5644 (make-annotation (make-glyph '([FORMAT :file FILE]
5645 [string :data "fallback-text"]))
5651 Replace @samp{FORMAT} with an unquoted symbol representing the format of
5652 the image (e.g. @code{xpm}, @code{xbm}, @code{gif}, @code{jpeg}, etc.)
5653 Instead of @samp{FILE}, use the image file name
5658 @file{/usr/local/lib/xemacs-20.2/etc/recycle.xpm}).
5660 You can turn this to a function (that optionally prompts you for a file
5661 name), and inserts the glyph at @code{(point)} instead of
5664 @node Q5.1.10, Q5.1.11, Q5.1.9, Miscellaneous
5665 @unnumberedsubsec Q5.1.10: @code{map-extents} won't traverse all of my extents!
5667 I tried to use @code{map-extents} to do an operation on all the extents
5668 in a region. However, it seems to quit after processing a random number
5669 of extents. Is it buggy?
5671 No. The documentation of @code{map-extents} states that it will iterate
5672 across the extents as long as @var{function} returns @code{nil}.
5673 Unexperienced programmers often forget to return @code{nil} explicitly,
5674 which results in buggy code. For instance, the following code is
5675 supposed to delete all the extents in a buffer, and issue as many
5676 @samp{fubar!} messages.
5679 (map-extents (lambda (ext ignore)
5681 (message "fubar!")))
5684 Instead, it will delete only the first extent, and stop right there --
5685 because @code{message} will return a non-nil value. The correct code
5689 (map-extents (lambda (ext ignore)
5695 @node Q5.1.11, Q5.2.1, Q5.1.10, Miscellaneous
5696 @unnumberedsubsec Q5.1.11: My elisp program is horribly slow. Is there
5697 an easy way to find out where it spends time?
5700 z@email{hniksic@@srce.hr, Hrvoje Niksic} writes:
5702 Under XEmacs 20.4 and later you can use @kbd{M-x profile-key-sequence}, press a key
5703 (say @key{RET} in the Gnus Group buffer), and get the results using
5704 @kbd{M-x profile-results}. It should give you an idea of where the time
5708 @node Q5.2.1, Q5.2.2, Q5.1.11, Miscellaneous
5709 @unnumberedsubsec Q5.2.1: How do I turn off the sound?
5711 Add the following line to your @file{.emacs}:
5714 (setq bell-volume 0)
5715 (setq sound-alist nil)
5718 That will make your XEmacs totally silent -- even the default ding sound
5719 (TTY beep on TTY-s) will be gone.
5721 Starting with XEmacs-20.2 you can also change these with Customize.
5722 Select from the @code{Options} menu
5723 @code{Customize->Emacs->Environment->Sound->Sound...} or type
5724 @kbd{M-x customize @key{RET} sound @key{RET}}.
5727 @node Q5.2.2, Q5.2.3, Q5.2.1, Miscellaneous
5728 @unnumberedsubsec Q5.2.2: How do I get funky sounds instead of a boring beep?
5730 Make sure your XEmacs was compiled with sound support, and then put this
5731 in your @file{.emacs}:
5734 (load-default-sounds)
5737 The sound support in XEmacs 19.14 was greatly improved over previous
5740 @node Q5.2.3, Q5.2.4, Q5.2.2, Miscellaneous
5741 @unnumberedsubsec Q5.2.3: What's NAS, how do I get it?
5743 @xref{Q2.0.3} for an explanation of the @dfn{Network Audio System}.
5745 @node Q5.2.4, Q5.3.1, Q5.2.3, Miscellaneous
5746 @unnumberedsubsec Q5.2.4: Sunsite sounds don't play.
5748 I'm having some trouble with sounds I've downloaded from sunsite. They
5749 play when I run them through @code{showaudio} or cat them directly to
5750 @file{/dev/audio}, but XEmacs refuses to play them.
5752 @email{gutschk@@uni-muenster.de, Markus Gutschke} writes:
5755 [Many of] These files have an (erroneous) 24byte header that tells about
5756 the format that they have been recorded in. If you cat them to
5757 @file{/dev/audio}, the header will be ignored and the default behavior
5758 for /dev/audio will be used. This happens to be 8kHz uLaw. It is
5759 probably possible to fix the header by piping through @code{sox} and
5760 passing explicit parameters for specifying the sampling format; you then
5761 need to perform a 'null' conversion from SunAudio to SunAudio.
5764 @node Q5.3.1, Q5.3.2, Q5.2.4, Miscellaneous
5765 @unnumberedsec 5.3: Miscellaneous
5766 @unnumberedsubsec Q5.3.1: How do you make XEmacs indent CL if-clauses correctly?
5768 I'd like XEmacs to indent all the clauses of a Common Lisp @code{if} the
5769 same amount instead of indenting the 3rd clause differently from the
5772 One way is to add, to @file{.emacs}:
5775 (put 'if 'lisp-indent-function nil)
5778 However, note that the package @code{cl-indent} that comes with
5779 XEmacs sets up this kind of indentation by default. @code{cl-indent}
5780 also knows about many other CL-specific forms. To use @code{cl-indent},
5785 (setq lisp-indent-function (function common-lisp-indent-function))
5788 One can also customize @file{cl-indent.el} so it mimics the default
5789 @code{if} indentation @code{then} indented more than the @code{else}.
5793 (put 'if 'common-lisp-indent-function '(nil nil &body))
5796 Also, a new version (1.2) of @file{cl-indent.el} was posted to
5797 comp.emacs.xemacs on 12/9/94. This version includes more documentation
5798 than previous versions. This may prove useful if you need to customize
5799 any indent-functions.
5801 @node Q5.3.2, Q5.3.3, Q5.3.1, Miscellaneous
5802 @unnumberedsubsec Q5.3.2: Fontifying hang when editing a postscript file.
5804 When I try to edit a postscript file it gets stuck saying:
5805 @samp{fontifying 'filename' (regexps....)} and it just sits there. If I
5806 press @kbd{C-c} in the window where XEmacs was started, it suddenly
5807 becomes alive again.
5809 This was caused by a bug in the Postscript font-lock regular
5810 expressions. It was fixed in 19.13. For earlier versions of XEmacs,
5811 have a look at your @file{.emacs} file. You will probably have a line
5815 (add-hook 'postscript-mode-hook 'turn-on-font-lock)
5818 Take it out, restart XEmacs, and it won't try to fontify your postscript
5821 @node Q5.3.3, Q5.3.4, Q5.3.2, Miscellaneous
5822 @unnumberedsubsec Q5.3.3: How can I print WYSIWYG a font-locked buffer?
5824 Font-lock looks nice. How can I print (WYSIWYG) the highlighted
5827 The package @code{ps-print}, which is now included with XEmacs, provides
5828 the ability to do this. The source code contains complete instructions
5829 on its use, in @file{<xemacs_src_root>/lisp/packages/ps-print.el}.
5831 @node Q5.3.4, Q5.3.5, Q5.3.3, Miscellaneous
5832 @unnumberedsubsec Q5.3.4: Getting @kbd{M-x lpr} to work with postscript printer.
5834 My printer is a Postscript printer and @code{lpr} only works for
5835 Postscript files, so how do I get @kbd{M-x lpr-region} and @kbd{M-x
5836 lpr-buffer} to work?
5838 Put something like this in your @file{.emacs}:
5841 (setq lpr-command "a2ps")
5842 (setq lpr-switches '("-p" "-1"))
5845 If you don't use a2ps to convert ASCII to postscript (why not, it's
5846 free?), replace with the command you do use. Note also that some
5847 versions of a2ps require a @samp{-Pprinter} to ensure spooling.
5849 @node Q5.3.5, Q5.3.6, Q5.3.4, Miscellaneous
5850 @unnumberedsubsec Q5.3.5: How do I specify the paths that XEmacs uses for finding files?
5852 You can specify what paths to use by using a number of different flags
5853 when running configure. See the section MAKE VARIABLES in the top-level
5854 file INSTALL in the XEmacs distribution for a listing of those flags.
5856 Most of the time, however, the simplest fix is: @strong{do not} specify
5857 paths as you might for GNU Emacs. XEmacs can generally determine the
5858 necessary paths dynamically at run time. The only path that generally
5859 needs to be specified is the root directory to install into. That can
5860 be specified by passing the @code{--prefix} flag to configure. For a
5861 description of the XEmacs install tree, please consult the @file{NEWS}
5864 @node Q5.3.6, Q5.3.7, Q5.3.5, Miscellaneous
5865 @unnumberedsubsec Q5.3.6: [This question intentionally left blank]
5867 Obsolete question, left blank to avoid renumbering.
5869 @node Q5.3.7, Q5.3.8, Q5.3.6, Miscellaneous
5870 @unnumberedsubsec Q5.3.7: Can I have the end of the buffer delimited in some way?
5872 Say, with: @samp{[END]}?
5877 (let ((ext (make-extent (point-min) (point-max))))
5878 (set-extent-property ext 'start-closed t)
5879 (set-extent-property ext 'end-closed t)
5880 (set-extent-property ext 'detachable nil)
5881 (set-extent-end-glyph ext (make-glyph [string :data "[END]"])))
5884 Since this is XEmacs, you can specify an icon to be shown on
5885 window-system devices. To do so, change the @code{make-glyph} call to
5886 something like this:
5889 (make-glyph '([xpm :file "~/something.xpm"]
5890 [string :data "[END]"]))
5893 You can inline the @sc{xpm} definition yourself by specifying
5894 @code{:data} instead of @code{:file}. Here is such a full-featured
5895 version that works on both X and TTY devices:
5898 (let ((ext (make-extent (point-min) (point-max))))
5899 (set-extent-property ext 'start-closed t)
5900 (set-extent-property ext 'end-closed t)
5901 (set-extent-property ext 'detachable nil)
5902 (set-extent-end-glyph ext (make-glyph '([xpm :data "\
5904 static char* eye = @{
5913 \"___________`_`_`___b_b_b_b_________`____\",
5914 \"_________`_`_`___b_c_c_c_b_b____________\",
5915 \"_____`_`_`_e___b_b_c_c_c___b___b_______`\",
5916 \"___`_`_e_a___b_b_d___b___b___b___b______\",
5917 \"_`_`_e_a_e___b_b_d_b___b___b___b___b____\",
5918 \"_`_`_a_e_a___b_b_d___b___b___b___b___b__\",
5919 \"_`_`_e_a_e___b_b_d_b___b___b___b___b_b__\",
5920 \"___`_`_e_a___b_b_b_d_c___b___b___d_b____\",
5921 \"_____`_`_e_e___b_b_b_d_c___b_b_d_b______\",
5922 \"_`_____`_`_`_`___b_b_b_d_d_d_d_b________\",
5923 \"___`_____`_`_`_`___b_b_b_b_b_b__________\",
5925 [string :data "[END]"]))))
5928 Note that you might want to make this a function, and put it to a hook.
5929 We leave that as an exercise for the reader.
5931 @node Q5.3.8, Q5.3.9, Q5.3.7, Miscellaneous
5932 @unnumberedsubsec Q5.3.8: How do I insert today's date into a buffer?
5937 (insert (current-time-string))
5940 @node Q5.3.9, Q5.3.10, Q5.3.8, Miscellaneous
5941 @unnumberedsubsec Q5.3.9: Are only certain syntactic character classes available for abbrevs?
5943 @email{gutschk@@uni-muenster.de, Markus Gutschke} writes:
5946 Yes, abbrevs only expands word-syntax strings. While XEmacs does not
5947 prevent you from defining (e.g. with @kbd{C-x a g} or @kbd{C-x a l})
5948 abbrevs that contain special characters, it will refuse to expand
5949 them. So you need to ensure, that the abbreviation contains letters and
5950 digits only. This means that @samp{xd}, @samp{d5}, and @samp{5d} are
5951 valid abbrevs, but @samp{&d}, and @samp{x d} are not.
5953 If this sounds confusing to you, (re-)read the online documentation for
5954 abbrevs (@kbd{C-h i m XEmacs @key{RET} m Abbrevs @key{RET}}), and then come back and
5955 read this question/answer again.
5958 Starting with XEmacs 20.3 this restriction has been lifted.
5960 @node Q5.3.10, Q5.3.11, Q5.3.9, Miscellaneous
5961 @unnumberedsubsec Q5.3.10: How can I get those oh-so-neat X-Face lines?
5963 Firstly there is an ftp site which describes X-faces and has the
5964 associated tools mentioned below, at
5965 @uref{ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu:/pub/faces/}.
5971 Create 48x48x1 bitmap with your favorite tool
5974 Convert to "icon" format using one of xbm2ikon, pbmtoicon, etc.,
5975 and then compile the face.
5979 cat file.xbm | xbm2ikon |compface > file.face
5983 Then be sure to quote things that are necessary for emacs strings:
5986 cat ./file.face | sed 's/\\/\\\\/g'
5990 | sed 's/\"/\\\"/g' > ./file.face.quoted
5994 Then set up emacs to include the file as a mail header - there were a
5995 couple of suggestions here---either something like:
5998 (setq mail-default-headers
5999 "X-Face: @email{Ugly looking text string here}")
6002 Or, alternatively, as:
6005 (defun mail-insert-x-face ()
6007 (goto-char (point-min))
6008 (search-forward mail-header-separator)
6011 (insert-file-contents "~/.face")))
6013 (add-hook 'mail-setup-hook 'mail-insert-x-face)
6017 However, 2 things might be wrong:
6019 Some versions of pbmtoicon produces some header lines that is not
6020 expected by the version of compface that I grabbed. So I found I had to
6021 include a @code{tail +3} in the pipeline like this:
6024 cat file.xbm | xbm2ikon | tail +3 |compface > file.face
6027 Some people have also found that if one uses the @code{(insert-file)}
6028 method, one should NOT quote the face string using the sed script .
6030 It might also be helpful to use @email{stig@@hackvan.com, Stig's} script
6031 (included in the compface distribution at XEmacs.org) to do the
6032 conversion. For convenience xbm2xface is available for anonymous FTP at
6033 @uref{ftp://ftp.miranova.com/pub/xemacs/xbm2xface.pl}.
6035 Contributors for this item:
6046 @node Q5.3.11, Q5.3.12, Q5.3.10, Miscellaneous
6047 @unnumberedsubsec Q5.3.11: How do I add new Info directories?
6049 You use something like:
6052 (setq Info-directory-list (cons
6053 (expand-file-name "~/info")
6054 Info-default-directory-list))
6057 @email{davidm@@prism.kla.com, David Masterson} writes:
6060 Emacs Info and XEmacs Info do many things differently. If you're trying to
6061 support a number of versions of Emacs, here are some notes to remember:
6065 Emacs Info scans @code{Info-directory-list} from right-to-left while
6066 XEmacs Info reads it from left-to-right, so append to the @emph{correct}
6070 Use @code{Info-default-directory-list} to initialize
6071 @code{Info-directory-list} @emph{if} it is available at startup, but not
6072 all Emacsen define it.
6075 Emacs Info looks for a standard @file{dir} file in each of the
6076 directories scanned from #1 and magically concatenates them together.
6079 XEmacs Info looks for a @file{localdir} file (which consists of just the
6080 menu entries from a @file{dir} file) in each of the directories scanned
6081 from #1 (except the first), does a simple concatenation of them, and
6082 magically attaches the resulting list to the end of the menu in the
6083 @file{dir} file in the first directory.
6086 Another alternative is to convert the documentation to HTML with
6087 texi2html and read it from a web browser like Lynx or W3.
6090 @node Q5.3.12, , Q5.3.11, Miscellaneous
6091 @unnumberedsubsec Q5.3.12: What do I need to change to make printing work?
6093 For regular printing there are two variables that can be customized.
6097 This should be set to a command that takes standard input and sends
6098 it to a printer. Something like:
6101 (setq lpr-command "lp")
6105 This should be set to a list that contains whatever the print command
6106 requires to do its job. Something like:
6109 (setq lpr-switches '("-depson"))
6113 For postscript printing there are three analogous variables to
6117 @item ps-lpr-command
6118 This should be set to a command that takes postscript on standard input
6119 and directs it to a postscript printer.
6121 @item ps-lpr-switches
6122 This should be set to a list of switches required for
6123 @code{ps-lpr-command} to do its job.
6125 @item ps-print-color-p
6126 This boolean variable should be set @code{t} if printing will be done in
6127 color, otherwise it should be set to @code{nil}.
6130 NOTE: It is an undocumented limitation in XEmacs that postscript
6131 printing (the @code{Pretty Print Buffer} menu item) @strong{requires} a
6132 window system environment. It cannot be used outside of X11.
6134 @node Current Events, , Miscellaneous, Top
6135 @unnumbered 6 What the Future Holds
6137 This is part 6 of the XEmacs Frequently Asked Questions list. This
6138 section will change monthly, and contains any interesting items that have
6139 transpired over the previous month. If you are reading this from the
6140 XEmacs distribution, please see the version on the Web or archived at the
6141 various FAQ FTP sites, as this file is surely out of date.
6144 * Q6.0.1:: What is new in 20.2?
6145 * Q6.0.2:: What is new in 20.3?
6146 * Q6.0.3:: What is new in 20.4?
6147 * Q6.0.4:: Procedural changes in XEmacs development.
6150 @node Q6.0.1, Q6.0.2, Current Events, Current Events
6151 @unnumberedsec 6.0: Changes
6152 @unnumberedsubsec Q6.0.1: What is new in 20.2?
6154 The biggest changes in 20.2 include integration of EFS (the next
6155 generation of ange-ftp) and AUC Tex (the Emacs subsystem that includes a
6156 major mode for editing Tex and LaTeX, and a lot of other stuff). Many
6157 bugs from 20.0 have been fixed for this release. 20.2 also contains a
6158 new system for customizing XEmacs options, invoked via @kbd{M-x
6161 XEmacs 20.2 is the development release (20.0 was beta), and is no longer
6162 considered unstable.
6164 @node Q6.0.2, Q6.0.3, Q6.0.1, Current Events
6165 @unnumberedsubsec Q6.0.2: What is new in 20.3?
6167 XEmacs 20.3 was released in November 1997. It contains many bugfixes,
6168 and a number of new features, including Autoconf 2 based configuration,
6169 additional support for Mule (Multi-language extensions to Emacs), many
6170 more customizations, multiple frames on TTY-s, support for multiple info
6171 directories, an enhanced gnuclient, improvements to regexp matching,
6172 increased MIME support, and many, many synches with GNU Emacs 20.
6174 The XEmacs/Mule support has been only seriously tested in a Japanese
6175 locale, and no doubt many problems still remain. The support for
6176 ISO-Latin-1 and Japanese is fairly strong. MULE support comes at a
6177 price -- about a 30% slowdown from 19.16. We're making progress on
6178 improving performance and XEmacs 20.3 compiled without Mule (which is
6179 the default) is definitely faster than XEmacs 19.16.
6181 XEmacs 20.3 is the first non-beta v20 release, and will be the
6182 basis for all further development.
6184 @node Q6.0.3, Q6.0.4, Q6.0.2, Current Events
6185 @unnumberedsubsec Q6.0.3: What's new in XEmacs 20.4?
6187 XEmacs 20.4 is a bugfix release with no user-visible changes.
6188 @c Filled in from NEWS file of 20.5-b33
6191 @node Q6.0.4, , Q6.0.3, Current Events
6192 @unnumberedsubsec Q6.0.4: Procedural changes in XEmacs development.
6196 Discussion about the development of XEmacs occurs on the xemacs-beta
6197 mailing list. Subscriptions to this list will now be fully automated
6198 instead of being handled by hand. Send a mail message to
6199 @email{xemacs-beta-request@@xemacs.org} with @samp{subscribe} as the
6200 BODY of the message to join the list. Please note this is a developers
6201 mailing list for people who have an active interest in the development
6204 The discussion of NT XEmacs development is taking place on a separate
6205 mailing list. Send mail to
6209 @email{xemacs-nt-request@@xemacs.org} to
6213 Due to the long development cycle in between releases, it has been
6214 decided that intermediate versions will be made available in source only
6215 form for the truly interested.
6217 XEmacs 19.16 was the last 19 release, basically consisting of 19.15 plus
6218 the collected bugfixes.
6221 As of December 1996, @email{steve@@altair.xemacs.org, Steve Baur} has become
6222 the lead maintainer of XEmacs.