xemacs(1)

NAME

xemacs - Emacs: The Next Generation

SYNOPSIS

xemacs [ command-line switches ] [ files ...  ]

DESCRIPTION

XEmacs is a version of Emacs, compatible with and contain ing many improvements over GNU Emacs, written by Richard Stallman of the Free Software Foundation. It was origi
nally based on an early release of GNU Emacs Version 19, and has tracked subsequent releases of GNU Emacs as they have become available.

The primary documentation of XEmacs is in the XEmacs Ref_ erence Manual, which you can read on-line using Info, a subsystem of XEmacs. Please look there for complete and up-to-date documentation. Complete documentation on using
Emacs Lisp is available on-line through the XEmacs Lisp Programmer's Manual. Both manuals also can be printed out nicely using the TeX formatting package.

The user functionality of XEmacs encompasses everything other Emacs editors do, and it is easily extensible since
its editing commands are written in Lisp.

XEmacs has an extensive interactive help facility, but the facility assumes that you know how to manipulate XEmacs windows and buffers. CTRL-h enters the Help facility.
Help Tutorial (CTRL-h t) requests an interactive tutorial
which can teach beginners the fundamentals of XEmacs in a few minutes. Help Apropos (CTRL-h a) helps you find a
command given its functionality, Help Key Binding (CTRL-h
k) describes a given key sequence's effect, and Help Func
tion (CTRL-h f) describes a given Lisp function specified
by name. You can also look up key sequences in the XEmacs Reference Manual using Lookup Key Binding (CTRL-h CTRL-k), and look up Lisp functions in the XEmacs Lisp Programmer's Manual using Lookup Function (CTRL-h CTRL-f). All of these help functions, and more, are available on the Help
menu if you are using a window system.

XEmacs has extensive GUI (graphical user interface) sup
port when running under a window system such as X, includ
ing multiple frames (top-level windows), a menubar, a
toolbar, horizontal and vertical scrollbars, dialog boxes,
and extensive mouse support.

XEmacs has full support for multiple fonts and colors, variable-width fonts, and variable-height lines, and
allows for pixmaps to be inserted into a buffer. (This is
used in the W3 web-browsing package and in some of the
debugger and outlining interfaces, among other things.)

XEmacs's Undo can undo several steps of modification to your buffers, so it is easy to recover from editing mis
takes.

XEmacs's many special packages handle mail reading (VM, MH-E and RMail) and sending (Mail), Usenet news reading
and posting (GNUS), World Wide Web browsing (W3), special
ized modes for editing source code in all common
programming languages, syntax highlighting for many lan
guages (Font-Lock), compiling (Compile), running subshells
within XEmacs windows (Shell), outline editing (Outline), running a Lisp read-eval-print loop (Lisp-InteractionMode), and automated psychotherapy (Doctor).

There is an extensive reference manual, but users of other
Emacsen should have little trouble adapting even without a
copy. Users new to Emacs will be able to use basic fea
tures fairly rapidly by studying the tutorial and using
the self-documentation features.

XEmacs Options

XEmacs accepts all standard X Toolkit command line options
when run in an X Windows environment. In addition, the
following options are accepted (when options imply a
sequence of actions to perform, they are performed in the
order encountered):

-t file Use specified file as the terminal instead of: using stdin/stdout. This implies -nw.
-batch Edit in batch mode. The editor will send messages: to stdout. You must use the -l, -f, and -eval options to specify files to execute and functions
to call.
-nw Inhibit the use of any window-system-specific dis: play code: use the current TTY.
-debug-init: Enter the debugger if an error occurs loading the
init file.
-unmapped: Do not map the initial frame.
-no-site-file: Do not load the site-specific init file (sitestart.el).
-q, -no-init-file: Do not load an init file.
-no-early-packages: Do not process the early packages.
-vanilla: Load no extra files at startup. Equivalent to the
combination of -q , -no-site-file , and -no-earlypackages
-u user, -user user: Load user's init file.
file Edit file.
+number Go to the line specified by number (do not insert: a space between the "+" sign and the number).
-help Print a help message and exit.
-V, -version,: Print the version number and exit.
-f function, -funcall function: Execute the lisp function function.
-l file, -load file: Load the Lisp code in the file file.
-eval form: Evaluate the Lisp form form.
-i file, -insert file: Insert file into the current buffer.
-kill Exit XEmacs (useful with -batch).
Using XEmacs with X Windows
XEmacs has been tailored to work well with the X window system. If you run XEmacs from under X windows, it will create its own X window to display in.
XEmacs can be started with the following standard X options:
-visual <visualname><bitdepth>: Select the visual that XEmacs will attempt to use.
<visualname> should be one of the strings "Static Color", "TrueColor", "GrayScale", "PseudoColor" or
"DirectColor", and <bitdepth> should be the number of bits per pixel (example, "-visual TrueColor24"
for a 24bit TrueColor visual) See X(1) for more
information.
-privateColormap: Require XEmacs to create and use a private colormap
for display. This will keep XEmacs from taking
colors from the default colormap and keeping them
from other clients, at the cost of causing annoying
flicker when the focus changes. Use this option
only if your X server does not support 24 bit visu
als.
-geometry ##x##+##+##: Specify the geometry of the initial window. The
##'s represent a number; the four numbers are width
(characters), height (characters), X offset (pix
els), and Y offset (pixels), respectively. Partial
specifications of the form ##x## or +##+## are also allowed. (The geometry specification is in the
standard X format; see X(1) for more information.)
-iconic: Specifies that the initial window should initially
appear iconified.
-name name: Specifies the program name which should be used
when looking up defaults in the user's X
resources.
-title title, -T title, -wn title: Specifies the title which should be assigned to
the XEmacs window.
-d displayname, -display displayname: Create the XEmacs window on the display specified by displayname. Must be the first option specified in the command line.
-font font, -fn font: Set the XEmacs window's font to that specified by font. You will find the various X fonts in the
/usr/lib/X11/fonts directory. XEmacs works with either fixed- or variable-width fonts, but will
probably look better with a fixed-width font.
-scrollbar-width pixels: Specify the width of the vertical scrollbars.
-scrollbar-height pixels: Specify the height of the horizontal scrollbars.
-bw pixels, -borderwidth pixels: Set the XEmacs window's border width to the number of pixels specified by pixels. Defaults to one pixel on each side of the window.
-ib pixels, -internal-border-width pixels: Specify the width between a frame's border and its
text, in pixels. Defaults to one pixel on each
side of the window.
-fg color, -foreground color: Sets the color of the text.; See the file /usr/lib/X11/rgb.txt for a list of valid color names.
-bg color, -background color: Sets the color of the window's background.
-bd color, -bordercolor color: Sets the color of the window's border.
-mc color: Sets the color of the mouse pointer.
-cr color: Sets the color of the text cursor.
-rv, -reverse: Reverses the foreground and background colors
(reverse video). Consider explicitly setting the
foreground and background colors instead of using
this option.
-xrm argument: This allows you to set an arbitrary resource on
the command line. argument should be a resource specification, as might be found in your .Xre_
sources or .Xdefaults file.
You can also set resources, i.e. X default values, for your XEmacs windows in your .Xresources or .Xdefaults file (see xrdb(1)). Use the following format:: Emacs.keyword:value
or: Emacs*EmacsFrame.keyword:value
where value specifies the default value of keyword. (Some resources need the former format; some the latter.)
You can also set resources for a particular frame by using the format: Emacs*framename.keyword:value
where framename is the resource name assigned to that par ticular frame. (Certain packages, such as VM, give their frames unique resource names, in this case "VM".)
XEmacs lets you set default values for the following key words:
default.attributeFont (class Face.AttributeFont): Sets the window's text font.
default.attributeForeground (class Face.AttributeFore ground): Sets the window's text color.
default.attributeBackground (class Face.AttributeBack ground): Sets the window's background color.
face.attributeFont (class Face.AttributeFont): Sets the font for face, which should be the name
of a face. Common face names are; FACE PURPOSE
default Normal text.
bold Bold text.
italic Italicized text.
bold-italic Bold and italicized text.
modeline Modeline text.
zmacs-region Text selected with the mouse.
highlight Text highlighted when the mouse
passes over.; left-margin Text in the left margin.
right-margin Text in the right margin.
isearch Text highlighted during incremen
tal search.; info-node Text of Info menu items.
info-xref Text of Info cross references.
face.attributeForeground (class Face.AttributeForeground): Sets the foreground color for face.
face.attributeBackground (class Face.AttributeBackground): Sets the background color for face.
face.attributeBackgroundPixmap (class Face.AttributeBack groundPixmap): Sets the background pixmap (stipple) for face.
face.attributeUnderline (class Face.AttributeUnderline): Whether face should be underlined.
reverseVideo (class ReverseVideo): If set to on, the window will be displayed in
reverse video. Consider explicitly setting the
foreground and background colors instead of using
this resource.
borderWidth (class BorderWidth): Sets the window's border width in pixels.
internalBorderWidth (class InternalBorderWidth): Sets the window's internal border width in pixels.
borderColor (class BorderColor): Sets the color of the window's border.
cursorColor (class Foreground): Sets the color of the window's text cursor.
pointerColor (class Foreground): Sets the color of the window's mouse cursor.
emacsVisual (class EmacsVisual): Sets the default visual XEmacs will try to use (as described above).
privateColormap (class PrivateColormap): If set, XEmacs will default to using a private colormap.
geometry (class Geometry): Sets the geometry of the XEmacs window (as described above).
iconic (class Iconic): If set to on, the XEmacs window will initially appear as an icon.
menubar (class Menubar): Whether the XEmacs window will have a menubar. Defaults to true.
initiallyUnmapped (class InitiallyUnmapped): Whether XEmacs will leave the initial frame unmapped when it starts up.
barCursor (class BarCursor): Whether the cursor should be a bar instead of the
traditional box.
title (class Title): Sets the title of the XEmacs window.
iconName (class Title): Sets the icon name for the XEmacs window icon.
scrollBarWidth (class ScrollBarWidth): Sets the width of the vertical scrollbars, in pix
els. A width of 0 means no vertical scrollbars.
scrollBarHeight (class ScrollBarHeight): Sets the height of the horizontal scrollbars, in
pixels. A height of 0 means no horizontal scroll
bars.
scrollBarPlacement (class ScrollBarPlacement): Sets the position of vertical and horizontal
scrollbars. Should be one of the strings "topleft", "bottom-left", "top-right", or "bottomright". The default is "bottom-right" for the
Motif and Lucid scrollbars and "bottom-left" for
the Athena scrollbars.
topToolBarHeight (class TopToolBarHeight): Sets the height of the top toolbar, in pixels. 0
means no top toolbar.
bottomToolBarHeight (class BottomToolBarHeight): Sets the height of the bottom toolbar, in pixels.
0 means no bottom toolbar.
leftToolBarWidth (class LeftToolBarWidth): Sets the width of the left toolbar, in pixels. 0
means no left toolbar.
rightToolBarWidth (class RightToolBarWidth): Sets the width of the right toolbar, in pixels. 0
means no right toolbar.
topToolBarShadowColor (class TopToolBarShadowColor): Sets the color of the top shadows for the tool
bars. (For all toolbars, not just the toolbar at
the top of the frame.)
bottomToolBarShadowColor (class BottomToolBarShadowColor): Sets the color of the bottom shadows for the tool
bars. (For all toolbars, not just the toolbar at
the bottom of the frame.)
topToolBarShadowPixmap (class TopToolBarShadowPixmap): Sets the pixmap of the top shadows for the tool
bars. (For all toolbars, not just the toolbar at
the top of the frame.) If set, this resource over
rides the corresponding color resource.
bottomToolBarShadowPixmap (class BottomToolBarShadow Pixmap): Sets the pixmap of the bottom shadows for the
toolbars. (For all toolbars, not just the toolbar
at the bottom of the frame.) If set, this resource
overrides the corresponding color resource.
toolBarShadowThickness (class ToolBarShadowThickness): Thickness of the shadows around the toolbars, in
pixels.
visualBell (class VisualBell): Whether XEmacs should flash the screen rather than
making an audible beep.
bellVolume (class BellVolume): Volume of the audible beep. Range is 0 through
100.
useBackingStore (class UseBackingStore): Whether XEmacs should set the backing-store attribute of the X windows it creates. This
increases the memory usage of the X server but
decreases the amount of X traffic necessary to
update the screen, and is useful when the connec
tion to the X server goes over a low-bandwidth
line such as a modem connection.
textPointer (class Cursor): The cursor to use when the mouse is over text.
selectionPointer (class Cursor): The cursor to use when the mouse is over a mousehighlighted text region.
spacePointer (class Cursor): The cursor to use when the mouse is over a blank
space in a buffer (that is, after the end of a
line or after the end-of-file).
modeLinePointer (class Cursor): The cursor to use when the mouse is over a mode
line.
gcPointer (class Cursor): The cursor to display when a garbage-collection is
in progress.
scrollbarPointer (class Cursor): The cursor to use when the mouse is over the
scrollbar.
pointerColor (class Foreground): The foreground color of the mouse cursor.
pointerBackground (class Background): The background color of the mouse cursor.
Using the Mouse
The following lists the mouse button bindings for the XEmacs window under X11.
MOUSE BUTTON FUNCTION left Set point or make a text selection. middle Paste text. right Pop up a menu of options. SHIFT-left Extend a selection. CTRL-left Make a selection and insert it at: point.
CTRL-middle Set point and move selected text: there.
CTRL-SHIFT-left Make a selection, delete it, and: insert it at point.
META-left Make a rectangular selection.

FILES

Lisp code is read at startup from the user's init file,
$HOME/.emacs.

/usr/local/info - files for the Info documentation browser
(a subsystem of XEmacs) to refer to. The complete text of the XEmacs Reference Manual and the XEmacs Lisp Program_ mer's Manual is included in a convenient tree structured form.

/usr/local/lib/xemacs-$VERSION/info - the Info files may
be here instead.

/usr/local/lib/xemacs-$VERSION/lisp/* - Lisp source files
and compiled files that define most editing commands. The
files are contained in subdirectories, categorized by
function or individual package. Some are preloaded; oth
ers are autoloaded from these directories when used.

/usr/local/lib/xemacs-$VERSION/etc - some files of infor
mation, pixmap files, other data files used by certain
packages, etc.

/usr/local/lib/xemacs-$VERSION/$CONFIGURATION - various
programs that are used with XEmacs.

/usr/local/lib/xemacs-$VERSION/$CONFIGURATION/DOC - con
tains the documentation strings for the Lisp primitives
and preloaded Lisp functions of XEmacs. They are stored here to reduce the size of XEmacs proper.

/usr/local/lib/xemacs/site-lisp - locally-provided Lisp
files.

BUGS AND HELP

There is a newsgroup, comp.emacs.xemacs, for reporting
XEmacs bugs and fixes and requesting help. But before reporting something as a bug, please try to be sure that
it really is a bug, not a misunderstanding or a deliberate
feature. We ask you to read the section ``Reporting
XEmacs Bugs'' near the end of the reference manual (or
Info system) for hints on how and when to report bugs.
Also, include the version number of the XEmacs you are running and the system you are running it on in every bug
report that you send in. Finally, the more you can iso
late the cause of a bug and the conditions it happens
under, the more likely it is to be fixed, so please take
the time to do so.

The newsgroup is bidirectionally gatewayed to and from the
mailing list xemacs@xemacs.org. You can read the list
instead of the newsgroup if you do not have convenient
Usenet news access. To request to be added to the mailing
list, send mail to xemacs-request@xemacs.org. (Do not send
mail to the list itself.)

The XEmacs maintainers read the newsgroup regularly and will attempt to fix bugs reported in a timely fashion.
However, not every message will get a response from one of
the maintainers. Note that there are many people other
than the maintainers who read the newsgroup, and will usu
ally be of assistance in helping with any problems encoun
tered.

If you need more personal assistance than can be provided
by the newsgroup, look in the SERVICE file (see above) for
a list of people who offer it.

For more information about XEmacs mailing lists, see the
file /usr/local/lib/xemacs-$VERSION/etc/MAILINGLISTS.

UNRESTRICTIONS

XEmacs is free; anyone may redistribute copies of XEmacs to anyone under the terms stated in the XEmacs General Public License, a copy of which accompanies each copy of
XEmacs and which also appears in the reference manual.

Copies of XEmacs may sometimes be received packaged with distributions of Unix systems, but it is never included in
the scope of any license covering those systems. Such
inclusion violates the terms on which distribution is per
mitted. In fact, the primary purpose of the General Pub
lic License is to prohibit anyone from attaching any other
restrictions to redistribution of XEmacs.

AUTHORS

XEmacs was written by Steve Baur <steve@xemacs.org>, Mar
tin Buchholz <martin@xemacs.org>, Richard Mlynarik
<mly@adoc.xerox.com>, Hrvoje Niksic <hniksic@xemacs.org>,
Chuck Thompson <cthomp@xemacs.org>, Ben Wing
<ben@xemacs.org>, Jamie Zawinski <jwz@jwz.org>, and many
others. It was based on an early version of GNU Emacs Version 19, written by Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> of the Free Software Foundation, and has tracked subsequent
releases of GNU Emacs as they have become available. It was originally written by Lucid, Inc. (now defunct) and
was called Lucid Emacs.

Chuck Thompson wrote the XEmacs redisplay engine, main
tains the XEmacs FTP and WWW sites, and has put out all releases of XEmacs since 19.11 (the first release called XEmacs). Ben Wing wrote the Asian-language support, the on-line documentation (including this man page and much of
the FAQ), the external widget code, and retooled or
rewrote most of the basic, low-level XEmacs subsystems. Jamie Zawinski put out all releases of Lucid Emacs, from the first (19.0) through the last (19.10), and was the
primary code contributor for all of these releases.
Richard Mlynarik rewrote the XEmacs Lisp-object allocation system, improved the keymap and minibuffer code, and did
the initial synching of XEmacs with GNU Emacs Version 19.

Many others have also contributed significantly. For more
detailed information, including a long history of XEmacs from multiple viewpoints and pretty pictures and bios of
the major XEmacs contributors, see the XEmacs About Page (the About XEmacs option on the Help menu).

MORE INFORMATION

For more information about XEmacs, see the XEmacs About Page (mentioned above), look in the file
/usr/local/lib/xemacs-$VERSION/etc/NEWS, or point your Web
browser at

http://www.xemacs.org/

for up-to-the-minute information about XEmacs.

The XEmacs FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) can be found at the Web site just listed. A possibly out-of-date ver
sion is also accessible through the Info system inside of
XEmacs.

The latest version of XEmacs can be downloaded using anonymous FTP from

ftp://ftp.xemacs.org/pub/xemacs/

or from a mirror site near you. Mirror sites are listed in the file etc/FTP in the XEmacs distribution or see the Web site for an up-to-date list of mirror sites.

docs.sk

comprehensive documentation repository

See also