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Learning GNU Emacs, 3rd Edition
book

Learning GNU Emacs, 3rd Edition

by Debra Cameron, James Elliott, Marc Loy, Eric S. Raymond, Bill Rosenblatt
December 2004
Beginner to intermediate content levelBeginner to intermediate
536 pages
19h 28m
English
O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Content preview from Learning GNU Emacs, 3rd Edition

Conventions Used in This Book

This section covers the conventions used in this book.

Keystroke Notation

Emacs commands consist of a modifier, such as Ctrl or Meta, followed by one or two characters. Commands shown in this book abbreviate Ctrl to C and Meta to M:

C-g

Hold down the Ctrl key and press g.

M-x

Hold down the Meta key and press x.

Sometimes Meta is followed by a literal hyphen character. In these cases, we spell out Meta:

Meta -

Hold down the Meta key and press -.

To complete a command you may need to press Enter. (This key may be labeled Return.)

Enter

Press the Enter key.

Esc

Can be used as an alternative to Meta. Press Esc, release it, then press the next key.

A few mouse commands use the Shift key as a modifier, often in combination with the Ctrl key. This is abbreviated as:

S-right

Hold down Shift and click the right mouse button.

C-S-right

Hold down Shift and Ctrl and click the right mouse button.

All Emacs commands, even the simplest ones, have a full name; for example, forward-word is equivalent to the keystrokes M-f, and forward-char is equivalent to C-f. This tying of a command to a keystroke combination is called a key binding. Some commands have only full names, with no corresponding key binding.

When we discuss a command, we'll give both its full name and the keystrokes (if any) that you can type to invoke it.

Command Tables

To find a group of commands quickly, look for tables in each section that summarize commands. These tables are formatted like this:

Keystrokes ...

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Publisher Resources

ISBN: 0596006489Supplemental ContentErrata Page