Sams Teach Yourself Emacs in 24 Hours

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Hour 10: The Emacs Help System and Configuration System

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Q&A

Q Has the hyper-apropos library been ported to GNU Emacs?

A No. But when I'm finished with this book, I'll work on it. Check the home page for a possible solution.

Q I use Emacs 19. Is there no chance that I can use the customize library?

A Nope, the customize library isn't well supported in Emacs 19. Older versions exist for Emacs 19, but they do not work with newer versions of the package.

Q Why doesn't Emacs use Web pages for information instead of those info pages?

A The info system is tightly bounded to Emacs and is very fast at startup compared to most Web browsers. Furthermore the info pages are easier to search than Web pages are (that is, search over several pages). Therefore, GNU has decided to keep using the info system. Don't be afraid, though, you will quickly learn to use info. If, however, you prefer to read the pages through your Web browser, you can use the info2html converter, which can convert your info pages to HTML pages (http://www.che.utexas.edu/info2www/info2www). Furthermore, the Emacs reference manual and the Lisp manual are located on the CD-ROM as HTML.

Q When I've configured an option using the customize library, is there a way I can see which variable and which value to use (for example, for use in Emacs 19)?

A Yes, you can transfer the variable to Emacs 19 (given that the variable exists in Emacs 19) or to another part of your Emacs file (for example, a part specific to XEmacs). The code inserted by customization looks like the following:


(custom-set-variables
 '(next-line-add-newlines t))

To set this option elsewhere, you must insert the following:


(setq next-line-add-newlines t)

When you have done this, you must not customize the variable from customize anymore, because this inserts a new item such as the preceding code line in your .emacs file.

Sams Teach Yourself Emacs in 24 Hours

ContentsIndex

Hour 10: The Emacs Help System and Configuration System

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