Copyrighted 1992 by Urban A. LeJeune


                        The EMACS Editor

     The Unix EMACS editor, which is available on Pilot, is
difficult to use when one has used DOS type editors or word
processors.  However, there are times when creating, or
modifying, a file on your PC and then transferring it to Pilot is
just to labor intensive.  If you only have a short amount of
editing, such as modifying your .mminit file, it might be easier
to use EMACS.  This lesson will introduce only enough commands to
let you kludge your way through an EMACS session.

     The full keystroke documentation for the editor is available
as file emacs.chart in directory /usr/doc.  At the pilot % prompt
enter "cd /usr/doc".  At the pilot % prompt enter "more
emacs.chart" to display the file or you may enter Kermit and
transfer it to your PC.  After finishing with the documentation
directory enter "cd" with no argument and you will be returned to
your home directory.

EMACS Conventions

     EMACS commands typically involve the use of a control key,
frequently labeled CTRL or Ctrl on your PC keyboard.  The
following shorthand notations will be used for this discussion.
^<chr> will indicate that you press the Ctrl key and while
holding it down press the <chr> key.  ^x means to press the Ctrl
key and then press the x key while holding down the Ctrl key.
EMACS also uses a meta key which is not defined on a PC.  m<chr>
means hold down the meta key and while holding it down press the
<chr> key.  Since there is no meta key on the PC an instruction
such as m-d would require that you press the Esc key, release it,
press the m key and release it, press the Esc key again, release
it and finally press the d key.  I said it would be a Kludge!

     One last note.  The sequence ^x^s is supposed to save a
file.  Every time I have tried it my session has hung.  Entering
^x^c exits EMACS but it will first prompt you asking if you want
to save the modified file.  This gets around the problem.  ^z
aborts the entire session.

     To start a session enter emacs <file-name> at the % prompt.

EMACS Commands

^x^c emit emacs                 ^x^f find (load) a file
^b move backward a character    ^f move forward a character
m-b move backward a word        m-f move forward a word
^n move to next line            ^move to previous line
^a move to beginning of line    ^e move end of line
^d kill (delete) character at cursor
^k kill (delete) from cursor position to end of line.
     To delete entire line cursor must be at start of line and
enter the ^k command twice.
^y restore last deleted line    ^v go to next screen
m-v go to previous screen       ^i repaint screen
^s forward search.
     Slowly, one letter at a time, type the target word.
^r reverse search
m-d move back to beginning of sentence
m-e move forward to beginning of sentence
m-k kill (delete) to the end of current sentence
m-< go to beginning of file     m-> go to beginning of file