Learning GNU Emacs: A Guide to Unix Text Processing

by Debra Cameron, James Elliott, Marc Loy, Eric Raymond, Bill Rosenblatt

Overview

GNU Emacs is the most popular and widespread of the Emacs family of editors. It is also the most powerful and flexible. Unlike all other text editors, GNU Emacs is a complete working environment—you can stay within Emacs all day without leaving. Learning GNU Emacs, 3rd Edition tells readers how to get started with the GNU Emacs editor. It is a thorough guide that will also "grow" with you: as you become more proficient, this book will help you learn how to use Emacs more effectively. It takes you from basic Emacs usage (simple text editing) to moderately complicated customization and programming. The third edition of Learning GNU Emacs describes Emacs 21.3 from the ground up, including new user interface features such as an icon-based toolbar and an interactive interface to Emacs customization. A new chapter details how to install and run Emacs on Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux, including tips for using Emacs effectively on those platforms. Learning GNU Emacs, third edition, covers:

• How to edit files with Emacs
• Using the operating system shell through Emacs
• How to use multiple buffers, windows, and frames
• Customizing Emacs interactively and through startup files
• Writing macros to circumvent repetitious tasks
• Emacs as a programming environment for Java, C++, and Perl, among others
• Using Emacs as an integrated development environment (IDE)
• Integrating Emacs with CVS, Subversion and other change control systems for projects with multiple developers
• Writing HTML, XHTML, and XML with Emacs
• The basics of Emacs Lisp

The book is aimed at new Emacs users, whether or not they are programmers. Also useful for readers switching from other Emacs implementations to GNU Emacs.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780596006488
Publisher:	O'Reilly Media, Incorporated
Publication date:	12/28/2004
Edition description:	Third Edition
Pages:	534
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 9.19(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Debra Cameron is president of Cameron Consulting. In addition to her love for Emacs, Deb researches and writes about emerging technologies and their applications. Her latest book, Optical Networking: A Wiley Tech Brief, published in 2002 by John Wiley & Sons, covers the practical applications of optical networking and was written in the hope that true broadband will be more widely deployed. Deb also edits OReilly titles, including DNS and Bind, DNS on Windows 2000, TCP/IP Network Administration, HTML and XHTML: The Definitive Guide, Java Security, Java Swing, Learning Java, and Java Performance Tuning. She has presented numerous videos for WatchIT.com, covering security and networking as well as e-business topics. She has moderated roundtables on PlanetIT on advanced networking and intranet design. Deb resides in Gaithersburg, Maryland with her husband Jim and their three children, Meg, David, and Bethany.

James Elliott is a senior software engineer at Singlewire Software, with two decades of professional experience as a systems developer. He started designing with objects well before work environments made it convenient, and has a passion for building high-quality Java tools and frameworks to simplify the tasks of other developers.

Marc Loy is a trainer and media specialist in Cincinnati, OH. When he's not working with digital video and DVDs, he's programming in Java-land. (In the interest of full disclosure, he does vacation in Ruby-world.) He can still be found teaching the odd Perl and Java course out in Corporate America, but even on the road he'll have his MacBook Pro and a video project with him.

Eric Raymond is an Open Source evangelist and author of the highly influential paper "The Cathedral and the Bazaar".

Bill Rosenblatt is president of GiantSteps/Media Technology Strategies, a consulting firm in New York City. Before founding GiantSteps, Bill was CTO of Fathom, an online content and education company associated with Columbia Universityand other scholarly institutions. He has been a technology executive at McGraw-Hill and Times Mirror, and head of strategic marketing for media and publishing at Sun Microsystems. Bill was also one of the architects of the Digital Object Identifier (DOI), a standard for online content identification and DRM.

Table of Contents

• Preface
• Chapter 1: Emacs Basics
• Chapter 2: Editing
• Chapter 3: Search and Replace
• Chapter 4: Using Buffers, Windows, and Frames
• Chapter 5: Emacs as a Work Environment
• Chapter 6: Writing Macros
• Chapter 7: Simple Text Formatting and Specialized Editing
• Chapter 8: Markup Language Support
• Chapter 9: Computer Language Support
• Chapter 10: Customizing Emacs
• Chapter 11: Emacs Lisp Programming
• Chapter 12: Version Control
• Chapter 13: Platform-Specific Considerations
• Chapter 14: The Help System
• Appendix A: Emacs Variables
• Appendix B: Emacs Lisp Packages
• Appendix C: Bugs and Bug Fixes
• Appendix D: Online Resources
• Appendix E: Quick Reference
• Colophon

Editorial Reviews

Unlike other text editors, GNU Emacs is a complete working environment--you can stay within Emacs all day without leaving. The book is aimed at new users, whether or not they are programmers. Covers Version 18.57. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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