This is Info file ../info/emacs, produced by Makeinfo-1.64 from the input file ../texi/emacs.texi. This is the thirteenth edition of the `GNU Emacs Manual', updated for Emacs version 20.3 Editors * Emacs: (emacs). The extensible self-documenting text editor. Published by the Free Software Foundation 59 Temple Place, Suite 330 Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA Copyright (C) 1985, 1986, 1987, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998 Free Software Foundation, Inc. Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies. Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided also that the sections entitled "The GNU Manifesto", "Distribution" and "GNU General Public License" are included exactly as in the original, and provided that the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a permission notice identical to this one. Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this manual into another language, under the above conditions for modified versions, except that the sections entitled "The GNU Manifesto", "Distribution" and "GNU General Public License" may be included in a translation approved by the Free Software Foundation instead of in the original English. ifinfo  File: emacs, Node: Acknowledgments, Next: Screen, Prev: Concept Index, Up: Top Acknowledgments *************** Many people have contributed code included in the Free Software Foundation's distribution of GNU Emacs. To show our appreciation for their public spirit, we list here those who have written substantial portions. * Per Abrahamsen wrote the customization buffer facilities, as well as `double.el' for typing accented characters not normally available from the keyboard, `xt-mouse.el' which handles mouse commands through Xterm, and `cpp.el' which hides or highlights parts of C programs according to preprocessor conditionals. * Jay K. Adams wrote `jka-compr.el', providing automatic decompression and recompression for compressed files. * Joe Arceneaux wrote the original text property implementation, and implemented support for X11. * Boaz Ben-Zvi wrote `profile.el', to time Emacs Lisp functions. * Jim Blandy wrote Emacs 19's input system, brought its configuration and build process up to the GNU coding standards, and contributed to the frame support and multi-face support. * Terrence M. Brannon wrote `landmark.el', a neural-network robot that learns landmarks. * Frank Bresz wrote `diff.el', a program to display `diff' output. * Peter Breton implemented `dirtrack' which does better tracking of directory changes in shell buffers, `filecache.el' which records which directories your files are in, and `locate.el' which interfaces to the `locate' command. * Kevin Broadey wrote `foldout.el', providing folding extensions to Emacs's outline modes. * Vincent Broman wrote `ada.el', a mode for editing Ada code (since replaced by `ada-mode.el'). * David M. Brown wrote `array.el', for editing arrays and other tabular data. * Hans Chalupsky wrote `advice.el', an overloading mechanism for Emacs Lisp functions, and `trace.el', a tracing facility for Emacs Lisp. * Bob Chassell wrote `texnfo-upd.el' and `makeinfo.el', modes and utilities for working with Texinfo files. * James Clark wrote `sgml-mode.el', a mode for editing SGML documents, and contributed to Emacs's dumping procedures. * Mike Clarkson wrote `edt.el', an emulation of DEC's EDT editor. * Andrew Csillag wrote M4 mode (`m4-mode.el'). * Doug Cutting and Jamie Zawinski wrote `disass.el', a disassembler for compiled Emacs Lisp code. * Michael DeCorte wrote `emacs.csh', a C-shell script that starts a new Emacs job, or restarts a paused Emacs if one exists. * Gary Delp wrote `mailpost.el', an interface between RMAIL and the `/usr/uci/post' mailer. * Matthieu Devin wrote `delsel.el', a package to make newly-typed text replace the current selection. * Eric Ding contributed `goto-addr.el', * Carsten Dominik wrote `reftex.el', a package for setting up labels and cross-references for LaTeX. * Scott Draves wrote `tq.el', help functions for maintaining transaction queues between Emacs and its subprocesses. * Viktor Dukhovni wrote support for dumping under SunOS version 4. * John Eaton co-wrote Octave mode (`octave.el' and related files). * Rolf Ebert co-wrote Ada mode (`ada-mode.el'). * Stephen Eglen implemented `mspools.el', for use with Procmail, which tells you which mail folders have mail waiting in them, and `iswitchb.el', a feature for incremental reading and completion of buffer names. * Torbj Einarsson contributed F90 mode (`f90.el'). * Tsugutomo Enami co-wrote the support for international character sets. * Hans Henrik Eriksen wrote `simula.el', a mode for editing SIMULA 87 code. * Michael Ernst wrote `reposition.el', a command for recentering a function's source code and preceding comment on the screen. * Ata Etemadi wrote `cdl.el', functions for working with Common Data Language source code. * Frederick Farnback implemented `morse.el', which converts text to morse code. * Fred Fish wrote the support for dumping COFF executable files. * Karl Fogel wrote: * `bookmark.el', for creating named placeholders, saving them and jumping to them later, * `mail-hist.el', a history mechanism for outgoing mail messages, and * `saveplace.el', for preserving point's location in files between editing sessions. * Gary Foster wrote the emulation for CRiSP: `crisp.el' and `scroll-lock.el'. * Noah Friedman wrote `rlogin.el', an interface to Rlogin, and `type-break.el', which reminds you to take periodic breaks from typing. With Roland McGrath, he wrote `rsz-mini.el', a minor mode to automatically resize the minibuffer to fit the text it contains. * Keith Gabryelski wrote `hexl.el', a mode for editing binary files. * Kevin Gallagher rewrote and enhanced the EDT emulation, and wrote `flow-ctrl.el', a package for coping with unsuppressible XON/XOFF flow control. * Kevin Gallo added multiple-frame support for Windows NT. * Howard Gayle wrote: * the C and lisp code for display tables and case tables, * `rot13.el', a command to display the plaintext form of a buffer encoded with the Caesar cipher, * much of the support for the ISO-8859 European character set (which includes `iso-ascii.el', `iso-insert.el', `iso-swed.el', `iso-syntax.el', `iso-transl.el', and `swedish.el'), and * `vt100-led.el', a package for controlling the LED's on VT100-compatible terminals. * Stephen Gildea made the Emacs quick reference card. * David Gillespie wrote: * Emacs 19's Common Lisp compatibility packages, replacing the old package by Cesar Augusto Quiroz Gonzalez, * `complete.el', a partial completion mechanism, and * `edmacro.el', a package for editing keyboard macros. * Boris Goldowsky wrote `avoid.el', a package to keep the mouse cursor out of the way of the text cursor; `shadowfile.el', a package for keeping identical copies of files in more than one place; `enriched.el', a package for saving text properties in files; and `facemenu.el', a package for specifying faces. * Michelangelo Grigni wrote `ffap.el' which visits a file, taking the file name from the buffer. * Odd Gripenstam wrote `dcl-mode.el'. * Michael Gschwind wrote `iso-cvt.el', a package to convert between the ISO 8859-1 character set and the notations for non-`ASCII' characters used by TeX and net tradition. * Henry Guillaume wrote `find-file.el', a package to visit files related to the currently visited file. * Doug Gwyn wrote the portable `alloca' implementation. * Ken'ichi Handa implemented most of the support for international character sets. * Chris Hanson wrote `netuname.el', a package to use HP-UX's Remote File Access facility from Emacs. * K. Shane Hartman wrote: * `chistory.el' and `echistory.el', packages for browsing command history lists, * `electric.el' and `helper.el', providing an alternative command loop and appropriate help facilities, * `emacsbug.el', a package for reporting Emacs bugs, * `picture.el', a mode for editing ASCII pictures, and * `view.el', a package for perusing files and buffers without editing them. * John Heidemann wrote `mouse-copy.el' and `mouse-drag.el', which provide alternative mouse-based editing and scrolling features. * Markus Heritsch co-wrote Ada mode (`ada-mode.el'). * Karl Heuer wrote the original blessmail script, implemented the `intangible' text property, and rearranged the structure of the `Lisp_Object' type to allow for more data bits. * Manabu Higashida ported Emacs to the MS-DOS operating system. * Anders Holst wrote `hippie-exp.el', a versatile completion and expansion package. * Kurt Hornik co-wrote Octave mode (`octave.el' and related files). * Tom Houlder wrote `mantemp.el', which generates manual C++ template instantiations. * Lars Ingebrigtsen did a major redesign of the GNUS newsreader. * Andrew Innes contributed extensively to the Windows NT support. * Kyle Jones wrote `life.el', a package to play Conway's "life" game, and `mldrag.el', a package which allows the user to resize windows by dragging mode lines and vertical window separators with the mouse. * Tomoji Kagatani implemented `smtpmail.el', used for sending out mail with SMTP. * David Kaufman wrote `yow.c', an essential utility program for the hopelessly pinheaded. * Henry Kautz wrote `bib-mode.el', a mode for maintaining bibliography databases compatible with `refer' (the `troff' version) and `lookbib', and `refbib.el', a package to convert those databases to the format used by the LaTeX text formatting package. * Howard Kaye wrote `sort.el', commands to sort text in Emacs buffers. * Michael Kifer wrote `ediff.el', an interactive interface to the `diff' and `patch' programs, and Viper, the newest emulation for VI. * Richard King wrote the first version of `userlock.el' and `filelock.c', which provide simple support for multiple users editing the same file. * Larry K. Kolodney wrote `cvtmail.c', a program to convert the mail directories used by Gosling Emacs into RMAIL format. * Robert Krawitz wrote the original `xmenu.c', part of Emacs's pop-up menu support. * Sebastian Kremer wrote Emacs 19's `dired-mode', with contributions by Lawrence R. Dodd. * Geoff Kuenning wrote Emacs 19's `ispell.el', based on work by Ken Stevens and others. * David Kagedal wrote `tempo.el', providing support for easy insertion of boilerplate text and other common constructions. * Daniel LaLiberte wrote: * `edebug.el', a source-level debugger for Emacs Lisp, * `cl-specs.el', specifications to help `edebug' debug code written using David Gillespie's Common Lisp support, * `cust-print.el', a customizable package for printing lisp objects, * `eval-reg.el', a re-implementation of `eval-region' in Emacs Lisp, and * `isearch.el', Emacs 19's incremental search minor mode. * James R. Larus wrote `mh-e.el', an interface to the MH mail system. * Frederic Lepied contributed `expand.el', which uses the abbrev mechanism for inserting programming constructs. * Lars Lindberg wrote `msb.el', which provides more flexible menus for buffer selection, and rewrote `dabbrev.el'. * Neil M. Mager wrote `appt.el', functions to notify users of their appointments. It finds appointments recorded in the diary files generated by Edward M. Reingold's `calendar' package. * Ken Manheimer wrote `allout.el', a mode for manipulating and formatting outlines, and `icomplete.el', which provides incremental completion feedback in the minibuffer. * Bill Mann wrote `perl-mode.el', a mode for editing Perl code. * Brian Marick and Daniel LaLiberte wrote `hideif.el', support for hiding selected code within C `#ifdef' clauses. * Simon Marshall wrote: * `fast-lock.el', which caches the face data computed by Font Lock mode, * `lazy-lock.el', which delays fontification in Font Lock mode until text is actually displayed, and * `regexp-opt.el', which generates a regular expression from a list of strings. * Bengt Martensson, Mark Shapiro, Mike Newton, Aaron Larson, and Stefan Schoef, wrote `bibtex.el', a mode for editing BibTeX bibliography files. * Charlie Martin wrote `autoinsert.el', which provides automatic mode-sensitive insertion of text into new files. * Thomas May wrote `blackbox.el', a version of the traditional blackbox game. * Roland McGrath wrote: * `compile.el', a package for running compilations in a buffer, and then visiting the locations reported in error messages, * `etags.el', a package for jumping to function definitions and searching or replacing in all the files mentioned in a `TAGS' file, * `find-dired.el', for using `dired' commands on output from the `find' program, with Sebastian Kremer, * `map-ynp.el', a general purpose boolean question-asker, * `autoload.el', providing semi-automatic maintenance of autoload files, and * `upd-copyr.el', providing semi-automatic maintenance of copyright notices in source code. * David Megginson wrote `derived.el', which allows one to define new major modes by inheriting key bindings and commands from existing major modes. * Wayne Mesard wrote `hscroll.el' which does horizontal scrolling automatically. * Richard Mlynarik wrote: * `cl-indent.el', a package for indenting Common Lisp code, * `ebuff-menu.el', an "electric" browser for buffer listings, * `ehelp.el', bindings for browsing help screens, * `rfc822.el', a parser for E-mail addresses in the RFC-822 format, used in mail messages and news articles, * `terminal.el', a terminal emulator for Emacs subprocesses, and * `yow.el', an essential utility (try `M-x yow'). * Keith Moore wrote `aixcc.lex', a pre-processor designed to help Emacs parse the error messages produced by the AIX C compiler. * Erik Naggum wrote the time-conversion functions, and has tested the latest source code daily. * Thomas Neumann and Eric Raymond wrote `makefile.el', a mode for editing makefiles. * Jurgen Nickelsen wrote `ws-mode.el', providing WordStar emulation. * Jeff Norden wrote `kermit.el', a package to help the Kermit dialup communications program run comfortably in an Emacs shell buffer. * Andrew Norman wrote `ange-ftp.el', providing transparent FTP support. * Jeff Peck wrote: * `emacstool.c', support for running Emacs under SunView/Sun Windows, * `sun-curs.el', cursor definitions for Sun Windows, and * `sun-fns.el', providing mouse support for Sun Windows. * Damon Anton Permezel wrote `hanoi.el', an animated demonstration of the "Towers of Hanoi" puzzle. * Daniel Pfeiffer wrote: * `executable.el' * `sh-script.el', a mode for editing shell scripts, * `skeleton.el', implementing a concise language for writing statement skeletons, and * `two-column.el', a minor mode for simultaneous two-column editing. * Fred Pierresteguy and Paul Reilly made Emacs work with X Toolkit widgets. * Christian Plaunt wrote `soundex.el', an implementation of the Soundex algorithm for comparing English words by their pronunciation. * Francesco A. Potorti wrote `cmacexp.el', providing a command which runs the C preprocessor on a region of a file and displays the results. * Michael D. Prange and Steven A. Wood wrote `fortran.el', a mode for editing FORTRAN code. * Ashwin Ram wrote `refer.el', commands to look up references in bibliography files by keyword. * Eric S. Raymond wrote: * `vc.el', an interface to the RCS and SCCS source code version control systems, with Paul Eggert, * `gud.el', a package for running source-level debuggers like GDB and SDB in Emacs, * `asm-mode.el', a mode for editing assembly language code, * `cookie1.el', support for "fortune-cookie" programs like `yow.el' and `spook.el', * `finder.el', a package for finding Emacs Lisp packages by keyword and topic, * `lisp-mnt.el', functions for working with the special headers used in Emacs Lisp library files, and * code to set and make use of the `load-history' lisp variable, which records the source file from which each lisp function loaded into Emacs came. * Edward M. Reingold wrote the extensive calendar and diary support (try `M-x calendar'), with contributions from Stewart Clamen, Paul Eggert, and Lara Rios. Andy Oram contributed to its documentation. Reingold has also contributed to `tex-mode.el', a mode for editing TeX files, as have William F. Schelter, Dick King, Stephen Gildea, Michael Prange, and Jacob Gore. * Rob Riepel contributed `tpu-edt.el' and its associated files, providing an emulation of the VMS TPU text editor emulating the VMS EDT editor, and `vt-control.el', providing some control functions for the DEC VT line of terminals. * Roland B. Roberts contributed much of the VMS support distributed with Emacs 19, along with Joseph M. Kelsey, and `vms-pmail.el', support for using Emacs within VMS MAIL. * John Robinson wrote `bg-mouse.el', support for the mouse on the BBN Bitgraph terminal. * Danny Roozendaal implemented `handwrite.el', which converts text into "handwriting." * William Rosenblatt wrote `float.el', implementing a floating-point numeric type using Lisp cons cells and integers. * Guillermo J. Rozas wrote `scheme.el', a mode for editing Scheme code, and `fakemail.c', an interface to the System V mailer. * Ivar Rummelhoff provided `winner.el', which records recent window configurations so you can move back to them. * Wolfgang Rupprecht contributed Emacs 19's floating-point support (including `float-sup.el' and `floatfns.c'), and `sup-mouse.el', support for the Supdup mouse on lisp machines. * James B. Salem and Brewster Kahle wrote `completion.el', providing dynamic word completion. * Masahiko Sato wrote `vip.el', an emulation of the VI editor. * William Schelter wrote `telnet.el', support for `telnet' sessions within Emacs. * Ralph Schleicher contributed `battery.el', a package for displaying laptop computer battery status, and `info-look.el', a package for looking up Info documentation for symbols in the buffer. * Gregor Schmid wrote `tcl.el', a mode for editing Tcl/Tk scripts. * Michael Schmidt and Tom Perrine wrote `modula2.el', a mode for editing Modula-2 code, based on work by Mick Jordan and Peter Robinson. * Ronald S. Schnell wrote `dunnet.el', a text adventure game. * Philippe Schnoebelen wrote `gomoku.el', a Go Moku game played against Emacs, and `mpuz.el', a multiplication puzzle. * Randal Schwartz wrote `pp.el', a pretty-printer for lisp objects. * Stanislav Shalunov wrote `uce.el', for responding to unsolicited commercial email. * Olin Shivers wrote: * `comint.el', a library for modes running interactive command-line- oriented subprocesses, * `cmuscheme.el', for running inferior Scheme processes, * `inf-lisp.el', for running inferior Lisp process, and * `shell.el', for running inferior shells. * Sam Shteingold wrote `gulp.el'. * Espen Skoglund wrote `pascal.el', a mode for editing Pascal code. * Rick Sladkey wrote `backquote.el', a lisp macro for creating mostly-constant data. * Lynn Slater wrote `help-macro.el', a macro for writing interactive help for key bindings. * Chris Smith wrote `icon.el', a mode for editing Icon code. * David Smith wrote `ielm.el', a mode for interacting with the Emacs Lisp interpreter as a subprocess. * William Sommerfeld wrote `scribe.el', a mode for editing Scribe files, and `server.el', a package allowing programs to send files to an extant Emacs job to be edited. * Michael Staats wrote `pc-select.el', which rebinds keys for selecting regions to follow many other systems. * Ake Stenhoff and Lars Lindberg wrote `imenu.el', a framework for browsing indices made from buffer contents. * Peter Stephenson contributed `vcursor.el', which implements a "virtual cursor" that you can move with the keyboard and use for copying text. * Jonathan Stigelman wrote `hilit19.el', a package providing automatic highlighting in source code buffers, mail readers, and other contexts. * Steve Strassman did not write `spook.el', and even if he did, he really didn't mean for you to use it in an anarchistic way. * Jens T. Berger Thielemann wrote `word-help.el', which is part of the basis for `info-look.el'. * Spencer Thomas wrote the original `dabbrev.el', providing a command which completes the partial word before point, based on other nearby words for which it is a prefix. He also wrote the original dumping support. * Jim Thompson wrote `ps-print.el', which converts Emacs text to Postscript. * Masanobu Umeda wrote: * GNUS, a featureful reader for Usenet news, * `prolog.el', a mode for editing Prolog code, * `rmailsort.el', a package for sorting messages in RMAIL folders, * `metamail.el', an interface to the Metamail program, * `tcp.el', emulation of the `open-network-stream' function for some Emacs configurations which lack it, and * `timezone.el', providing functions for dealing with time zones. * Neil W. Van Dyke wrote `webjump.el', a "hot links" package. * Ulrik Vieth implemented `meta-mode.el', for editing MetaFont code. * Geoffrey Voelker wrote the Windows NT support. * Johan Vromans wrote `forms.el' and its associated files, defining a mode for filling in forms, and `iso-acc.el', a minor mode providing electric accent keys for text using the ISO-8859 character set. * Barry Warsaw wrote: * `assoc.el', a set of utility functions for working with association lists, * `cc-mode.el', a major mode for editing C and C++ code, based on earlier work by Dave Detlefs, Stewart Clamen, and Richard Stallman, * `elp.el', a new profiler for Emacs Lisp programs. * `man.el', a mode for reading UNIX manual pages, * `regi.el', providing an AWK-like control structure for use in lisp programs, and * `reporter.el', providing customizable bug reporting for lisp packages. * `supercite.el', a minor mode for quoting sections of mail messages and news articles, * Morten Welinder wrote: * `desktop.el', facilities for saving some of Emacs's state between sessions, * `s-region.el', commands for setting the region using the shift key and motion commands, and * `dos-fns.el', functions for use under MS-DOS. He also helped port Emacs to MS-DOS. * Joseph Brian Wells wrote: * `apropos.el', a command to find commands, functions, and variables whose names contain matches for a regular expression, * `resume.el', support for processing command-line arguments after resuming a suspended Emacs job, and * `mail-extr.el', a package for extracting names and addresses from mail headers, with contributions from Jamie Zawinski. * Ed Wilkinson wrote `b2m.c', a program to convert mail files from RMAIL format to Unix `mbox' format. * Mike Williams wrote `mouse-sel.el', providing enhanced mouse selection, and `thingatpt.el', a library of functions for finding the "thing" (word, line, s-expression) containing point. * Dale R. Worley wrote `emerge.el', a package for interactively merging two versions of a file. * Tom Wurgler wrote `emacs-lock.el', which makes it harder to exit with valuable buffers unsaved. * Eli Zaretskii made many standard Emacs features work on MS-DOS. * Jamie Zawinski wrote: * Emacs 19's optimizing byte compiler, with Hallvard Furuseth, * much of the support for faces and X selections, * `mailabbrev.el', a package providing automatic expansion of mail aliases, and * `tar-mode.el', providing simple viewing and editing commands for tar files. * Neal Ziring and Felix S. T. Wu wrote `vi.el', an emulation of the VI text editor. Others too numerous to mention have reported and fixed bugs, and added features to many parts of Emacs. We thank them for their generosity as well. This list intended to mention every contributor of a major package or feature we currently distribute; if you know of someone we have omitted, please report that as a manual bug.