Emacs
Emacs is a tinkerer's editor. Plain and simple. People who hack on Emacs do it because almost every facet of it is extensible. It is the original extensible, customizable, self-documenting editor. (…)
Emacs pulls you in. Once you start using Emacs for the editing, you realize that using Emacs for IrC, email, database access, organizing your thoughts, command-line shells, compiling your code or surfing the Internet is just as easy as editing text - and you get to keep your key bindings, theme and all the power of Emacs and elisp to configure or alter the behavior of everything.
Terminology
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
buffer |
A buffer of text usually containing the contents of a file, but possibly interactive in a useful way (like a command prompt). |
region |
A selection of text in the current buffer, in other words "the selected region" |
cursor |
The location of the text cursor in the buffer, also called the "point" |
frame |
The entire Emacs window in terms of the operating system’s desktop environment |
window |
A viewable area inside of the Emacs frame |
minibuffer |
The prompt that shows up at the bottom of the Emacs frame when you perform certain actions like opening files or executing commands by name |
echo area |
A status area at the very bottom of the Emacs frame that displays messages when certain actions occur |
Basic Key Bindings
Opening and Saving Files
| Action | Keybinding |
|---|---|
| Open a file | C-x C-f |
| Save the current buffer | C-x C-s |
Default Movement and Editing
Basic Window Management
| Action | Keybinding |
|---|---|
| Split window horizontally | C-x 2 |
| Split window vertically | C-x 3 |
| Close all current windows | C-x 0 |
| Close all other windows | C-x 1 |
| Switch to the next visible window | C-x o |
References:
Petersen, Mickey. 2022. Mastering Emacs. Emacs 29 Edition. Mickey Petersen. https://www.masteringemacs.org/book.