Emacs Again (6): Learning GNU Emacs Chap 2

Here’s a list of commands I learned from Learning GNU Emacs, Third Edition Chapter 2.

Chpater 2 — Editing

Key Stroke	Command Name	Action
C-x	Control-X-prefix	Try C-h v and type ctl-x-map
M-x	execute-extended-command	Run a function by name. Try C-h f for each specific function name and what it does.
C-f	forward-char	Move point one character right
C-b	backward-char	Move point one characer left
C-p	previous-line	Move point vertically up
C-n	next-line	Move point vertically down
M-f	forward-word	Move point forward by a word
M-b	backward-word	Move point backward by a word
C-a	move-beginning-of-line	Move point to beginning of current line as displayed
C-e	move-end-of-line	Move point to end of current line as displayed
M-a	backward-sentence	Move point backward to start of sentence
M-e	forward-sentence	Move point forward to next "sentence-end". (The variable "sentence-end" is a regular expression)
M-}	forward-paragraph	Move point forward to end of paragraph
M-{	backward-paragraph	Move point backward to start of paragraph
C-x ]	forward-page	Move pointforward to page boundary
C-x [	backward-page	Move point backward to page boundary
C-q	quoted-insert	Read next input character and insert it. This is useful for inserting control characters. For example, if you want to insert \?, you'll type C-q DEL
C-v	scroll-up	Scroll text of current window upward
M-v	scroll-down	Scroll text of current window down
M->	end-of-buffer	Move point to the end of the buffer; leave mark at previous position.
M-<	beginning-of-buffer	Move point to the beginning of the buffer; leave mark at previous position.
M-g M-g	goto-line	Goto line ARG, counting from line 1 at beginning of buffer.
	goto-char	Set point to POSITION, a number or marker.
M-(number)	digit-argument	Repeat following command (number) times. For example: M-3 C-f will move point 3 characters forward.
C-u	universal-argument	Begin a numeric argument for the following command. For example: C-u 9 C-q DEL will insert nine \? at point, C-u 3 C-f will move point 3 chars forward.
C-l	recenter	Center point in window and redisplay frame.
C-d	delete-char	Delete the following character. Defaultly assigned on delete button
M-d	kill-word	Kill characters forward until encountering the end of a word.
M-DEL	backward-kill-word	Kill characters backward until encountering the beginning of a word
C-k	kill-line	Kill the rest of the current line; if no nonblanks there, kill thru newline.
C-y	yank	Reinsert ("paste") the last stretch of killed text.
C-SPC or C-@	set-mark-command	Set the mark where point is, or jump to the mark.
C-x C-x	exchange-point-and-mark	Put the mark where point is now, and point where the mark is now
M-h	mark-paragraph	Put point at beginning of this paragraph, mark at end
C-x h	mark-whole-buffer	Put point at beginning and mark at end of buffer
C-x C-p	mark-page	Put mark at end of page, point at beginning
M-y	yank-pop	After C-y, Rotate Kill Ring. Let's say, you have ['latest', '2nd', '3rd'] as Kill Ring. When you do C-y, Emacs inserts latest at point. Then M-y will change latest to 2nd, and type M-y again, 2nd will be 3rd. M-y again, 3rd will be back to latest.
C-t	transpose-chars	Interchange characters around point, moving forward one character
M-t	transpose-words	Interchange words around point, leaving point at end of them
C-x C-t	transpose-lines	Exchange current line and previous line, leaving point after both
C-g	keyboard-quit	Signal a quit condition.
C-x u	advertised-undo	Undo some previous changes

Notes

Like other editors in Mac/Windows or even in vi… You know, when you start to select characters, background and foreground colors are inverted. In order to visualize where you are selecting (in Emacs way, it should say… make a region by using set-mark command), you have to add the following line in your .emacs.el. I just wonder why this is not default configuration… Anyway.

(setq-default transient-mark-mode t)

I’ve started my unix career with vi, like 1997? Even the first information technology class in my college taught me to use emacs, I liked vi better because, in that class, I think we have around 100 ~ 200 students one class, and all of them were connecting to “Clay Super Computer” with a few giga-bytes of memory space… It was just insane, to use a “memory sucker Emacs” with that terminal.

So, I still, when I did something wrong on editor, I type ESC! ESC! ESC!.. but instead, I should start to do C-g! C-g! C-g!!

Clipboard-Pasetboard interoperability/synchronization doesn’t work in my environment, Mac OS X 10.5 with Terminal Emacs 22.1.

Changing capital, Overwrite and Customization doesn’t seem to be important to me so I skipped it for now.