Debra Cameron - Learning GNU Emacs, 3rd Edition

Installing Ispell on Windows can be tricky. Emacs 20 and beyond includes features like Flyspell and earlier versions of Ispell won't handle that functionality. Many Windows users do not compile their own software, and even if they did, the very newest Ispell also doesn't work with Emacs.

We found the version we describe here in a post by Raymond Zeitler (http://lists.nongnu.org/archive/html/help-emacs-windows/2004-06/msg00023.html), and we thank him heartily for it. The only downside to this version is that it is designed for English speakers. It may well work with other languages, but you'd have to find the .hash file appropriate for your language.

The first step is to download a Windows binary of Ispell 3.1.20. [96]

Open a command window. On Windows XP, you open it using Start → Run, then typing commandand clicking OK.

Create a temporary directory and move there (you can substitute another name for tmp ).

C:\> mkdir tmp

C:\> cd tmp

FTP to gatekeeper.dec.com.

C:\tmp> ftp gatekeeper.dec.com

Type anonymous as your username and your email address as your password.

Move to the /pub/GNU/windows/emacs/contrib directory.

C:\tmp> cd /pub/GNU/windows/emacs/contrib

Type binto change to binary mode.

C:\tmp> bin

Download ispell.zip .

C:\tmp> get ispell.zip

Type byeto close your ftp session, then exitto close the MS-DOS window.

Unzip the archive with WinZip or Windows' own decompression utility. We need to move a few files around to make Ispell work properly with Emacs.

Move ispell.exe to Emacs' bin folder. For example, if you called the folder where you installed Emacs nqmacs , you would place the file in nqmacs\bin .

Move english.hash to your home directory (either C: or the one you defined earlier as the location for your .emacs file). Now copy english.hash to american.hash (both files must exist for Ispell to work properly). We suspect but cannot verify that this would not be necessary for users of systems expecting British English dictionaries.

There's a lot more to the world of Emacs in Windows. We encourage you to check out the frequently asked questions and documentation available online at http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/windows/.

Emacs has the most comprehensive help facility of any text editor—and one of the best such facilities of any program at all. In fact, the Emacs help facilities probably cut down the time it took for us to write this book by an order of magnitude, and they can help you immeasurably in your ongoing quest to learn more about Emacs.

In this chapter, we describe Emacs help in the following areas:

• The tutorial.

• The help key ( C-h) and Help menu, which allow you to get help on a wide variety of topics.

• The help facilities of complex commands like query-replaceand dired.

• Navigating Emacs manuals and using the infodocumentation reader.

• Completion , in which Emacs helps you finish typing names of functions, variables, filenames, and more. Completion not only saves you time and helps you complete names of functions you know about but can help you discover new commands and variables.

If you are just starting out with Emacs, check out the tutorial by typing C-h t(for help-with-tutorial), which deletes all extra windows (leaving just one) and starts up a learn-by-doing tutorial. Actually, it displays a file called TUTORIAL in the window. The tutorial is currently available in 21 languages. The tutorial provides an introduction to the following Emacs features:

• Basic cursor motion

• Delete and yank

• Visiting and saving files

• Buffers

• Text and auto-fill modes

• Incremental search

• Basic help commands

You might want to use the tutorial along with Chapter 1 Chapter 1. Emacs Basics Some of you out there are probably dying to get your hands on the keyboard and start typing. We won't try to stop you; turn to the section called "Starting Emacs" and you can go ahead. But do read the beginning of this chapter later when you're ready for a break. Emacs is much easier to learn if you understand some of the basic concepts involved, which we discuss in the following introduction. and Chapter 2. The tutorial is helpful, but of necessity it covers only the most basic information.

Emacs has many help commands, which are available as standard Emacs commands or as options to the C-hhelp key. They can be used to find information about commands, keystrokes, variables, modes, and various things about Emacs in general. The most basic help command is C-h C-h( help-for-help). C-h ?also invokes help-for-help. This command causes Emacs to open a *Help*buffer in a window with descriptions of all the help commands. You can type any one of these help keys, or, if you press Space, the *Help*window scrolls down as if you pressed C-v. Any other key aborts the whole process. If you scroll to the bottom of the help documentation, you can type a help key or any other key to abort.

The keys listed in the *Help*are those that, when appended to your help key, run Emacs help commands at any time. Help commands fall into two general categories: those that provide answers to specific questions and those that give general information about Emacs.

You will find the help commands in the former category to be invaluable after you have become comfortable with Emacs. Because it is so large and functionally rich, there will be times when you need to look up a detail such as a keystroke or command name or when you need to do something with Emacs that you don't know exactly how to do. As we've repeated again and again throughout this book, Emacs probably does what you want; you just need to figure out how. The help commands let you find these things out immediately, without leaving Emacs and without being a slave to your reference manual (or even this book).

Let's start with the help commands that are useful when you need to look up a specific detail. You'll probably use the commands listed in Table 14-1most often.

Table 14-1. Detail information help commands

What if you press the wrong key, and something happens to your buffer—but you're not sure what? Usually, the safest thing to do is to press C-_or C-x u( undo). But sometimes this command won't help, for example, a runaway replace-string. If you remember what you typed, you can use C-h c(for describe-key-briefly) to see what command was run; just retype the offending keystroke(s) at the prompt, and Emacs responds with the name of the command bound to the key(s) in the minibuffer. If the command name alone doesn't help, C-h k(for describe-key) pops up a *Help*window with a description of the command as well as its name and key binding. ( C-h kand C-h calso help you find out what command a toolbar icon or menu item runs.)