eintr: On Reading this Text
On Reading this Text
====================
All through this document, you will see little sample programs you can
run inside of Emacs. If you read this document in Info inside of GNU
Emacs, you can run the programs as they appear. (This is easy to do and
is explained when the examples are presented.) Alternatively, you can
read this introduction as a printed book while sitting beside a computer
running Emacs. (This is what I like to do; I like printed books.) If
you don’t have a running Emacs beside you, you can still read this book,
but in this case, it is best to treat it as a novel or as a travel guide
to a country not yet visited: interesting, but not the same as being
there.
Much of this introduction is dedicated to walkthroughs or guided
tours of code used in GNU Emacs. These tours are designed for two
purposes: first, to give you familiarity with real, working code (code
you use every day); and, second, to give you familiarity with the way
Emacs works. It is interesting to see how a working environment is
implemented. Also, I hope that you will pick up the habit of browsing
through source code. You can learn from it and mine it for ideas.
Having GNU Emacs is like having a dragon’s cave of treasures.
In addition to learning about Emacs as an editor and Emacs Lisp as a
programming language, the examples and guided tours will give you an
opportunity to get acquainted with Emacs as a Lisp programming
environment. GNU Emacs supports programming and provides tools that you
will want to become comfortable using, such as ‘M-.’ (the key which
invokes the ‘find-tag’ command). You will also learn about buffers and
other objects that are part of the environment. Learning about these
features of Emacs is like learning new routes around your home town.
Finally, I hope to convey some of the skills for using Emacs to learn
aspects of programming that you don’t know. You can often use Emacs to
help you understand what puzzles you or to find out how to do something
new. This self-reliance is not only a pleasure, but an advantage.
Info Catalog
eintr: Why
eintr: Preface
eintr: Who You Are