"J. D. Leach"
sbcglobal.net> writes:
> And the winner is...The Joosts, both of them (Kremers and Diepenmaat).
>
> Thanks tremendously. I rather thought that there was some line such as was
> suggested, that could be inserted into the .emacs file, but I have only
> ventured into modifications of that document when I was absolutely certain
> of what I was doing.
One thing you can do to experiment is to write testing code in the
*scratch* buffer and call M-x eval-buffer to run it. Or maybe easier:
type M-x ielm to start an interactive elisp prompt, which will execute
each complete form you enter.
> I think what is throwing me most is the unique terminology and the lisp
> coding style. I mean, where else in the computer field can you yank back
> something after you killed it (I call that resurrection), play with atoms
> and not get radiation sickness, and split your buffers? To the uninitiated
> neophyte, such nomenclature and concepts can defun the learning experience.
The language emacs uses for certain concepts seems mostly strange
because a lot of it was invented before the concepts were widely
used. There are good reasons to keep it the way it is, though.
> I must admit, there have been feeble attempts on my part to learn about
> Emacs in the past, but have heretofore quickly abandoned those attempts due
> to the arcane language and inscrutable key-bindings. I just had not spent
> enough time trying to discern the unique logic of the system. Thankfully,
> my attitude has changed, I just needed to stick with it.
My real appreciation for emacs grew tremendously when I started learing
common lisp, and from there, emacs lisp (which are pretty
similar). Learning the basics of lisp will help you a lot when messing
with emacs - from basic configuring to writing your own extensions.
If you want to get the most out of emacs, I recommend you read at least
a bit of the elisp manual, and/or possibly read a bit of the "practical
common lisp" book, which may be a little gentler, and a lot of which
translates to elisp:
http://gigamonkeys.com/book/
