HP UX SoftBench Software manual Editing with SoftBench XEmacs Editor, 122

Using SoftBench Editors

Editing with SoftBench XEmacs Editor

Editing with SoftBench XEmacs Editor

SoftBench XEmacs is an advanced GUI editor with features that go beyond a typical text editor or vi. SoftBench XEmacs is built on GNU XEmacs . In addition to having pulldown menus and a toolbar, SoftBench XEmacs is self–documenting, customizable, and extensible. Self–documenting means that any time you type Control–Hto find out what your options are, you can also type a special character string to find out what a command does. In addition, you can find commands relevant to a particular topic. Customizable means you can change the definitions of SoftBench XEmacs commands to suit your individual needs. Extensible means you can go beyond simple customization and write entirely new commands using the Lisp programming language.

Before starting SoftBench XEmacs, you should be familiar with how SoftBench XEmacs uses buffers, files, windows, and frames.

•Buffers–A buffer holds characters in a region of memory. As the basic editing unit, one buffer corresponds to one piece of text being edited. You can have multiple buffers but you can edit only one buffer at any one time.

•Files–SoftBench XEmacs edits a file by reading it into a buffer, editing that buffer, and writing the buffer contents back to the file. To save your work permanently you must write it to a file.

•Windows–You can open multiple windows with multiple buffers and edit them by selecting the corresponding buffer. When you start SoftBench XEmacs, it automatically opens a window for you. From there you can open multiple files in separate buffers. Each buffer can be displayed in a separate window, or displayed on the main window by using the buffer menu.

•Frames–A frame, in the terminology of GNU XEmacs is an X-window complete with menus, toolbars, a message area, and one or more windows.

SoftBench XEmacs documentation consists primarily of online help. You can obtain additional GNU XEmacs user and reference material on the Web at:

http://www.xemacs.org

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