faq.txt

FAQs(0f)                          microemacs                           FAQs(0f)




FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS - Contact Information 
     This document contains frequently asked questions submitted to JASSPA. Use
     the  E-Mail  reflector  and  associated  logs,  described  in  the Contact
     Information section, alternatively questions may be submitted to:- 

          Email:support@jasspa.com 

     We cannot promise  to resolve all  questions, but will  endeavor to answer
     most. We would also appreciate comments  on how to improve the readability
     of the documentation or  suggestions for improvements  where you think the
     documentation is deficient. 

     [FAQ Index]. 

QUESTION (00) 
     New functionality; what is useful to me as an old MicroEmacs user ?? 

ANSWER 
     There are a  lot of new  features in this  distribution. Assuming that you
     just want to use  the editor (and  have cottoned onto  the fact that there
     are now  scroll bars  etc.) then  the most  frequent commands  that we use
     are:- 

       *  grep(3) - May need to set up in <user>.emf. 
       *  diff(3) - May need to set up in <user>.emf. 
       *  compile(3) - May need to set up in <user>.emf. 
       *  clean(3) - cleans a buffer, removing spaces etc. 
       *  restyle-buffer(3) - Reformats 'C' + known languages. 
       *  spell-buffer(3) - For documentation work, spells the buffer. 
       *  C-s - isearch-forward(2) incremental search. 
       *  C-x u or C-_ - undo(2) undoes edits. 
       *  F10 - file-browser(3) allows the file system to be browsed 

     Other useful macros include:- 

       *  tabs-to-spaces(3) - Good for  sorting out the  mess made by Microsoft
          Developer Studio. 
       *  sort-lines(2) -  Two  versions of  this,  allows marked  lines  to be
          sorted alphabetically. 

     Be wary of:- 

       *  esc-o -  fill-paragraph(2).  The default  mode  is an  automatic mode
          which attempts to guess at the  format required. It works most of the
          time. Also works in 'C'. 

     Most of the other  new features are  in the background,  such as the macro
     processor, indentation  control,  color  hilighting,  indentation control,
     auto-saving etc. 

     [FAQ Index]. 

QUESTION (01) 
     Languages; Are any foreign languages supported other than English ?? 

ANSWER 
     Unfortunately as we started with V3.8 as  a base many years ago, we missed
     the  distribution   with  foreign   language   extensions.  We   have  not
     incorporated them into the release. 

     The May  1999  release improves  the  language support  by  supporting the
     ISO-Latin character sets. 

     We do  have  spelling  dictionaries for  French,  Spanish,  Portuguese and
     German. Other languages may be  supported by transforming native ispell(1)
     dictionaries. 

     If there  is enough  interest  in this  release  from people  with foreign
     languages then we may consider  including support for foreign language(s).
     However we would be  very much reliant on  external help for local testing
     and translation. We would be open to suggestions. 

     [FAQ Index]. 

QUESTION (02) 
     C++ is not default, C is - how do I change this ?? 

ANSWER 
     If your main programming  language is C++, then  you will require the .def
     and .h files  to be  loaded in  C++ mode by  default, rather  than 'C'. To
     modify this hen the order of the file hooks has to be re-defined. 

     Within your <user>.emf,  over-ride the  default ordering  by including the
     line:- 

       add-file-hook ".h .def"                                     fhook-cpp 

     This adds  a newer  binding for  ".h" and  ".def" to  C++, over-riding the
     existing 'C' binding. 

     [FAQ Index]. 

QUESTION (03) 
     GNU Emacs; are there any GNU Emacs bindings. ? 

ANSWER 
     No not  at  the  moment.  The  GNU Emacs  bindings  would  be  added  as a
     compatibility file  (meemacs.emf)  in much  the  same way  that  the me3.8
     bindings are added, see meme3_8.emf. 

     From the user-setup(3), the user would then ask for "gnu" compatibility. 

     We would welcome submissions for a gnu compatibility file, gnu.emf, to add
     to the release. 

     The Meta key (typically  Alt) may be  bound to key  strokes, as opposed to
     the menu short-cut from the user-setup(3) as follows:- 

          Tools -> User Setup -> General -> Alt Action: Main Menu Hot-keys = N 
          Tools -> User Setup -> General -> Alt Action: Esc Prefix = Y 

     [FAQ Index]. 

QUESTION (04) 
     Icons are not displayed correctly in Microsoft Windows environments !! 

ANSWER 
     After installing on Microsoft platforms,  the Icons in the Explorer window
     may not be showing  correctly. To remedy the  situation then the following
     steps may be taken. 

     Windows '95 
          Try re-starting the  system first.  If the icons  are still incorrect
          then re-start in Safe mode and delete the file: 

          c:\windows\ShellIconCache 

          Restart and the Icons should be correct. 

     Window '98 
          Try re-starting the  system first.  If the Icons  are still incorrect
          then re-start in Safe  mode, this should  re-generate the Icon cache.
          Restart windows. 

     NT   Restart the system. 

     [FAQ Index]. 

QUESTION (05) 
     ipipes not working on Microsoft Windows network drives ? 

ANSWER 
     We are aware of  a problem with  the ipipe commands with  '95 and '98 (not
     sure about NT) when the current drive is a Novel network drive. 

     Although we have not been ably  to fully characterize the problem, we know
     that:- 

       *  Old Novel Clients prior to 2.2 - Does not work 
       *  Novel Intranetware Client 2.2 - Does not work. 
       *  Novel Network Client 2.5 - Does work. 
       *  Novel Client 3.01 - Does work. 

     Any  other  information  in  this  area  would  be  appreciated  to  fully
     characterize the problem. 

     To get  around  the problem  then  disable ipipes  using  $system(5). From
     within your  <user>.emf knock  off  bit 0x800  from $system(5).  This will
     enable regular pipes, which will work, albeit not in the background. 

     [FAQ Index]. 

QUESTION (06) 
     Language not supported - will it be ?? 

ANSWER 
     We only support the (programming) languages that we have come into contact
     with. If you are using a language that we are not supporting then you will
     need to write a  new hk<language>.emf file. See  Language Templates on how
     to map a  new programming language.  The list of  currently supported file
     types is defined in Supported File Types. 

     Jasspa would appreciate any new  templates that people define for standard
     file types so that we can add them to the distribution. 

     For Microsoft  Windows,  any associated  "me"  icons types  would  also be
     appreciated. 

     [FAQ Index]. 

QUESTION (07) 
     Language file is incomplete 

ANSWER 
     For a number of the (programming) language templates we have only provided
     a sub-set of the commands, this is typically because we only use a sub-set
     ourselves. 

     For a number of  templates, there is no  indent support (see indent(2) and
     Supported File Types). 

     Note that when extending  the template then only  standard words should be
     added. Words which are local extensions should be added to a myXXX.emf. 

     Jasspa would appreciate completed template definitions. 

SEE ALSO 
     FAQ06 

     [FAQ Index]. 

QUESTION (08) 
     Input locked up and not accepting keys; how do I unlock ? 

ANSWER 
     This sometimes happens if a macro  has been aborted badly. Typically a few
     "Ctrl-G"s (see  abort-command(2))  will  terminate  the  macro  and return
     control back to the caller. 

     [FAQ Index]. 

QUESTION (09) 
     MicroEmacs Bindings; How do I get the original MicroEmacs bindings ? 

ANSWER 
     From user-setup(3) set the Emulation  to "MicroEmacs v3.8". On re-starting
     (or Current)  the  macro file  meme3_8.emf  is executed  and  the bindings
     loaded. This file should restore your familiar execution set. 

     [FAQ Index]. 

QUESTION (10) 
     Microsoft Windows Locks up after killing an ipipe. 

ANSWER 
     This is  a  known  problem for  '95/'98  (not  NT), on  killing  an ipipe.
     Sometimes the "Winoldapp" locks up, if this is the case use "Alt-Ctrl-Del"
     to bring up the  "Close Program" dialogue, kill  off the "WinOldApp" if it
     is not responding. 

     MicroEmacs will  then  come back.  We  are  looking for  ways  around this
     problem at the  moment. From  the programming perspective  Windows is just
     not as nice as UNIX - which just works !! 

     [FAQ Index]. 

QUESTION (11) 
     Mouse support under Microsoft windows is strange !! 

ANSWER 
     The mouse operation under Microsoft windows  (and DOS) is biased towards a
     3-button mouse operation  (Logitech is  ideal !!), operating  in a similar
     way to UNIX. i.e. <select> operation  gets text <Middle button> yanks text
     back. 

     This stems from the fact  that we all came  from UNIX backgrounds. We have
     had a number of  comments about this  already and do  plan to address this
     issue. 

     Note:- Those of you that have already  had a little dip into the operation
     of the mouse will have  probably worked out that  the whole of the visible
     mouse/screen interaction is  driven through macros,  so this functionality
     is actually a macro change. 

     [FAQ Index]. 

QUESTION (12) 
     Scroll bars too narrow !! 

ANSWER 
     You can  change  the  width  of  the  scroll  bars  to  double  width from
     user-setup(3) "Wide Scroll Bars". Alternatively,  you may do this yourself
     from <user>.emf by:- 

       set-variable $scroll-bar &bor $scroll-bar 1 

     See $scroll-bar(5). 

     Remember  if  you  have  enabled  wide  scroll  bars,  under  windows,  or
     X-Windows, you  may  want  to  change your  start-up  screen  width  to 82
     characters rather than 80 - see change-frame-width(2). 

     [FAQ Index]. 

QUESTION (13) 
     Tab key; Why does the tab key not operate in some windows ?? 

ANSWER 
     In buffers  with  indentation  information  the  tab  key  re-computes the
     indentation of the line. This behavior may be changed from the user-setup.

     Refer to documentation for $system(5) and user-setup(3). 

     [FAQ Index]. 

QUESTION (14) 
     Termcap; On a color terminal why is there no color ?? 

ANSWER 
     MicroEmacs has to be enabled to  show color by default. From user-setup(3)
     enable "Termcap Color". This will give you basic colors. 

     You may also  try enabling "With  Bold" -  this may increase  the range of
     colors. 

     [FAQ Index]. 

QUESTION (15) 
     Termcap; Some of the keys do not work - how can I bind them ? 

ANSWER 
     In your user setup <user>.emf add the  new keys. You have to be careful as
     to the environment and probably need to do something like the following:- 

       ; First check we are not an Xterm 
       !if &not $use-x 
           ; Quick check on the terminal type. We probably need to 
           ; distinguish between terminal types for different bindings 
           !if &seq $TERM "myterm" 
               translate-key "<from>" "<to>" 
               ... 
               translate-key "<from>" "<to>" 
           !endif 
       !endif 

     See  translate-key(2)  for  details   of  translating  termcap  keys.  See
     describe-key(2) to help identify the key. 

     [FAQ Index]. 

QUESTION (16) 
     Timestamp; Format incorrect, how can I change to MMDDYY.hhmm ? 

ANSWER 
     From within your <user.emf> set the time stamp default format i.e. 

       set-variable $timestamp "<%M%D%Y.%h%m>" 

     See $timestamp(5). 

     [FAQ Index]. 

QUESTION (17) 
     Windows; Component characters rendered incorrectly, how do I fix ? 

ANSWER 
     If some  of  the  components  of  the  windows  are  rendered incorrectly,
     typically caused by  local variations  of character sets,  then new window
     component characters may  be defined. See  $window-chars(5) for details on
     how to define new character replacements. 

     [FAQ Index]. 

QUESTION (18) 
     Windows Autosave and Backup files; are these potentially a problem ? 

ANSWER 
     For windows  '95  up  until  OEM  service  release  2,  the  OS  could not
     distinguish the difference between the files:- 

       .xxx 
       .xxx~ 

     on a read,  we have  managed to  find a work  around for  this, however we
     would advise that the 3 letter extension is adhered to for these releases.
     For releases of '95 OEM service release  2 and greater, '98 and NT we have
     not found a problem with any of the auto save and backup naming. 

     Obviously, the backup  naming will depend  on the native  file system. For
     instance if your system  administrator has not enabled  long file names on
     your Novel server. 

     [FAQ Index]. 

QUESTION (19) 
     Printing; Why in Windows does the output come out in a buffer ?? 

ANSWER 
     Use the File  -> Printer  Setup dialog and  change the  destination to the
     "Direct to printer". 

     [FAQ Index]. 

QUESTION (20) 
     Printing; On Windows which font should I use ?? 

ANSWER 
     We suggest that "Courier New" is used  as the print font. This scales well
     and supports  the full  character  set. Problems  have been  reported with
     networked postscript printers when used in conjunction with fixed fonts. 

     [FAQ Index]. 

QUESTION (21) 
     Printing; My printer is not supported ? 

ANSWER 
     We are in  the process  of providing  native postscript  generation - UNIX
     users can stream their output through  "a2ps" and then into their standard
     printer queues. 

     Windows, the support is already built in. 

     For DOS then you need  to get your printer manual  out and sort out how to
     map  the  printer  codes  onto  fonts.  The  printer  codes  are  added to
     "printer.erf". We have already provided support for the HP DeskJet printer
     (PCL), look at  this printer definition  for some  help as to  the type of
     information that you need  to set up.  It's all a bit  fiddley, but you do
     not get much choice if you want more than plain ASCII out. 

     [FAQ Index]. 

QUESTION (22) 
     Alt key maps to the Menu, how do I change ? 

     A-f opens the  main File menu  instead of executing  forward-word (esc f).
     How do I make the Alt key act like the Meta key all the time? 

ANSWER 
     The Meta key (typically  Alt) may be  bound to key  strokes, as opposed to
     the menu short-cut from the user-setup(3) as follows:- 

          Tools -> User Setup -> General -> Alt Action: Main Menu Hot-keys = N 
          Tools -> User Setup -> General -> Alt Action: Esc Prefix = Y 

     [FAQ Index]. 

QUESTION (23) 
     me32.ini - Where does it go, how do I know it's being processed ?? 

ANSWER 
     Question posed as:- 

       > 1)  Am I right in assuming that for NT the file me32.ini goes 
       >     into  %windir%, i.e. into c: 

     Yes, this is where the other .ini files are. 

       > 2)  How do I know me32.ini is being processed?  Creating one, 
       >     as described in the readme.txt file doesn't seem to have 
       >     any visible effect. 

     From within  the editor,  if  you show  the  variable $MEPATH(5),  then it
     should echo the paths that you have defined in the me32.ini file. 

       esc-x describe-variable 
       $MEPATH 

     See: me32.ini(8), Installation Information, Setting Up A User Profile. 

       > 3) What does the "fontfile" statement do ? 

     For releases after May 1999 then  the fontfile statement may be omitted as
     typically Lucida Console or  Courier New is  used. If you  want to use the
     fixed OEM fonts  then fontfile should  be defined as  app860.fon (or local
     language equivalent), this  forces the  font to  be loaded  as a resource,
     prior to use. 

     [FAQ Index]. 

QUESTION (24) 
     Windows - Where is app850.fon ? 

ANSWER 
     "app850.fon" is the  font file used  for the DOS  window under '95/'95/NT.
     You  should  find  it   in  your  c:  hidden.   If  you  search  from  the
     Explorer->Tools->Find  "app850.fon"  it  should  be  found  in  the  fonts
     directory. There is  nothing to be  done - the  file exists and  is in the
     correct location. 

     If you do not  have this file  then, you might  have "appXXX.fon", or some
     other fixed font. You can locate the file that you want as follows:- 

          Start->Settings->Control Panel->Fonts 

     Display the font  list as  'details'. Within that  list you  should find a
     "MS-DOS CPXXX" entry. It will be a red font (if you are in monochrome then
     it will have a  'A' in the box  rather than a 'Tt').  This is a fixed font
     and will  be a  good alternative  to  "app850.fon", you  can also  try the
     "Fixedsys" font file which has some weird name. 

     To be honest I do not know  what Microsoft are currently shipping. Most of
     the Windows platforms that  I have used have  been upgrades or been abused
     by so many people you never know what is original !! 

     We would be interested in any  details of other fixed fonts, which support
     the full OEM character set that are better alternatives to the DOS ones. 

     [FAQ Index]. 

QUESTION (25) 
     Time; mode line is showing the date in DD/MM/YY format how do I change ? 

ANSWER 
     From within your user setup, over-ride  the default mode line setting with
     the modifications you require. i.e. to  change the date format to MM/DD/YY
     use:- 

       set-variable $mode-line "%s%r%u%k %b %l - %h:%m %M/%D/%Y (%e) - (%f) " 

SEE ALSO 
     $mode-line(5). 

     [FAQ Index]. 

QUESTION (26) 
     C or C++ indentation and effects; how can I turn off ? 

ANSWER 
     The C mode indentation is supposed  to make editing 'C' easier, by forcing
     the user  to follow  a  preset editing  convection.  The layout  is pretty
     standard, following  a  4 space  indent,  writing either  K&R  or standard
     'Pascal' type layout, with braces aligning vertically. 

     The problem  most  new users  have  is the  inability  of the  tab  key to
     function, or  more  simply  do not  want  to  be 'forced'  to  write  in a
     particular style  (GNU  writers  will  probably  not  like  this  either -
     conversely they  will  be using  GNU  emacs !!).  However  the constrained
     layout can be configured to create most  styles and does help in a project
     situation, whereby most of  the authored code roughly  adheres to the same
     sort of  layout conventions.  For C++  users then  edit "hkcpp.emf" rather
     than "hkc.emf". 

  To turn off all automatic 'C' layout 
     To disable ALL automatic layout in C and C++ files then from the menu 

       help -> Buffer Setup -> Setup Auto Indent 

     Or from  the  command line  esc  x  buffer-setup and  disable  through the
     dialogue. 

     Restart the editor. 

  To re-enable the <tab> key 
     To retain the  'C' layout  aid, but re-enable  the tab  key operation then
     disable the Tab To Indent option in user-setup(3) i.e. 

          Tools -> User Setup -> General -> Tab To Indent 

     This enables  the use  of the  TAB key  in all  column positions  with the
     exception of column 0. A <tab> in Column 0 will still enable the automatic
     line re-formatting. 

     If you want real <Tabs> then disable the tab mode using user-setup(3) i.e.

          Tools -> User Setup -> General -> Tab 

  To change the 'C' Indentation Layout 
     The 'C' layout indentation  is controlled from  the indent(2) command (see
     hkc.emf),  the   indentation  level   is   controlled  by   the  variables
     $buffer-indent-width(5) and $buffer-indent(5) these  may be changed in the
     Buffer Setup dialog. 

     [FAQ Index]. 

QUESTION (27) 
     fill-paragraph function does not fill ?? 

     I can't  seem to  get the  fill-paragraph function  to fill  the following
     paragraph: 

       This is a very 
       poorly formed paragraph 
       which refuses to fill 
       properly! 

ANSWER 
     The default justification  mode is Auto  which tries to  work out the mode
     required for each paragraph.  Its fairly smart  at maintaining a documents
     indentation, e.g. consider the example right hand justified: 

                                                           This is a very 
                                                  poorly formed paragraph 
                                                    which refuses to fill 
                                                                properly! 

     It will  maintain this  indentation. The  problem comes  when the detected
     form is not  the required form  as in the  example. The detected paragraph
     justification to be used is "none"  because the lines are short. There are
     2 ways to solve this problem: 

       *  You can change the  $fill-mode(5) to left or  both (in fhook-doc mode
          use C-c l or C-c b) and then use fill-paragraph as normal. 
       *  Manually concatenate the first few lines  into one to create a longer
          first line and then use the  fill-paragraph a normal, i.e. change the
          paragraph to: 

          This is a very poorly formed paragraph which refuses to fill properly
          ! 

          and then  fill. This  works because  the longer  line will  lead to a
          different assessment of what's required. 

     [FAQ Index]. 

QUESTION (28) 
     Key modifier which acts as the ESC key; what is it ? 

     What is the modifier key which acts as the ESC key ? Having to type ESCAPE
     and then f to move one word forward is very boring. 

     With Gnu Emacs (on Unix systems), there  is a "meta" modifier key which is
     a shortcut for pressing ESCAPE followed by the command key. The "meta" key
     should be the "Alt" key. 

ANSWER 
     The "meta" key is the "Alt" key. But  'F' is the Main menu hot-key for the
     'File' sub-menu so by default 'A-f'  will open the File sub-menu. This can
     be disabled by  clearing bit 0x2000  in the $system  variable. This option
     can now be set using user-setup (Alt -> Main Menu). 

     [FAQ Index]. 

QUESTION (29) 
     find-file start location; where is it ? 

ANSWER 
     The find-file(2) start location is defined as follows:- 

       *  *scratch* is current buffer; the current working directory. 
       *  file is current buffer; the directory location containing file. 

     Running under Microsoft Windows or UNIX, using an icon launch, then it may
     become  frustrating   that  the   start  location   is  always  C:\Program
     Files\JASSPA\MicroEmacs (Microsoft windows)  or /usr/local/bin (UNIX) this
     is simply  resolved by  starting  the executable  with  the -c  option, as
     defined by me(1).  The -c option  starts the editor  with the last editing
     session, this is typically  where a user will  want to commence an editing
     session. 

     If the  -c  approach is  not  acceptable, then  it  is worth  defining the
     environment variable $HOME  within the  start up  script, or  in the users
     environment. Using  find-file with  tilde (~)  implies that  the directory
     start path is $HOME. 

     [FAQ Index]. 

QUESTION (30) 
     Re-using a MicroEmacs session; how to ?? 

ANSWER 
     A MicroEmacs editing session may be  re-used, such that the current editor
     is prompted to load a new  file externally. This is typically invoked from
     a short-cut launch from a file manager i.e. Explorer(1), Tkdesk(1) etc. 

     In order to  facilitate the re-use  of the session,  then me(1) is invoked
     with the -o option, this locates  the active editor session and passes the
     file load  request.  If an  existing  session does  not  exist then  a new
     session is started. 

     In order for this  mechanism to operate,  then the Client-Server Interface
     must be enabled from the user-setup(3) i.e. 

          [Tools -> User Setup -> Platform -> Client Server = Y] 

     [FAQ Index]. 

QUESTION (31) 
     Drag and Drop; is it supported ?? 

ANSWER 
     MicroEmacs 2009 supports Microsoft and UNIX XDND (Gnome/KDE) drag-and-drop
     interaction. Multiple files and directories  may be dragged from Microsoft
     Explorer, Nautilus  (or  other  application)  and  dropped  into  a buffer
     window. The destination buffer  window is the window  in which the dropped
     file(s) are displayed. 

     Note if the user is  currently on the command  line, then the command line
     operation is aborted in order to facilitate the dropped files. 

     [FAQ Index]. 

QUESTION (32) 
     Cut and Paste to/from other applications; is it supported ?? 

ANSWER 
     MicroEmacs 2009 supports cut and paste operations on all platforms. 

     To copy a region from MicroEmacs 2009 to another application 
          Select a region (with the mouse or keys) - there is no need to invoke
          a copy operation. All selected text is immediately available to other
          applications. 

          Move to the new application and paste, as dictated by the platform. 

     To copy a region from another application to MicroEmacs 2009 
          Select the region in the  application into the clipboard, as dictated
          by the platform. 

          Move to  MicroEmacs 2009,  position  the cursor  and yank(2)  (C-y or
          typically the middle mouse button) the clipboard text. 

     [FAQ Index]. 

QUESTION (33) 
     Fonts; how can I change the font ?? 

ANSWER 
     The currently selected font may be modified from the user-setup(3). 

          Tools -> User Setup -> Platform 

     The font selection  depends upon the  platform, in all  cases a fixed font
     should be selected, otherwise rendering anomalies will result. 

     If you are  running on Microsoft  platforms ensure that  the OEM/ANSI flag
     matches the settings of the Display Font Set entry. 

     [FAQ Index]. 

QUESTION (34) 
     Colors; how can I change screen colors ?? 

ANSWER 
     The screen colors are selected from the user-setup(3). 

          Tools -> User Setup -> Platform -> Color Scheme 

     The default setting  is White  on Black,  the Black  on Cream  is the most
     popular setting. 

     [FAQ Index]. 

QUESTION (35) 
     File Types; how do I interchange between UNIX, Windows and DOS files ?? 

ANSWER 
     MicroEmacs 2009 facilitates the editing of  the standard file types on all
     platforms. All files retain their line  ending type through edits. i.e. if
     a DOS file is edited on a UNIX  system, the file is still written as a DOS
     file. When  new files  are  created, they  are  created with  the standard
     attributes of the host O/S. 

     The line ending of the file may be modified from the menu 

          file -> attributes 

     This brings up  a dialog that  allows the  file type and  attributes to be
     modified. 

     Note that the only ending that is  NOT preserved are files whose lines end
     in <CR>'s only. The  line format is correctly  interpreted on reading, but
     is not retained on the write. 

     [FAQ Index]. 

QUESTION (36) 
     Non-English Languages; What font should I select ?? 

ANSWER 
     MicroEmacs 2009 has only been  tested with Western Lanuguages only. Within
     the Microsoft Windows  environment an  ANSI type font  should be selected,
     assuming of  course  that the  characters  required are  in  the ISO-Latin
     character set. UNIX typically supports ISO-Latin character sets. 

     [FAQ Index]. 

QUESTION (37) 
     MicroEmacs '99; How do I up-grade from MicroEmacs'98 ?? 

ANSWER 
     Backup your current version! 

     Follow  the  MicroEmacs'99  installation  procedure  to  install  and  get
     MicroEmacs'99 running. 

     Due to the great improvement to  user-setup(3) it is advised that the user
     creates a new setup using user-setup and then migrates required macro code
     changes from the old release into the new. 

     [FAQ Index]. 

QUESTION (38) 
     Some keys on my foreign  keyboard do not work properly,  how do I get them
     working ?? 

ANSWER 
     The most common problem  are with foreign keyboards  where the <AltGr> key
     is used to  generate some characters  in a similar  fashion to the <Shift>
     key. For  example,  on  a Belgian  keyboard  the  '9' key  produces  a '{'
     character when the <AltGr> key is also pressed. 

     The quickest  and  best  solution is  to  use  the Keyboard  setup  on the
     Start-Up page of user-setup(3). This  however may not provide the solution
     as not  all  keyboards  are  currently  supported.  If  you  are  using an
     unsupported keyboard please send  configuration information back to JASSPA
     for inclusion in the next  release. The keyboard configuration information
     is stored in the macro file keyboard.emf. 

     If user-setup does  not currently  support your  keyboard, or  you wish to
     remap  some  keys,  then  the  command  translate-key(2)  should  be used.
     translate-key remaps  generated key  stroke(s) into  another key  at a low
     level so the mapping is supported in all areas. If a macro and key binding
     were used instead,  while they would  work in the  main text windows, they
     would not work  in the  message line. See  help on  translate-key for more
     information. 

     Note that some <AltGr> keys  can produce 2 keys,  for example on a Belgian
     keyboard '<AltGr>-9' produces the  key 'A-C-9' first, immediately followed
     by 'A-C-{'. This is an unfortunate side effect of windows, it is better to
     have two  keys  rather  than none.  But  this  does add  confusion  to the
     problem! Again, see translate-key for more information. 

     [FAQ Index]. 

QUESTION (39) 
     Tabs; How to change the tab width ?? 

ANSWER 
     $tab-width(5) controls the size of  the displayed tab character (number of
     spaces) and the simulated  tab character size, where  the user entered tab
     character is replaced by a number  of space characters. The latter is only
     used when tab(2m) mode is enabled (it is typically enabled by default). 

     To change  the tab  character  width then  the set-variable(2)  command is
     used: 

       esc x set-variable 

     You will  then  be prompted  for  the  remaining arguments.  <TAB>  is the
     completion so:- 

       esc x set-v<TAB> 
       $tab-width<TAB> 
       2 

     If this is the  setting that you always  want to use then  it is easier if
     you put this in your <user.emf> as:- 

       set-variable $tab-width 2 

     then whenever you start a new  session you will always have the $tab-width
     defined as you want it. 

     If you are reading in a file  with TAB's embedded then you can convert all
     of the <TAB>'s to spaces using tabs-to-spaces(3): 

       esc x tabs-to-spaces 

     [FAQ Index]. 

QUESTION (40) 
     Windows/DOS; Where do I get grep/diff etc. ?? 

ANSWER 
     For windows and DOS users the UNIX tools may be obtained from:- 

       ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/garbo/garbo_pc/unix/uxutl23a.zip (238 Kb) 
       ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/garbo/garbo_pc/unix/uxutl23b.zip (227 Kb) 
       ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/garbo/garbo_pc/unix/uxutl23c.zip (221 Kb) 
       ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/garbo/garbo_pc/unix/uxutl23d.zip (160 Kb) 

     comments for this at: 

       http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lakes/1401/softlib1.htm 

     One awk-port; the Gnuish project has 16 bit and 32 bit versions of gawk(1)
     in: 

       ftp://mirrors.aol.com/pub/simtelnet/gnu/gnuish/gawk303x.zip (1997, 495K)

     Acknowledgment: DG - 99/07/02 

     [FAQ Index]. 

QUESTION (41) 
     Home/End Keys; How do I change the default bindings ?? 

ANSWER 
     Some users prefer the HOME and END keys to map to the beginning and end of
     the line, rather  than beginning/end  of the  buffer, respectively. Within
     the <user>.emf the following  global bindings may  be applied to re-assign
     the key mappings:- 

       global-bind-key "beginning-of-buffer" "C-home" 
       global-bind-key "end-of-buffer"       "C-end" 
       global-bind-key "end-of-line"         "end" 
       global-bind-key "beginning-of-line"   "home" 

     Acknowledgment: DG - 99/07/02 

     [FAQ Index]. 

QUESTION (42) 
     tags; How do I generate a MicroEmacs compatible tags file ?? 

ANSWER 
     A tags file is used by the  find-tag(2) command. This is used to hypertext
     to the tagged definition or variable. The standard ctags(1) format is used
     by MicroEmacs. The  tags file itself  may be generated  by MicroEmacs 2009
     from the menu  (Tools->XX Tools->Create  Tags File).  Alternatively a tags
     file may be generated by the  ctags(1) utility. This is typically standard
     on UNIX platforms. For Windows and  DOS platforms then the Exuberant Ctags
     is recommended, this is available from:- 

          http://darren.hiebert.com 

     A MicroEmacs 2009 compatible tags file  may be generated using the command
     line "ctags -N --format=1 ." cataloging the current directory. To generate
     tags for a directory tree then use  "ctags -NR --format=1 .". Refer to the
     Exuberant Ctags  documentation  for  a more  detailed  description  of the
     utility. 

     The user  variable %tag-option(5)  may  be used  to enable  find-tag(2) to
     locate a recursivelly generated tags file from a parent directory. 

     [FAQ Index]. 

QUESTION (43) 
     ne; how can I enable line wrapping in NE ?? 

ANSWER 
     The line wrapping feature is controlled  by the wrap buffer-mode in ME but
     this feature is omitted  in NE. To  get the size of  NE down many features
     have to be disabled including the wrap mode and fill-paragraph. 

     To enable then you have to build  your own version of NE with this enabled
     by  changing   the  2nd   MEOPT_WORDPRO  settings   in  "emain.h"   to  1.
     Alternatively rename your ne.emf to me.emf and use 'me' instead of ne. 

     Once it is built and you want to  edit a text file then you need to enable
     WRAP and INDENT mode in  the buffer for it  to behave correctly. WRAP does
     the wrap  to the  next  line and  INDENT  maintains the  left indentation.
     fill-paragraph is present. 

     [FAQ Index].