Frequently asked questions about XEmacs

This is the guide to the XEmacs Frequently Asked Questions list--a compendium of questions and answers pertaining to one of the finest programs ever written. XEmacs is much more than just a Text Editor.

This FAQ is freely redistributable. This FAQ is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

If you have a Web browser, the official hypertext version is at http://www.xemacs.org/faq/xemacs-faq.html

1 Introduction, Policy, Credits

Learning XEmacs is a lifelong activity. Even people who have used Emacs for years keep discovering new features. Therefore this document cannot be complete. Instead it is aimed at the person who is either considering XEmacs for their own use, or has just obtained it and is wondering what to do next. It is also useful as a reference to available resources.

The previous maintainer of the FAQ was Anthony Rossini, who started it, after getting tired of hearing JWZ complain about repeatedly having to answer questions. Ben Wing and Chuck Thompson, the principal authors of XEmacs, then took over and Ben did a massive update reorganizing the whole thing. At which point Anthony took back over, but then had to give it up again. Some of the other contributors to this FAQ are listed later in this document.

The previous version was converted to hypertext format, and edited by Steven L. Baur. It was converted back to texinfo by Hrvoje Niksic. The FAQ was then maintained by Andreas Kaempf, who passed it on to ChristianNybø.

If you notice any errors or items which should be added or amended to this FAQ please send email to Sandra Wambold. Include `XEmacs FAQ' on the Subject: line.

1.0: Introduction

Q1.0.1: What is XEmacs?

XEmacs is a powerful, highly customizable open source text editor and application development system, with full GUI support. It is protected under the GNU Public License and related to other versions of Emacs, in particular GNU Emacs. Its emphasis is on modern graphical user interface support and an open software development model, similar to Linux. XEmacs has an active development community numbering in the hundreds (and thousands of active beta testers on top of this), and runs on all versions of MS Windows, on Linux, and on nearly every other version of Unix in existence. Support for XEmacs has been supplied by Sun Microsystems, University of Illinois, Lucid, ETL/Electrotechnical Laboratory, Amdahl Corporation, BeOpen, and others, as well as the unpaid time of a great number of individual developers.

Q1.0.2: What is the current version of XEmacs?

XEmacs versions 21.1.* are releases made from the current stable sources. XEmacs versions 21.2.* are releases made from the development sources. Check at http://www.xemacs.org for the current minor version.

XEmacs 19.16 was the last release of v19, released in November, 1997, which was also the last version without international language support.

Q1.0.3: Where can I find it?

The canonical source and binaries can be found via anonymous FTP at:

ftp://ftp.xemacs.org/pub/xemacs/
	    

Q1.0.4: Why Another Version of Emacs?

For a detailed description of the differences between GNU Emacs and XEmacs and a detailed history of XEmacs, check out the

NEWS file
	    

However, here is a list of some of the reasons why we think you might consider using it:

• It looks nicer.

• The XEmacs maintainers are generally more receptive to suggestions than the GNU Emacs maintainers.

• Many more bundled packages than GNU Emacs.

• Binaries are available for many common operating systems.

• Face support on TTY's.

• A built-in toolbar.

• Better Motif compliance.

• Some internationalization support (including full MULE support, if compiled with it).

• Variable-width fonts.

• Variable-height lines.

• Marginal annotations.

• ToolTalk support.

• XEmacs can be used as an Xt widget, and can be embedded within another application.

• Horizontal and vertical scrollbars (using real toolkit scrollbars).

• Better APIs (and performance) for attaching fonts, colors, and other properties to text.

• The ability to embed arbitrary graphics in a buffer.

• Completely compatible (at the C level) with the Xt-based toolkits.

Q1.0.5: Why Haven't XEmacs and GNU Emacs Merged?

There are currently irreconcilable differences in the views about technical, programming, design and organizational matters between RMS and the XEmacs development team which provide little hope for a merge to take place in the short-term future.

If you have a comment to add regarding the merge, it is a good idea to avoid posting to the newsgroups, because of the very heated flamewars that often result. Mail your questions to xemacs-beta@xemacs.org and bug-gnu-emacs@prep.ai.mit.edu.

Q1.0.6: Where can I get help?

Probably the easiest way, if everything is installed, is to use Info, by pressing C-h i, or looking for an Info item on the Help Menu. M-x apropos can be used to look for particular commands.

For items not found in the manual, try reading this FAQ and reading the Usenet group comp.emacs.xemacs.

If you choose to post to a newsgroup, please use comp.emacs.xemacs. Please do not post XEmacs related questions to gnu.emacs.help.

If you cannot post or read Usenet news, there is a corresponding mailing list which is available. It can be subscribed to by sending a message to xemacs-request@xemacs.org with `subscribe' in the body of the message. Send to the list at xemacs@xemacs.org. list. To cancel a subscription, you must use the xemacs-request address. Send a message with a subject of `unsubscribe' to be removed.

Q1.0.7: Where are the mailing lists archived?

The archives can be found at http://list-archive.xemacs.org

Q1.0.8: How do you pronounce XEmacs?

The most common pronounciation is `Eks eemax'.

Q1.0.9: What does XEmacs look like?

Screen snapshots are available at http://www.xemacs.org/About/Screenshots/index.html as part of the XEmacs website.

Q1.0.10: Is there a port of XEmacs to Microsoft ('95 or NT)?

Yes. XEmacs can be built under MS Windows and is fully-featured and actively developed. See 6 XEmacs on MS Windows.

Q1.0.11: Is there a port of XEmacs to the Macintosh?

Yes.

XEmacs 21.5 (perhaps 21.4 also?) works on MacOS X, although it certainly will not feel very much like a Mac application as it has no Mac-specific code in it.

There is also a port of XEmacs 19.14 that works on all recent versions of MacOS, from 8.1 through MacOS X, by Pitts Jarvis. It runs in an equivalent of TTY mode only (one single Macintosh window, 25 colors), but has a large number of Mac-specific additions. It's available at http://homepage.mac.com/pjarvis/xemacs.html.

Q1.0.12: Is there a port of XEmacs to NextStep?

Carl Edman, apparently no longer at cedman@princeton.edu, did the port of GNU Emacs to NeXTstep and expressed interest in doing the XEmacs port, but never went any farther.

Q1.0.13: Is there a port of XEmacs to OS/2?

No, but Alexander Nikolaev <avn_1251@mail.ru> is working on it.

Q1.0.14: Where can I obtain a printed copy of the XEmacs User's Manual?

Pre-printed manuals are not available. If you are familiar with TeX, you can generate your own manual from the XEmacs sources.

HTML and Postscript versions of XEmacs manuals are available from the XEmacs web site at http://www.xemacs.org/Documentation/index.html.

1.1: Policies

Q1.1.1: What is the FAQ editorial policy?

The FAQ is actively maintained and modified regularly. All links should be up to date. Unfortunately, some of the information is out of date -- a situation which the FAQ maintainer is working on. All submissions are welcome, please e-mail submissions to XEmacs FAQ maintainers.

Please make sure that `XEmacs FAQ' appears on the Subject: line. If you think you have a better way of answering a question, or think a question should be included, we'd like to hear about it. Questions and answers included into the FAQ will be edited for spelling and grammar and will be attributed. Answers appearing without attribution are either from versions of the FAQ dated before May 1996 or are from previous FAQ maintainers. Answers quoted from Usenet news articles will always be attributed, regardless of the author.

Q1.1.2: How do I become a Beta Tester?

Send an email message to xemacs-beta-request@xemacs.org with the line `subscribe' in the body of the message.

Be prepared to get your hands dirty, as beta testers are expected to identify problems as best they can.

Q1.1.3: How do I contribute to XEmacs itself?

Ben Wing ben@xemacs.org writes:

BTW if you have a wish list of things that you want added, you have to speak up about it! More specifically, you can do the following if you want a feature added (in increasing order of usefulness):

• Make a posting about a feature you want added.

• Become a beta tester and make more postings about those same features.

• Convince us that you're going to use the features in some cool and useful way.

• Come up with a clear and well-thought-out API concerning the features.

• Write the code to implement a feature and send us a patch.

(not that we're necessarily requiring you to write the code, but we can always hope :)

1.2: Credits

Q1.2.1: Who wrote XEmacs?

XEmacs is the result of the time and effort of many people. The developers responsible for recent releases are:

• Martin Buchholz
  
  

• Steven Turnbull

• Ben Wing
  
  

• Hrvoje Niksic

  
  
  

The developers responsible for older releases were:

• Steve Baur

  
  
  

• Chuck Thompson
  
  

• Jamie Zawinski
  
  

• Richard Mlynarik

  Steve Baur was the primary maintainer for 19.15 through 21.0.

  Chuck Thompson and Ben Wing were the maintainers for 19.11 through 19.14 and heavy code contributors for 19.8 through 19.10.

  Jamie Zawinski was the maintainer for 19.0 through 19.10 (the entire history of Lucid Emacs). Richard Mlynarik was a heavy code contributor to 19.6 through 19.8.

Along with many other contributors, partially enumerated in the `About XEmacs' option in the Help menu.

Q1.2.2: Who contributed to this version of the FAQ?

The following people contributed valuable suggestions to building this version of the FAQ (listed in alphabetical order):

• SL Baur

• Hrvoje Niksic

• Aki Vehtari

Q1.2.3: Who contributed to the FAQ in the past?

This is only a partial list, as many names were lost in a hard disk crash some time ago.

• Curtis.N.Bingham

• Georges Brun-Cottan

• Richard Caley

• Richard Cognot

• Mark Daku

• William G. Dubuque

• Eric Eide

• Alain Fauconnet

• Chris Flatters

• Evelyn Ginsparg

• Marty Hall

• Darrell Kindred

• David Moore

• Arup Mukherjee

• Juergen Nickelsen

• Kevin R. Powell

• Justin Sheehy

• Stig

• Aki Vehtari

1.3: Internationalization

Q1.3.1: What is the status of internationalization support aka MULE (including Asian language support?

Both the stable and development versions of XEmacs include internationalization support (aka MULE). MULE currently works on UNIX and Linux systems; work for supporting MULE on Windows operating systems is in progress. Binaries compiled without MULE support run faster than MULE capable XEmacsen.

Q1.3.2: How can I help with internationalization?

If you would like to help, you may want to join the xemacs-mule@xemacs.org mailing list. Especially needed are people who speak/write languages other than English, who are willing to use XEmacs/MULE regularly, and have some experience with Elisp.

See section Q1.1.2: How do I become a Beta Tester?.

Q1.3.3: How do I type non-ASCII characters?

See question 3.5.7 (see section Q3.5.7: How can you type in special characters in XEmacs?) in part 3 of this FAQ.

Q1.3.4: Can XEmacs messages come out in a different language?

The message-catalog support has mostly been written but doesn't currently work. The first release of XEmacs 20 will not support it. However, menubar localization does work. To enable it, add to your `Emacs' file entries like this:

Emacs*XlwMenu.resourceLabels:                   True
Emacs*XlwMenu.file.labelString:                 Fichier
Emacs*XlwMenu.openInOtherWindow.labelString: 	In anderem Fenster oeffnen
	    

The name of the resource is derived from the non-localized entry by removing punctuation and capitalizing as above.

Q1.3.5: Please explain the various input methods in MULE/XEmacs

MORIOKA Tomohiko writes:

Original Mule supports the following input methods: Wnn4, Wnn6, Canna, SJ3 and XIM. Interfaces for Wnn and SJ3 uses the egg user interface. Interface for Canna does not use `egg'. I don't know about XIM. It is to support ATOK, of course, it may work for another servers.

Wnn supports Japanese, Chinese and Korean. It is made by OMRON and Kyôto university. It is a powerful and complex system. Wnn4 is free and Wnn6 is not free.

Canna supports only Japanese. It is made by NEC. It is a simple and powerful system. Canna uses only grammar (Wnn uses grammar and probability between words), so I think Wnn is cleverer than Canna, however Canna users made a good grammar and dictionary. So for standard modern Japanese, Canna seems cleverer than Wnn4. In addition, the UNIX version of Canna is free (now there is a Microsoft Windows version).

SJ3 supports only Japanese. It is made by Sony. XIM supports was made to use ATOK (a major input method in personal computer world). XIM is the standard for accessing input methods bundled in Japanese versions of Solaris. (XEmacs 20 will support XIM input).

Egg consists of following parts:

1. Input character Translation System (ITS) layer. It translates ASCII inputs to Kana/PinYin/Hangul characters.

2. Kana/PinYin/Hangul to Kanji transfer layer. It is interface layer for network Kana-Kanji server (Wnn and Sj3).

These input methods are modal, namely there are mode, alphabet mode and Kana-Kanji transfer mode. However there are mode-less input methods for Egg and Canna. `Boiled-egg' is a mode-less input method running on Egg. For Canna, `canna.el' has a tiny boiled-egg like command, (canna-boil), and there are some boiled-egg like utilities. In addition, it was planned to make an abstraction for all transfer type input methods. However authors of input methods are busy, so maybe this plan is stopped. Perhaps after Mule merged GNU Emacs will be released, it will be continued.

Q1.3.6: How do I portably code for MULE/XEmacs?

MORIOKA Tomohiko writes:

MULE and XEmacs are quite different. So the application implementor must write separate code for these mule variants.

MULE and the next version of Emacs are similar but the symbols are very different--requiring separate code as well.

Namely we must support 3 kinds of mule variants and 4 or 5 or 6 kinds of emacs variants... (;_;) I'm shocked, so I wrote a wrapper package called emu to provide a common interface.

I have the following suggestions about dealing with mule variants:

• (featurep 'mule) t on all mule variants

• (boundp 'MULE) is t on only MULE. Maybe the next version of Emacs will not have this symbol.

• MULE has a variable mule-version. Perhaps the next version of Emacs will have this variable as well.

Following is a sample to distinguish mule variants:

(if (featurep 'mule) (cond ((boundp 'MULE) ;; for original Mule ) ((string-match "XEmacs" emacs-version) ;; for XEmacs with Mule ) (t ;; for next version of Emacs )) ;; for old emacs variants )

Q1.3.7: How about Cyrillic Modes?

Ilya Zakharevich writes:

There is a cyrillic mode in the file `mysetup.zip' in ftp://ftp.math.ohio-state.edu/pub/users/ilya/emacs/. This is a modification to Valery Alexeev's `russian.el' which can be obtained from

http://ftpsearch.lycos.com/?query=russian.el.Z&form=medium.

Dima Barsky writes:

There is another cyrillic mode for both GNU Emacs and XEmacs by Dmitrii (Mitya) Manin at http://kulichki-lat.rambler.ru/centrolit/manin/cyr.el.

Rebecca Ore writes:

The fullest resource I found on Russian language use (in and out of XEmacs) is http://www.ibiblio.org/sergei/Software/Software.html

1.4: Getting Started, Backing up & Recovery

Q1.4.1: What is an `init.el' or `.emacs' and is there a sample one?

The `init.el' or `.emacs' file is used to customize XEmacs to your tastes. Starting in 21.4, the preferred location for the init file is `~/.xemacs/init.el'; in previous versions, it was `~/.emacs'. 21.4 still accepts the old location, but the first time you run it, it will ask to migrate your file to the new location. If you answer yes, the file will be moved, and a "compatibility" `.emacs' file will be placed in the old location so that you can still run older versions of XEmacs, and versions of GNU Emacs, which expect the old location. The `.emacs' file present is just a stub that loads the real file in `~/.xemacs/init.el'.

No two init files are alike, nor are they expected to be alike, but that's the point. The XEmacs distribution contains an excellent starter example in the `etc/' directory called `sample.init.el' (starting in 21.4) or `sample.emacs' in older versions. Copy this file from there to `~/.xemacs/init.el' (starting in 21.4) or `~/.emacs' in older versions, where `~' means your home directory, of course. Then edit it to suit.

You may bring the `sample.init.el' or `sample.emacs' file into an XEmacs buffer from the menubar. (The menu entry for it is always under the `Help' menu, but its location under that has changed in various versions. Recently, look under the `Samples' submenu.) To determine the location of the `etc/' directory type the command C-h v data-directory RET.

Q1.4.2: Can I use the same `init.el'/`.emacs' with the other Emacs?

Yes. The sample `init.el'/`.emacs' included in the XEmacs distribution will show you how to handle different versions and flavors of Emacs.

Q1.4.3: Any good tutorials around?

There's the XEmacs tutorial available from the Help Menu under `Basics->Tutorials', or by typing C-h t. To check whether it's available in a non-english language, type C-u C-h t TAB, type the first letters of your preferred language, then type RET.

Q1.4.4: May I see an example of a useful XEmacs Lisp function?

The following function does a little bit of everything useful. It does something with the prefix argument, it examines the text around the cursor, and it's interactive so it may be bound to a key. It inserts copies of the current word the cursor is sitting on at the cursor. If you give it a prefix argument: C-u 3 M-x double-word then it will insert 3 copies.

(defun double-word (count)
  "Insert a copy of the current word underneath the cursor"
  (interactive "*p")
  (let (here there string)
    (save-excursion
      (forward-word -1)
      (setq here (point))
      (forward-word 1)
      (setq there (point))
      (setq string (buffer-substring here there)))
    (while (>= count 1)
      (insert string)
      (decf count))))
	    

The best way to see what is going on here is to let XEmacs tell you. Put the code into an XEmacs buffer, and do a C-h f with the cursor sitting just to the right of the function you want explained. Eg. move the cursor to the SPACE between interactive and `"*p"' and hit C-h f to see what the function interactive does. Doing this will tell you that the * requires a writable buffer, and p converts the prefix argument to a number, and interactive allows you to execute the command with M-x.

Q1.4.5: And how do I bind it to a key?

To bind to a key do:

(global-set-key "\C-cd" 'double-word)
	    

Or interactively, M-x global-set-key and follow the prompts.

Q1.4.6: What's the difference between a macro and a function?

Quoting from the Lisp Reference (a.k.a Lispref) Manual:

Macros enable you to define new control constructs and other language features. A macro is defined much like a function, but instead of telling how to compute a value, it tells how to compute another Lisp expression which will in turn compute the value. We call this expression the expansion of the macro.

Macros can do this because they operate on the unevaluated expressions for the arguments, not on the argument values as functions do. They can therefore construct an expansion containing these argument expressions or parts of them.

Do not confuse the two terms with keyboard macros, which are another matter, entirely. A keyboard macro is a key bound to several other keys. Refer to manual for details.

2 Installation and Trouble Shooting

This is part 2 of the XEmacs Frequently Asked Questions list. This section is devoted to Installation, Maintenance and Trouble Shooting.

2.0: Installation

Q2.0.1: Running XEmacs without installing

How can I just try XEmacs without installing it?

XEmacs will run in place without requiring installation and copying of the Lisp directories, and without having to specify a special build-time flag. It's the copying of the Lisp directories that requires so much space. XEmacs is largely written in Lisp.

A good method is to make a shell alias for xemacs:

alias xemacs=/i/xemacs-20.2/src/xemacs
	    

(You will obviously use whatever directory you downloaded the source tree to instead of `/i/xemacs-20.2').

This will let you run XEmacs without massive copying.

Q2.0.2: XEmacs is too big

The space required by the installation directories can be reduced dramatically if desired. Gzip all the .el files. Remove all the packages you'll never want to use. Remove the TexInfo manuals. Remove the Info (and use just hardcopy versions of the manual). Remove most of the stuff in etc. Remove or gzip all the source code. Gzip or remove the C source code. Configure it so that copies are not made of the support lisp.

These are all Emacs Lisp source code and bytecompiled object code. You may safely gzip everything named *.el here. You may remove any package you don't use. Nothing bad will happen if you delete a package that you do not use. You must be sure you do not use it though, so be conservative at first.

Possible candidates for deletion include w3, games, hyperbole, mh-e, hm-html-menus, vm, viper, oobr, gnus, etc. Ask yourself, Do I ever want to use this package? If the answer is no, then it is a candidate for removal.

First, gzip all the .el files. Then go about package by package and start gzipping the .elc files. Then run XEmacs and do whatever it is you normally do. If nothing bad happens, then delete the directory. Be conservative about deleting directories, and it would be handy to have a backup around in case you get too zealous.

`prim', `modes', `packages', and `utils' are four directories you definitely do not want to delete, although certain packages can be removed from them if you do not use them.

Online texinfo sources in the `info' can either be compressed them or remove them. In either case, C-h i (info mode) will no longer work.

Q2.0.3: Compiling XEmacs with Netaudio.

What is the best way to compile XEmacs with the netaudio system, since I have got the netaudio system compiled but installed at a weird place, I am not root. Also in the READMEs it does not say anything about compiling with the audioserver?

You should only need to add some stuff to the configure command line. To tell it to compile in netaudio support: `--with-sound=both', or `--with-sound=nas' if you don't want native sound support for some reason.) To tell it where to find the netaudio includes and libraries:

--site-libraries=WHATEVER
--site-includes=WHATEVER
	    

Then (fingers crossed) it should compile and it will use netaudio if you have a server running corresponding to the X server. The netaudio server has to be there when XEmacs starts. If the netaudio server goes away and another is run, XEmacs should cope (fingers crossed, error handling in netaudio isn't perfect).

BTW, netaudio has been renamed as it has a name clash with something else, so if you see references to NAS or Network Audio System, it's the same thing. It also might be found at ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/audio/nas/.

Q2.0.4: Problems with Linux and ncurses.

On Linux 1.3.98 with termcap 2.0.8 and the ncurses that came with libc 5.2.18, XEmacs 20.0b20 is unable to open a tty device:

src/xemacs -nw -q
Initialization error:
Terminal type `xterm' undefined (or can't access database?)
	    

Ben Wing writes:

Your ncurses configuration is messed up. Your /usr/lib/terminfo is a bad pointer, perhaps to a CD-ROM that is not inserted.

Q2.0.5: Do I need X11 to run XEmacs?

No. The name XEmacs is unfortunate in the sense that it is not an X Window System-only version of Emacs. XEmacs has full color support on a color-capable character terminal.

Q2.0.6: I'm having strange crashes. What do I do?

There have been a variety of reports of crashes due to compilers with buggy optimizers. Please see the `PROBLEMS' file that comes with XEmacs to read what it says about your platform.

Q2.0.7: Libraries in non-standard locations

I have x-faces, jpeg, xpm etc. all in different places. I've tried space-separated, comma-separated, several --site-libraries, all to no avail.

--site-libraries='/path/one /path/two /path/etc'
	    

Q2.0.8: can't resolve symbol _h_errno

You are using the Linux/ELF distribution of XEmacs 19.14, and your ELF libraries are out of date. You have the following options:

1. Upgrade your libc to at least 5.2.16 (better is 5.2.18, 5.3.12, or 5.4.10).

2. Patch the XEmacs binary by replacing all occurrences of `_h_errno^@' with `h_errno^@^@'. Any version of Emacs will suffice. If you don't understand how to do this, don't do it.

3. Rebuild XEmacs yourself--any working ELF version of libc should be O.K.

Hrvoje Niksic writes:

Why not use a Perl one-liner for No. 2?

perl -pi -e 's/_h_errno\0/h_errno\0\0/g' \ /usr/local/bin/xemacs-19.14

NB: You must patch `/usr/local/bin/xemacs-19.14', and not `xemacs' because `xemacs' is a link to `xemacs-19.14'; the Perl `-i' option will cause unwanted side-effects if applied to a symbolic link.

SL Baur writes:

If you build against a recent libc-5.4 (late enough to have caused problems earlier in the beta cycle) and then run with an earlier version of libc, you get a

$ xemacs xemacs: can't resolve symbol '__malloc_hook' zsh: 7942 segmentation fault (core dumped) xemacs

(Example binary compiled against libc-5.4.23 and run with libc-5.4.16).

The solution is to upgrade to at least libc-5.4.23. Sigh. Drat.

Q2.0.9: Where do I find external libraries?

All external libraries used by XEmacs can be found at the XEmacs FTP site ftp://ftp.xemacs.org/pub/xemacs/aux/.

The canonical locations (at the time of this writing) are as follows:

JPEG

ftp://ftp.uu.net/graphics/jpeg/. Version 6a is current.

XPM

ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/libraries/. Version 3.4j is current. Older versions of this package are known to cause XEmacs crashes.

TIFF

ftp://ftp.sgi.com/graphics/tiff/. v3.4 is current. The latest beta is v3.4b035. There is a HOWTO here.

PNG

ftp://ftp.uu.net/graphics/png/. 0.89c is current. XEmacs requires a fairly recent version to avoid using temporary files.

ftp://swrinde.nde.swri.edu/pub/png/src/

Compface

ftp://ftp.cs.indiana.edu/pub/faces/compface/. This library has been frozen for about 6 years, and is distributed without version numbers. It should be compiled with the same options that X11 was compiled with on your system. The version of this library at XEmacs.org includes the `xbm2xface.pl' script, written by stig@hackvan.com, which may be useful when generating your own xface.

NAS

ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/audio/nas/. Version 1.2p5 is current. There is a FAQ here.

Q2.0.10: After I run configure I find a core dump, is something wrong?

Not necessarily. If you have GNU sed 3.0 you should downgrade it to 2.05. From the `README' at prep.ai.mit.edu:

sed 3.0 has been withdrawn from distribution. It has major revisions, which mostly seem to be improvements; but it turns out to have bugs too which cause trouble in some common cases.

Tom Lord won't be able to work fixing the bugs until May. So in the mean time, we've decided to withdraw sed 3.0 from distribution and make version 2.05 once again the recommended version.

It has also been observed that the vfork test on Solaris will leave a core dump.

Q2.0.11: XEmacs doesn't resolve hostnames.

This is the result of a long-standing problem with SunOS and the fact that stock SunOS systems do not ship with DNS resolver code in libc.

Christopher Davis writes:

That's correct [The SunOS 4.1.3 precompiled binaries don't do name lookup]. Since Sun figured that everyone used NIS to do name lookups (that DNS thing was apparently only a passing fad, right?), the stock SunOS 4.x systems don't have DNS-based name lookups in libc.

This is also why Netscape ships two binaries for SunOS 4.1.x.

The best solution is to compile it yourself; the configure script will check to see if you've put DNS in the shared libc and will then proceed to link against the DNS resolver library code.

Q2.0.12: Why can't I strip XEmacs?

Richard Cognot writes:

Because of the way XEmacs (and every other Emacsen, AFAIK) is built. The link gives you a bare-boned emacs (called temacs). temacs is then run, preloading some of the lisp files. The result is then dumped into a new executable, named xemacs, which will contain all of the preloaded lisp functions and data.

Now, during the dump itself, the executable (code+data+symbols) is written on disk using a special unexec() function. This function is obviously heavily system dependent. And on some systems, it leads to an executable which, although valid, cannot be stripped without damage. If memory serves, this is especially the case for AIX binaries. On other architectures it might work OK.

The Right Way to strip the emacs binary is to strip temacs prior to dumping xemacs. This will always work, although you can do that only if you install from sources (as temacs is `not' part of the binary kits).

Nat Makarevitch writes:

Here is the trick:

1. [ ./configure; make ]

2. rm src/xemacs

3. strip src/temacs

4. make

5. cp src/xemacs /usr/local/bin/xemacs

6. cp lib-src/DOC-19.16-XEmacs /usr/local/lib/xemacs-19.16/i586-unknown-linuxaout

Q2.0.13: I don't need no steenkin' packages. Do I? (NEW)

Strictly speaking, no. XEmacs will build and install just fine without any packages installed. However, only the most basic editing functions will be available with no packages installed, so installing packages is an essential part of making your installed XEmacs _useful_.

Q2.0.12: How do I figure out which packages to install? (NEW)

Many people really liked the old way that packages were bundled and do not want to mess with packages at all. You can grab all the packages at once like you used to with old XEmacs versions. Download the file

`xemacs-sumo.tar.gz'

For an XEmacs compiled with Mule you also need

`xemacs-mule-sumo.tar.gz'

from the `packages' directory on your XEmacs mirror archive. N.B. They are called 'Sumo Tarballs' for good reason. They are currently about 15MB and 2.3MB (gzipped) respectively.

Install them by

cd $prefix/lib/xemacs ; gunzip -c <tarballname> | tar xf -

See README.packages for more detailed installation instructions.

As the Sumo tarballs are not regenerated as often as the individual packages, it is recommended that you use the automatic package tools afterwards to pick up any recent updates.

2.1: Trouble Shooting

Q2.1.1: Help! XEmacs just crashed on me!

First of all, don't panic. Whenever XEmacs crashes, it tries extremely hard to auto-save all of your files before dying. (The main time that this will not happen is if the machine physically lost power or if you killed the XEmacs process using kill -9). The next time you try to edit those files, you will be informed that a more recent auto-save file exists. You can use M-x recover-file to retrieve the auto-saved version of the file.

You can use the command M-x recover-session after a crash to pick up where you left off.

Now, XEmacs is not perfect, and there may occasionally be times, or particular sequences of actions, that cause it to crash. If you can come up with a reproducible way of doing this (or even if you have a pretty good memory of exactly what you were doing at the time), the maintainers would be very interested in knowing about it. Post a message to comp.emacs.xemacs or send mail to crashes@xemacs.org. Please note that the `crashes' address is exclusively for crash reports.

If at all possible, include a stack backtrace of the core dump that was produced. This shows where exactly things went wrong, and makes it much easier to diagnose problems. To do this, you need to locate the core file (it's called `core', and is usually sitting in the directory that you started XEmacs from, or your home directory if that other directory was not writable). Then, go to that directory and execute a command like:

gdb `which xemacs` core
	    

and then issue the command `where' to get the stack backtrace. You might have to use dbx or some similar debugger in place of gdb. If you don't have any such debugger available, complain to your system administrator.

It's possible that a core file didn't get produced, in which case you're out of luck. Go complain to your system administrator and tell him not to disable core files by default. Also see Q2.1.15: How to Debug an XEmacs problem with a debugger, for tips and techniques for dealing with a debugger.

When making a problem report make sure that:

1. Report all of the information output by XEmacs during the crash.

2. You mention what O/S & Hardware you are running XEmacs on.

3. What version of XEmacs you are running.

4. What build options you are using.

5. If the problem is related to graphics, we will also need to know what version of the X Window System you are running, and what window manager you are using.

6. If the problem happened on a tty, please include the terminal type.

Q2.1.2: Cryptic Minibuffer messages.

When I try to use some particular option of some particular package, I get a cryptic error in the minibuffer.

If you can't figure out what's going on, select Options/General Options/Debug on Error from the Menubar and then try and make the error happen again. This will give you a backtrace that may be enlightening. If not, try reading through this FAQ; if that fails, you could try posting to comp.emacs.xemacs (making sure to include the backtrace) and someone may be able to help. If you can identify which Emacs lisp source file the error is coming from you can get a more detailed stack backtrace by doing the following:

1. Visit the .el file in an XEmacs buffer.

2. Issue the command M-x eval-current-buffer.

3. Reproduce the error.

Depending on the version of XEmacs, you may either select View->Show Message Log (recent versions), Edit->Show Messages (some earlier versions) or Help->Recent Keystrokes/Messages (other earlier versions) from the menubar to see the most recent messages. This command is bound to C-h l by default.

Q2.1.3: Translation Table Syntax messages at Startup

I get tons of translation table syntax error messages during startup. How do I get rid of them?

There are two causes of this problem. The first usually only strikes people using the prebuilt binaries. The culprit in both cases is the file `XKeysymDB'.

• The binary cannot find the `XKeysymDB' file. The location is hardcoded at compile time so if the system the binary was built on puts it a different place than your system does, you have problems. To fix, set the environment variable XKEYSYMDB to the location of the `XKeysymDB' file on your system or to the location of the one included with XEmacs which should be at `<xemacs_root_directory>/lib/xemacs-19.16/etc/XKeysymDB'.

• The binary is finding the XKeysymDB but it is out-of-date on your system and does not contain the necessary lines. Either ask your system administrator to replace it with the one which comes with XEmacs (which is the stock R6 version and is backwards compatible) or set your XKEYSYMDB variable to the location of XEmacs's described above.

Q2.1.4: Startup warnings about deducing proper fonts?

How can I avoid the startup warnings about deducing proper fonts?

This is highly dependent on your installation, but try with the following font as your base font for XEmacs and see what it does:

-adobe-courier-medium-r-*-*-*-120-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1
	    

More precisely, do the following in your resource file:

Emacs.default.attributeFont: \
-adobe-courier-medium-r-*-*-*-120-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1
	    

If you just don't want to see the `*Warnings*' buffer at startup time, you can set this:

(setq display-warning-minimum-level 'error)
	    

The buffer still exists; it just isn't in your face.

Q2.1.5: XEmacs cannot connect to my X Terminal!

Help! I can not get XEmacs to display on my Envizex X-terminal!

Try setting the DISPLAY variable using the numeric IP address of the host you are running XEmacs from.

Q2.1.6: XEmacs just locked up my Linux X server!

There have been several reports of the X server locking up under Linux. In all reported cases removing speedo and scaled fonts from the font path corrected the problem. This can be done with the command xset.

It is possible that using a font server may also solve the problem.

Q2.1.7: HP Alt key as Meta.

How can I make XEmacs recognize the Alt key of my HP workstation as a Meta key?

Put the following line into a file and load it with xmodmap(1) before starting XEmacs:

remove Mod1 = Mode_switch
	    

Q2.1.8: got (wrong-type-argument color-instance-p nil)

Natalie Kershaw writes:

I am trying to run xemacs 19.13 under X11R4. Whenever I move the mouse I get the following error. Has anyone seen anything like this? This doesn't occur on X11R5.

Signalling: (error "got (wrong-type-argument color-instance-p nil) and I don't know why!")

dinos writes:

I think this is due to undefined resources; You need to define color backgrounds and foregrounds into your `.../app-defaults/Emacs' like:

*Foreground: Black ;everything will be of black on grey95, *Background: Grey95 ;unless otherwise specified. *cursorColor: Red3 ;red3 cursor with grey95 border. *pointerColor: Red3 ;red3 pointer with grey95 border.

Natalie Kershaw adds:

What fixed the problem was adding some more colors to the X color database (copying the X11R5 colors over), and also defining the following resources:

xemacs*cursorColor: black xemacs*pointerColor: black

With the new colors installed the problem still occurs if the above resources are not defined.

If the new colors are not present then an additional error occurs on XEmacs startup, which says `Color Red3' not defined.

Q2.1.9: XEmacs causes my OpenWindows 3.0 server to crash.

The OpenWindows 3.0 server is incredibly buggy. Your best bet is to replace it with one from the generic MIT X11 release. You might also try disabling parts of your `init.el'/`.emacs', like those that enable background pixmaps.

Q2.1.10: Warnings from incorrect key modifiers.

The following information comes from the `PROBLEMS' file that comes with XEmacs.

If you're having troubles with HP/UX it is because HP/UX defines the modifiers wrong in X. Here is a shell script to fix the problem; be sure that it is run after VUE configures the X server.

#! /bin/sh
xmodmap 2> /dev/null - << EOF
keysym Alt_L = Meta_L
keysym Alt_R = Meta_R
EOF

xmodmap - << EOF
clear mod1
keysym Mode_switch = NoSymbol
add mod1 = Meta_L
keysym Meta_R = Mode_switch
add mod2 = Mode_switch
EOF
	    

Q2.1.11: `Can't instantiate image error...' in toolbar

Dr. Ram Samudrala writes:

I just installed the XEmacs (20.4-2) RPMS that I downloaded from http://www.xemacs.org/. Everything works fine, except that when I place my mouse over the toolbar, it beeps and gives me this message:

 Can't instantiate image (probably cached):
 [xbm :mask-file "/usr/include/X11/bitmaps/leftptrmsk :mask-data
 (16 16 <strange control characters> ...
	    

Kyle Jones writes:

This is problem specific to some Chips and Technologies video chips, when running XFree86. Putting

Option "sw_cursor"

in `XF86Config' gets rid of the problem.

Q2.1.12: Problems with Regular Expressions on DEC OSF1.

I have xemacs 19.13 running on an alpha running OSF1 V3.2 148 and ispell would not run because it claimed the version number was incorrect although it was indeed OK. I traced the problem to the regular expression handler.

Douglas Kosovic writes:

Actually it's a DEC cc optimization bug that screws up the regexp handling in XEmacs.

Rebuilding using the `-migrate' switch for DEC cc (which uses a different sort of optimization) works fine.

See `xemacs-19_13-dunix-3_2c.patch' at the following URL on how to build with the `-migrate' flag:

http://www-digital.cern.ch/carney/emacs/emacs.html



	    

NOTE: There have been a variety of other problems reported that are fixed in this fashion.

Q2.1.13: HP/UX 10.10 and create_process failure.

Dave Carrigan writes:

With XEmacs 19.13 and HP/UX 10.10, anything that relies on the create_process function fails. This breaks a lot of things (shell-mode, compile, ange-ftp, to name a few).

Phil Johnson writes:

This is a problem specific to HP-UX 10.10. It only occurs when XEmacs is compiled for shared libraries (the default), so you can work around it by compiling a statically-linked binary (run configure with `--dynamic=no').

I'm not sure whether the problem is with a particular shared library or if it's a kernel problem which crept into 10.10.

Richard Cognot writes:

I had a few problems with 10.10. Apparently, some of them were solved by forcing a static link of libc (manually).

Q2.1.14: C-g doesn't work for me. Is it broken?

Ben Wing writes:

C-g does work for most people in most circumstances. If it doesn't, there are only two explanations:

1. The code is wrapped with a binding of inhibit-quit to t. Ctrl-Shift-G should still work, I think.

2. SIGIO is broken on your system, but BROKEN_SIGIO isn't defined.

To test #2, try executing (while t) from the `*scratch*' buffer. If C-g doesn't interrupt, then you're seeing #2.

Morten Welinder writes:

On some (but not all) machines a hung XEmacs can be revived by kill -FPE <pid>. This is a hack, of course, not a solution. This technique works on a Sun4 running 4.1.3_U1. To see if it works for you, start another XEmacs and test with that first. If you get a core dump the method doesn't work and if you get `Arithmetic error' then it does.

Q2.1.15: How to Debug an XEmacs problem with a debugger

If XEmacs does crash on you, one of the most productive things you can do to help get the bug fixed is to poke around a bit with the debugger. Here are some hints:

• First of all, if the crash is at all reproducible, consider very strongly recompiling your XEmacs with debugging symbols and with no optimization (e.g. with GCC use the compiler flags `-g -O0' -- that's an "oh" followed by a zero), and with the configure options `--debug=yes' and `--error-checking=all'. This will make your XEmacs run somewhat slower but make it a lot more likely to catch the problem earlier (closer to its source), and a lot easier to determine what's going on with a debugger.

• If you're able to run XEmacs under a debugger and reproduce the crash (if it's inconvenient to do this because XEmacs is already running or is running in batch mode as part of a bunch of scripts, consider attaching to the existing process with your debugger; most debuggers let you do this by substituting the process ID for the core file when you invoke the debugger from the command line, or by using the attach command or something similar), here are some things you can do:

• If XEmacs is hitting an assertion failure, put a breakpoint on assert_failed().

• If XEmacs is hitting some weird Lisp error that's causing it to crash (e.g. during startup), put a breakpoint on signal_1()---this is declared static in eval.c.

• If XEmacs is outputting lots of X errors, put a breakpoint on x_error_handler(); that will tell you which call is causing them.

• Internally, you will probably see lots of variables that hold objects of type Lisp_Object. These are exactly what they appear to be, i.e. references to Lisp objects. Printing them out with the debugger probably won't be too useful--you'll likely just see a number. To decode them, do this:

  call debug_print (OBJECT)

  where OBJECT is whatever you want to decode (it can be a variable, a function call, etc.). This will print out a readable representation on the TTY from which the xemacs process was invoked.

• If you want to get a Lisp backtrace showing the Lisp call stack, do this:

  call debug_backtrace ()

• Using debug_print and debug_backtrace has two disadvantages - it can only be used with a running xemacs process, and it cannot display the internal C structure of a Lisp Object. Even if all you've got is a core dump, all is not lost.

  If you're using GDB, there are some macros in the file `src/.gdbinit' in the XEmacs source distribution that should make it easier for you to decode Lisp objects. This file is automatically read by gdb if gdb is run in the directory where xemacs was built, and contains these useful macros to inspect the state of xemacs:

  pobj

  Usage: pobj lisp_object
  Print the internal C representation of a lisp object.

  xtype

  Usage: xtype lisp_object
  Print the Lisp type of a lisp object.

  lbt

  Usage: lbt
  Print the current Lisp stack trace. Requires a running xemacs process.

  ldp

  Usage: ldp lisp_object
  Print a Lisp Object value using the Lisp printer. Requires a running xemacs process.

  run-temacs

  Usage: run-temacs
  Run temacs interactively, like xemacs. Use this with debugging tools (like purify) that cannot deal with dumping, or when temacs builds successfully, but xemacs does not.

  dump-temacs

  Usage: dump-temacs
  Run the dumping part of the build procedure. Use when debugging temacs, not xemacs! Use this when temacs builds successfully, but xemacs does not.

  check-xemacs

  Usage: check-xemacs
  Run the test suite. Equivalent to 'make check'.

  check-temacs

  Usage: check-temacs
  Run the test suite on temacs. Equivalent to 'make check-temacs'. Use this with debugging tools (like purify) that cannot deal with dumping, or when temacs builds successfully, but xemacs does not.

  If you are using Sun's `dbx' debugger, there is an equivalent file `src/.dbxrc', which defines the same commands for dbx.

• If you're using a debugger to get a C stack backtrace and you're seeing stack traces with some of the innermost frames mangled, it may be due to dynamic linking. (This happens especially under Linux.) Consider reconfiguring with `--dynamic=no'. Also, sometimes (again under Linux), stack backtraces of core dumps will have the frame where the fatal signal occurred mangled; if you can obtain a stack trace while running the XEmacs process under a debugger, the stack trace should be clean.

  Curtiss suggests upgrading to ld.so version 1.8 if dynamic linking and debugging is a problem on Linux.

• If you're using a debugger to get a C stack backtrace and you're getting a completely mangled and bogus stack trace, it's probably due to one of the following:
  1. Your executable has been stripped. Bad news. Tell your sysadmin not to do this--it doesn't accomplish anything except to save a bit of disk space, and makes debugging much much harder.

  2. Your stack is getting trashed. Debugging this is hard; you have to do a binary-search type of narrowing down where the crash occurs, until you figure out exactly which line is causing the problem. Of course, this only works if the bug is highly reproducible.

  3. If your stack trace has exactly one frame in it, with address 0x0, this could simply mean that XEmacs attempted to execute code at that address, e.g. through jumping to a null function pointer. Unfortunately, under those circumstances, GDB under Linux doesn't know how to get a stack trace. (Yes, this is the third Linux-related problem I've mentioned. I have no idea why GDB under Linux is so bogus. Complain to the GDB authors, or to comp.os.linux.development.system). Again, you'll have to use the narrowing-down process described above.

  4. You will get a Lisp backtrace output when XEmacs crashes, so you'll have something useful.

• If you compile with the newer gcc variants gcc-2.8 or egcs, you will also need gdb 4.17 or above. Earlier releases of gdb can't handle the debug information generated by the newer compilers.

• In versions of XEmacs before 21.2.27, `src/.gdbinit' was named `src/gdbinit'. This had the disadvantage of not being sourced automatically by gdb, so you had to set that up yourself.

Q2.1.16: XEmacs crashes in strcat on HP/UX 10

From the problems database (through the former address http://support.mayfield.hp.com/):

Problem Report: 5003302299
Status:         Open

System/Model:   9000/700
Product Name:   HPUX S800 10.0X
Product Vers:   9245XB.10.00

Description: strcat(3C) may read beyond
end of source string, can cause SIGSEGV


*** PROBLEM TEXT ***
strcat(3C) may read beyond the source string onto an unmapped page,
causing a segmentation violation.
	    

Q2.1.17: `Marker does not point anywhere'

As with other errors, set debug-on-error to t to get the backtrace when the error occurs. Specifically, two problems have been reported (and fixed).

1. A problem with line-number-mode in XEmacs 19.14 affected a large number of other packages. If you see this error message, turn off line-number-mode.

2. A problem with some early versions of Gnus 5.4 caused this error. Upgrade your Gnus.

Q2.1.18: XEmacs is outputting lots of X errors.

If this is happening, we would very much like to know what's causing them. To find this out, see Q2.1.15: How to Debug an XEmacs problem with a debugger. Try to get both a C and Lisp backtrace, and send them to xemacs-beta@xemacs.org.

Q2.1.19: XEmacs does not follow the local timezone.

When using one of the prebuilt binaries many users have observed that XEmacs uses the timezone under which it was built, but not the timezone under which it is running. The solution is to add:

(set-time-zone-rule "MET")
	    

to your `init.el'/`.emacs' or the `site-start.el' file if you can. Replace MET with your local timezone.

Q2.1.20: `Symbol's function definition is void: hkey-help-show.'

This is a problem with a partially loaded hyperbole. Try adding:

(require 'hmouse-drv)
	    

where you load hyperbole and the problem should go away.

Q2.1.21: [This question intentionally left blank]

Q2.1.22: XEmacs seems to take a really long time to do some things

David Moore writes:

Two things you can do:

1) C level:

When you see it going mad like this, you might want to use gdb from an 'xterm' to attach to the running process and get a stack trace. To do this just run:

gdb /path/to/xemacs/xemacs ####

Where #### is the process id of your xemacs, instead of specifying the core. When gdb attaches, the xemacs will stop [1] and you can type `where' in gdb to get a stack trace as usual. To get things moving again, you can just type `quit' in gdb. It'll tell you the program is running and ask if you want to quit anyways. Say 'y' and it'll quit and have your emacs continue from where it was at.

2) Lisp level:

Turn on debug-on-quit early on. When you think things are going slow hit C-g and it may pop you in the debugger so you can see what routine is running. Press `c' to get going again.

debug-on-quit doesn't work if something's turned on inhibit-quit or in some other strange cases.

Q2.1.23: Movemail on Linux does not work for XEmacs 19.15 and later.

Movemail used to work fine in 19.14 but has stopped working in 19.15 and 20.x. I am using Linux.

SL Baur writes:

Movemail on Linux used to default to using flock file locking. With 19.15 and later versions it now defaults to using .lock file locking. If this is not appropriate for your system, edit src/s/linux.h and uncomment the line that reads:

#define MAIL_USE_FLOCK

Q2.1.24: XEmacs won't start without network. (NEW)

If XEmacs starts when you're on the network, but fails when you're not on the network, you may be missing a "localhost" entry in your `/etc/hosts' file. The file should contain an entry like:

127.0.0.1        localhost
	    

Add that line, and XEmacs will be happy.

Q2.1.25:: After upgrading, XEmacs won't do `foo' any more! (NEW)

You have been used to doing `foo', but now when you invoke it (or click the toolbar button or select the menu item), nothing (or an error) happens. The simplest explanation is that you are missing a package that is essential to you. You can either track it down and install it (there is a list of packages and brief descriptions of their contents in `etc/PACKAGES'), or install the `Sumo Tarball' (see section Q2.0.12: How do I figure out which packages to install? (NEW)).

3 Customization and Options

This is part 3 of the XEmacs Frequently Asked Questions list. This section is devoted to Customization and screen settings.

3.0: Customization -- Emacs Lisp and `init.el'/`.emacs'

Q3.0.1: What version of Emacs am I running?

How can `init.el'/`.emacs' determine which of the family of Emacsen I am using?

To determine if you are currently running GNU Emacs 18, GNU Emacs 19, XEmacs 19, XEmacs 20, or Epoch, and use appropriate code, check out the example given in `etc/sample.init.el' (`etc/sample.emacs' in XEmacs versions prior to 21.4). There are other nifty things in there as well!

For all new code, all you really need to do is:

(defvar running-xemacs (string-match "XEmacs\\|Lucid" emacs-version))
	    

Q3.0.2: How can I evaluate Emacs-Lisp expressions?

I know I can evaluate Elisp expressions from *scratch* buffer with C-j after the expression. How do I do it from another buffer?

Press M-: (the default binding of eval-expression), and enter the expression to the minibuffer.

Q3.0.3: (setq tab-width 6) behaves oddly.

If you put (setq tab-width 6) in your `init.el'/`.emacs' file it does not work! Is there a reason for this? If you do it at the EVAL prompt it works fine!! How strange.

Use setq-default instead, since tab-width is all-buffer-local.

Q3.0.4: How can I add directories to the load-path?

Here are two ways to do that, one that puts your directories at the front of the load-path, the other at the end:

;;; Add things at the beginning of the load-path, do not add
;;; duplicate directories:
(pushnew "bar" load-path :test 'equal)

(pushnew "foo" load-path :test 'equal)

;;; Add things at the end, unconditionally
(setq load-path (nconc load-path '("foo" "bar")))
	    

keith (k.p.) hanlan writes:

To add directories using Unix shell metacharacters use `expand-file-name' like this:

(push (expand-file-name "~keithh/.emacsdir") load-path)

Q3.0.5: How to check if a lisp function is defined?

Use the following elisp:

(fboundp 'foo)
	    

It's almost always a mistake to test emacs-version or any similar variables.

Instead, use feature-tests, such as featurep, boundp, fboundp, or even simple behavioral tests, eg.:

(defvar foo-old-losing-code-p
  (condition-case nil (progn (losing-code t) nil)
    (wrong-number-of-arguments t)))
	    

There is an incredible amount of broken code out there which could work much better more often in more places if it did the above instead of trying to divine its environment from the value of one variable.

Q3.0.6: Can I force the output of (face-list) to a buffer?

It would be good having it in a buffer, as the output of (face-list) is too wide to fit to a minibuffer.

Evaluate the expression in the `*scratch*' buffer with point after the rightmost paren and typing C-j.

If the minibuffer smallness is the only problem you encounter, you can simply press C-h l to get the former minibuffer contents in a buffer.

Q3.0.7: Font selections in don't get saved after Save Options.

John Mann writes:

You have to go to Options->Frame Appearance and unselect `Frame-Local Font Menu'. If this option is selected, font changes are only applied to the current frame and do not get saved when you save options.

Also, set the following in your `init.el'/`.emacs':

(setq options-save-faces t)
	    

Q3.0.8: How do I get a single minibuffer frame?

Vin Shelton writes:

(setq initial-frame-plist '(minibuffer nil))
(setq default-frame-plist '(minibuffer nil))
(setq default-minibuffer-frame
      (make-frame
       '(minibuffer only
                    width 86
                    height 1
                    menubar-visible-p nil
                    default-toolbar-visible-p nil
                    name "minibuffer"
                    top -2
                    left -2
                    has-modeline-p nil)))
(frame-notice-user-settings)
	    

Please note: The single minibuffer frame may not be to everyone's taste, and there any number of other XEmacs options settings that may make it difficult or inconvenient to use.

Q3.0.9: What is Customize?

Starting with XEmacs 20.2 there is new system 'Customize' for customizing XEmacs options.

You can access Customize from the Options menu or invoking one of customize commands by typing eg. M-x customize, M-x customize-face, M-x customize-variable or M-x customize-apropos.

Starting with XEmacs 20.3 there is also new `browser' mode for Customize. Try it out with M-x customize-browse

3.1: X Window System & Resources

Q3.1.1: Where is a list of X resources?

Search through the `NEWS' file for `X Resources'. A fairly comprehensive list is given after it.

In addition, an `app-defaults' file is supplied, `etc/Emacs.ad' listing the defaults. The file `etc/sample.Xdefaults' gives a set of defaults that you might consider. It is essentially the same as `etc/Emacs.ad' but some entries are slightly altered. Be careful about installing the contents of this file into your `.Xdefaults' or `.Xresources' file if you use GNU Emacs under X11 as well.

Q3.1.2: How can I detect a color display?

You can test the return value of the function (device-class), as in:

(when (eq (device-class) 'color)
  (set-face-foreground  'font-lock-comment-face "Grey")
  (set-face-foreground  'font-lock-string-face  "Red")
  ....
  )
	    

Q3.1.3: [This question intentionally left blank]

Q3.1.4: [This question intentionally left blank]

Q3.1.5: How can I get the icon to just say `XEmacs'?

I'd like the icon to just say `XEmacs', and not include the name of the current file in it.

Add the following line to your `init.el'/`.emacs':

(setq frame-icon-title-format "XEmacs")
	    

Q3.1.6: How can I have the window title area display the full path?

I'd like to have the window title area display the full directory/name of the current buffer file and not just the name.

Add the following line to your `init.el'/`.emacs':

(setq frame-title-format "%S: %f")
	    

A more sophisticated title might be:

(setq frame-title-format
      '("%S: " (buffer-file-name "%f"
                                 (dired-directory dired-directory "%b"))))
	    

That is, use the file name, or the dired-directory, or the buffer name.

Q3.1.7: `xemacs -name junk' doesn't work?

When I run `xterm -name junk', I get an xterm whose class name according to xprop, is `junk'. This is the way it's supposed to work, I think. When I run `xemacs -name junk' the class name is not set to `junk'. It's still `emacs'. What does `xemacs -name' really do? The reason I ask is that my window manager (fvwm) will make a window sticky and I use XEmacs to read my mail. I want that XEmacs window to be sticky, without having to use the window manager's function to set the window sticky. What gives?

`xemacs -name' sets the application name for the program (that is, the thing which normally comes from `argv[0]'). Using `-name' is the same as making a copy of the executable with that new name. The WM_CLASS property on each frame is set to the frame-name, and the application-class. So, if you did `xemacs -name FOO' and then created a frame named BAR, you'd get an X window with WM_CLASS = ( "BAR", "Emacs"). However, the resource hierarchy for this widget would be:

Name:    FOO   .shell             .container   .BAR
Class:   Emacs .TopLevelEmacsShell.EmacsManager.EmacsFrame
	    

instead of the default

Name:    xemacs.shell             .container   .emacs
Class:   Emacs .TopLevelEmacsShell.EmacsManager.EmacsFrame
	    

It is arguable that the first element of WM_CLASS should be set to the application-name instead of the frame-name, but I think that's less flexible, since it does not give you the ability to have multiple frames with different WM_CLASS properties. Another possibility would be for the default frame name to come from the application name instead of simply being `emacs'. However, at this point, making that change would be troublesome: it would mean that many users would have to make yet another change to their resource files (since the default frame name would suddenly change from `emacs' to `xemacs', or whatever the executable happened to be named), so we'd rather avoid it.

To make a frame with a particular name use:

(make-frame '((name . "the-name")))
	    

Q3.1.8: `-iconic' doesn't work.

When I start up XEmacs using `-iconic' it doesn't work right. Using `-unmapped' on the command line, and setting the initiallyUnmapped X Resource don't seem to help much either...

Ben Wing writes:

Ugh, this stuff is such an incredible mess that I've about given up getting it to work. The principal problem is numerous window-manager bugs...

3.2: Textual Fonts & Colors

Q3.2.1: How can I set color options from `init.el'/`.emacs'?

How can I set the most commonly used color options from my `init.el'/`.emacs' instead of from my `.Xdefaults'?

Like this:

(set-face-background 'default      "bisque") ; frame background
(set-face-foreground 'default      "black") ; normal text
(set-face-background 'zmacs-region "red") ; When selecting w/
                                        ; mouse
(set-face-foreground 'zmacs-region "yellow")
(set-face-font       'default      "*courier-bold-r*120-100-100*")
(set-face-background 'highlight    "blue") ; Ie when selecting
                                        ; buffers
(set-face-foreground 'highlight    "yellow")
(set-face-background 'modeline     "blue") ; Line at bottom
                                        ; of buffer
(set-face-foreground 'modeline     "white")
(set-face-font       'modeline     "*bold-r-normal*140-100-100*")
(set-face-background 'isearch      "yellow") ; When highlighting
                                        ; while searching
(set-face-foreground 'isearch      "red")
(setq x-pointer-foreground-color   "black") ; Adds to bg color,
                                        ; so keep black
(setq x-pointer-background-color   "blue") ; This is color
                                        ; you really
                                        ; want ptr/crsr
	    

Q3.2.2: How do I set the text, menu and modeline fonts?

Note that you should use `Emacs.' and not `Emacs*' when setting face values.

In `.Xdefaults':

Emacs.default.attributeFont:  -*-*-medium-r-*-*-*-120-*-*-m-*-*-*
Emacs*menubar*font:           fixed
Emacs.modeline.attributeFont: fixed
	    

This is confusing because modeline is a face, and can be found listed with all faces in the current mode by using M-x set-face-font (enter) ?. It uses the face specification of attributeFont, while menubar is a normal X thing that uses the specification font. With Motif it may be necessary to use fontList instead of font.

Q3.2.3: How can I set the colors when highlighting a region?

How can I set the background/foreground colors when highlighting a region?

You can change the face zmacs-region either in your `.Xdefaults':

Emacs.zmacs-region.attributeForeground: firebrick
Emacs.zmacs-region.attributeBackground: lightseagreen
	    

or in your `init.el'/`.emacs':

(set-face-background 'zmacs-region "red")
(set-face-foreground 'zmacs-region "yellow")
	    

Q3.2.4: How can I limit color map usage?

I'm using Netscape (or another color grabber like XEmacs); is there any way to limit the number of available colors in the color map?

Answer: No, but you can start Netscape before XEmacs, and it will use the closest available color if the colormap is full. You can also limit the number of colors Netscape uses, using the flags -mono, -ncols <#> or -install (for mono, limiting to <#> colors, or for using a private color map).

If you have the money, another solution would be to use a truecolor or direct color video.

Q3.2.5: My tty supports color, but XEmacs doesn't use them.

XEmacs tries to automatically determine whether your tty supports color, but sometimes guesses wrong. In that case, you can make XEmacs Do The Right Thing using this Lisp code:

(if (eq 'tty (device-type))
    (set-device-class nil 'color))
	    

Q3.2.6: Can I have pixmap backgrounds in XEmacs?

There are several ways to do it. For example, you could specify a default pixmap image to use in your `~/.Xresources', e.g.,

Emacs*EmacsFrame.default.attributeBackgroundPixmap: /path/to/image.xpm

and then reload ~/.Xresources and restart XEmacs. Alternatively, since each face can have its own pixmap background, a better way would be to set a face's pixmap within your XEmacs init file, e.g.,

(set-face-background-pixmap 'default "/path/to/image.xpm") (set-face-background-pixmap 'bold "/path/to/another_image.xpm")

and so on. You can also do this interactively via M-x edit-faces.

3.3: The Modeline

Q3.3.1: How can I make the modeline go away?

(set-specifier has-modeline-p nil)
	    

Q3.3.2: How do you have XEmacs display the line number in the modeline?

Add the following line to your `init.el'/`.emacs' file to display the line number:

(line-number-mode 1)
	    

Use the following to display the column number:

(column-number-mode 1)
	    

Or select from the Options menu Advanced (Customize)->Emacs->Editing->Basics->Line Number Mode and/or Advanced (Customize)->Emacs->Editing->Basics->Column Number Mode

Or type M-x customize RET editing-basics RET.

Q3.3.3: How do I get XEmacs to put the time of day on the modeline?

Add the following line to your `init.el'/`.emacs' file to display the time:

(display-time)
	    

See Customize from the Options menu for customization.

Q3.3.4: How do I turn off current chapter from AUC TeX modeline?

With AUC TeX, fast typing is hard because the current chapter, section etc. are given in the modeline. How can I turn this off?

It's not AUC TeX, it comes from func-menu in `func-menu.el'.

David Hughes writes:

Try this; you'll still get the function name displayed in the modeline, but it won't attempt to keep track when you modify the file. To refresh when it gets out of synch, you simply need click on the `Rescan Buffer' option in the function-menu.

(setq-default fume-auto-rescan-buffer-p nil)

Q3.3.5: How can one change the modeline color based on the mode used?

You can use something like the following:

(add-hook 'lisp-mode-hook
          (lambda ()
            (set-face-background 'modeline "red" (current-buffer))))
	    

Then, when editing a Lisp file (i.e. when in Lisp mode), the modeline colors change from the default set in your `init.el'/`.emacs'. The change will only be made in the buffer you just entered (which contains the Lisp file you are editing) and will not affect the modeline colors anywhere else.

Notes:

• The hook is the mode name plus -hook. eg. c-mode-hook, c++-mode-hook, emacs-lisp-mode-hook (used for your `init.el'/`.emacs' or a `xx.el' file), lisp-interaction-mode-hook (the `*scratch*' buffer), text-mode-hook, etc.

• Be sure to use add-hook, not (setq c-mode-hook xxxx), otherwise you will erase anything that anybody has already put on the hook.

• You can also do (set-face-font 'modeline font), eg. (set-face-font 'modeline "*bold-r-normal*140-100-100*" (current-buffer)) if you wish the modeline font to vary based on the current mode.

There are additional modeline faces, modeline-buffer-id, modeline-mousable, and modeline-mousable-minor-mode, which you may want to customize.

3.4: Multiple Device Support

Q3.4.1: How do I open a frame on another screen of my multi-headed display?

Use the command M-x make-frame-on-display. This command is also on the File menu in the menubar.

The command make-frame-on-tty also exists, which will establish a connection to any tty-like device. Opening the TTY devices should be left to gnuclient, though.

Q3.4.2: Can I really connect to a running XEmacs after calling up over a modem? How?

Yes. Use gnuclient -nw. (Prior to 20.3, use the gnuattach program supplied with XEmacs instead.)

Also see Q5.0.12: How do I disable gnuserv from opening a new frame?.

3.5: The Keyboard

Q3.5.1: How can I bind complex functions (or macros) to keys?

As an example, say you want the paste key on a Sun keyboard to insert the current Primary X selection at point. You can accomplish this with:

(define-key global-map [f18] 'x-insert-selection)
	    

However, this only works if there is a current X selection (the selection will be highlighted). The functionality I like is for the paste key to insert the current X selection if there is one, otherwise insert the contents of the clipboard. To do this you need to pass arguments to x-insert-selection. This is done by wrapping the call in a 'lambda form:

(global-set-key [f18]
  (lambda () (interactive) (x-insert-selection t nil)))
	    

This binds the f18 key to a generic functional object. The interactive spec is required because only interactive functions can be bound to keys.

For the FAQ example you could use:

(global-set-key [(control ?.)]
  (lambda () (interactive) (scroll-up 1)))
(global-set-key [(control ?;)]
  (lambda () (interactive) (scroll-up -1)))
	    

This is fine if you only need a few functions within the lambda body. If you're doing more it's cleaner to define a separate function as in question 3.5.3 (see section Q3.5.3: How do I bind C-. and C-; to scroll one line up and down?).

Q3.5.2: How can I stop down-arrow from adding empty lines to the bottom of my buffers?

Add the following line to your `init.el'/`.emacs' file:

(setq next-line-add-newlines nil)
	    

This has been the default setting in XEmacs for some time.

Q3.5.3: How do I bind C-. and C-; to scroll one line up and down?

Add the following (Thanks to Richard Mlynarik and Wayne Newberry) to `.emacs':

(defun scroll-up-one-line ()
  (interactive)
  (scroll-up 1))

(defun scroll-down-one-line ()
  (interactive)
  (scroll-down 1))

(global-set-key [(control ?.)] 'scroll-up-one-line) ; C-.
(global-set-key [(control ?;)] 'scroll-down-one-line) ; C-;
	    

The key point is that you can only bind simple functions to keys; you can not bind a key to a function that you're also passing arguments to. (see section 3.5: The Keyboard for a better answer).

Q3.5.4: Globally binding Delete?

I cannot manage to globally bind my Delete key to something other than the default. How does one do this?

Answer: The problem is that many modes explicitly bind Delete. To get around this, try the following:

(defun foo ()
  (interactive)
  (message "You hit DELETE"))

(define-key key-translation-map 'delete 'redirected-delete)
(global-set-key 'redirected-delete 'foo)
	    

Also see Q3.5.10: Can I turn on sticky modifier keys?.

Q3.5.5: Scrolling one line at a time.

Can the cursor keys scroll the screen a line at a time, rather than the default half page jump? I tend it to find it disorienting.

Try this:

(defun scroll-one-line-up (&optional arg)
  "Scroll the selected window up (forward in the text) one line (or N lines)."
  (interactive "p")
  (scroll-up (or arg 1)))

(defun scroll-one-line-down (&optional arg)
  "Scroll the selected window down (backward in the text) one line (or N)."
  (interactive "p")
  (scroll-down (or arg 1)))

(global-set-key [up]   'scroll-one-line-up)
(global-set-key [down] 'scroll-one-line-down)
	    

The following will also work but will affect more than just the cursor keys (i.e. C-n and C-p):

(setq scroll-step 1)
	    

Starting with XEmacs-20.3 you can also change this with Customize. Select from the Options menu Advanced (Customize)->Emacs->Environment->Windows->Scroll Step... or type M-x customize RET windows RET.

Q3.5.6: How to map Help key alone on Sun type4 keyboard?

The following works in GNU Emacs 19:

(global-set-key [help] 'help-command);; Help
	    

The following works in XEmacs with the addition of shift:

(global-set-key [(shift help)] 'help-command);; Help
	    

But it doesn't work alone. This is in the file `PROBLEMS' which should have come with your XEmacs installation: Emacs ignores the help key when running OLWM.

OLWM grabs the help key, and retransmits it to the appropriate client using XSendEvent. Allowing Emacs to react to synthetic events is a security hole, so this is turned off by default. You can enable it by setting the variable x-allow-sendevents to t. You can also cause fix this by telling OLWM to not grab the help key, with the null binding OpenWindows.KeyboardCommand.Help:.

Q3.5.7: How can you type in special characters in XEmacs?

Another way is to use the iso-insert package. Then you can use sequences like C-x 8 " a to get ä, etc.

Glynn Clements writes:

It depends upon your X server.

Generally, the simplest way is to define a key as Multi_key with xmodmap, e.g.

xmodmap -e 'keycode 0xff20 = Multi_key'

You will need to pick an appropriate keycode. Use xev to find out the keycodes for each key.

[NB: On a `Windows' keyboard, recent versions of XFree86 automatically define the right `Windows' key as Multi_key'.]

Once you have Multi_key defined, you can use e.g.

Multi a ' => á Multi e " => ë Multi c , => ç

etc.

Also, recent versions of XFree86 define various AltGr-<key> combinations as dead keys, i.e.

AltGr [ => dead_diaeresis AltGr ] => dead_tilde AltGr ; => dead_acute

etc.

Running `xmodmap -pk' will list all of the defined keysyms.

Q3.5.8: [This question intentionally left blank]

Obsolete question, left blank to avoid renumbering.

Q3.5.9: How do I make the Delete key delete forward?

With XEmacs-20.2 use the delbs package:

(require 'delbs)
	    

This will give you the functions delbs-enable-delete-forward to set things up, and delbs-disable-delete-forward to revert to "normal" behavior. Note that delbackspace package is obsolete.

Starting with XEmacs-20.3 better solution is to set variable delete-key-deletes-forward to t. You can also change this with Customize. Select from the Options menu Advanced (Customize)->Emacs->Editing->Basics->Delete Key Deletes Forward or type M-x customize RET editing-basics RET.

Also see Q3.5.4: Globally binding Delete?.

Q3.5.10: Can I turn on sticky modifier keys?

Yes, with (setq modifier-keys-are-sticky t). This will give the effect of being able to press and release Shift and have the next character typed come out in upper case. This will affect all the other modifier keys like Control and Meta as well.

Ben Wing writes:

One thing about the sticky modifiers is that if you move the mouse out of the frame and back in, it cancels all currently "stuck" modifiers.

Q3.5.11: How do I map the arrow keys?

Sam Steingold writes:

; both XEmacs and Emacs (define-key global-map [(control right)] 'forward-word)

or

; Emacs only (define-key global-map [C-right] 'forward-word)

or

; ver > 20, both (define-key global-map (kbd "C-<right>") 'forward-word)

3.6: The Cursor

Q3.6.1: Is there a way to make the bar cursor thicker?

I'd like to have the bar cursor a little thicker, as I tend to "lose" it often.

For a 1 pixel bar cursor, use:

(setq bar-cursor t)
	    

For a 2 pixel bar cursor, use:

(setq bar-cursor 'anything-else)
	    

Starting with XEmacs-20.3 you can also change these with Customize. Select from the Options menu Advanced (Customize)->Emacs->Environment->Display->Bar Cursor... or type M-x customize RET display RET.

You can use a color to make it stand out better:

Emacs*cursorColor:      Red
	    

Q3.6.2: Is there a way to get back the block cursor?

(setq bar-cursor nil)
	    

Starting with XEmacs 20.3 you can also change this with Customize. Select from the Options menu Advanced (Customize)->Emacs->Environment->Display->Bar Cursor... or type M-x customize RET display RET.