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Ask HN: Common sense emacs tutorial that doesn't assume I'm stupid?

8 points by baddox ↗ HN
I know there are tons of tutorials on anything I want that I could find via google. However, I'm wondering if anyone knows of a good emacs tutorial that assumes I know why way around a command line and am familiar with programming. I have recently read The Little Schemer and am currently reading SICP, and I am starving for a better Lisp workflow. For example, interacting with my own code via a REPL is something I would love to experience. I have read some tutorials and had a bit of success, but it's mostly skimming through either elementary stuff, or stuff that assumes I already know emacs. Thanks a lot for any tips or links.

3 comments

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Fixnum
Emacs has pretty good/massive documentation: for help, just press "C-h t" (Control-h, then t ...) for a tutorial. Or, type "M-x info" to get into info mode and then scroll down to the Emacs section. Type 'h' in info mode for a tutorial on info ...

Are you using Scheme or Common Lisp? For MIT Scheme or similar, you might want to take the Emacs tutorial in Edwin instead (start MIT Scheme with the "-edit" flag) since it contains Scheme-specific commands. Also check out http://www.gnu.org/software/mit-scheme/ and follow the directions to install xscheme.elc - it gives you a Scheme-mode optimized for MIT Scheme. This doesn't compare to SLIME mode for Common Lisp, but I don't know of a good substitute.

That said, there are QUITE a lot of Emacs and Scheme-mode commands, and the only way to learn them is through use. Once you're familiar with the basics (motions and evaluating), you might take a list of commands you want to master and put up two or three at a time, making a point of using them. Here's a very limited and basic set of Emacs/Scheme commands: http://github.com/bcdarwin/SICP/blob/master/emacs_bindings_s...

There is also customization via the .emacs file or Emacs Lisp programming; see the Emacs info documentation or the O'Reilly books on this.

mnemonicsloth
You might try the elisp programming intro. You can read it online at http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/emacs-lisp-intro/, but the right way to access it is within emacs. It should have an entry in the list of top-level nodes you'll see if you hit M-x info.

Emacs also has a built-in repl, the Interactive ELisp Mode. Hit M-x (alt-x) and type ielm (your cursor will have jumped down to the minibuffer below the mode line) and hit enter. You'll find yourself in a buffer with an elisp prompt, where you can use tab completion and elisp's doc functions to do a lot of learning:

  (documentation FOO)
  (apropos STRING)
documentation finds the docstring attached to function FOO and apropos searches for functions whose names match STRING.
Ixiaus
DrScheme (included with PLT-Scheme) is best for learning Scheme IMHO - the different language packs are really helpful, the stepper is AMAZING (using the stepper was the only way I was able to grasp/see a continuation and collector in real time).

Emacs is my primary programming environment but thus far DrScheme beats Emacs with it's visual debugger and stepper - it is perfect for learning.