massar@think.ARPA (JP Massar) (08/21/85)
The following, written by a 'layman' here at TMC (where EMACS is used
in one form or another to the exclusion of anything else), is hereby
submitted for your amusement. Please do not direct flames this-a-way.
The author chooses to remain anonymous (possibly in fear of RMS,
Gosling, Zimmerman, et al, but who knows...)
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The Unsuspecting Layman's Guide to EMACS
EMACS is the name of a text editor that everyone around here, sooner or
later, learns how to use. (So far the longest hold-out has been about
three months.) Learning to use EMACS is exactly the same as learning to
ride a bicycle. It is awkward, counter-intuitive, frequently painful,
and the documentation is no help at all. Bicycles are optimized for
efficient use by those who already know how; they are not optimized for
the learning period. Neither is EMACS. One of the most painful parts of
learning to ride a bicycle is enduring the snotty condescension of those
who go whizzing by no-hands, bragging about how easy it is. Be prepared
to have that happen as you struggle with EMACS as well.
So why learn at all? Because EMACS is buried inside every computer
capability around this place. Systems do not replicate any of EMACS'
facilities; they just assume you will use it. So learn you must.
Hopefully you have experience with a real-world word processor of some
sort, so you are familiar with the two kinds of entries you make: ``text''
which is meant to be part of your finished document, and ``command''
which indicate what you want done with the text. Word processors in
particular make an effort to make the commands as intuitive and
self-explanatory as possible. When you say ``paste'' or ``delete,'' you
probably feel pretty confident that you know what is about to happen as
a result.
EMACS offers none of this confidence to the hesitant user. You can hold
down the Ctrl key and press `A' and not have a clue as to what, if
anything, will happen as a result. Most all EMACS commands are of this
cryptic form; either a letter typed while holding down the Ctrl key
or a letter typed after typing the Esc key. Many important ones are
combinations of two of these things. What each one does is what the
designer of EMACS decided it should do, no more and no less. You simply
have to learn. The E key, for example, is frequently useful. Hit with
the Ctrl key held down, it moves the blinking box to the end of the
line. But it's quite a thrill the first time you hook your shot slightly
to the left of the fairway and catch the W key instead. Not to worry.
Just slice your next shot three fairways to the right and catch the Y
key. Got that?
There are some pretty good crib sheets summarizing the forty to fifty
commands you will need to know to be effective. Keep practicing until
you learn them. Try not to compare the time it takes to enter an EMACS
command (14 seconds of searching the documentation plus 100 milliseconds
to press a key while holding down Ctrl) with the time it takes to
type a six letter command on a word processor (six seconds or less.) You
will get your remember/lookup time down to 3-4 seconds per command and
then you will be ahead of the game.
At this point, you can decide whether to take up free-styling and learn
the hundred-odd other things you can do to a piece of text by typing
pairs of characters in combination with Ctrl keys and Esc keys.
Better yet, you can tart up your keyboard with custom keycaps, several
of which use the Shift key. Now you can learn all the things that happen
when you hold down Shift when you meant to hold down Ctrl. And vice
versa. There are two reasons to learn these advanced capabilities. One
is if you will be doing a lot of programming or other keyboarding. If
you're doing it several hours a day, you might as well learn how to ride
no-hands and do wheelies. The other reason is to be able to lie in wait
of the next new person who will struggle with EMACS. Watching he/she
groping through a slow succession of elementary commands, you can swoop
in and say something rich and meaningful like, ``Oh, that's easy. You can
do the whole thing with a ten meta X control K.''
Question: ``Why is EMACS spelled EMACS and not EMAX?''
Answer: ``Because if it were spelled EMAX, it would have to be
pronounced ee-{\it mak}.''
--
-- JP Massar, Thinking Machines Corporation, Cambridge, MA
-- ihnp4!godot!massar, massar@think.com.arpa
-- 617-876-1111