Note: A Note from the Author

Yes, greetings, this post is more of a signpost for my readers. If I were putting this into a book, at this point, there would be a big stop sign. . . .

• I'm starting to get into some hard material, now. Yes, I know, finally starting to run out of "newbie" topics. (Not insulting you newbies, just keep working it.) (Yes, I was a newbie, once. Actually, I have been several times, for that matter. )

• Anyhow, digging into deeper issues, customization, and "reasons to use" LISP code inside XEmacs are hard posts. I will strive to give you all the facts, be precise about "every detail" necessary, to make such and such work. However, please be aware, Unix as great as it is. There are times, things just don't work, as someone else says. (I find this a lot. While, researching the details for material on these posts.) (A good example, assigning custom control keys for your own "key bindings.")

• Plus, you have to pay a lot of attention, to every keystroke, the "exact" way code is written, and occasionally "reflect" why is it written that way. Until, you get it working the first time, which should be considerably easier for you, since I'm giving very explicit instructions. You have to be prepared for a little bit of a bumpy road, at times. If you get frustrated or need a break. Take one, cool off. You'll never master LISP in one night. (Unless, your mind really is a LISP state machine. Mine is not.)

= Several of these instructions, how you set it up, and "actually" getting it to work; are particular things. This means, it is quite likely E-macs and XEmacs differ a little or a lot, in doing the same thing. Also, it can quickly become version (to XEmacs) specific or particular. (Although, I haven't observed such a problem, yet. Just using the current newest / recent Debian release.)

= Here are the version specifics to two of my systems. xemacs --version will reveal this on the command line.

XEmacs 21.4 (patch 12) "Portable Code" [Lucid]
XEmacs 21.4 (patch 17) "Jumbo Shrimp" [Lucid] (i386-debian-linux, Mule)

• Now, I've said all this. Enjoy.

Platform: Linux
Level: Basic
GlR