ErgoEmacs Features

2010-01-29

This page documents the main features of ErgoEmacs.

Features

ErgoEmacs is a emacs distribution based on GNU Emacs, so it has ALL the features of emacs.

For a introduction of what emacs can do, see:

A Guided Tour of Emacs (gnu.org)
Fun With Emacs

Difference From GNU Emacs

ErgoEmacs improves GNU Emacs for people who did not grow up with emacs. User interface is based on common modern software interface familiar to most people today, such as using “Ctrl+C” key for Copy, “Ctrl+Z” for undo, “Ctrl+O” for Open file, and also bundles many elisp packages that are not in GNU Emacs.

Here is a list of major differences and additions.

Standard Keyboard Shortcuts

Common keyboard shortcut are supported, so you don't have to change your mindset when you switch in and out of emacs. The following are supported standard keys in Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. (Mac uses Cmd instead of Ctrl.)

Standard Shortcuts
Standard name	Key press	Emacs command name
Copy	`Ctrl`+`c`	kill-ring-save
Cut	`Ctrl`+`x`	kill-region
Paste	`Ctrl`+`v`	yank
Undo	`Ctrl`+`z`	undo
Redo	`Ctrl`+`Shift`+`z`	redo

Standard Shortcuts
Standard name	Key press	Emacs command name
Open New File	`Ctrl`+`n`	new-empty-buffer
Open	`Ctrl`+`o`	find-file
Close	`Ctrl`+`w`	close-current-buffer
Save	`Ctrl`+`s`	save-buffer
Save As	`Ctrl`+`Shift`+`s`	write-file
Print	`Ctrl`+`p`	print-buffer
Select All	`Ctrl`+`a`	mark-whole-buffer
Find	`Ctrl`+`f`	search-forward

Ergonomic Keyboard Shortcuts For Text Editing

In addition to standard keyboard shortcuts, ErgoEmacs's shortcut set is based on Ergonomics. That is, most frequently used commands are given easy keys. This makes it easier and faster for editing text, and avoid Repetitive strain injury.

ErgoEmacs Shortcut Keys

Standard shortcuts for cursor navigation, such as “Ctrl+←” to go to previous word, Home key for beginning of line, “Shift+Arrow” to select, are also there. Dvorak keyboard is also supported.

For detail, see: ErgoEmacs Keybinding.

Simplified Menu

The graphical menu is simplied. Menu items that are rarely used or confusing are removed. Useful commands now has a menu representation. For example, you can choose a Language Mode in the menu “File‣Language Modes” for a glance of supported language modes.

Bundled Packages

Over 10 additional language modes. Here's a list of additional support for language files:

Microsoft Active Server Pages (ASP)
Windows Batch file (cmd.exe)
Windows PowerShell
Visual Basic
AutoHotKey script
JavaScript
PHP
Haskell
OCaml
Lua
BBCode (web forum markup)
POV-Ray ray tracer
Linden Scripting Language (Second Life virtual world)

All these are listed in the menu “File‣Language Modes”, so you can easily activate them without needing to know the command names. Of course, file names with proper extension will automatically open in the right mode.

Major Improvements For Windows Platform

ErgoEmacs actively support the Windows platform. For Windows users, you don't need to spend hours to look for packages or make things work that works in Emacs on Linux. Here's a list of additions that EgoEmacs support on Windows, out of the box:

Popular languages on Windows are supported: Visual Basic, cmd.exe batch file, PowerShell, ASP.
Spell checker works.
ftp works.
PDF and Image files can be viewed inside emacs.
Bundled all common unix commands that are used by emacs: grep, find, diff, patch, gzip ... (the whole MSYS component of MinGW.)
Support 3 new shells: the command “shell” provides a interface to Microsoft Windows's “cmd.exe”. The command “msys-shell” provides a interface to bash using msys's port. The command “eshell” gives you a bash-like shell written in emacs lisp. The command “powershell” provides a interface to Windows PowerShell. All these are under the menu “Tools‣Shell”.

Misc Features

Many extra little additions and settings over the rough edges of GNU Emacs. They include:

Better spell checker. (see: Emacs Spell Checker Problems)
minibuffer history restored with fresh emacs session.
Opened files are restored if emacs or OS crashed.
A template system. (Use the menu “YASnippet”. For a tutorial, see: Emacs Templates with YASnippet)
Lookup word definitions (via dict.org ). (Type “Alt+a lookup-word-def”)
Lets you see what commands you use most often. (Type “Alt+a command-frequency”)
The non-printable ASCII FORM FEED character (decimal code 12), usually used in elisp files as section separators, is displayed as a line, instead of “^L”.
A htmlize package that lets you easily colorize your source code in html for web publishing. (see: Using Emacs To Syntax Color Source Code In HTML)

For detail on many more misc improvements, see: Emacs Modernization.

Emacs-Like

ErgoEmacs's look and feel is like GNU Emacs. Works well in terminal emulators such as PuTTY, xterm, Terminal App. Emacs's power as a system that interfaces OS's shell, and “dired” as a file management system, as a ftp client, as a irc client, are all integral part of ErgoEmacs. There is no extra additions that makes you use the mouse.

If you use Windows's Notepad, you can use ErgoEmacs out of the box, without needing to learn any new keyboard shortcuts. If you have experience with emacs, you may find many added advantages that saves you time, especially on Windows.

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