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GNU Info File | 1995-09-01 | 49.5 KB | 1,232 lines

This is Info file ../../info/xemacs.info, produced by Makeinfo-1.63 from the input file xemacs.texi. This file documents the XEmacs editor. Copyright (C) 1985, 1986, 1988 Richard M. Stallman. Copyright (C) 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994 Lucid, Inc. Copyright (C) 1993, 1994 Sun Microsystems, Inc. Copyright (C) 1995 Amdahl Corporation. Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies. Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided also that the sections entitled "The GNU Manifesto", "Distribution" and "GNU General Public License" are included exactly as in the original, and provided that the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a permission notice identical to this one. Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this manual into another language, under the above conditions for modified versions, except that the sections entitled "The GNU Manifesto", "Distribution" and "GNU General Public License" may be included in a translation approved by the author instead of in the original English. File: xemacs.info, Node: Mail Headers, Next: Mail Mode, Prev: Mail Format, Up: Sending Mail Mail Header Fields ================== There are several header fields you can use in the `*mail*' buffer. Each header field starts with a field name at the beginning of a line, terminated by a colon. It does not matter whether you use upper or lower case in the field name. After the colon and optional whitespace comes the contents of the field. `To' This field contains the mailing addresses of the message. `Subject' The contents of the `Subject' field should be a piece of text that says what the message is about. Subject fields are useful because most mail-reading programs can provide a summary of messages, listing the subject of each message but not its text. `CC' This field contains additional mailing addresses to send the message to, but whose readers should not regard the message as addressed to them. `BCC' This field contains additional mailing addresses to send the message to, but which should not appear in the header of the message actually sent. `FCC' This field contains the name of one file (in Unix mail file format) to which a copy of the message should be appended when the message is sent. `From' Use the `From' field to say who you are, when the account you are using to send the mail is not your own. The contents of the `From' field should be a valid mailing address, since replies will normally go there. `Reply-To' Use the `Reply-To' field to direct replies to a different address, not your own. `From' and `Reply-To' have the same effect on where replies go, but they convey a different meaning to the person who reads the message. `In-Reply-To' This field contains a piece of text describing a message you are replying to. Some mail systems can use the information to correlate related pieces of mail. This field is normally filled in by your mail handling package when you are replying to a message and you never need to think about it. The `To', `CC', `BCC' and `FCC' fields can appear any number of times, to specify many places to send the message. The `To', `CC', and `BCC', fields can have continuation lines. All the lines starting with whitespace, following the line on which the field starts, are considered part of the field. For example, To: foo@here, this@there, me@gnu.cambridge.mass.usa.earth.spiral3281 If you have a `~/.mailrc' file, Emacs scans it for mail aliases the first time you try to send mail in an Emacs session. Emacs expands aliases found in the `To', `CC', and `BCC' fields where appropriate. You can set the variable `mail-abbrev-mailrc-file' to the name of the file with mail aliases. If `nil', `~/.mailrc' is used. Your `.mailrc' file ensures that word-abbrevs are defined for each of your mail aliases when point is in a `To', `CC', `BCC', or `From' field. The aliases are defined in your `.mailrc' file or in a file specified by the MAILRC environment variable if it exists. Your mail aliases expand any time you type a word-delimiter at the end of an abbreviation. In this version of Emacs, what you see is what you get: in contrast to some other versions, no abbreviations are expanded after you have sent the mail. This means you don't suffer the annoyance of having the system do things behind your back -- if the system rewrites an address you typed, you know it immediately, instead of after the mail has been sent and it's too late to do anything about it. For example, you will never again be in trouble because you forgot to delete an old alias from your `.mailrc' and a new local user is given a userid which conflicts with one of your aliases. Your mail alias abbrevs are in effect only when point is in an appropriate header field. The mail aliases will not expand in the body of the message, or in other header fields. The default mode-specific abbrev table `mail-mode-abbrev-table' is used instead if defined. That means if you have been using mail-mode specific abbrevs, this code will not adversely affect you. You can control which header fields the abbrevs are used in by changing the variable `mail-abbrev-mode-regexp'. If auto-fill mode is on, abbrevs wrap at commas instead of at word boundaries, and header continuation lines will be properly indented. You can also insert a mail alias with `mail-interactive-insert-alias'. This function, which is bound to `C-c C-a', prompts you for an alias (with completion) and inserts its expansion at point. In this version of Emacs, it is possible to have lines like the following in your `.mailrc' file: alias someone "John Doe <doe@quux.com>" That is, if you want an address to have embedded spaces, simply surround it with double-quotes. The quotes are necessary because the format of the `.mailrc' file uses spaces as address delimiters. Aliases in the `.mailrc' file may be nested. For example, assume you define aliases like: alias group1 fred ethel alias group2 larry curly moe alias everybody group1 group2 When you now type `everybody' on the `To' line, it will expand to: fred, ethyl, larry, curly, moe Aliases may contain forward references; the alias of `everybody' in the example above can preceed the aliases of `group1' and `group2'. In this version of Emacs, you can use the `source' `.mailrc' command for reading aliases from some other file as well. Aliases may contain hyphens, as in `"alias foo-bar foo@bar"', even though word-abbrevs normally cannot contain hyphens. To read in the contents of another `.mailrc'-type file from Emacs, use the command `M-x merge-mail-aliases'. The `rebuild-mail-aliases' command is similar, but deletes existing aliases first. If you want multiple addresses separated by a string other than `,' (a comma), then set the variable `mail-alias-seperator-string' to it. This has to be a comma bracketed by whitespace if you want any kind of reasonable behavior. If the variable `mail-archive-file-name' is non-`nil', it should be a string naming a file. Each time you start to edit a message to send, an `FCC' field is entered for that file. Unless you remove the `FCC' field, every message is written into that file when it is sent. File: xemacs.info, Node: Mail Mode, Prev: Mail Headers, Up: Sending Mail Mail Mode ========= The major mode used in the `*mail*' buffer is Mail mode. Mail mode is similar to Text mode, but several commands are provided on the `C-c' prefix. These commands all deal specifically with editing or sending the message. `C-c C-s' Send the message, and leave the `*mail*' buffer selected (`mail-send'). `C-c C-c' Send the message, and select some other buffer (`mail-send-and-exit'). `C-c C-f C-t' Move to the `To' header field, creating one if there is none (`mail-to'). `C-c C-f C-s' Move to the `Subject' header field, creating one if there is none (`mail-subject'). `C-c C-f C-c' Move to the `CC' header field, creating one if there is none (`mail-cc'). `C-c C-w' Insert the file `~/.signature' at the end of the message text (`mail-signature'). `C-c C-y' Yank the selected message (`mail-yank-original'). `C-c C-q' Fill all paragraphs of yanked old messages, each individually (`mail-fill-yanked-message'). `button3' Pops up a menu of useful mail-mode commands. There are two ways to send a message. `C-c C-c' (`mail-send-and-exit') is the usual way to send the message. It sends the message and then deletes the window (if there is another window) or switches to another buffer. It puts the `*mail*' buffer at the lowest priority for automatic reselection, since you are finished with using it. `C-c C-s' (`mail-send') sends the message and marks the `*mail*' buffer unmodified, but leaves that buffer selected so that you can modify the message (perhaps with new recipients) and send it again. Mail mode provides some other special commands that are useful for editing the headers and text of the message before you send it. There are three commands defined to move point to particular header fields, all based on the prefix `C-c C-f' (`C-f' is for "field"). They are `C-c C-f C-t' (`mail-to') to move to the `To' field, `C-c C-f C-s' (`mail-subject') for the `Subject' field, and `C-c C-f C-c' (`mail-cc') for the `CC' field. These fields have special motion commands because they are edited most frequently. `C-c C-w' (`mail-signature') adds a standard piece of text at the end of the message to say more about who you are. The text comes from the file `.signature' in your home directory. When you use an Rmail command to send mail from the Rmail mail reader, you can use `C-c C-y' `mail-yank-original' inside the `*mail*' buffer to insert the text of the message you are replying to. Normally Rmail indents each line of that message four spaces and eliminates most header fields. A numeric argument specifies the number of spaces to indent. An argument of just `C-u' says not to indent at all and not to eliminate anything. `C-c C-y' always uses the current message from the `RMAIL' buffer, so you can insert several old messages by selecting one in `RMAIL', switching to `*mail*' and yanking it, then switching back to `RMAIL' to select another. After using `C-c C-y', you can use the command `C-c C-q' (`mail-fill-yanked-message') to fill the paragraphs of the yanked old message or messages. One use of `C-c C-q' fills all such paragraphs, each one separately. Clicking the right mouse button in a mail buffer pops up a menu of the above commands, for easy access. Turning on Mail mode (which `C-x m' does automatically) calls the value of `text-mode-hook', if it is not void or `nil', and then calls the value of `mail-mode-hook' if that is not void or `nil'. File: xemacs.info, Node: Reading Mail, Next: Calendar/Diary, Prev: Sending Mail, Up: Top Reading Mail ************ XEmacs provides three separate mail-reading packages. Each one comes with its own manual, which is included standard with the XEmacs distribution. The recommended mail-reading package for new users is VM. VM works with standard Unix-mail-format folders and was designed as a replacement for the older Rmail. XEmacs also provides a sophisticated and comfortable front-end to the MH mail-processing system, called `mh-e'. Unlike in other mail programs, folders in MH are stored as file-system directories, with each message occupying one (numbered) file. This facilitates working with mail using shell commands, and many other features of MH are also designed to integrate well with the shell and with shell scripts. Keep in mind, however, that in order to use mh-e you must have the MH mail-processing system installed on your computer. Finally, XEmacs provides the Rmail package. Rmail is (currently) the only mail reading package distributed with FSF GNU Emacs, and is powerful in its own right. However, it stores mail folders in a special format called `Babyl', that is incompatible with all other frequently-used mail programs. A utility program is provided for converting Babyl folders to standard Unix-mail format; however, unless you already have mail in Babyl-format folders, you should consider using VM or mh-e instead. (If at times you have to use FSF Emacs, it is not hard to obtain and install VM for that editor.) File: xemacs.info, Node: Calendar/Diary, Next: Sorting, Prev: Reading Mail, Up: Top Calendar Mode and the Diary =========================== Emacs provides the functions of a desk calendar, with a diary of past or planned events. Display the calendar by typing `M-x calendar'. This command creates a window containing a three-month calendar centered on the current month, with point on the current date. Or, provide a prefix argument by typing `C-u M-x calendar'; then you are prompted for the month and year to be the center of the three-month calendar. In either case, you are now in Calendar mode. Calendar mode makes it easy to look at the holidays or diary entries associated with various dates, and to change the diary entries. You can move freely between the Calendar window and other windows. To exit the calendar, type `q'. * Menu: * Calendar Motion:: Moving through the calendar; selecting a date. * Scroll Calendar:: Bringing earlier or later months onto the screen. * Mark and Region:: Remembering dates, the mark ring. * General Calendar:: Conveniences for moving about. * Holidays:: Displaying dates of holidays. * Sunrise/Sunset:: Displaying local times of sunrise and sunset. * Lunar Phases:: Displaying phases of the moon. * Other Calendars:: Converting dates to other calendar systems. * Diary:: Displaying events from your diary. * Calendar Customization:: Altering the behavior of the features above. File: xemacs.info, Node: Calendar Motion, Next: Scroll Calendar, Prev: Calendar/Diary, Up: Calendar/Diary Movement in the Calendar ------------------------ Calendar mode lets you move in logical units of time such as days, weeks, months, and years. Sometimes you need to move to a specific date in order to enter commands affecting its display or the associated diary entries. If you move outside the three months originally displayed, the calendar display scrolls automatically through time. * Menu: * Calendar Unit Motion:: Moving by days, weeks, months, and years. * Move to Beginning or End:: Moving to start/end of weeks, months, and years. * Specified Dates:: Moving to the current date or another specific date. File: xemacs.info, Node: Calendar Unit Motion, Next: Move to Beginning or End, Prev: Calendar Motion, Up: Calendar Motion Motion by Integral Days, Weeks, Months, Years ............................................. The commands for movement in the calendar buffer parallel the commands for movement in text. You can move forward and backward by days, weeks, months, and years. `C-f' Move point one day forward (`calendar-forward-day'). `C-b' Move point one day backward (`calendar-backward-day'). `C-n' Move point one week forward (`calendar-forward-week'). `C-p' Move point one week backward (`calendar-backward-week'). `M-}' Move point one month forward (`calendar-forward-month'). `M-{' Move point one month backward (`calendar-backward-month'). `C-x ]' Move point one year forward (`calendar-forward-year'). `C-x [' Move point one year backward (`calendar-forward-year'). The day and week commands are natural analogues of the usual Emacs commands for moving by characters and by lines. Just as `C-n' usually moves to the same column in the following line, in Calendar mode it moves to the same day in the following week. And `C-p' moves to the same day in the previous week. The commands for motion by months and years work like those for weeks, but move a larger distance. The month commands `M-}' and `M-{' move forward or backward by an entire month's time. The year commands `C-x ]' and `C-x [' move forward or backward a whole year. The easiest way to remember these commands is to consider months and years analogous to paragraphs and pages of text, respectively. But the commands themselves are not quite analogous. The ordinary Emacs paragraph commands move to the beginning or end of a paragraph, whereas these month and year commands move by an entire month or an entire year, which usually involves skipping across the end of a month or year. Each of these commands accepts a numeric argument as a repeat count. For convenience, the digit keys and the minus sign are bound in Calendar mode so that it is unnecessary to type the `M-' prefix. For example, `100 C-f' moves point 100 days forward from its present location. File: xemacs.info, Node: Move to Beginning or End, Next: Specified Dates, Prev: Calendar Unit Motion, Up: Calendar Motion Beginning or End of Week, Month or Year ....................................... A week (or month, or year) is not just a quantity of days; we think of new weeks (months, years) as starting on particular days. So Calendar mode provides commands to move to the beginning or end of the week, month or year: `C-a' Move point to beginning of week (`calendar-beginning-of-week'). `C-e' Move point to end of week (`calendar-end-of-week'). `M-a' Move point to beginning of month (`calendar-beginning-of-month'). `M-e' Move point to end of month (`calendar-end-of-month'). `M-<' Move point to beginning of year (`calendar-beginning-of-year'). `M->' Move point to end of year (`calendar-end-of-year'). These commands also take numeric arguments as repeat counts, with the repeat count indicating how many weeks, months, or years to move backward or forward. File: xemacs.info, Node: Specified Dates, Prev: Move to Beginning or End, Up: Calendar Motion Particular Dates ................ Calendar mode provides some commands for getting to a particular date quickly. `g d' Move point to specified date (`calendar-goto-date'). `o' Center calendar around specified month (`calendar-other-month'). `.' Move point to today's date (`calendar-current-month'). `g d' (`calendar-goto-date') prompts for a year, a month, and a day of the month, and then goes to that date. Because the calendar includes all dates from the beginning of the current era, you must type the year in its entirety; that is, type `1990', not `90'. `o' (`calendar-other-month') prompts for a month and year, then centers the three-month calendar around that month. You can return to the current date with `.' (`calendar-current-month'). File: xemacs.info, Node: Scroll Calendar, Next: Mark and Region, Prev: Calendar Motion, Up: Calendar/Diary Scrolling the Calendar through Time ----------------------------------- The calendar display scrolls automatically through time when you move out of the visible portion. You can also scroll it manually. Imagine that the calendar window contains a long strip of paper with the months on it. Scrolling it means moving the strip so that new months become visible in the window. `C-x <' Scroll calendar one month forward (`scroll-calendar-left'). `C-x >' Scroll calendar one month backward (`scroll-calendar-right'). `C-v' Scroll calendar three months forward (`scroll-calendar-left-three-months'). `M-v' Scroll calendar three months backward (`scroll-calendar-right-three-months'). The most basic calendar scroll commands scroll by one month at a time. This means that there are two months of overlap between the display before the command and the display after. `C-x <' scrolls the calendar contents one month to the left; that is, it moves the display forward in time. `C-x >' scrolls the contents to the right, which moves backwards in time. The commands `C-v' and `M-v' scroll the calendar by an entire "screenful"--three months--in analogy with the usual meaning of these commands. `C-v' makes later dates visible and `M-v' makes earlier dates visible. These commands also take a numeric argument as a repeat count; in particular, since `C-u' (`universal-argument') multiplies the next command by four, typing `C-u C-v' scrolls the calendar forward by a year and typing `C-u M-v' scrolls the calendar backward by a year. Any of the special Calendar mode commands scrolls the calendar automatically as necessary to ensure that the date you have moved to is visible. File: xemacs.info, Node: Mark and Region, Next: General Calendar, Prev: Scroll Calendar, Up: Calendar/Diary The Mark and the Region ----------------------- The concept of the mark applies to the calendar just as to any other buffer, but it marks a *date*, not a *position* in the buffer. The region consists of the days between the mark and point (including the starting and stopping dates). `C-SPC' Set the mark to today's date (`calendar-set-mark'). `C-@' The same. `C-x C-x' Interchange mark and point (`calendar-exchange-point-and-mark'). `M-=' Display the number of days in the current region (`calendar-count-days-region'). You set the mark in the calendar, as in any other buffer, by using `C-@' or `C-SPC' (`calendar-set-mark'). You return to the marked date with the command `C-x C-x' (`calendar-exchange-point-and-mark') which puts the mark where point was and point where mark was. The calendar is scrolled as necessary, if the marked date was not visible on the screen. This does not change the extent of the region. To determine the number of days in the region, type `M-=' (`calendar-count-days-region'). The numbers of days printed is *inclusive*, that is, includes the days specified by mark and point. The main use of the mark in the calendar is to remember dates that you may want to go back to. To make this feature more useful, the mark ring (*note Mark Ring::.) operates exactly as in other buffers: Emacs remembers 16 previous locations of the mark. To return to a marked date, type `C-u C-SPC' (or `C-u C-@'); this is the command `calendar-set-mark' given a numeric argument. It moves point to where the mark was, restores the mark from the ring of former marks, and stores the previous point at the end of the mark ring. So, repeated use of this command moves point through all the old marks on the ring, one by one. File: xemacs.info, Node: General Calendar, Next: Holidays, Prev: Mark and Region, Up: Calendar/Diary Miscellaneous Calendar Commands ------------------------------- `p d' Display day-in-year (`calendar-print-day-of-year'). `?' Briefly describe calendar commands (`describe-calendar-mode'). `SPC' Scroll the next window (`scroll-other-window'). `C-c C-l' Regenerate the calendar window (`redraw-calendar'). `q' Exit from calendar (`exit-calendar'). If you want to know how many days have elapsed since the start of the year, or the number of days remaining in the year, type the `p d' command (`calendar-print-day-of-year'). This displays both of those numbers in the echo area. To display a brief description of the calendar commands, type `?' (`describe-calendar-mode'). For a fuller description, type `C-h m'. You can use `SPC' (`scroll-other-window') to scroll the other window. This is handy when you display a list of holidays or diary entries in another window. If the calendar window gets corrupted, type `C-c C-l' (`redraw-calendar') to redraw it. To exit from the calendar, type `q' (`exit-calendar'). This buries all buffers related to the calendar and returns the window display to what it was when you entered the calendar. File: xemacs.info, Node: Holidays, Next: Sunrise/Sunset, Prev: General Calendar, Up: Calendar/Diary Holidays -------- The Emacs calendar knows about all major and many minor holidays. `h' Display holidays for the date indicated by point (`calendar-cursor-holidays'). `x' Mark holidays in the calendar window (`mark-calendar-holidays'). `u' Unmark calendar window (`calendar-unmark'). `a' List all holidays for the displayed three months in another window (`list-calendar-holidays'). `M-x holidays' List all holidays for three months around today's date in another window. To see if any holidays fall on a given date, position point on that date in the calendar window and use the `h' command. The holidays are usually listed in the echo area, but if there are too many to fit in one line, then they are displayed in a separate window. To find the distribution of holidays for a wider period, you can use the `x' command. This places a `*' next to every date on which a holiday falls. The command applies both to the currently visible dates and to new dates that become visible by scrolling. To turn marking off and erase the current marks, type `u', which also erases any diary marks (*note Diary::.). To get even more detailed information, use the `a' command, which displays a separate buffer containing a list of all holidays in the current three-month range. You can display the list of holidays for the current month and the preceding and succeeding months even if you don't have a calendar window. Use the command `M-x holidays'. If you want the list of holidays centered around a different month, use `C-u M-x holidays' and type the month and year. The holidays known to Emacs include American holidays and the major Christian, Jewish, and Islamic holidays; when floating point is available, Emacs also knows about solstices and equinoxes. The dates used by Emacs for holidays are based on *current practice*, not historical fact. Historically, for instance, the start of daylight savings time and even its existence have varied from year to year. However present American law mandates that daylight savings time begins on the first Sunday in April; this is the definition that Emacs uses, even though it is wrong for some prior years. File: xemacs.info, Node: Sunrise/Sunset, Next: Lunar Phases, Prev: Holidays, Up: Calendar/Diary Times of Sunrise and Sunset --------------------------- Emacs can tell you, to within a minute or two, the times of sunrise and sunset for any date, if floating point is available. `S' Display times of sunrise and sunset for the date indicated by point (`calendar-sunrise-sunset'). `M-x sunrise-sunset' Display times of sunrise and sunset for today's date. Move point to the date you want, and type `S', to display the *local times* of sunrise and sunset in the echo area. You can display the times of sunrise and sunset for the current date even if you don't have a calendar window. Use the command `M-x sunrise-sunset'. If you want the times of sunrise and sunset for a different date, use `C-u M-x sunrise-sunset' and type the year, month, and day. Because the times of sunrise and sunset depend on the location on earth, you need to tell Emacs your latitude, longitude, and location name. Here is an example of what to set: (setq calendar-latitude 40.1) (setq calendar-longitude -88.2) (setq calendar-location-name "Urbana, IL") Use one decimal place in the values of `calendar-latitude' and `calendar-longitude'. Your time zone also affects the local time of sunrise and sunset. Emacs usually gets this information from the operating system, but if these values are not what you want (or if the operating system does not supply them), you'll need to set them yourself, like this: (setq calendar-time-zone -360) (setq calendar-standard-time-zone-name "CST") (setq calendar-daylight-time-zone-name "CDT") The value of `calendar-time-zone' is the number of minutes difference between your local standard time and Universal Time (Greenwich time). The values of `calendar-standard-time-zone-name' and `calendar-daylight-time-zone-name' are the abbreviations used in your time zone. Emacs displays the times of sunrise and sunset *corrected for daylight savings time* (this convenience is unusual; most tables of sunrise and sunset use standard time). The default rule for the starting and stopping dates of daylight savings time is the American rule. *Note Daylight Savings:: You can display the times of sunrise and sunset for any location and any date with `C-u C-u M-x sunrise-sunset'. Emacs asks you for a longitude, latitude, number of minutes difference from Universal time, and date, and then tells you the times of sunrise and sunset for that location on that date. The times are usually given in the echo area, but if the message is too long fit in one line, they are displayed in a separate window. File: xemacs.info, Node: Lunar Phases, Next: Other Calendars, Prev: Sunrise/Sunset, Up: Calendar/Diary Phases of the Moon ------------------ Emacs can tell you the dates and times of the phases of the moon (new moon, first quarter, full moon, last quarter), if floating point is available. `M' List, in another window, the dates and times for all the quarters of the moon for the three-month period shown in the calendar window (`calendar-phases-of-moon'). `M-x phases-of-moon' List dates and times of the quarters of the moon for three months around today's date in another window. Use the `M' command to display a separate buffer of the phases of the moon for the current three-month range. The dates and times listed are accurate to within a few minutes. You can display the list of the phases of the moon for the current month and the preceding and succeeding months even if you don't have a calendar window. Use the command `M-x phases-of-moon'. If you want the phases of the moon centered around a different month, use `C-u M-x phases-of-moon' and type the month and year. The dates and times given for the phases of the moon are given in local time (corrected for daylight savings, when appropriate); but if the variable `calendar-time-zone' is void, Universal Time (the Greenwich time zone) is used. *Note Daylight Savings:: File: xemacs.info, Node: Other Calendars, Next: Diary, Prev: Lunar Phases, Up: Calendar/Diary Our Calendar and Other Calendars -------------------------------- The Emacs calendar displayed is *always* the Gregorian calendar, sometimes called the "new style" calendar, which is used in most of the world today. However, this calendar did not exist before the sixteenth century and was not widely used before the eighteenth century; it did not fully displace the Julian calendar and gain universal acceptance until the early twentieth century. This poses a problem for the Emacs calendar: you can ask for the calendar of any month starting with January, year 1 of the current era, but the calendar displayed is the Gregorian, even for a date at which the Gregorian calendar did not exist! Emacs knows about several different calendars, though, not just the Gregorian calendar. The following commands describe the date indicated by point in various calendar notations: `p c' Display ISO commercial calendar equivalent for selected day (`calendar-print-iso-date'). `p j' Display Julian date for selected day (`calendar-print-julian-date'). `p a' Display astronomical (Julian) day number for selected day (`calendar-print-astro-day-number'). `p h' Display Hebrew date for selected day (`calendar-print-hebrew-date'). `p i' Display Islamic date for selected day (`calendar-print-islamic-date'). `p f' Display French Revolutionary date for selected day (`calendar-print-french-date'). `p m' Display Mayan date for selected day (`calendar-print-mayan-date'). If you are interested in these calendars, you can convert dates one at a time. Put point on the desired date of the Gregorian calendar and press the appropriate keys. The `p' is a mnemonic for "print" since Emacs "prints' the equivalent date in the echo area. The ISO commercial calendar is used largely in Europe. The Julian calendar, named after Julius Caesar, was the one used in Europe throughout medieval times, and in many countries up until the nineteenth century. Astronomers use a simple counting of days elapsed since noon, Monday, January 1, 4713 B.C. on the Julian calendar. The number of days elapsed is called the *Julian day number* or the *Astronomical day number*. The Hebrew calendar is the one used to determine the dates of Jewish holidays. Hebrew calendar dates begin and end at sunset. The Islamic (Moslem) calendar is the one used to determine the dates of Moslem holidays. There is no universal agreement in the Islamic world about the calendar; Emacs uses a widely accepted version, but the precise dates of Islamic holidays often depend on proclamation by religious authorities, not on calculations. As a consequence, the actual dates of occurrence can vary slightly from the dates computed by Emacs. Islamic calendar dates begin and end at sunset. The French Revolutionary calendar was created by the Jacobins after the 1789 revolution, to represent a more secular and nature-based view of the annual cycle, and to install a 10-day week in a rationalization measure similar to the metric system. The French government officially abandoned this calendar at the end of 1805. The Maya of Central America used three separate, overlapping calendar systems, the *long count*, the *tzolkin*, and the *haab*. Emacs knows about all three of these calendars. Experts dispute the exact correlation between the Mayan calendar and our calendar; Emacs uses the Goodman-Martinez-Thompson correlation in its calculations. You can move to dates that you specify on the Commercial, Julian, astronomical, Hebrew, Islamic, or French calendars: `g c' Move point to a date specified by the ISO commercial calendar (`calendar-goto-iso-date'). `g j' Move point to a date specified by the Julian calendar (`calendar-goto-julian-date'). `g a' Move point to a date specified by astronomical (Julian) day number (`calendar-goto-astro-day-number'). `g h' Move point to a date specified by the Hebrew calendar (`calendar-goto-hebrew-date'). `g i' Move point to a date specified by the Islamic calendar (`calendar-goto-islamic-date'). `g f' Move point to a date specified by the French Revolutionary calendar (`calendar-goto-french-date'). These commands ask you for a date on the other calendar, move point to the Gregorian calendar date equivalent to that date, and display the other calendar's date in the echo area. Emacs uses strict completion (*note Completion::.) whenever it asks you to type a month name, so you don't have to worry about the spelling of Hebrew, Islamic, or French names. One common question concerning the Hebrew calendar is the computation of the anniversary of a date of death, called a "yahrzeit." The Emacs calendar includes a facility for such calculations. If you are in the calendar, the command `M-x list-yahrzeit-dates' asks you for a range of years and then displays a list of the yahrzeit dates for those years for the date given by point. If you are not in the calendar, this command first asks you for the date of death and the range of years, and then displays the list of yahrzeit dates. Emacs also has many commands for movement on the Mayan calendars. `g m l' Move point to a date specified by the Mayan long count calendar (`calendar-goto-mayan-long-count-date'). `g m p t' Move point to the previous occurrence of a date specified by the Mayan tzolkin calendar (`calendar-previous-tzolkin-date'). `g m n t' Move point to the next occurrence of a date specified by the Mayan tzolkin calendar (`calendar-next-tzolkin-date'). `g m p h' Move point to the previous occurrence of a date specified by the Mayan haab calendar (`calendar-previous-haab-date'). `g m n h' Move point to the next occurrence of a date specified by the Mayan haab calendar (`calendar-next-haab-date'). `g m p c' Move point to the previous occurrence of a date specified by the Mayan calendar round (`calendar-previous-calendar-round-date'). `g m n c' Move point to the next occurrence of a date specified by the Mayan calendar round (`calendar-next-calendar-round-date'). To understand these commands, you need to understand the Mayan calendars. The long count is a counting of days with units 1 kin = 1 day 1 uinal = 20 kin 1 tun = 18 uinal 1 katun = 20 tun 1 baktun = 20 katun Thus, the long count date 12.16.11.16.6 means 12 baktun, 16 katun, 11 tun, 16 uinal, and 6 kin. The Emacs calendar can handle Mayan long count dates as early as 7.17.18.13.1, but no earlier. When you use the `g m l' command, type the Mayan long count date with the baktun, katun, tun, uinal, and kin separated by periods. The Mayan tzolkin calendar is a cycle of 260 days formed by a pair of independent cycles of 13 and 20 days. Like the haab cycle, this cycle repeats endlessly, and you can go backward and forward to the previous or next (respectively) point in the cycle. When you type `g m p t', Emacs asks you for a tzolkin date and moves point to the previous occurrence of that date; type `g m n t' to go to the next occurrence. The Mayan haab calendar is a cycle of 365 days arranged as 18 months of 20 days each, followed a 5-day monthless period. Since this cycle repeats endlessly, Emacs lets you go backward and forward to the previous or next (respectively) point in the cycle. Type `g m p h' to go to the previous haab date; Emacs asks you for a haab date and moves point to the previous occurrence of that date. Similarly, type `g m n h' to go to the next haab date. The Maya also used the combination of the tzolkin date and the haab date. This combination is a cycle of about 52 years called a *calendar round*. If you type `g m p c', Emacs asks you for both a haab and a tzolkin date and then moves point to the previous occurrence of that combination. Use `g m p c' to move point to the next occurrence. Emacs signals an error if the haab/tzolkin date you have typed cannot occur. Emacs uses strict completion (*note Completion::.) whenever it asks you to type a Mayan name, so you don't have to worry about spelling. File: xemacs.info, Node: Diary, Next: Calendar Customization, Prev: Other Calendars, Up: Calendar/Diary The Diary --------- Associated with the Emacs calendar is a diary that keeps track of appointments or other events on a daily basis. To use the diary feature, you must first create a "diary file" containing a list of events and their dates. Then Emacs can automatically pick out and display the events for today, for the immediate future, or for any specified date. By default, Emacs expects your diary file to be named `~/diary'. It uses the same format as the `calendar' utility. A sample `~/diary' file is: 12/22/1988 Twentieth wedding anniversary!! &1/1. Happy New Year! 10/22 Ruth's birthday. * 21, *: Payday Tuesday--weekly meeting with grad students at 10am Supowit, Shen, Bitner, and Kapoor to attend. 1/13/89 Friday the thirteenth!! &thu 4pm squash game with Lloyd. mar 16 Dad's birthday April 15, 1989 Income tax due. &* 15 time cards due. Although you probably will start by creating a diary manually, Emacs provides a number of commands to let you view, add, and change diary entries. You can also share diary entries with other users (*note Included Diary Files::.). * Menu: * Diary Commands:: Viewing diary entries and associated calendar dates. * Format of Diary File:: Entering events in your diary. * Special Diary Entries:: Anniversaries, blocks of dates, cyclic entries, etc. File: xemacs.info, Node: Diary Commands, Next: Format of Diary File, Prev: Diary, Up: Diary Commands Displaying Diary Entries --------------------------------- Once you have created a `~/diary' file, you can view it within Calendar mode. You can also view today's events independently of Calendar mode. `d' Display any diary entries for the selected date (`view-diary-entries'). `s' Display entire diary file (`show-all-diary-entries'). `m' Mark all visible dates that have diary entries (`mark-diary-entries'). `u' Unmark calendar window (`calendar-unmark'). `M-x print-diary-entries' Print a hard copy of the diary display as it appears. `M-x diary' Display any diary entries for today's date. Displaying the diary entries with `d' shows in a separate window the diary entries for the date indicated by point in the calendar window. The mode line of the new window shows the date of the diary entries and any holidays that fall on that date. If you specify a numeric argument with `d', then all the diary entries for that many successive days are shown. Thus, `2 d' displays all the entries for the selected date and for the following day. To get a broader overview of which days are mentioned in the diary, use the `m' command to mark those days in the calendar window. The marks appear next to the dates to which they apply. The `m' command affects the dates currently visible and, if you scroll the calendar, newly visible dates as well. The `u' command deletes all diary marks (and all holiday marks too; *note Holidays::.), not only in the dates currently visible, but dates that become visible when you scroll the calendar. For more detailed information, use the `s' command, which displays the entire diary file. Display of selected diary entries uses the selective display feature, the same feature that Outline mode uses to show part of an outline (*note Outline Mode::.). This involves hiding the diary entries that are not relevant, by changing the preceding newline into an ASCII control-m (code 015). The hidden lines are part of the buffer's text, but they are invisible; they don't appear on the screen. When you save the diary file, the control-m characters are saved as newlines; thus, the invisible lines become ordinary lines in the file. Because the diary buffer as you see it is an illusion, simply printing the contents does not print what you see on your screen. So there is a special command to print a hard copy of the buffer *as it appears*; this command is `M-x print-diary-entries'. It sends the data directly to the printer. You can customize it like `lpr-region' (*note Hardcopy::.). The command `M-x diary' displays the diary entries for the current date, independently of the calendar display, and optionally for the next few days as well; the variable `number-of-diary-entries' specifies how many days to include (*note Customization::.). If you put in your `.emacs' file: (diary) it automatically displays a window with the day's diary entries, when you enter Emacs. The mode line of the displayed window shows the date and any holidays that fall on that date. File: xemacs.info, Node: Format of Diary File, Next: Special Diary Entries, Prev: Diary Commands, Up: Diary The Diary File -------------- Your "diary file" is a file that records events associated with particular dates. The name of the diary file is specified by the variable `diary-file'; `~/diary' is the default. You can use the same file for the `calendar' utility program, since its formats are a subset of the ones allowed by the Emacs Calendar. Each entry in the file describes one event and consists of one or more lines. It always begins with a date specification at the left margin. The rest of the entry is simply text to describe the event. If the entry has more than one line, then the lines after the first must begin with whitespace to indicate they continue a previous entry. Here are some sample diary entries, illustrating different ways of formatting a date. The examples all show dates in American order (month, day, year), but Calendar mode offers (day, month, year) ordering too. 4/20/93 Switch-over to new tabulation system apr. 25 Start tabulating annual results 4/30 Results for April are due */25 Monthly cycle finishes Friday Don't leave without backing up files The first entry appears only once, on April 20, 1993. The second and third appear every year on the specified dates, and the fourth uses a wildcard (asterisk) for the month, so it appears on the 25th of every month. The final entry appears every week on Friday. You can also use just numbers to express a date, as in `MONTH/DAY' or `MONTH/DAY/YEAR'. This must be followed by a nondigit. In the date itself, MONTH and DAY are numbers of one or two digits. YEAR is a number and may be abbreviated to the last two digits; that is, you can use `11/12/1989' or `11/12/89'. A date may be "generic", or partially unspecified. Then the entry applies to all dates that match the specification. If the date does not contain a year, it is generic and applies to any year. Alternatively, MONTH, DAY, or YEAR can be a `*'; this matches any month, day, or year, respectively. Thus, a diary entry `3/*/*' matches any day in March of any year. Dates can also have the form `MONTHNAME DAY' or `MONTHNAME DAY, YEAR', where the month's name can be spelled in full or abbreviated to three characters (with or without a period). Case is not significant. If the date does not contain a year, it is generic and applies to any year. Also, MONTHNAME, DAY, or YEAR can be a `*' which matches any month, day, or year, respectively. If you prefer the European style of writing dates--in which the day comes before the month--type `M-x european-calendar' while in the calendar, or set the variable `european-calendar-style' to `t' in your `.emacs' file *before* the calendar or diary command. This mode interprets all dates in the diary in the European manner, and also uses European style for displaying diary dates. (Note that there is no comma after the MONTHNAME in the European style.) To revert to the (default) American style of writing dates, type `M-x american-calendar'. You can use the name of a day of the week as a generic date which applies to any date falling on that day of the week. You can abbreviate the day of the week to three letters (with or without a period) or spell it in full; it need not be capitalized. You can inhibit the marking of certain diary entries in the calendar window; to do this, insert an ampersand (`&') at the beginning of the entry, before the date. This has no effect on display of the entry in the diary window; it affects only marks on dates in the calendar window. Nonmarking entries are especially useful for generic entries that would otherwise mark many different dates. Lines that do not begin with valid dates and do not continue a preceding entry are ignored. If the first line of a diary entry consists only of the date or day name with no following blanks or punctuation, then the diary window display doesn't include that line; only the continuation lines appear. For example: 02/11/1989 Bill B. visits Princeton today 2pm Cognitive Studies Committee meeting 2:30-5:30 Liz at Lawrenceville 4:00pm Dentist appt 7:30pm Dinner at George's 8:00-10:00pm concert appears in the diary window without the date line at the beginning. This style of entry looks neater when you display just a single day's entries, but can cause confusion if you ask for more than one day's entries. You can edit the diary entries as they appear in the window, but it is important to remember that the buffer displayed contains the *entire* diary file, with portions of it concealed from view. This means, for instance, that the `C-f' (`forward-char') command can put point at what appears to be the end of the line, but what is in reality the middle of some concealed line. *Be careful when editing the diary entries!* Inserting additional lines or adding/deleting characters in the middle of a visible line cannot cause problems. Watch out for `C-e' (`end-of-line'), however; it may put you at the end of a concealed line far from where point appears to be! Before editing the diary, it is best to display the entire file with `s' (`show-all-diary-entries'). While in the calendar, there are several commands to help you in making entries to your diary. `i d' Add a diary entry for the selected date (`insert-diary-entry'). `i w' Add a diary entry for the selected day of the week (`insert-weekly-diary-entry'). `i m' Add a diary entry for the selected day of the month (`insert-monthly-diary-entry'). `i y' Add a diary entry for the selected day of the year (`insert-yearly-diary-entry'). You can make a diary entry for a specific date by moving point to that date in the calendar window and using the `i d' command. This command displays the end of your diary file in another window and inserts the date; you can then type the rest of the diary entry. If you want to make a diary entry that applies to a specific day of the week, move point to that day of the week (any occurrence will do) and use the `i w' command. This displays the end of your diary file in another window and inserts the day-of-week as a generic date; you can then type the rest of the diary entry. You make a monthly diary entry in the same fashion. Move point to the day of the month, use the `i m' command, and type the diary entry. Similarly, you make a yearly diary entry with the `i y' command. All of the above commands make marking diary entries. If you want the diary entry to be nonmarking, give a prefix argument to the command. For example, `C-u i w' makes a nonmarking, weekly diary entry. If you modify the diary, be sure to write the file before exiting from the calendar.