(Stupid) Useful Emacs Tricks?

Count Fenring writes "Since the Vi version of this question was both interesting and popular, let's hear from the other end of the spectrum. What are your favorite tricks, macros, extensions, and techniques for any of the various Emacs? Myself, I like 'M-x dunnet' ;-)"

A favourite (works well on both Ubuntu and Debian

[rallymatte]

I've found this very useful whenever I'm put in front of emacs C-x C-c sudo apt-get -y purge emacs vi

Re:A favourite (works well on both Ubuntu and Debi

[rallymatte]

There, fixed that for me!

I've found this very useful whenever I'm put in front of emacs
C-x C-c
sudo apt-get -y purge emacs
vi

XKCD

[WK2]

C-X M-C M-butterfly

Huh?

[Anonymous Coward]

the Vi version of this question was both interesting and popular

Indeed. Probably because Vi is a popular and usable text editor (unlike Emacs).

Notepad tricks

[Anonymous Coward]

Dear Slashdot,

For us Windows users, I would be very much interested in a similar topic for useful Notepad tricks.
Please take this seriously, and don't say that Alt-F4 (or Alt-F, X) is the best trick.

Yours sincerely,

Fred Anboy

Re:A big disappointment

[include($dysmas)]

it was posted from emacs, took a while to press all the keys.

Re:A favourite (works well on both Ubuntu and Debi

[pivo]

Hmm.. that didn't work well for me. I tried it, but I ended up in an editor with functionality that was one step above punch cards.

Re:Please Stop

[cjfs]

Hopefully this is the last story before we start with "Stupid pet tricks"

Seeing as this is about emacs tricks, everything else is a subset. Including pet tricks.

Don't get me wrong: Emacs is a great operating system -- it lacks a good editor, though.

Check hard drive

[digitalhermit]

It's often the case when you need to check the sectors on your disk for corruption, or just during hard drive testing. One of the coolest things that Emacs allows you to do is check your filesystem. For example on CentOS:

      yum -y install emacs*

This will proceed to fill up your hard drive with tons of software until the filesystem is full.

(I kid, I kid)

Emacs Lisp

[tjwhaynes]

Lisp is a language that CompScis see for two months at University before leaving it behind. But if you really want to learn tricks with Emacs, you should learn Emacs Lisp - I have all sorts of specials, such as "move text to marker" and modes for handling internal IBM dump formats, that would be impossible in vi.

But if you want one quick piece of advice, here's one that should make someone smile

M-x hippie-expand RET

The ultimate, expand-this-thing-dammit-from-whatever-you-like completion trick.

Cheers,
Toby Haynes

The apocryphal command

[digitalderbs]

I once knew a man that typed an emacs sequence, once locked in hidden, ancient papyri. Emacs conducted all of the research for his PhD, typed his dissertation, correctly formatted his bibliography (the most astounding feat of all), setup the defense with his advisory committee, presented and defended his thesis, printed, bound and submitted the dissertation.

Re:Not much of a trick... BUT...

[homer_s]

Now if anyone makes a Firefox plugin making it possible to do the same in a web browser that would be friggin awesome.

So, you don't use Emacs to browse the web?

My Favorite...

[awshidahak]

is M-x Viper \[esc]x eshell All the obscureness of vim combined with the bloat of emacs. Then I have lots of fun letting people borrow my computer and watch them get mad at my custom xmodmap while trying to figure out how to get to the "Start" menu because they don't know ratpoison.

Re:Please Stop

[alta]

A whole series...
Useful(Stupid) things to say to get modded Insightful
Useful(Stupid) things to say to get modded Interesting
Useful(Stupid) things to say to get modded Funny
Useful(Stupid) things to say to get modded Troll
Useful(Stupid) things to say to get modded Redundant
Useful(Stupid) things to say to get modded Flamebate
Useful(Stupid) things to say to get modded Overrated
Useful(Stupid) things to say to get modded Stupid
Useful(Stupid) things to say to get modded Useful

Re:The apocryphal command

[Anonymous Coward]

I know that man, I am his boss now. Imagine had he used vim, like me...

trying to figure something out

[viridari]

I like emacs but I'm not ready to change over to it 100% yet.

Is there a way to dual boot between Vista and emacs?

The old Emacs vs Vi story

[raffe]

I asked my email-pal: "UNIX or Windoze?". He replied "UNIX". I said "Ah...me too!".

I asked my email-pal: "Linux or AIX?". He said "Linux, of course". I said "Me too".

I asked him: "Emacs or vi". He replied "Emacs". I said "Me too. Small world."

I asked him: "GNU Emacs or XEmacs?", and he said "GNU Emacs". I said "oh, me too."

I asked him "GNU Emacs 19 or GNU Emacs 20"? and he said "GNU Emacs 19". I said "oh, me too."

I asked him, "GNU Emacs 19.29 or GNU Emacs 19.34", and he replied "GNU Emacs 19.29". I said "DIE YOU OBSOLETE NOGOOD SOCIALLY MALADJUSTED CELIBATE COMMIE FASCIST DORK!", and never emailed him again.

From an old slashdot [slashdot.org] story

Re:What is next ?

[kv9]

(Stupid) Useful Chat-up Lines

hey, sexy mama. wanna kill all the humans?

Re:A favourite (works well on both Ubuntu and Debi

[aproposofwhat]

I started on punch cards, you insensitive clod!

Re:Huh?

[Dr Caleb]

I don't think cat+sed has any money. Plus, you'd have to prove damages.

Re:Huh?

[Anonymous Coward]

Emacs has a text editor now?

Re:Favorite Acronym

[0xABADC0DA]

It's a long time since Emacs has really been slow, but the jokes have long memories.

Performance jokes are never garbage collected -- it would take too many cycles.
Performance jokes are never garbage collected -- there's always a weak reference to them.

I'll be here all week... or until tuesday if the alternate pickup schedule is in effect due to holiday or inclement weather.

Mod me everything!

[hardaker]

Useful(Stupid) things to say to get modded Insightful

• Emacs rocks!

Useful(Stupid) things to say to get modded Interesting

• Escape-: (message "Emacs rocks")

Useful(Stupid) things to say to get modded Funny

• Emacs: Escape Meta Alt Control Shift

Useful(Stupid) things to say to get modded Troll

• Emacs is better than vi

Useful(Stupid) things to say to get modded Redundant

• Emacs is better than vi

Useful(Stupid) things to say to get modded Flamebate

• Emacs is better than vi (really... Trolls are just flamers with green skin)

Useful(Stupid) things to say to get modded Overrated

• Emacs rocks!

Useful(Stupid) things to say to get modded Stupid

• What's emacs anyway?

Useful(Stupid) things to say to get modded Useful

• The its-all-text firefox plugin lets you edit slashdot posts in emacs

Re:Please Don't Stop

[Mikkeles]

'... is there any reason the VIM story ran first than the Emacs one?'

Emacs was still loading when it came time to run the story.

Re:XKCD

[Anonymous Coward]

C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER!

emacs replies...

[PPH]

What are your favorite tricks?

Why do you say what are my favorite tricks?

Re:The old Emacs vs Vi story

[sootman]

As the original post hints, this is an adaptation of and old Emo Phillips bit. [stanford.edu]

I was walking across a bridge one day, and I saw a man standing on the edge, about to jump off. So I ran over and said "Stop! don't do it!"
"Why shouldn't I?" he said.
I said, "Well, there's so much to live for!"
He said, "Like what?"
I said, "Well...are you religious or atheist?"
He said, "Religious."
I said, "Me too! Are you christian or buddhist?"
He said, "Christian."
I said, "Me too! Are you catholic or protestant?"
He said, "Protestant."
I said, "Me too! Are you episcopalian or baptist?"
He said, "Baptist!"
I said,"Wow! Me too! Are you baptist church of god or baptist church of the lord?"
He said, "Baptist church of god!"
I said, "Me too! Are you original baptist church of god, or are you reformed baptist church of god?"
He said,"Reformed Baptist church of god!"
I said, "Me too! Are you reformed baptist church of god, reformation of 1879, or reformed baptist church of god, reformation of 1915?"
He said, "Reformed baptist church of god, reformation of 1915!"
I said, "Die, heretic scum", and pushed him off.

Re:Please Don't Stop

[DiegoBravo]

So by the next week we may the OpenOffice tricks?

Re:vi is for building emacs

[i.of.the.storm]

I was talking about vi, I didn't know about vim to be honest. On Linux on my computer vi is aliased to vim but not on our Solaris servers at Berkeley.

Also, a fun related quote from one of the professors here, Paul Hilfinger:

In the interests of truth, beauty, and justice -- and to undo, in some small part, the damage Berkeley has done by foisting vi on an already-unhappy world -- Emacs will be the official CS61A text editor this semester