GNU Emacs is the most popular and widespread of the Emacs family of editors. It is also the most powerful and flexible. Unlike all other text editors, GNU Emacs is a complete working environment -- you can stay within Emacs all day without leaving. The GNU Emacs Pocket Reference is a companion volume to O'Reilly's Learning GNU Emacs, which tells you how to get started with the GNU Emacs editor and, as you become more proficient, it will help you learn how to use Emacs more effectively. This small book, covering Emacs version 20, is a handy reference guide to the basic elements of this powerful editor, presenting the Emacs commands in an easy-to-use tabular format.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 9 Ratings

Almost useless - 2001-03-25
Reviewer Rating:
I've tried to used this to look stuff up while learning Emacs, and it is not useful to me. I have two main objections: 1. It is not organized in a way that makes it easy to look things up. There have been times when I knew the information was in the book (since I had seen it before), but had to just flip through every page to actually find it. 2. It's very incomplete. I cannot find a command in this book that takes me to a given line in a file. I suspect the book fails because he tries to cover everything. I do not expect a pocket reference to cover some nonstandard HTML mode, or how to use Emacs as my mail reader. I want a reference on how to use it to edit text and code. I probably won't open this book again; I'll just bookmark the online manual.

good extra REFERENCE - 2002-01-10
Reviewer Rating:
This is not a book to teach you how to use Emacs as some other reviewers think. This book is a reference and a reference only. It gives you a listing of common emacs commands. If you won't be going into the nitty gritty details of Emacs, use this. Otherwise, do yourself a favor and get Learning Emacs. This books is good at accomplishing its purpose...a secondary reference for Learning Emacs.

It is only a pocket reference! - 2001-09-27
Reviewer Rating:
Yes, emacs is the most powerful editor and this book is only a little pocket reference! The book is unnecessary after 2 days (if you did not know emacs before). It is good only for a short introduction in the commands of emacs. After two days you must buy Learning Gnu Emacs, which is really a book to learn emacs!

Do not expect to much from a litte reference!

Virgilio Krumbacher

Ignore this book if you are a serious programmer - 2000-12-15
Reviewer Rating:
This books is totally useless for a serious C programmer used to an editor like vi and switching to emacs. It just doesn't cover enough "progamming" type features. You'll need a full length book.

A Fine Guide to Emacs - 2006-02-24
Reviewer Rating:
It is what is it is; It's a pocket guide. It's not exceptionally informative, but it provides baseline guidance for some of Emacs' many features.
If you're already a user of emacs, chances are you'll get a little something out of this book that you didn't know existed before (I'm using Emacs diary and calendar now...) but it's mostly good to throw at subusers while yelling at them to RTFM because they're always complaining to you that they don't know how to use Emacs...

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