Keys and Chords

Chords made with the control key always consist of a lower case character and the control key, but chords made with the meta key consist of either the upper or lower case version of a character and the meta key. For example, M-c and M-C are two distinct commands.

Keys or key chords preceded by C-x indicate this chord is to be pressed first separately, followed by the succeeding keys or key chords. Such commands are called extended commands. While waiting for the second part of an extended command, the editor displays "C-x ?" in the status line. To cancel a pending extended command, press C-u.

In the command summaries that follow, a paragraph forward is those lines of text from the line the cursor is on to the line to which the cursor moves when M-} is invoked. A paragraph backward is those lines of text from the line the cursor is on to the line to which the cursor moves when C-{ is invoked.

Exiting

C-x C-c

exits the editor.

C-x 9

Will write unsaved changes to disk and exit the editor.

Command-Line Arguments

% dkns +1 +funnyfile

% dkns ./+funnyfile

Other command-line arguments are assumed to be filenames, and are pushed onto the file stack. See the section titled "Working With Files" for more information on using the file stack.

Configuration Options

line_length

This option is a positive integer specifying the desired maximum length of lines. This value is used by the auto-wrapper and by the paragraph formatter.

tab_stop

This option is a positive integer specifying the frequency of tabstops. Tabstops are considered to occur every tab_stop characters ad infinitum in the line.

auto_indent

This option is a boolean which specifies whether or not leading whitespace from the preceding line should be propagated to a new line when the user terminates a line.

auto_wrap

This option is a boolean which specifies whether or not lines should be automatically wrapped when manual input causes a line to exceed the value of line_length.

show_match

This option is a boolean which specifies whether or not the location of opening delimiters are indicated visually when a closing delimiter is input (")", "}", or "]"). If the opening delimiter cannot be found, the terminal bell is sounded. In no case will the editor search farther back than the line which the cursor would be moved to if an C-x [ command were invoked from the original cursor position.

The user's startup configuration file, if it exists, must be named .dkns and be located in the user's home directory. The following example shows code to modify the configuration settings.

; These values must be set via a function call.

(set_line_length 75)
(set_tab_stop 3)

; The boolean flags may be set directly.

(setq auto_indent 1)
(setq auto_wrap 1)
(setq show_match 1)

The following commands are used to inspect or change the configuration settings from within the editor.

C-x @

displays the values of the user settings.

C-x N

sets a new value for the line_length variable.

C-x B

sets a new value for the tab_stop variable.

C-x I

toggles the value of the auto_indent variable.

C-x U

toggles the value of the auto_wrap variable.

C-x M

toggles the value of the show_match variable.

Command Prompts

C-h

backspaces over the last character of input.

C-w

backspaces over the last complete word on the command line.

C-u

backspaces over the entire command line.

C-p

causes the text input so far to be replaced with the most recent item in the command's saved history. Successive invocations of this command continue to advance backward through the command history.

C-n

If the C-p command has been invoked, this command causes the current text on the command line to be replaced with the next item in the command history. Successive invocations of this command continue to advance forward through the command history until the original input text is reached.

C-a

inserts a tab character into the input text.

[tab]

invokes interactive filename completion.

C-c

cancels the input operation.

Repeating Commands

M-o

causes the user to be prompted for a repeat count. The next command invoked is repeated the specified number of times. Those commands for which a repeat count does not make sense ignore the repeat count.

C-x g

repeats the most recently invoked command. This command respects the repeat count given to the original command.

C-x [space]

starts or stops recording keystrokes for subsequent playback.

M-[space]

plays the recorded keystrokes. If this command is given a repeat count, it is respected. If C-g is invoked after invoking this command, the last command in the set of recorded keystrokes is invoked and not the playback operation.

The Region

C-[space]

sets the mark before the character the cursor is over.

C-x C-e

exchanges the cursor position and the mark.

Working With Files

C-x C-f

loads the buffer from a file. The buffer is emptied first, and the user is prompted for the filename. If the specified file does not exist, the editor assumes the user wants to edit a new file.

C-x 2

stores the filename currently associated with the buffer and the cursor position, then loads the buffer from a new file. The filename and cursor position are stored on a stack, and may be returned to at a later time. The specified file must exist, or an error is generated.

C-x 3

pops the last saved filename and cursor position off the saved file stack. The editors loads the file and jumps to the saved cursor position.

C-x 4

exchanges the current file and cursor position with those stored on top of the file stack. This command can be used to quickly switch between two files.

C-x D

pushes the current file and cursor position onto the file stack, then shifts the filename and cursor position off the bottom of the file stack. The editor loads that file and jumps to that cursor position. This command may be used to visit each of the files on the file stack in a circular manner ad infinitum.

C-x C-s

saves the buffer to a file. If the buffer was loaded from a file, the buffer is written back to that file. Otherwise, the user is prompted for a filename. Successive invocations of this command reuse that filename.

C-x C-a

lists the filenames saved on the file stack.

C-x C-i

Inserts a file into the buffer after the line the cursor is on. The user is prompted for the filename. If the cursor is on the first line in the buffer, the user is prompted to choose between inserting the file content before or after the first line.

C-x W

writes the lines of the region to a file. The user is prompted for the filename.

C-x F

prompts the user for a new filename to associate with the buffer. Subsequent invocations of C-x C-s use this filename.

Working With External Commands

C-x C-m

filters the region through an external command. The lines in the region are replaced by the command's output.

C-x &

inserts the output of a specified command into the buffer, after the current line.

C-x *

writes the lines in the region to the standard input of a specified command.

C-x !

runs a command under the shell.

C-x $

suspends the editor and returns to the shell from which it was launched.

Moving The Cursor And Scrolling The Buffer

C-f

moves the cursor a character forward in the buffer.

C-b

moves the cursor a character backward in the buffer.

M-f

moves the cursor forward a word in the buffer.

M-b

moves the cursor backward a word in the buffer.

C-a

moves the cursor to the beginning of the current line.

C-e

moves the cursor to the end of the current line.

M-a

moves the cursor to the sentence ending punctuation mark occuring before the cursor.

M-e

moves the cursor to the sentence ending punctuation mark occuring after the cursor.

M-}

moves the cursor forward to the next blank line or to the line line with a full-stop in column zero.

M-{

moves the cursor backward to the previous blank line or to the line with a full-stop in column zero.

M-]

moves the cursor forward in the buffer to the next line having an opening parenthesis, an opening brace, or a full-stop followed by an uppercase S in column zero (troff section).

M-[

moves the cursor backward to the previous line in the buffer having an opening parenthesis, an opening brace, or a full-stop followed by an uppercase S in column zero.

M-^

moves the cursor to the first non-whitespace character in the current line, if any.

M-+

moves the cursor to the first non-whitespace character in the line immediately after the line the cursor is on.

M--

moves the cursor to the first non-whitespace character in the line immediately preceding the line the cursor is on.

M-n

scrolls the buffer upward by one line.

M-p

scrolls the buffer downward by one line.

C-t

scrolls the buffer upward to place the line the cursor is on at the top of the screen.

C-l

scrolls the buffer to place the line the cursor is on in the middle of the screen.

C-c

scrolls the buffer downward to place the line the cursor is on at the bottom of the screen.

C-x 0

moves the cursor to first character of the line at the top of the screen.

C-x 1

moves the cursor to the first character of the line at the bottom of the screen.

C-x l

moves the cursor to the line in the center of the screen.

C-v

scrolls the buffer upward by one screenful of lines. The cursor is moved to the bottom line on the screen.

M-v

scrolls the buffer downward by one screenful of lines. The cursor is moved to the top line on the screen.

M->

moves the cursor to the last character in the buffer.

M-<

moves the cursor to the first character in the buffer.

C-x #

moves the cusror to line specified by the user by line number.

Marking Lines With Bookmarks

C-x m

associates a bookmark with the line the cursor is on.

C-x j

jumps to the line associated with a bookmark.

Cutting And Pasting Text To And From The Clipboard

C-x C

copies the region to the clipboard.

M-c

copies text to the clipboard from the cursor position to the end of the line. Suppying a repeat count to this command determines the number of lines copied. A repeat count of 1 is the same as supplying no repeat count. The terminating newline of the last line affected is not copied.

M-C

copies text to the clipboard from the cursor position to the end of the current paragraph. Supplying a repeat count to this command determines the number a paragraphs from which text is copied. Supplying a repeat count of 1 is the same as supplying no repeat count.

C-d

deletes the character under the cursor.

C-h

deletes the character before the cursor.

M-d

deletes the word that occur after the cursor position.

M-h

deletes the word that is occurs before the cursor.

C-x C-p

deletes successive whitespace characters from the cursor location to the next non-whitespace character in the current line. The deleted whitespace is not stored on the clipboard. The user can restore accidentally-deleted whitespace with the undo command.

C-k

deletes the characters in the line from the cursor position forward to the end of the line creating a blank line. Invoking this command on a blank line deletes the terminating newline, causing the blank line to be removed from the buffer. If this command is given a repeat count, the command deletes whole lines. Successive invocations of this command cause each separate deletion to be appended to form one item on the clipboard.

M-k

deletes the characters from the start of the line the cursor is on to the cursor position.

C-x E

deletes a sentence forward.

C-x A

deletes a sentence backward.

C-x i

deletes a paragraph forward

C-x o

deletes a paragraph backward.

C-x w

deletes text forward to the text that matches a regular expression.

C-x q

deletes text backward to the text that matches a regular expression.

C-x K

deletes the text from a specified bookmark to the cursor position. The book mark is unset after this operation.

C-x =

deletes text backward in the current line until the initial whitespace in the line.

C-x y

deletes the text from the cursor position to the end of the buffer. The final newline cannot be deleted.

C-x u

deletes the text from the beginning of the buffer to the cursor position.

C-x C-d

deletes the text delineated by the region.

C-y

pastes the content of the clipboard into the buffer before the cursor position. The region is set to the inserted text, so that it may be removed again by invoking C-x C-d, or M-y.

M-y

if the region is set, deletes the region. The clipboard stack is rotated and the contents of the next clipboard are pasted into the buffer. The region is set to the pasted text. Successive invocations allow the user to browse the contents of the clipboard stack.

M-t

pushes the current clipboard onto the clipboard stack.

M-g

replaces the clipboard with the clipboard on top of the clipboardstack.

C-x M-q

Executes M-g, followed by C-y, to pop the clipboard stack and paste the new clipboad's content into the buffer at the cursor location.

C-x Q

copies the contents of the clipboard on top of the clipboard stack into the current clipboard, and then pastes the new content into the buffer at the cursor location. The clipboard stack is not popped.

Undoing Modifications To Buffer Content

C-u

undoes the last modification to the buffer. Changes to the buffer occur in a line-oriented manner, so these changes are undone line-by-line as well. This means that if you deleted many lines in the buffer with one invocation of C-x k, for example, the lines would be undeleted one at a time, by successive invocations of this command, and not all at once. The undo behaviour of the editor may baffle you at first, but you are merely seeing the changes that go on "behind the scenes," and if you keep invoking C-u, you will get back to the buffer state you desire. This command accepts a repeat count.

C-x _

undoes the last undo operation. This command is only available if the last modification to the buffer was performed by an undo operation. Once fresh changes to the buffer have been made after the undo command has been invoked, the redo information is discarded. This command accepts a repeat count.

Searching For Matches On Regular Expressions

C-s

searches forward in the buffer for a match of a regular expression.

C-r

searches backward in the buffer for a match of a regular expression.

M-s

repeats the last search, searching forward in the buffer.

M-r

repeats the last search, searching backward in the buffer.

Transforming Lines With Regular-Expression-Based Substitutions

Terminating newlines are removed from lines when performing substitutions so that "$" matches the empty string before the newline, and "^$" matches empty lines. The terminators are replaced when the modified lines are written back to the buffer.

C-x t

performs a substitution on the portion of the line after the cursor.

C-x T

performs a substitution on the portion of the line before the cursor.

C-x )

performs a substitution on the paragraph after the cursor position.

C-x (

Performs a substitution on the paragraph preceding cursor position.

C-x S

performs a substitution on the region from the cursor position to the occurrence of the next match of a specified regular expression in the buffer.

C-x R

performs a substitution on the region from the match on a specified regular expression closest to the cursor position, occurring before the cursor position, to the cursor position.

C-x C-r

performs a substitution on the region.

C-x J

performs a substitution on the region formed between a named bookmark and the cursor location. The exact region affected depends upon whether the bookmark occurs before or after the cursor.

C-x .

performs a substitution on the region from the cursor position to the end of the buffer.

C-x ,

performs a substitution on the region from the start of the buffer to the cursor position.

Modifying The Indentation Of Lines

M-z

decreases the indentation of lines from the line the cursor is on forward in the buffer. Supplying a repeat count to this command determines the number of lines the command affects. The default is to affect only the line the cursor is on.

M-x

behaves similarly to the above described command but increases the indentation.

C-x z

decreases the paragraph forward from the cursor position. Supplying a repeat count to this command causes it to affect n paragraphs.

C-x x

increases the indentation of the paragraph after the cursor position. Supplying a repeat count to this command causes it to affect n paragraphs.

C-x C-z

decreases the indentation of the paragraph before the cursor position. Supplying a repeat count to this command causes it to affect n paragraphs.

C-x C-x

increases the indentation of the paragraph before the cursor position. Supplying a repeat count to this command causes it to affect n paragraphs.

C-x 5

Invokes M-%, to jump to the other end of a region delimited by parentheses, brackets, or braces, and if successful, decreases the indentation of that range of lines. This command ignores repeat counts.

C-x 6

Invokes M-%, to jump to the other end of a region delimited by parentheses, brackets, or braces, and if successful, increases the indentation of that range of lines, inclusive. This command ignores repeat counts.

C-x 7

decreases the indentation of the lines in the region. This command ignores repeat counts.

C-x 8

increases the indentation of the lines in the region. This command ignores repeat counts.

C-x `

increases the indentation of the range of lines foward from the cursor position to the line containing the next occurrence of a match of a regular expression, Supplying a repeat count to this command causes it to affect lines to the nth next occurence of the specified regular expression.

C-x \

decreases the indentation of the range of lines forward from the cursor position to the line containing the next occurrence of a match of a regular expression. Supplying a repeat count to this command causes it to affect lines to the nth next occurence of the specified regular expression.

C-x |

decreases the indentation of the range of lines backward from the cursor position to a match of a regular expression. Supplying a repeat count to this command causes it to affect lines to the nth previous occurence of the regular expression.

C-x ~

increases the indentation of the range of lines backward from the cursor position to a match of a regular expression. Supplying a repeat count to this command causes it to affect lines to the nth previous occurence of the regular expression.

Altering The Capitalization Of Words

M-;

capitalizes the character under the cursor and converts any succeeding non-whitespace characters to lowercase.

M-"

converts the contiguous non-whitespace characters from the cursor position forward to lowercase.

M-:

converts the contiguous non-whitespace characters from the cursor position forward to uppercase.

Reforming Paragraphs Of Text

M-q

formats the paragraph forward the cursor position. Supplying a repeat count to this command causes it to affect n paragraphs.

M-w

formats the paragraph backward from the cursor position. Supplying a repeat count to this command causes it to affect n paragraphs.

C-q

formats the paragraph forward from the cursor position propagating non-alphabetic prefix characters, possibly delimited by whitespace on either or both sides. The prefix is taken from the first line to be formatted. This command is used to format some types of program comments and citations in email messages. Supplying a repeat count to this command causes it to affect n paragraphs.

C-w

formats the paragraph backward from the cursor position propagating non-alphabetic prefix characters, possibly delimited by whitespace on either or both sides. The prefix is taken from the first line to be formatted. This command is used to format some types of program comments and citations in email messages. Supplying a repeat count to this command causes it to affect n paragraphs.

Working With Tags

C-x C-g

prompts the user for a symbol name on the status line. If the cursor appears to be on a symbol in the buffer, that symbol appears on the status line as a default value. Tag completion is available at the prompt and is triggered by pressing the tab key. The editor looks up the symbol the user specifies in the tags file in the current directory. If a tag is found, the editor loads the appropriate file and jumps to the location of the definition for that symbol. The current filename and cursor position are pushed onto the file stack and can be returned to with the C-x 3 command.

Evaluating Munger Code

C-x L

sends the s-expression immediately before the cursor position to another munger process for evaluation. The editor reads and pages the output. The editor complains if it does not receive output immediately. Any subsequently arriving data is paged by invoking C-x ?.

C-x ?

displays any output pending.

C-x C-l

terminates the external munger process.

Miscellaneous Commands

C-x s

Causes the editor to remove trailing contigous whitespace characters from the ends of buffer lines. Lines consisting of only whitespace become blank lines.

M-%

instructs the editor to move the cursor to the location of the delimiter which matches ("closes") the delimiter character under the cursor. If the cursor is not on a "(", ")", "[", "]", "{", or "}" character, an error message is displayed in the status line.

C-o

inserts a blank line into the buffer before the line the cursor is on.

C-x g

displays the filename associated with the buffer, the cursor position, and whether or not the buffer contains unsaved changes.

C-x V

displays the version of the editor and the version of Munger on which is it running.

C-x C-v

displays the number of words in the buffer.

M-i

allows the user to insert any character their keyboard can generate except the carriage return character (ascii 13), into the buffer.