Ways to get help using emacs
2024-5-22
Emacs is hands-down the best text editor I've ever used. It
can edit text + all kinds of other things. But to a new
user, the keybindings, modes, functions etc. can be over-
whelming at times. There's a lot of help you can get for
emacs. Here are all the ways/places I know of where you
can get help figuring out how to do something on emacs.
Built-in/Offline
C-h (Ctrl-h)
Firstly, there's the ever-present help menu you can access
via the C-h keybinding. A few options that might be of int-
erest:
- C-h v | variables
- C-h f | functions
- C-h k | keybinding (type the keybinding as normal, don't describe it)
There's even help for the help menu!: C-h ?
You can also "play through" the Emacs Tutorial (C-h t),
read the Emacs FAQ, or refer to the Emacs manpage and info
page.
All of the above can be done offline too. Now what about
online? And what if all of the above resources couldn't
answer your question? Well, there's a shitload of places
online where you can get help, provided you know how to
ask proper questions.[1] If you're reading this with a
Gemini client, you probably know how to ask questions
very well already & I'm just preaching to the choir.
Online
IRC
LiberaChat[2] has an #emacs channel where you can get help
with your problem pretty quickly as long as your question
is short enough for a chat protocol. It's very active.
Matrix
For those who prefer a more modern and secure-by-default
chat protocol, Matrix also has an Emacs room which can
be found in its own Matrix space[3].
Emacs mailing list
Specifically, help-gnu-emacs[4]. It's pretty active and you'll get
an answer within hours.
Emacs StackExchange
StackExchange is full of useful Q&A sites (StackOverflow,
SuperUser, even non-technical ones), but it also has a
whole Q&A site for Emacs questions. It's somewhat active
and will be familar to anyone who's used other SE sites
before.[5]
Emacs Newsgroup
Ah, the venerable Usenet newsgroups. comp.emacs is still
around, but it's basically inactive. I'm subscribed to it
and there have been maybe 4 posts in the last month. The
folks there are incredibly experienced and knowledgeable,
but you'll be among the few still asking questions there.
Conclusion
There are others, but the aforementioned 5 are probably
all you need. That on top of the existing documentation
built into emacs should have your emacs journey set to
smooth sailing.
Later this year, I'll be making a similar post on ways to
get weather.
https://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
https://matrix.to/#/#emacs-space:matrix.org
https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/help-gnu-emacs/
https://emacs.stackexchange.com/
/gemlog/