Basic Emacs for Linguistics 187

If you already know how to use emacs, you can ignore this handout,
although you may want to read the part about .lfg files.

Starting Emacs:

We will be using the text editor "emacs" to write grammars.  It is
possible to write grammars using other editors.  However, XLE comes
with a special emacs library that makes writing grammars and running
them much simpler.

To start up emacs, type

  emacs &

at the command line.  A window will pop up that you can type in to
create documents, including grammar files.

If you want to edit an existing file, type

  emacs FILENAME &

where FILENAME is the name of the relevant file.  

At the top of the window are menu items.  The main ones you will need
are:

   File: open a file that you want to edit
         save a file that you have edited or created
         exit emacs (make sure to SAVE your file before you EXIT)

   Edit: undo (very handy if you make a mistake)
         cut
         paste

   Buffers: choose a buffer from the ones you have loaded;
            this allows you to edit multiple files in one
            emacs window

   Help: emacs tutorial (if you have never used emacs, you should
                         go through a bit of this)

There are also keyboard commands for all of these.  Many of them are
listed on the emacs cheat sheet.


LFG Emacs:

If you have a file whose name ends with .lfg and you have modified
your .emacs file as indicated in the instructions on running xle, then
you will get a special menu item in emacs.  This will be called LFG.
This will have options such as:

  start an XLE process   (starts up xle for you)
  Rules, templates, lexicons  (lists the rules, etc for that file)

The xle documentation (obtainable by starting xle and then typing
"documentation") has a special section on using emacs with grammar
files.  You may wish to read this section.