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el-cheapo printers, and suggest a workaround.
434 lines
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434 lines
21 KiB
Plaintext
@c This is part of the Emacs manual.
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@c Copyright (C) 1985, 1986, 1987, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1997, 2000, 2001,
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@c 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
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@c See file emacs.texi for copying conditions.
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@node Microsoft Windows, Manifesto, Mac OS, Top
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@appendix Emacs and Microsoft Windows/MS-DOS
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@cindex Microsoft Windows
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@cindex MS-Windows, Emacs peculiarities
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This section describes peculiarities of using Emacs on Microsoft
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Windows. Some of these peculiarities are also relevant to Microsoft's
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older MS-DOS ``operating system'' (also known as ``MS-DOG'').
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However, Emacs features that are relevant @emph{only} to MS-DOS are
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described in a separate
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@iftex
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manual (@pxref{MS-DOS,,, emacs-xtra, Specialized Emacs Features}).
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@end iftex
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@ifnottex
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section (@pxref{MS-DOS}).
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@end ifnottex
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The behavior of Emacs on MS-Windows is reasonably similar to what is
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documented in the rest of the manual, including support for long file
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names, multiple frames, scroll bars, mouse menus, and subprocesses.
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However, a few special considerations apply, and they are described
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here.
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@menu
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* Text and Binary:: Text files use CRLF to terminate lines.
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* Windows Files:: File-name conventions on Windows.
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* Windows HOME:: Where Emacs looks for your @file{.emacs}.
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* Windows Processes:: Running subprocesses on Windows.
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* Windows Printing:: How to specify the printer on MS-Windows.
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* Windows System Menu:: Controlling what the ALT key does.
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@ifnottex
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* MS-DOS:: Using Emacs on MS-DOS (otherwise known as @dfn{MS-DOG}).
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@end ifnottex
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@end menu
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@node Text and Binary
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@section Text Files and Binary Files
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@cindex text and binary files on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
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GNU Emacs uses newline characters to separate text lines. This is the
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convention used on GNU, Unix, and other Posix-compliant systems.
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@cindex end-of-line conversion on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
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By contrast, MS-DOS and MS-Windows normally use carriage-return linefeed,
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a two-character sequence, to separate text lines. (Linefeed is the same
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character as newline.) Therefore, convenient editing of typical files
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with Emacs requires conversion of these end-of-line (EOL) sequences.
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And that is what Emacs normally does: it converts carriage-return
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linefeed into newline when reading files, and converts newline into
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carriage-return linefeed when writing files. The same mechanism that
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handles conversion of international character codes does this conversion
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also (@pxref{Coding Systems}).
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@cindex cursor location, on MS-DOS
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@cindex point location, on MS-DOS
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One consequence of this special format-conversion of most files is
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that character positions as reported by Emacs (@pxref{Position Info}) do
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not agree with the file size information known to the operating system.
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In addition, if Emacs recognizes from a file's contents that it uses
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newline rather than carriage-return linefeed as its line separator, it
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does not perform EOL conversion when reading or writing that file.
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Thus, you can read and edit files from GNU and Unix systems on MS-DOS
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with no special effort, and they will retain their Unix-style
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end-of-line convention after you edit them.
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The mode line indicates whether end-of-line translation was used for
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the current buffer. If MS-DOS end-of-line translation is in use for the
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buffer, the MS-Windows build of Emacs displays a backslash @samp{\} after
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the coding system mnemonic near the beginning of the mode line
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(@pxref{Mode Line}). If no EOL translation was performed, the string
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@samp{(Unix)} is displayed instead of the backslash, to alert you that the
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file's EOL format is not the usual carriage-return linefeed.
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@cindex DOS-to-Unix conversion of files
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To visit a file and specify whether it uses DOS-style or Unix-style
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end-of-line, specify a coding system (@pxref{Text Coding}). For
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example, @kbd{C-x @key{RET} c unix @key{RET} C-x C-f foobar.txt}
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visits the file @file{foobar.txt} without converting the EOLs; if some
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line ends with a carriage-return linefeed pair, Emacs will display
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@samp{^M} at the end of that line. Similarly, you can direct Emacs to
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save a buffer in a specified EOL format with the @kbd{C-x @key{RET} f}
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command. For example, to save a buffer with Unix EOL format, type
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@kbd{C-x @key{RET} f unix @key{RET} C-x C-s}. If you visit a file
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with DOS EOL conversion, then save it with Unix EOL format, that
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effectively converts the file to Unix EOL style, like @code{dos2unix}.
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@cindex untranslated file system
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@findex add-untranslated-filesystem
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When you use NFS, Samba, or some other similar method to access file
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systems that reside on computers using GNU or Unix systems, Emacs
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should not perform end-of-line translation on any files in these file
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systems---not even when you create a new file. To request this,
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designate these file systems as @dfn{untranslated} file systems by
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calling the function @code{add-untranslated-filesystem}. It takes one
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argument: the file system name, including a drive letter and
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optionally a directory. For example,
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@example
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(add-untranslated-filesystem "Z:")
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@end example
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@noindent
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designates drive Z as an untranslated file system, and
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@example
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(add-untranslated-filesystem "Z:\\foo")
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@end example
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@noindent
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designates directory @file{\foo} on drive Z as an untranslated file
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system.
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Most often you would use @code{add-untranslated-filesystem} in your
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@file{.emacs} file, or in @file{site-start.el} so that all the users at
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your site get the benefit of it.
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@findex remove-untranslated-filesystem
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To countermand the effect of @code{add-untranslated-filesystem}, use
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the function @code{remove-untranslated-filesystem}. This function takes
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one argument, which should be a string just like the one that was used
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previously with @code{add-untranslated-filesystem}.
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Designating a file system as untranslated does not affect character
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set conversion, only end-of-line conversion. Essentially, it directs
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Emacs to create new files with the Unix-style convention of using
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newline at the end of a line. @xref{Coding Systems}.
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@vindex file-name-buffer-file-type-alist
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@cindex binary files, on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
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Some kinds of files should not be converted at all, because their
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contents are not really text. Therefore, Emacs on MS-Windows distinguishes
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certain files as @dfn{binary files}. (This distinction is not part of
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MS-Windows; it is made by Emacs only.) Binary files include executable
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programs, compressed archives, etc. Emacs uses the file name to decide
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whether to treat a file as binary: the variable
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@code{file-name-buffer-file-type-alist} defines the file-name patterns
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that indicate binary files. If a file name matches one of the patterns
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for binary files (those whose associations are of the type
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@code{(@var{pattern} . t)}, Emacs reads and writes that file using the
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@code{no-conversion} coding system (@pxref{Coding Systems}) which turns
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off @emph{all} coding-system conversions, not only the EOL conversion.
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@code{file-name-buffer-file-type-alist} also includes file-name patterns
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for files which are known to be Windows-style text files with
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carriage-return linefeed EOL format, such as @file{CONFIG.SYS}; Emacs
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always writes those files with Windows-style EOLs.
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If a file which belongs to an untranslated file system matches one of
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the file-name patterns in @code{file-name-buffer-file-type-alist}, the
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EOL conversion is determined by @code{file-name-buffer-file-type-alist}.
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@node Windows Files
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@section File Names on MS-Windows
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@cindex file names on MS-Windows
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MS-Windows and MS-DOS normally use a backslash, @samp{\}, to
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separate name units within a file name, instead of the slash used on
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other systems. Emacs on MS-DOS/MS-Windows permits use of either slash or
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backslash, and also knows about drive letters in file names.
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@cindex file-name completion, on MS-Windows
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On MS-DOS/MS-Windows, file names are case-insensitive, so Emacs by
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default ignores letter-case in file names during completion.
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@node Windows HOME
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@section HOME Directory on MS-Windows
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@cindex @code{HOME} directory on MS-Windows
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The MS-Windows equivalent of the @code{HOME} directory is the
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@dfn{user-specific application data directory}. The actual location
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depends on your Windows version and system configuration; typical values
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are @file{C:\Documents and Settings\@var{username}\Application Data} on
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Windows 2K/XP and later, and either @file{C:\WINDOWS\Application Data}
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or @file{C:\WINDOWS\Profiles\@var{username}\Application Data} on the
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older Windows 9X/ME systems.
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@cindex init file @file{.emacs} on MS-Windows
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The home directory is where your init file @file{.emacs} is stored.
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When Emacs starts, it first checks whether the environment variable
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@env{HOME} is set. If it is, it looks for the init file in the
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directory pointed by @env{HOME}. If @env{HOME} is not defined, Emacs
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checks for an existing @file{.emacs} file in @file{C:\}, the root
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directory of drive @file{C:}@footnote{
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The check in @file{C:\} is in preference to the application data
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directory for compatibility with older versions of Emacs, which didn't
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check the application data directory.
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}. If there's no such file in @file{C:\}, Emacs next uses the Windows
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system calls to find out the exact location of your application data
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directory. If that fails as well, Emacs falls back to @file{C:\}.
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Whatever the final place is, Emacs sets the value of the @env{HOME}
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environment variable to point to it, and it will use that location for
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other files and directories it normally creates in the user's home
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directory.
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You can always find out where Emacs thinks is your home directory's
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location by typing @kbd{C-x d ~/ @key{RET}}. This should present the
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list of files in the home directory, and show its full name on the
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first line. Likewise, to visit your init file, type @kbd{C-x C-f
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~/.emacs @key{RET}}.
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@cindex @file{_emacs} init file, MS-Windows
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Because MS-DOS does not allow file names with leading dots, and
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because older Windows systems made it hard to create files with such
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names, the Windows port of Emacs supports an alternative name
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@file{_emacs} as a fallback, if such a file exists in the home
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directory, whereas @file{.emacs} does not.
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@node Windows Processes
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@section Subprocesses on Windows 9X/ME and Windows NT/2K/XP
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@cindex subprocesses on MS-Windows
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@cindex DOS applications, running from Emacs
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Emacs compiled as a native Windows application (as opposed to the DOS
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version) includes full support for asynchronous subprocesses.
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In the Windows version, synchronous and asynchronous subprocesses work
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fine on both
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Windows 9X/ME and Windows NT/2K/XP as long as you run only 32-bit Windows
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applications. However, when you run a DOS application in a subprocess,
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you may encounter problems or be unable to run the application at all;
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and if you run two DOS applications at the same time in two
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subprocesses, you may have to reboot your system.
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Since the standard command interpreter (and most command line utilities)
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on Windows 9X are DOS applications, these problems are significant when
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using that system. But there's nothing we can do about them; only
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Microsoft can fix them.
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If you run just one DOS application subprocess, the subprocess should
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work as expected as long as it is ``well-behaved'' and does not perform
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direct screen access or other unusual actions. If you have a CPU
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monitor application, your machine will appear to be 100% busy even when
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the DOS application is idle, but this is only an artifact of the way CPU
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monitors measure processor load.
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You must terminate the DOS application before you start any other DOS
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application in a different subprocess. Emacs is unable to interrupt or
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terminate a DOS subprocess. The only way you can terminate such a
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subprocess is by giving it a command that tells its program to exit.
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If you attempt to run two DOS applications at the same time in separate
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subprocesses, the second one that is started will be suspended until the
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first one finishes, even if either or both of them are asynchronous.
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@cindex kill DOS application
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If you can go to the first subprocess, and tell it to exit, the second
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subprocess should continue normally. However, if the second subprocess
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is synchronous, Emacs itself will be hung until the first subprocess
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finishes. If it will not finish without user input, then you have no
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choice but to reboot if you are running on Windows 9X. If you are
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running on Windows NT/2K/XP, you can use a process viewer application to kill
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the appropriate instance of NTVDM instead (this will terminate both DOS
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subprocesses).
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If you have to reboot Windows 9X in this situation, do not use the
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@code{Shutdown} command on the @code{Start} menu; that usually hangs the
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system. Instead, type @kbd{CTL-ALT-@key{DEL}} and then choose
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@code{Shutdown}. That usually works, although it may take a few minutes
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to do its job.
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@node Windows Printing
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@section Printing and MS-Windows
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Printing commands, such as @code{lpr-buffer} (@pxref{Printing}) and
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@code{ps-print-buffer} (@pxref{PostScript}) work in MS-DOS and
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MS-Windows by sending the output to one of the printer ports, if a
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Posix-style @code{lpr} program is unavailable. The same Emacs
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variables control printing on all systems, but in some cases they have
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different default values on MS-DOS and MS-Windows.
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Emacs on Windows automatically determines your default printer and
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sets the variable @var{printer-name} to that printer's name. But in
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some rare cases this can fail, or you may wish to use a different
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printer from within Emacs. The rest of this section explains how to
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tell Emacs which printer to use.
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@vindex printer-name@r{, (MS-DOS/MW-Windows)}
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If you want to use your local printer, then set the Lisp variable
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@code{lpr-command} to @code{""} (its default value on Windows) and
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@code{printer-name} to the name of the printer port---for example,
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@code{"PRN"}, the usual local printer port or @code{"LPT2"}, or
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@code{"COM1"} for a serial printer. You can also set
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@code{printer-name} to a file name, in which case ``printed'' output
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is actually appended to that file. If you set @code{printer-name} to
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@code{"NUL"}, printed output is silently discarded (sent to the system
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null device).
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You can also use a printer shared by another machine by setting
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@code{printer-name} to the UNC share name for that printer---for
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example, @code{"//joes_pc/hp4si"}. (It doesn't matter whether you use
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forward slashes or backslashes here.) To find out the names of shared
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printers, run the command @samp{net view} from the command prompt to
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obtain a list of servers, and @samp{net view @var{server-name}} to see
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the names of printers (and directories) shared by that server.
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Alternatively, click the @samp{Network Neighborhood} icon on your
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desktop, and look for machines which share their printers via the
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network.
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@cindex @samp{net use}, and printing on MS-Windows
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@cindex networked printers (MS-Windows)
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If the printer doesn't appear in the output of @samp{net view}, or
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if setting @code{printer-name} to the UNC share name doesn't produce a
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hardcopy on that printer, you can use the @samp{net use} command to
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connect a local print port such as @code{"LPT2"} to the networked
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printer. For example, typing @kbd{net use LPT2: \\joes_pc\hp4si}@footnote{
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Note that the @samp{net use} command requires the UNC share name to be
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typed with the Windows-style backslashes, while the value of
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@code{printer-name} can be set with either forward- or backslashes.}
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causes Windows to @dfn{capture} the @code{LPT2} port and redirect the
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printed material to the printer connected to the machine @code{joes_pc}.
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After this command, setting @code{printer-name} to @code{"LPT2"}
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should produce the hardcopy on the networked printer.
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With some varieties of Windows network software, you can instruct
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Windows to capture a specific printer port such as @code{"LPT2"}, and
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redirect it to a networked printer via the @w{@code{Control
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Panel->Printers}} applet instead of @samp{net use}.
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If you set @code{printer-name} to a file name, it's best to use an
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absolute file name. Emacs changes the working directory according to
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the default directory of the current buffer, so if the file name in
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@code{printer-name} is relative, you will end up with several such
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files, each one in the directory of the buffer from which the printing
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was done.
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If the value of @code{printer-name} is correct, but printing does
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not produce the hardcopy on your printer, it is possible that your
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printer does not support printing plain text (some cheap printers omit
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this functionality). In that case, as a workaround, try the
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PostScript print commands, described below, to the same printer
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@findex print-buffer @r{(MS-DOS)}
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@findex print-region @r{(MS-DOS)}
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@vindex lpr-headers-switches @r{(MS-DOS)}
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The commands @code{print-buffer} and @code{print-region} call the
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@code{pr} program, or use special switches to the @code{lpr} program, to
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produce headers on each printed page. MS-DOS and MS-Windows don't
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normally have these programs, so by default, the variable
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@code{lpr-headers-switches} is set so that the requests to print page
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headers are silently ignored. Thus, @code{print-buffer} and
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@code{print-region} produce the same output as @code{lpr-buffer} and
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@code{lpr-region}, respectively. If you do have a suitable @code{pr}
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program (for example, from GNU Coreutils), set
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@code{lpr-headers-switches} to @code{nil}; Emacs will then call
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@code{pr} to produce the page headers, and print the resulting output as
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specified by @code{printer-name}.
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@vindex print-region-function @r{(MS-DOS)}
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@cindex lpr usage under MS-DOS
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@vindex lpr-command @r{(MS-DOS)}
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@vindex lpr-switches @r{(MS-DOS)}
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Finally, if you do have an @code{lpr} work-alike, you can set the
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variable @code{lpr-command} to @code{"lpr"}. Then Emacs will use
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@code{lpr} for printing, as on other systems. (If the name of the
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program isn't @code{lpr}, set @code{lpr-command} to specify where to
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find it.) The variable @code{lpr-switches} has its standard meaning
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when @code{lpr-command} is not @code{""}. If the variable
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@code{printer-name} has a string value, it is used as the value for the
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@code{-P} option to @code{lpr}, as on Unix.
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@findex ps-print-buffer @r{(MS-DOS)}
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@findex ps-spool-buffer @r{(MS-DOS)}
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@vindex ps-printer-name @r{(MS-DOS)}
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@vindex ps-lpr-command @r{(MS-DOS)}
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@vindex ps-lpr-switches @r{(MS-DOS)}
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A parallel set of variables, @code{ps-lpr-command},
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@code{ps-lpr-switches}, and @code{ps-printer-name} (@pxref{PostScript
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Variables}), defines how PostScript files should be printed. These
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variables are used in the same way as the corresponding variables
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described above for non-PostScript printing. Thus, the value of
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@code{ps-printer-name} is used as the name of the device (or file) to
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which PostScript output is sent, just as @code{printer-name} is used
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for non-PostScript printing. (There are two distinct sets of
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variables in case you have two printers attached to two different
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ports, and only one of them is a PostScript printer.)
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The default value of the variable @code{ps-lpr-command} is @code{""},
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which causes PostScript output to be sent to the printer port specified
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by @code{ps-printer-name}, but @code{ps-lpr-command} can also be set to
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the name of a program which will accept PostScript files. Thus, if you
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have a non-PostScript printer, you can set this variable to the name of
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a PostScript interpreter program (such as Ghostscript). Any switches
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that need to be passed to the interpreter program are specified using
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@code{ps-lpr-switches}. (If the value of @code{ps-printer-name} is a
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string, it will be added to the list of switches as the value for the
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@code{-P} option. This is probably only useful if you are using
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@code{lpr}, so when using an interpreter typically you would set
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@code{ps-printer-name} to something other than a string so it is
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ignored.)
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For example, to use Ghostscript for printing on the system's default
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|
printer, put this in your @file{.emacs} file:
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|
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@example
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|
(setq ps-printer-name t)
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(setq ps-lpr-command "D:/gs6.01/bin/gswin32c.exe")
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|
(setq ps-lpr-switches '("-q" "-dNOPAUSE" "-dBATCH"
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|
"-sDEVICE=mswinpr2"
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|
"-sPAPERSIZE=a4"))
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|
@end example
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|
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@noindent
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|
(This assumes that Ghostscript is installed in the
|
|
@file{D:/gs6.01} directory.)
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|
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@node Windows System Menu
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|
@section Using the System Menu on Windows
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@cindex @code{Alt} key invokes menu (Windows)
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|
|
|
Emacs compiled as a native Windows application normally turns off the
|
|
Windows feature that tapping the @key{ALT} key invokes the Windows
|
|
menu. The reason is that the @key{ALT} serves as @key{META} in Emacs.
|
|
When using Emacs, users often press the @key{META} key temporarily and
|
|
then change their minds; if this has the effect of bringing up the
|
|
Windows menu, it alters the meaning of subsequent commands. Many
|
|
users find this frustrating.
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|
|
|
@vindex w32-pass-alt-to-system
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|
You can re-enable Windows' default handling of tapping the @key{ALT} key
|
|
by setting @code{w32-pass-alt-to-system} to a non-@code{nil} value.
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|
|
|
@ifnottex
|
|
@include msdog-xtra.texi
|
|
@end ifnottex
|
|
|
|
@ignore
|
|
arch-tag: f39d2590-5dcc-4318-88d9-0eb73ca10fa2
|
|
@end ignore
|