Customer Reviews

GNU Emacs and XEmacs (With CD-ROM) (Linux)

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While I very much enjoy all of the emacs books, this one is the only one which has XEmacs specific info, e.g., using (gnuserv-start) to let XEmacs be an XEmacs server. If you want info specific to Xemacs, get this. For general emacs, the O'Reily and FSF books are a must. For more advanced works, other FSF books on LISP are also quite useful. This book has enough extra info to recommend it.

This is good as an intro book. For expert users, check out the Emacs LISP reference and tutorial avail on GNU site. Too much words for an intro book though... new users can quickly get lost in the sea of terms. The glossary is not nearly as complete.

This seminal work lacks badly both a focus and a meaningful content.
The coverage of your needs as a programmer is takes a rather thin chapter.
IMHO - one should better read the GNU Emacs and Xemacs manuals.

Once you're done with "C-h t", you'll want a little bit of help learning how to get more mileage out of your Emacs. The next step should be "GNU Emacs and XEmacs". I have found this book to be a great guide to everything beyond the basics of editing. It provides a friendly and accessible guide to learning what Emacs is capable of, without overwheming the reader with details that aren't important to the intermediate user. It's not going to make you an ELISP master, but it doesn't pretend to.

It may not be perfect, but I don't see how a book about Emacs could be. It's not much use as a reference source - once you're done with it, you're done with it (except for the occasional reread to pick up new tidbits). At the same time, you may find it a little intimidating if you have never used Emacs or any other advanced editing environment.

I think the biggest recommendation that I can personally make is this: "GNU Emacs and XEmacs" took me from being a VIM user that occasionally dabbled in emacsen to a full-time user of GNU Emacs eager to explore every nook and cranny of the Emacs environment.