(Mac OS): Don't say Ispell cannot work: it can, if they have a port

[gnu-emacs] / man / macos.texi

@c This is part of the Emacs manual.
@c Copyright (C) 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
@c See file emacs.texi for copying conditions.
@node Mac OS, MS-DOS, Antinews, Top
@appendix Emacs and the Mac OS
@cindex Mac OS
@cindex Macintosh

  Emacs built on the Mac OS supports many of its major features:
multiple frames, colors, scroll bars, menu bars, use of the mouse,
fontsets, international characters, input methods, coding systems, and
synchronous subprocesses (@code{call-process}).  Much of this works in
the same way as on other platforms and is therefore documented in the
rest of this manual.  This section describes the peculiarities of using
Emacs under the Mac OS.

  The following features of Emacs are not yet supported on the Mac:
unexec (@code{dump-emacs}), asynchronous subprocesses
(@code{start-process}), and networking (@code{open-network-connection}).
As a result, packages such as Gnus, GUD, and Comint do not work.

  Since external Unix programs to handle commands such as
@code{print-buffer} and @code{diff} are not available on the Mac OS,
they are not supported in the Mac OS version.

@menu
* Input: Mac Input.                Keyboard input on the Mac.
* Intl: Mac International.         International character sets on the Mac.
* Env: Mac Environment Variables.  Setting environment variables for Emacs.
* Directories: Mac Directories.    Volumes and directories on the Mac.
* Font: Mac Font Specs.            Specifying fonts on the Mac.
* Functions: Mac Functions.        Mac-specific Lisp functions.
@end menu

@node Mac Input
@section Keyboard Input on the Mac
@cindex Meta (Mac OS)
@cindex keyboard coding (Mac OS)
@vindex mac-command-key-is-meta
@vindex mac-keyboard-text-encoding

  On the Mac, Emacs can use either the @key{option} key or the
@key{command} key as the @key{META} key.  If the value of the variable
@code{mac-command-key-is-meta} is non-@code{nil} (its default value),
Emacs uses the @key{command} key as the @key{META} key.  Otherwise it
uses the @key{option} key as the @key{META} key.

  Most people should want to use the @key{command} key as the @key{META} key,
so that dead-key processing with the @key{option} key will still work.  This is
useful for entering non-ASCII Latin characters directly from the Mac
keyboard, for example.

  Emacs recognizes the setting in the Keyboard control panel and
supports international and alternative keyboard layouts (e.g., Dvorak).
Selecting one of the layouts from the keyboard layout pull-down menu
will affect how the keys typed on the keyboard are interpreted.

  The Mac OS intercepts and handles certain key combinations (e.g.,
@key{command}-@key{SPC} for switching input languages).  These will not
be passed to Emacs.

  The Mac keyboard ordinarily generates characters in the Mac Roman
encoding.  To use it for entering ISO Latin-1 characters directly, set
the value of the variable @code{mac-keyboard-text-encoding} to
@code{kTextEncodingISOLatin1}.  Note that not all Mac Roman characters
that can be entered at the keyboard can be converted to ISO Latin-1
characters.

  To enter ISO Latin-2 characters directly from the Mac keyboard, set
the value of @code{mac-keyboard-text-encoding} to
@code{kTextEncodingISOLatin2}.  Then let Emacs know that the keyboard
generates Latin-2 codes, by typing @kbd{C-x @key{RET} k iso-latin-2
@key{RET}}.  To make this setting permanent, put this in your
@file{.emacs} init file:

@lisp
(set-keyboard-coding-system 'iso-latin-2)
@end lisp

@node Mac International
@section International Character Set Support on the Mac
@cindex Mac Roman coding system
@cindex clipboard support (Mac OS)

  The Mac uses a non-standard encoding for the upper 128 single-byte
characters.  It also deviates from the ISO 2022 standard by using
character codes in the range 128-159.  The coding system
@code{mac-roman} is used to represent this Mac encoding.  It is used
for editing files stored in this native encoding, and for displaying
file names in Dired mode.

  Any native (non-symbol) Mac font can be used to correctly display
characters in the @code{mac-roman} coding system.

  The fontset @code{fontset-mac} is created automatically when Emacs
is run on the Mac.  It displays characters in the @code{mac-roman}
coding system using 12-point Monaco.

  To insert characters directly in the @code{mac-roman} coding system,
type @kbd{C-x @key{RET} k mac-roman @key{RET}}, customize the option
@code{keyboard-coding-system}, or put this in your init file:

@lisp
(set-keyboard-coding-system 'mac-roman)
@end lisp

@noindent
This is useful for editing documents in native Mac encoding.

  You can use input methods provided either by LEIM (@pxref{Input
Methods}) or the Mac OS to enter international characters.

  To use the former, see the International Character Set Support section
of the manual (@pxref{International}).

  To use input methods provided by the Mac OS, set the keyboard coding
system accordingly using the @kbd{C-x @key{RET} k} command
(@code{set-keyboard-coding-system}).  For example, for Traditional
Chinese, use @samp{chinese-big5} as keyboard coding system; for
Japanese, use @samp{sjis}, etc.  Then select the desired input method in
the keyboard layout pull-down menu.

  The Mac clipboard and the Emacs kill ring (@pxref{Killing}) are
connected as follows: the most recent kill is copied to the clipboard
when Emacs is suspended and the contents of the clipboard is inserted
into the kill ring when Emacs resumes.  The result is that you can yank
a piece of text and paste it into another Mac application, or cut or copy
one in another Mac application and yank it into a Emacs buffer.

  The encoding of text selections must be specified using the commands
@kbd{C-x @key{RET} x} (@code{set-selection-coding-system}) or @kbd{C-x
@key{RET} X} (@code{set-next-selection-coding-system}) (e.g., for
Traditional Chinese, use @samp{chinese-big5-mac} and for Japanese,
@samp{sjis-mac}).  @xref{Specify Coding}, for more details.


@node Mac Environment Variables
@section Environment Variables and Command Line Arguments.
@cindex environment variables (Mac OS)

  Environment variables and command line arguments for Emacs can be set
by modifying the @samp{STR#} resources 128 and 129, respectively.  A common
environment variable that one may want to set is @samp{HOME}.

  The way to set an environment variable is by adding a string of the
form

@example
ENV_VAR=VALUE
@end example

@noindent
to resource @samp{STR#} number 128 using @code{ResEdit}. To set up the
program to use unibyte characters exclusively, for example, add the
string

@example
EMACS_UNIBYTE=1
@end example


@node Mac Directories
@section Volumes and Directories on the Mac
@cindex file names (Mac OS)

  The directory structure in the Mac OS is seen by Emacs as 

@example
/@var{volumename}/@var{filename}
@end example

So when Emacs requests a file name, doing file name completion on
@file{/} will display all volumes on the system.  As in Unix, @file{..}
can be used to go up a directory level.

  To access files and folders on the desktop, look in the folder
@file{Desktop Folder} in your boot volume (this folder is usually
invisible in the Mac @code{Finder}).

  Emacs creates the Mac folder @file{:Preferences:Emacs:} in the
@file{System Folder} and uses it as the temporary directory.  The Unix
emulation code maps the Unix directory @file{/tmp} to it.  Therefore it
is best to avoid naming a volume @file{tmp}.  If everything works
correctly, the program should leave no files in it when it exits.  You
should be able to set the environment variable @code{TMPDIR} to use
another directory but this folder will still be created.


@node Mac Font Specs
@section Specifying Fonts on the Mac
@cindex font names (Mac OS)

  It is rare that you need to specify a font name in Emacs; usually
you specify face attributes instead.  But when you do need to specify
a font name in Emacs on the Mac, use a standard X font name:

@smallexample
-@var{maker}-@var{family}-@var{weight}-@var{slant}-@var{widthtype}-@var{style}@dots{}
@dots{}-@var{pixels}-@var{height}-@var{horiz}-@var{vert}-@var{spacing}-@var{width}-@var{charset}
@end smallexample

@noindent
@xref{Font X}.  Wildcards are supported as they are on X.

  Native Apple fonts in Mac Roman encoding has maker name @code{apple}
and charset @code{mac-roman}.  For example 12-point Monaco can be
specified by the name @samp{-apple-monaco-*-12-*-mac-roman}.

  Native Apple Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, and
Korean fonts have charsets @samp{big5-0}, @samp{gb2312.1980-0},
@samp{jisx0208.1983-sjis}, and @samp{ksc5601.1989-0}, respectively.

  Single-byte fonts converted from GNU fonts in BDF format, which are not
in the Mac Roman encoding, have foundry, family, and character sets
encoded in the names of their font suitcases.  E.g., the font suitcase
@samp{ETL-Fixed-ISO8859-1} contains fonts which can be referred to by
the name @samp{-ETL-fixed-*-iso8859-1}.


@node Mac Functions
@section Mac-Specific Lisp Functions
@cindex Lisp functions specific to Mac OS

@findex do-applescript
  The function @code{do-applescript} takes a string argument,
executes it as an AppleScript command, and returns the result as a
string.

@findex mac-filename-to-unix
@findex unix-filename-to-mac
  The function @code{mac-filename-to-unix} takes a Mac file name and
returns the Unix equivalent.  The function @code{unix-filename-to-mac}
performs the opposite conversion.  They are useful for constructing
AppleScript commands to be passed to @code{do-applescript}.