pkgsrc/lang/elisp-manual/DESCR
uebayasi 4ad9f46df5 Update to 21.8, edition 2.6 of the Emacs Lisp Reference Manual,
corresponding to GNU Emacs version 21.2.
2003-06-09 09:02:28 +00:00

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Most of the GNU Emacs text editor is written in the programming
language called Emacs Lisp. You can write new code in Emacs Lisp and
install it as an extension to the editor. However, Emacs Lisp is more
than a mere ``extension language''; it is a full computer programming
language in its own right. You can use it as you would any other
programming language.
Because Emacs Lisp is designed for use in an editor, it has special
features for scanning and parsing text as well as features for handling
files, buffers, displays, subprocesses, and so on. Emacs Lisp is
closely integrated with the editing facilities; thus, editing commands
are functions that can also conveniently be called from Lisp programs,
and parameters for customization are ordinary Lisp variables.
This manual attempts to be a full description of Emacs Lisp. For a
beginner's introduction to Emacs Lisp, see ``An Introduction to
Emacs Lisp Programming,'' by Bob Chassell, also published by the Free
Software Foundation. This manual presumes considerable familiarity with
the use of Emacs for editing; see ``The GNU Emacs Manual'' for this
basic information.
Generally speaking, the earlier chapters describe features of Emacs
Lisp that have counterparts in many programming languages, and later
chapters describe features that are peculiar to Emacs Lisp or relate
specifically to editing.