1 @c This is part of the Emacs manual.
2 @c Copyright (C) 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 @c See file emacs.texi for copying conditions.
4 @node Mac OS, MS-DOS, Antinews, Top
5 @appendix Emacs and the Mac OS
9 Emacs built on the Mac OS supports many of its major features:
10 multiple frames, colors, scroll bars, menu bars, use of the mouse,
11 fontsets, international characters, input methods, coding systems, and
12 synchronous subprocesses (@code{call-process}). Much of this works in
13 the same way as on other platforms and is therefore documented in the
14 rest of this manual. This section describes the peculiarities of using
15 Emacs under the Mac OS.
17 The following features of Emacs are not yet supported on the Mac:
18 unexec (@code{dump-emacs}), asynchronous subprocesses
19 (@code{start-process}), and networking (@code{open-network-connection}).
20 As a result, packages such as Gnus, Ispell, and Comint do not work.
22 Since external Unix programs to handle commands such as
23 @code{print-buffer} and @code{diff} are not available on the Mac OS,
24 they are not supported in the Mac OS version.
27 * Input: Mac Input. Keyboard input on the Mac.
28 * Intl: Mac International. International character sets on the Mac.
29 * Env: Mac Environment Variables. Setting environment variables for Emacs.
30 * Directories: Mac Directories. Volumes and directories on the Mac.
31 * Font: Mac Font Specs. Specifying fonts on the Mac.
32 * Functions: Mac Functions. Mac-specific Lisp functions.
36 @section Keyboard Input on the Mac
38 @cindex keyboard coding (Mac OS)
39 @vindex mac-command-key-is-meta
40 @vindex mac-keyboard-text-encoding
42 On the Mac, Emacs can use either the @key{option} key or the
43 @key{command} key as the @key{META} key. If the value of the variable
44 @code{mac-command-key-is-meta} is non-@code{nil} (its default value),
45 Emacs uses the @key{command} key as the @key{META} key. Otherwise it uses the
46 @key{option} key as the @key{META} key.
48 Most people should want to use the @key{command} key as the @key{META} key,
49 so that dead-key processing with the @key{option} key will still work. This is
50 useful for entering non-ASCII Latin characters directly from the Mac
51 keyboard, for example.
53 Emacs recognizes the setting in the Keyboard control panel and
54 supports international and alternative keyboard layouts (e.g., Dvorak).
55 Selecting one of the layouts from the keyboard layout pull-down menu
56 will affect how the keys typed on the keyboard are interpreted.
58 The Mac OS intercepts and handles certain key combinations (e.g.,
59 @key{command}-@key{SPC} for switching input languages). These will not
62 The Mac keyboard ordinarily generates characters in the Mac Roman
63 encoding. To use it for entering ISO Latin-1 characters directly, set
64 the value of the variable @code{mac-keyboard-text-encoding} to
65 @code{kTextEncodingISOLatin1}. Note that that not all Mac Roman
66 characters that can be entered at the keyboard can be converted to ISO
69 To enter ISO Latin-2 characters directly from the Mac keyboard. Set
70 the value of @code{mac-keyboard-text-encoding} to
71 @code{kTextEncodingISOLatin2}. Then let Emacs know that the keyboard
72 generates Latin-2 codes by typink @kbd{C-x RET k iso-latin-2 RET}. To
73 make this setting permanent, put this in your @file{.emacs} init file:
76 (set-keyboard-coding-system 'iso-latin-2)
79 @node Mac International
80 @section International Character Set Support on the Mac
81 @cindex Mac Roman coding system
82 @cindex clipboard support (Mac OS)
84 The Mac uses a non-standard encoding for the upper 128 single-byte
85 characters. It also deviates from the ISO 2022 standard by using code
86 points in the range 128-159. The coding system @code{mac-roman} is used
87 to represent this Mac encoding. It is used for editing files stored in
88 this native encoding, and for displaying file names in Dired mode.
90 Any native (non-symbol) Mac font can be used to correctly display
91 characters in the @code{mac-roman} coding system.
93 The fontset @code{fontset-mac} is created automatically when Emacs is
94 run on the Mac by the following expression. It displays characters in
95 the @code{mac-roman} coding system using 12-point Monaco.
97 To insert characters directly in the @code{mac-roman} coding system,
98 type @kbd{C-x RET k mac-roman RET}, or put this in your @file{.emacs}
102 (set-keyboard-coding-system 'mac-roman)
106 This is useful for editing documents in native Mac encoding.
108 You can use input methods provided either by LEIM (@pxref{Input
109 Methods}) or the Mac OS to enter international characters.
111 To use the former, see the International Character Set Support section
114 To use input methods provided by the Mac OS, set the keyboard coding
115 system accordingly using the @kbd{C-x RET k} command
116 (@code{set-keyboard-coding-system}). For example, for Traditional
117 Chinese, use @samp{chinese-big5} as keyboard coding system; for
118 Japanese, use @samp{sjis}, etc. Then select the desired input method in
119 the keyboard layout pull-down menu.
121 The Mac clipboard and the Emacs kill ring (@pxref{Killing}) are
122 connected as follows: the most recent kill is copied to the clipboard
123 when Emacs is suspended and the contents of the clipboard is inserted
124 into the kill ring when Emacs resumes. The result is that you can yank
125 a piece of text and paste it into another Mac application, or cut or copy
126 one in another Mac application and yank it into a Emacs buffer.
128 The encoding of text selections must be specified using the commands
129 @kbd{C-x RET x} (@code{set-selection-coding-system}) or @kbd{C-x RET X}
130 (@code{set-next-selection-coding-system}) (e.g., for Traditional
131 Chinese, use @samp{chinese-big5-mac} and for Japanese,
132 @samp{sjis-mac}). @xref{Specify Coding}, for more details.
135 @node Mac Environment Variables
136 @section Environment Variables and Command Line Arguments.
137 @cindex environment variables (Mac OS)
139 Environment variables and command line arguments for Emacs can be set
140 by modifying the @samp{STR#} resources 128 and 129, respectively. A common
141 environment variable that one may want to set is @samp{HOME}.
143 The way to set an environment variable is by adding a string of the
151 to resource @samp{STR#} number 128 using @code{ResEdit}. To set up the
152 program to use unibyte characters exclusively, for example, add the
160 @node Mac Directories
161 @section Volumes and Directories on the Mac
162 @cindex file names (Mac OS)
164 The directory structure in the Mac OS is seen by Emacs as
167 /@var{volumename}/@var{filename}
170 So when Emacs requests a file name, doing file name completion on
171 @file{/} will display all volumes on the system. As in Unix, @file{..}
172 can be used to go up a directory level.
174 To access files and folders on the desktop, look in the folder
175 @file{Desktop Folder} in your boot volume (this folder is usually
176 invisible in the Mac @code{Finder}).
178 Emacs creates the Mac folder @file{:Preferences:Emacs:} in the
179 @file{System Folder} and uses it as the temporary directory. The Unix
180 emulation code maps the Unix directory @file{/tmp} to it. Therefore it
181 is best to avoid naming a volume @file{tmp}. If everything works
182 correctly, the program should leave no files in it when it exits. You
183 should be able to set the environment variable @code{TMPDIR} to use
184 another directory but this folder will still be created.
188 @section Specifying Fonts on the Mac
189 @cindex font names (Mac OS)
191 Fonts are specified to Emacs on the Mac in the form of a standard X
195 -@var{foundry}-@var{family}-@var{weight}-@var{slant}-@var{width}--@var{pixels}-@var{points}-@var{hres}-@var{vres}-@var{spacing}-@var{avewidth}-@var{charset}
199 where the fields refer to foundry, font family, weight, slant, width,
200 pixels, point size, horizontal resolution, vertical resolution,
201 spacing, average width, and character set, respectively. Wildcards
202 are supported as they are on X.
204 Native Apple fonts in Mac Roman encoding has foundry name @code{apple}
205 and charset @code{mac-roman}. For example 12-point Monaco can be
206 specified by the name @samp{-apple-monaco-*-12-*-mac-roman}.
208 Native Apple Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, and
209 Korean fonts have charsets @samp{big5-0}, @samp{gb2312-0},
210 @samp{jisx0208.1983-sjis}, and @samp{ksc5601-1}, respectively.
212 Single-byte fonts converted from GNU fonts in BDF format, which are not
213 in the Mac Roman encoding, have foundry, family, and character sets
214 encoded in the names of their font suitcases. E.g., the font suitcase
215 @samp{ETL-Fixed-ISO8859-1} contains fonts which can be referred to by
216 the name @samp{-ETL-fixed-*-iso8859-1}.
220 @section Mac-Specific Lisp Functions
221 @cindex Lisp functions specific to Mac OS
223 @findex do-applescript
224 The function @code{do-applescript} takes a string argument,
225 executes it as an AppleScript command, and returns the result as a
228 @findex mac-filename-to-unix
229 @findex unix-filename-to-mac
230 The function @code{mac-filename-to-unix} takes a Mac file name and
231 returns the Unix equivalent. The function @code{unix-filename-to-mac}
232 performs the opposite conversion. They are useful for constructing
233 AppleScript commands to be passed to @code{do-applescript}.