Want real shell mode in Emacs? Using M-x shell only gives terminal emulation, which sometimes doesn’t display things correctly and which, since it supports all Emacs key bindings, makes you do things like use M-p instead of C-p to bring up previous commands in the command buffer ring. Most of the time Shell mode is fine and actually preferable, but if you need a true terminal/shell mode, use M-x term. In this mode it at first appears none of the usual Emacs key-bindings work — How do you change windows?? The secret is to use C-c instead of C-x as your command prefix, e.g. use C-c o instead of C-x o to change windows. To use the M-x commands or any other command, just precede the command with C-c. Thus use C-c M-x compile instead of just M-x compile. Try it. You’ll like it. (Hey I know this is too simple for Emacs gurus with megabyte long .emacs configuration files, but not all of us know these tricks, not even some long time users).
Emacs Tip of the Month
