		    Zile FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions

		   Last updated: $Date: 2007/10/12 15:58:43 $

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INDEX

1. General questions
   1.1. What does `Zile' mean?
   1.2. What is Zile's license?
   1.3. Why another clone of Emacs? Why not just use Emacs?
   1.4. Where can I get the latest version?
   1.5. Why did you choose such difficult key sequences?
   1.6. Zile has a bug!
   1.7. I like the xyz function of (X)Emacs but it's not in Zile!
   1.8. How small does Zile get?
   1.9. Does Zile support Unicode/UTF-8?
   1.10. Zile doesn't compile.

2. Functionality
   2.1. How do I quit Zile?
   2.2. How do I make Zile insert a tab character?
   2.3. How do I return to the shell without leaving Zile?
   2.4. How do I undo the previous command?
   2.5. What does `C-something' or `M-something' mean?
   2.6. What settings can I change?
   2.7. Why are my settings being ignored?
   2.8. How do I handle non-ASCII characters?
   2.9. The META/ALT key doesn't work.
   2.10. The `C-h' key is bound to <BS>/<DEL>; help doesn't work.

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1. General questions

1.1. What does `Zile' mean?

    It stands for `Zile Is Lossy Emacs'. It is just another recursive
    acronym like GNU.

1.2. What is Zile's license?

    Zile is released under the GNU General Public License. For more
    information, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html.

1.3. Why another clone of Emacs? Why not just use Emacs?

    From the features list in the Info documentation:

	``Small but fast and powerful. It is very useful for small
	footprint installations (e.g. on floppy disk) or quick editing
	sessions.''

    That's why sometimes Emacs isn't the best editor to use :-) I use
    Emacs myself for coding, but I use Zile when I have, let's say, to
    quickly edit the dot files in the home directory of a remote
    machine; I don't want to wait 5 seconds to load Emacs for doing a
    2-second edit...

1.4. Where can I get the latest version?

    The Zile project is hosted on SourceForge at:

	http://zile.sourceforge.net/

1.5. Why did you choose such difficult key sequences?

    To be the same as Emacs.

1.6. Zile has a bug!

    Bug reports can be sent to the developers at
    <zile-devel@lists.sourceforge.net>, or entered directly into
    Bugzilla at http://sourceforge.net/projects/zile. Patches are
    appreciated.

1.7. I like the xyz function of (X)Emacs but it's not in Zile!

    Zile was written to be small but fast and powerful enough.

    In general, if you need something more powerful, use Emacs or
    XEmacs. You could also try Jed, which emulates Emacs, is not much
    bigger than Zile, and has syntax highlighting, a macro language
    and more (http://www.jedsoft.org/jed/).

    If you still think that a certain function should be implemented
    in Zile, please send a message to the developers (see question
    1.6).

1.8. How small does Zile get?

    On Debian 4.0 i386, Zile 2.2.31 built with gcc 4.1.2 -O2 weighs
    in at 110,504 bytes when stripped. This is a fairly typical build.

1.9. Does Zile support Unicode/UTF-8?

    No.

1.10. Zile doesn't compile.

    We have tested Zile under GNU/Linux only, although it should work
    on any POSIX-compliant OS that supports ncurses. If you get Zile
    running under an OS not listed here, please send a message to the
    Zile developers telling them that (you might also send any patches
    you have made to the Zile sources if you want them included in the
    next release).

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2. Functionality

2.1. How do I quit Zile?

    Type `C-x C-c' (that means holding CONTROL while typing X,
    releasing them, then holding CONTROL while typing C)

2.2. How do I make Zile insert a tab character?

    You can insert a tab by typing `C-q TAB', to "quote" a tab
    character. If you want TAB always to insert tab characters rather
    than indenting, rebind it to insert-tab, by putting

      (global-set-key "\TAB" 'insert-tab)

    into your ~/.zile file.

2.3. How do I return to the shell without leaving Zile?

    Type `C-x C-z' or simply `C-z'.

2.4. How do I undo the previous command?

    Type `C-x u'.

2.5. What does `C-something' or `M-something' mean?

    From the tutorial (`C-h t'):

    C-<chr> means hold the CONTROL key while typing the character
	     <chr> Thus, `C-f' would be: hold the CONTROL key and type
	     `f'.
    M-<chr> means hold the META or EDIT or ALT key down while typing
	     <chr>. If there is no META, EDIT or ALT key, instead
	     press and release the ESC key and then type <chr>. We
	     write <ESC> for the ESC key.

2.6. What settings can I change?

    Check out the `dotzile.sample' file (type `C-h s') for a full list
    of variables.

2.7. Why are my settings being ignored?

    Since Zile 2.2.16, booleans are, as in Emacs, `t' and `nil' rather
    than `true' and `false'. If you haven't yet updated your .zile,
    you should do so.

2.8. How do I handle non-ASCII characters?

    Zile uses the operating system's locale support, so you need to
    set an appropriate locale; how you do this depends on your OS.
    However, Zile only works with 8-bit locales.

2.9. The META/ALT key doesn't work in xterm.

    This is probably because you are using "8-bit input".  Using the
    following X resources should make things work:

      XTerm*eightBitInput: false
      UXTerm*eightBitInput: false

    Typically you'll want to put these lines in your ~/.Xresources
    file.

2.10. The `C-h' key is bound to <BS>/<DEL>; help doesn't work.

    Add the following line to your `~/.zile' file:

	(setq alternative-bindings true)

    and use the alternative key sequences (`M-h' instead of `C-h').

    This might also be an operating system bug; for example, versions
    of Mac OS X up to and including 10.4 (at least) have conflicting
    settings for the terminal and terminfo. A good solution is to use
    a terminfo file that matches the default terminal settings, as
    explained at:

        http://community.livejournal.com/evan_tech/64392.html
