Here’s a fun idea in case you want to practice reading code and using Emacs: read Emacs in Emacs!
Emacs makes it easy to see the code behind its commands. For instance, if you
want to see how a particular command-key sequence works, type
C-h k and
then the key sequence into the modeline prompt.
If you’re curious how
C-h k itself works, type
C-h k C-h k. According to
*Help* buffer that appears,
C-h k corresponds to the Emacs Lisp
describe-key defined in
help.el. Move your cursor onto the
help.el text in the Help buffer and press enter. You’re now looking at the
Emacs Lisp source for
If you’d like to see how a particular Emacs Lisp function or special form
C-h f and then the name of the function or special form.
Perhaps you’re curious how
lambda works: type
C-h f lambda and then hit
*Help* buffer will appear, saying that “lambda is a Lisp macro
subr.el”. As before, place your cursor inside
subr.el and then press
enter; Emacs will transport you right to the definition of
Emacs isn’t Emacs Lisp all the way down, though. For instance, addition is
presumably defined in C.
C-f + confirms this, noting that “+ is a built-in
function defined in
data.c”. If you move your cursor over
data.c and press
enter, Emacs will probably prompt you at the modeline for the location of your
Emacs C source directory; it’s likely that when you installed Emacs, you only
downloaded pre-compiled binaries. You can find source corresponding to your
version of Emacs here. Once you tell Emacs
where to look, you can hop into Emacs’s C source code, too.
It’s fun to guess whether a particular function or special form is defined in
Emacs Lisp or C. The answer can also change between versions of Emacs. For
example, until quite recently, the special form for defining a new Emacs Lisp
defun, was defined in C. If you’re unfamiliar with Lisp, you might
wonder how it could be otherwise! But according to my
*Help* buffer in Emacs
defun is a Lisp macro defined in
The exuberant comment above
defun’s definition in
byte-run.el is worth
reinstalling Emacs from trunk: “Now that we defined defmacro we can use it!”.
defun is now the very first use of
defmacro in all of Emacs.
If you’re curious where
defmacro comes from, you know what to do :)