		    Zile FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions

		   Last updated: $Date: 2004/12/20 13:53:58 $

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INDEX

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

2. Functionality
   2.1. How to quit Zile?
   2.2. How to return to the shell without leaving Zile?
   2.3. Zile is hung.
   2.4. How to undo the previous command?
   2.5. What does `C-something' or `M-something' mean?
   2.6. What are the available variables that can be modified?
   2.7. How to display non-English characters?
   2.8. Zile doesn't handle filenames with non-English characters.
   2.9. The `C-h' key is bound to <BS>/<DEL>; help doesn't work.
   2.10. How to enable Auto Fill Mode at startup?
   2.11. How to change the binding of a function?
   2.12. The Zile screen is not resized in a X Window terminal.

3. Compiling
   3.1. Zile doesn't compile correctly under the Foobar operating system.
   3.2. Can I compile Zile under Cygwin?

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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 the Zile 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 (like on floppy disk) or quick editing
	sessions.''

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

1.4. Why did you choose such difficult key sequences?

    To be the same as Emacs.

1.5. Where can I get the latest version?

    The Zile project is hosted on SourceForge at:

	http://zile.sourceforge.net/

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
    1.5).

1.8. How small does Zile get?

    On Fedora Core 1/i386, Zile 1.7 built with gcc 3.3.2 -O2 weighs in
    at 92,206 bytes when stripped. This is how Zile will typically be
    built.

1.9. Does Zile support Unicode?

    No.  Support for Unicode is planned in the future.

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2. Functionality

2.1. How to 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 to return to the shell without leaving Zile?

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

2.3. Zile is hung.

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

    If Zile gets into an infinite (or simply very long) computation
    which you don't want to finish, you can stop it safely by typing
    `C-g'. You can also use `C-g' to discard a numeric argument or the
    beginning of a command that you don't want to finish.

2.4. How to 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 are the available variables that can be modified?

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

    You might also see the list of defined variables with the command
    `list-variables' (or the key sequence `C-h l v').

2.7. How to display non-English characters?

    Zile uses the operating system's locale support, so you need to
    set an appropriate locale. However, Zile only works with 8-bit
    locales at present; support for Unicode is planned.

2.8. Zile doesn't handle filenames with non-English characters.

    Try to set the LANG environment variable according to your locale,
    before running Zile. For example, for a French environment, try:

	export LANG=fr_FR	(with a Bourne-like shell)

	setenv LANG fr_FR	(with a C-like shell).

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

    You might try adding the following line to your `~/.zilerc' file:

	alternative-bindings = true

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

2.10. How to enable Auto Fill Mode at startup?

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

	auto-fill-mode = true

2.11. How to change the binding of a function?

    Use global-set-key.

2.12. The Zile screen is not resized in a X Window terminal.

    Your terminal application does not send the signal `SIGWINCH' to
    Zile (and other applications). To be sure, you might check if other
    terminal applications, like `vim' and `joe', also fail to resize
    their windows.

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3. Compiling

3.1. Zile doesn't compile correctly under the Foobar operating system.

    We have tested Zile under GNU/Linux only (other than the EPOC
    port). Since it is written in ANSI C, should be fairly easy to
    port it under other UNIX-like operating systems. If you get Zile
    running under some other OS, please send a message to the Zile
    developers telling them that (you might send him the patches you
    have made to the Zile sources if you want them included in the
    next release).

    Zile is also known to work under the following operating systems:

	* FreeBSD
	* NetBSD
	* OpenBSD
	* Solaris
	* Windows with Cygwin

3.2. Can I compile Zile under Cygwin?

    Yes, you can. You might need to put a

	#include <getopt.h>

    line in the `etc/mkdoc.c' and `src/main.c' files, if the compiler
    complains about the `getopt' function prototype and/or the
    `optarg' variable.
