Brief Mode / Brief Emulator / Brief Editor -*- mode: org; -*- 1 _Brief_ ═════════ The Brief editor v3.1 was once very popular among programmers in the MS-DOS days. It is famous for its easy-to-learn. Most of the command 'K'eys are associated with meaningful 'K'eywords. Usually, it can be mastered within an hour and difficult to forget. For example, the first `' key bring the cursor to home (beginning) of current line, a consecutive second `' key to the home (beginning) of the window and a third `' to the home (beginning) of the file. Similarly for the `' key. To paste/insert clipboard contents into current file just press `',… and so on. Personally, I've been using this key combination for over 32+ years (by the time Y2023 this guide was updated) and have never changed, since the beginning of the MS-DOS Brief Editor days; the later 22+ years of the 32 are using Emacs with this Brief Mode. [Actually, after 22+ years of Emacs I still can't (or simply, don't need to) memorize the default Emacs keys, except for `-g' (cancel half-entered commands) and `-x -c' (quit Emacs, in case I don't have my Brief mode at hand, yet).] 2 _Installation_ ════════════════ 2.1 Quick steps for non-Emacs users: ──────────────────────────────────── 1. Install Emacs, better be Emacs version 24 above (Emacs26+ recommended). For Debian/Ubuntu users: `$ sudo apt install emacs -y' 2. Download Brief package using emacs command line: `$ emacs --batch --eval "(progn (package-initialize) (package-refresh-contents) (package-install 'brief))"' 3. Now the Brief package should be installed in "~/.emacs.d/elpa/brief-#.##" (where #.## is the version number, by the time this document is written it's 5.87). You can either add this into PATH, or copy (link) the launcher bash script "~/.emacs.d/elpa/brief-#.##/b" to anywhere within your PATH (notice this launcher exists only after v5.87). Now you can start Emacs brief emulator, just run the launcher: `$ b' That's it! (If 'b' fail to launch, the package might not be properly installed, try step 2 and 3 again, or do it like Emacs users below.) 2.2 For Emacs users, just install the ELPA brief package with menu -> "Options" ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── -> "Manage Emacs Packages", then add ┌──── │ (require 'brief) │ (brief-easy-start) ;; will do (brief-mode 1) └──── into ~/.emacs to enable it. (For what `brief-easy-start' does please search "brief-easy-start" following.) 3 _Key Commands:_ ═════════════════ 3.1 Basic editing commands are just like any other editor, cursor movement ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── using `arrow up/down/left/right'; `page up/down'; line `home/end'; with `' key pressed cursor movement keys mark text selection. `', `', and `' also behaves the same as other editors; when text region is selected, `' and `' deletes the whole selection. 3.2 The first thing need to memorize about Emacs is that the cancellation ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── is usually *not* done by the `' key but mostly by `-g' key. 3.3 All of the `' command keys are easy to memorize by the meaningful ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 'K'eyword associated 'K'ey: (for Mac systems the `' key is usually the `