If you're curious, Emacs does all this—and more—with various C-h commands. If you want to see a full list of these, start with
C-h ?
Here are my favorites:
If you want to see a specific keybinding, like checking what C-w is bound to:
C-h k C-w
If you want to see the documentation for a function:
C-h f function-name
If you want to see details about your current mode:
C-h m
This is incredibly useful because it lists all the mode-specific keybindings. That's how I learn how to use new modes!
If you want to see or interact with a variable:
C-h v
If you want to see something where you remember just part of the name:
C-h a *regexp*
(a stands for "apropos")
If you want to see the incredibly detailed manual for Emacs or all of the info manuals on your computer:
C-h r
C-h i
If you want to see info about your input mode (how do I type ℕ in TeX-input-mode?):
C-h I
Actually, for that one, I have another handy trick: copy and paste an ℕ into your buffer, go over it and use
C-u C-x =
which brings up detailed information about the given character... including how to type it in your current input mode (if applicable). This also includes useful info like its Unicode designation and category.
I've found all of these tricks exceptionally helpful when learning more about Emacs. They also help me overcome my fear of memorization: its so easy to look stuff up, I don't have to bother. Then, if I use something enough, I remember it without especially effort. It's like a cache in my mind.
Better still, if you want to execute a command and if you approximately know what it could be called as, you get list of potential commands in an alternative buffer, by Alt-x, and then start typing part of the command. This I feel is great to explore commands as you need them, before binding new keys to those commands.
Without getting into emacs vs vim war, the author would be impressed in a bigger way once the emacs documentation is explored!
I'm sure I would be. I actually like emacs very much, and used to use it in my uni days. These days though, I like the modal way of editing more.
I think emacs' documentation does come close but I still think Vim's help is much more easy to use and to search for. For example, a new user coming to emacs can't search for help on C-x C-f by invoking C-h C-x C-f
> If you want to see the incredibly detailed manual for Emacs or all of the info manuals on your computer:
And you really should want seeing your info manuals - they are incredibly high quality resources for the most part. Emacs, Emacs Lisp, Org Mode, Magit infos, for example, are all full fledged books, properly split into chapters, filled with all the details you'd ever need. They are indexed and searchable and they are easy to navigate.
Just install info+ and some related scripts before starting with infos - this will give you syntax highlighting and colors in the info viewer. I don't remember if bookmarks are part of the vanilla Emacs, but if not you probably would want to install some bookmarking plugin too. After that is done it becomes the most pleasant technical reading experience ever.
If you want to see a specific keybinding, like checking what C-w is bound to:
If you want to see the documentation for a function: If you want to see details about your current mode: This is incredibly useful because it lists all the mode-specific keybindings. That's how I learn how to use new modes!If you want to see or interact with a variable:
If you want to see something where you remember just part of the name: (a stands for "apropos")If you want to see the incredibly detailed manual for Emacs or all of the info manuals on your computer:
If you want to see info about your input mode (how do I type ℕ in TeX-input-mode?): Actually, for that one, I have another handy trick: copy and paste an ℕ into your buffer, go over it and use which brings up detailed information about the given character... including how to type it in your current input mode (if applicable). This also includes useful info like its Unicode designation and category.I've found all of these tricks exceptionally helpful when learning more about Emacs. They also help me overcome my fear of memorization: its so easy to look stuff up, I don't have to bother. Then, if I use something enough, I remember it without especially effort. It's like a cache in my mind.