Re: emacs & xemacs

[David Z Maze <dmaze@MIT.EDU>]

Goeman Stefan <Stefan.Goeman@siemens.atea.be> writes:
GS> For historical reasons I still like to use emacs_20.6 and I am
GS> just experimenting with xemacs.  The problem is that for some
GS> global settings both programs make use of the file .emacs.  I find
GS> this not so convenient and I would like emacs_20.6 to use the file
GS> .emacs and I would like xemacs to use another file like for
GS> example .xemacs.
GS> 
GS> Does anybody have an idea to do this?

You could move your .emacs to .emacs-settings, and put the following
in .emacs:

(if (string-match "XEmacs" emacs-version)
  (load ".xemacs-settings")
  (load ".emacs-settings"))

Note, however, that XEmacs does occasionally want to write things into 
your .emacs file (*sigh*), so you'll wind up with some things after
this before too long.

(In my world, all of my Emacs customization is under $HOME/elisp, and
my .emacs file begins with
    (setq load-path (cons (expand-file-name "~/elisp") load-path))
    (load "emacs")
$HOME/elisp/emacs.el then sets load-path, loads some other stuff, and
does some customization.  Among other things, I load a private file
called emacs-versions.el, which begins with
    (defvar running-xemacs (string-match "XEmacs\\|Lucid" emacs-version))
    (defvar running-x (eq window-system 'x))
I can then test on these variables later in the customization file.)

GS> By the way, how do I change the background color of my xemacs
GS> window (i.e.  the part of the window where the text appears.).

You need to change the background color of the 'default' face.
'M-x set-face-background default white' changes the background to
white, for example.  The default color is gray80.

-- 
David Maze             dmaze@mit.edu          http://www.mit.edu/~dmaze/
"Theoretical politics is interesting.  Politicking should be illegal."
	-- Abra Mitchell