Re: Newbie: adding a library

[Kevin Rodgers]

David Sumbler wrote:

> I run GNU Emacs 21.2.1 on a RedHat 8.0 machine.
>
> I have recently read through "Sams Teach Yourself Emacs in 24 Hours".
>
> My very first attempt at customising Emacs hasn't worked, though.
>
> I want to be able to read compressed files, so I added the line
>
> (require 'jka-compr)
>
> to my .emacs file.  But Emacs seems to just ignore it (I looked at the
> *Messages* buffer, which did not even mention it).
>
> I tried also adding the line
>
> (setq load-path (cons "/usr/share/emacs/21.2/lisp" load-path))
>
> before the "require" line, to tell Emacs where jka-compr.elc is, but
> this did not help.
>
> What am I doing wrong?

"Emacs is the extensible, customizable, self-documenting real-time
display editor."  But you read an outdated document instead of the
fine manual.  Typing:

C-h i m emacs RET
i compress RET

yields:

| Accessing Compressed Files
| ==========================
|
|    Emacs comes with a library that can automatically uncompress
| compressed files when you visit them, and automatically recompress them
| if you alter them and save them.  To enable this feature, type the
| command `M-x auto-compression-mode'.  You can enable it permanently by
| customizing the option `auto-compression-mode'.

Then typing `C-h f auto-compression-mode' and `C-h v auto-compression-mode' lead
you to: (auto-compression-mode 1).

--
Kevin Rodgers