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Glossary
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Command A command is a Lisp function specially defined to be able to serve as a key
binding in Emacs. When you type a key sequence (q.v.), its binding (q.v.)
is looked up in the relevant keymaps (q.v.) to find the command to run. See
Section 2.3 [Commands], page 13.
Command History
See ‘minibuffer history.’
Command Name
A command name is the name of a Lisp symbol which is a command (see
Section 2.3 [Commands], page 13). You can invoke any command by its name
using M-x (see Chapter 6 [Running Commands by Name], page 35).
Comment
A comment is text in a program which is intended only for humans reading
the program, and which is marked specially so that it will be ignored when the
program is loaded or compiled. Emacs offers special commands for creating,
aligning and killing comments. See Section 23.5 [Comments], page 242.
Common Lisp
Common Lisp is a dialect of Lisp (q.v.) much larger and more powerful than
Emacs Lisp. Emacs provides a subset of Common Lisp in the CL package. See
section “Overview” in Common Lisp Extensions.
Compilation
Compilation is the process of creating an executable program from source code.
Emacs has commands for compiling files of Emacs Lisp code (see section “Byte
Compilation” in the Emacs Lisp Reference Manual) and programs in C and
other languages (see Section 24.1 [Compilation], page 254).
Complete Key
A complete key is a key sequence which fully specifies one action to be performed
by Emacs. For example, X and C-f and C-x m are complete keys. Complete
keys derive their meanings from being bound (q.v.) to commands (q.v.). Thus,
X is conventionally bound to a command to insert ‘X’ in the buffer; C-x m is
conventionally bound to a command to begin composing a mail message. See
Section 2.2 [Keys], page 12.
Completion
Completion is what Emacs does when it automatically fills out an abbreviation
for a name into the entire name. Completion is done for minibuffer (q.v.)
arguments when the set of possible valid inputs is known; for example, on
command names, buffer names, and file names. Completion occurs when TAB,
SPC or RET is typed. See Section 5.3 [Completion], page 30.
Continuation Line
When a line of text is longer than the width of the window, it takes up more
than one screen line when displayed. We say that the text line is continued,
and all screen lines used for it after the first are called continuation lines. See
Section 4.8 [Continuation Lines], page 23. A related Emacs feature is ‘filling’
(q.v.).