Concepts
========

Please make sure to understand the following basic webmacs concepts before
further reading the documentation.


.. _concept_commands:

Commands, key bindings and keymaps
**********************************

These are quite similar to the definitions found in the Emacs manual.

- A :term:`command` is a named action which can be done in the browser. For
  example, :cmd:`follow` is the command that allows to start hinting links to
  navigate.

- A :term:`key binding` is a combination of key presses used to trigger commands.
  Key bindings are represented as in Emacs, for example **C-x C-b** means
  "holding the Control key while pressing x, then b on the keyboard."

  .. note::

    The control key is called a modifier. There are three keyboard modifiers:

    - **C** represents the Control key.
    - **M** represents the Alt key.
    - **S** represents the Super key (often called the Windows key)

  .. note::

    .. current-keymap:: webbuffer

    A key binding can also be a single key press. For example, pressing :key:`f`
    while in the :keymap:`webbuffer` keymap will trigger the :cmd:`follow`
    command.

- A :term:`keymap` is an object holding a mapping between key bindings and
  commands, so that a command can be triggered by pressing keyboard keys.
  Usually, there is one global keymap, and one active local keymap activated
  at the same time - the local keymap changes interactively depending on the
  context.

  Some important keymaps:

  .. webmacs-keymaps::
    :only: global, webbuffer, webcontent-edit, caret-browsing


Web buffers
***********

A :term:`web buffer` is like an Emacs buffer, but applying to a Web page.
Buffers are like tabs in other browsers, except that they are not bound to
any view or window.

Windows, views
**************

Differing from Emacs terminology, a window actually is what we nowadays call a
window, and :term:`views` (sometimes called frames) correspond to the content
of a window.