Programming NeXT / 2026-05-07 11:31:24

Programming on and for the NeXT can be surprisingly pleasant but also highly frustrating!

Writing Code

Emacs

The Edit text editor coming with NeXTStep is quite limited; for example, it doesn't have a feature to jump to a particular line. The best text/code editor on NeXTStep seems to be GNU Emacs v19.28.1 of 22/01/1996. Although integrated into the NeXT GUI, it's still Emacs and requires learning many keyboard shortcuts. These shortcuts are slightly different from the usual, more recent ones. Here is a table summarising the most useful.

NeXTStep Emas Keyboard Shortcuts (with C = , M = , S = , Cmd = )
Shortcuts Actions Shortcuts Actions
C+x C+f Open a file    
C+x C+s Save current buffer    
C+x C+w Save current buffer as...    
C+x C+c Quit Emacs    
C+g Cancel current operation    
C+h b Show keyboard bindings    
       
C+x 1 Show only one window    
C+x 2 Split the window horizontally    
C+x 3 Split the window vertically    
C+x 0 Remove (splitted) window    
C+x o Jump to next window    
       
C+x C+b List the buffers    
C+x b Switch buffer in window    
C+x k Kill current buffer    
       
C+x 5 2 Create a new frame    
C+x 5 0 Close the current frame    

 

Other tools

Creating User Interfaces

Interface Builder

Building Projects

Project Builder