22.2 Major Modes for Lisp

Emacs has four different major modes for Lisp. They are the same in terms of editing commands, but differ in the commands for executing Lisp expressions.

Emacs-Lisp mode

The mode for editing source files of programs to run in Emacs Lisp. This mode defines C-M-x to evaluate the current defun. See Lisp Libraries.

Lisp Interaction mode

The mode for an interactive session with Emacs Lisp. It defines <LFD> to evaluate the sexp before point and insert its value in the buffer. See Lisp Interaction.

Lisp mode

The mode for editing source files of programs that run in other dialects of Lisp than Emacs Lisp. This mode defines C-M-x to send the current defun to an inferior Lisp process. See External Lisp.

Inferior Lisp mode

The mode for an interactive session with an inferior Lisp process. This mode combines the special features of Lisp mode and Shell mode (see Shell Mode).

Scheme mode

Like Lisp mode but for Scheme programs.

Inferior Scheme mode

The mode for an interactive session with an inferior Scheme process.