Text to describe set up that may be necessary to use the Emacs text editor

index.md

@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 site: sandpaper::sandpaper_site
 ---
 
-This is a new lesson built with [The Carpentries Workbench][workbench]. It is currently in pre-alpha development by the [Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre][epcc-link], the [National Oceanography Centre][noc-link], and the [UK Met Office][uk-met-link].
+This is a new lesson built with [The Carpentries Workbench][workbench]. It is currently in pre-alpha development by the [Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre][epcc-link], the [National Centre for Atmospheric Science][ncas-link], the [National Oceanography Centre][noc-link], and the [UK Met Office][uk-met-link].
 
 This course is aimed at users and developers who know how to program,
 but have little or no experience in Fortran, and those who may wish to

learners/setup.md

@@ -42,5 +42,33 @@ If you are not taking this course on archer2 we recommend installing the [GFortr
 
 :::::::::::::::::::::::::
 
+## Text Editors and Integrated Development Environments (IDEs)
 
+While Fortran files are plain text and can be edited with any plain text editor, it is recommened that you use an editor that is capable of _syntax highlighting_. Setup instructions for some editors are available below.
 
+### Emacs
+
+[Emacs][emacs-link] is a cross-platform text editor available for Linux, MacOS, and Windows. Emacs applies syntax highlighting for most Fortran files, but additional file extensions, such as `.X90`  may be valid Fortran files but will not be picked up in Emacs _f90-mode_. This mode allows for tab-completion of Fortran statements and the addition of a drop-down menu that provides additional Fortran-related options.
+
+Files can be manually set to f90-mode using `M-x f90-mode`, but file extensions can be added to your [Emacs initialization file][emacs-init-link] to ensure that these are recognised when opened. The format for this is
+```lisp
+(setq auto-mode-alist
+      (append '(("\\.mf90" . f90-mode)
+                ("\\.X90" . f90-mode)
+        ) auto-mode-alist))
+```
+::::::::::::::::: tab
+
+### Windows/MacOS
+
+From your home directory, initialization settings can be placed within your `.emacs.d/init.el` file.
+
+### Linux
+
+Initialization settings can be placed within your `~/.config/emacs/init.el` file. This location follows the Linux desktop environment guidelines.
+
+### Legacy (cross platform)
+
+The `.emacs` or `.emacs.el` file is an older method of configuring Emacs. This file is held in your home directory.
+
+:::::::::::::::::::::::::

links.md

@@ -11,7 +11,11 @@ any links that you are not going to use.
 [contact]: mailto:[email protected]
 
 [epcc-link]: https://www.epcc.ed.ac.uk/
+[ncas-link]: https://ncas.ac.uk/
 [noc-link]: https://noc.ac.uk/
 [uk-met-link]: https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/
 
 [install-gfortran]: https://fortran-lang.org/learn/os_setup/install_gfortran/
+
+[emacs-link]: https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/
+[emacs-init-link]: https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Init-File.html