(emacs.info) Point

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 Point
 =====
 
    Within Emacs, the terminal's cursor shows the location at which
 editing commands will take effect.  This location is called "point".
 Many Emacs commands move point through the text, so that you can edit at
 different places in it.  You can also place point by clicking mouse
 button 1.
 
    While the cursor appears to point _at_ a character, you should think
 of point as _between_ two characters; it points _before_ the character
 that appears under the cursor.  For example, if your text looks like
 `frob' with the cursor over the `b', then point is between the `o' and
 the `b'.  If you insert the character `!' at that position, the result
 is `fro!b', with point between the `!' and the `b'.  Thus, the cursor
 remains over the `b', as before.
 
    Sometimes people speak of "the cursor" when they mean "point," or
 speak of commands that move point as "cursor motion" commands.
 
    Terminals have only one cursor, and when output is in progress it
 must appear where the typing is being done.  This does not mean that
 point is moving.  It is only that Emacs has no way to show you the
 location of point except when the terminal is idle.
 
    If you are editing several files in Emacs, each in its own buffer,
 each buffer has its own point location.  A buffer that is not currently
 displayed remembers where point is in case you display it again later.
 
    When there are multiple windows in a frame, each window has its own
 point location.  The cursor shows the location of point in the selected
 window.  This also is how you can tell which window is selected.  If the
 same buffer appears in more than one window, each window has its own
 position for point in that buffer.
 
    When there are multiple frames, each frame can display one cursor.
 The cursor in the selected frame is solid; the cursor in other frames is
 a hollow box, and appears in the window that would be selected if you
 give the input focus to that frame.
 
    The term `point' comes from the character `.', which was the command
 in TECO (the language in which the original Emacs was written) for
 accessing the value now called `point'.
 

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