Unfortunaley this was not helpful. As I am not using the colorgcc, or if I am I cant tell and am not doing it purposefully. I am merely run 'M-x compile' and then compiling 'make -f Makefile.blah' With this I get Ansi escape tags showing up. If this is an ?environment? problem, then what variable do I need to set to 'TTY'???? Here is what is annoying. I have a split Xemacs window, one side shell one side compile. The shell side has ANSI color, the compile side only has ANSI escape stuff. and in my .emacs I have: (add-hook 'shell-mode-hook 'ansi-color-for-comint-mode-on) (add-hook 'compilation-mode-hook 'ansi-color-for-comint-mode-on) yes, i am not an emacs guru and humbly accept any help thanks -joachim "Stephen J. Turnbull" wrote: -- Joachim Deguara Email: dga(a)emt.iis.fhg.de Fraunhofer IIS-AEMT Phone: +49 3677/669-4022 Helmholzring 1, 98693 Ilmenau, Germany Fax: +49 3677/669-4024

woah brother, when I apply your new hooks (one at a time) I get great error warnings. --With 'ansi-color-process-output I get: (22) (error/warning) Error in process filter: (wrong-number-of-arguments (lambda (string) Maybe translate SGR control sequences of comint output into text-properties. Depending on variable `ansi-color-for-comint-mode' the comint output is either not processed, SGR control sequences are filtered using `ansi-color-filter-region', or SGR control sequences are translated into text-properties using `ansi-color-apply-on-region'. The comint output is assumed to lie between the marker `comint-last-output-start' and the process-mark. This is a good function to put in `comint-output-filter-functions'. (let ((start-marker (or comint-last-output-start (point-min-marker))) (end-marker (process-mark (get-buffer-process (current-buffer))))) (cond ((eq ansi-color-for-comint-mode nil)) ((eq ansi-color-for-comint-mode (quote filter)) (ansi-color-filter-region start-marker end-marker)) (t (ansi-color-apply-on-region start-marker end-marker))))) 0) --With 'ansi-color-apply (19) (error/warning) Error in process filter: (wrong-number-of-arguments (lambda (string) Translates SGR control sequences into text-properties. Applies SGR control sequences setting foreground and background colors to STRING using text-properties and returns the result. The colors used are given in `ansi-color-faces-vector' and `ansi-color-names-vector'. See function `ansi-color-apply-sequence' for details. Every call to this function will set and use the buffer-local variable `ansi-color-context' to save partial escape sequences and current face. This information will be used for the next call to `ansi-color-apply'. Set `ansi-color-context' to nil if you don't want this. This function can be added to `comint-preoutput-filter-functions'. You cannot insert the strings returned into buffers using font-lock. See `ansi-color-unfontify-region' for a way around this. (let ((face (car ansi-color-context)) (start 0) end escape-sequence result) (if (cadr ansi-color-context) (setq string (concat (cadr ansi-color-context) string) ansi-color-context nil)) (while (setq end (string-match ansi-color-regexp string start)) (setq escape-sequence (match-string 1 string)) (when face (put-text-property start end (quote ansi-color) t string) (put-text-property start end (quote face) face string)) (setq result (concat result (substring string start end)) start (match-end 0)) (setq face (ansi-color-apply-sequence escape-sequence face))) (when face (put-text-property start (length string) (quote ansi-color) t string) (put-text-property start (length string) (quote face) face string)) (let (fragment) (if (string-match  string start) (let ((pos (match-beginning 0))) (setq fragment (substring string pos) result (concat result (substring string start pos)))) (setq result (concat result (substring string start)))) (if (or face fragment) (setq ansi-color-context (list face fragment)) (setq ansi-color-context nil))) result)) 0) Now as formerly stated I am no emacs guru but I was tring to follow the warning messages and correct it, but the documentation on those functions wasnt to helpful and in the end I got nowhere. thanks for your help -joachim "Stephen J. Turnbull" wrote: -- Joachim Deguara Email: dga(a)emt.iis.fhg.de Fraunhofer IIS-AEMT Phone: +49 3677/669-4022 Helmholzring 1, 98693 Ilmenau, Germany Fax: +49 3677/669-4024