Move to the beginning of the file in Emacs - emacs

How do I move to the beginning of the file in emacs (i.e. the effect of Ctrl+Home in windowed text editors)?
Mashing pageup does not move the cursor to the beginning (nor does Ctrl+Home, ofc).
Here the shortcut for the desired result is described as:
M-< :
Move to the top of the buffer (beginning-of-buffer). With numeric argument n, move to n/10 of the way from the top.
M-> :
Move to the end of the buffer (end-of-buffer).
However Meta + < yields "No M-x tags-search or M-x tags-query-replace in progress" message.
I am typing the shortcut as Alt + Shift + , since to get the "<" I have to type "Shift + ,"
Am I doing something wrong?
Thank you.
Edit:
Turns out this is an issue only when running emacs through screen, where the keyboard shortcuts are, for some reason, misinterpreted.
For example, C-Home gives this error message:
M-[ 1 ; 5 h (translated from M-[ 1 ; 5 H) is undefined
Any way around it?

This works on newer Emacs
Esc followed by < #beginning of file
Esc followed by > #end of file
Works great in combination with ssh and Tmux

I cannot reproduce the exact behavior as C-HOME that you experience. For me it translates to M-[ 1 ;, without the 5H (but that is actually inserted...).
But, given that, here's how I would set up the binding.
I'd go into the *scratch* buffer and type
(read-key-sequence "please type C-home ") C-j
Which will prompt you for a key sequence, so do C-HOME and Emacs should insert the following right after the read-key-sequence line:
"^[[1;"
5H
This shows me the actual string for the key sequence, as well as the mysterious 5H.
Using the string, I'd set up the binding in my .emacs like so:
(global-set-key "^[[1;" 'beginning-of-buffer)
This will define the key binding appropriately, except that (for me) it now inserts 5H at the top of the buffer. I believe the 5H is a product of screen somehow...
Updated to add:
The 5H annoys me, but as far as I can tell, Emacs thinks we are literally typing it. So, I coded up two alternatives which result in the same behavior.
The first uses keyboard-quit to interrupt the key sequence after getting to the beginning of the buffer. This prevents the 5H from being inserted. But it has the downside of doing a keyboard-quit - which will flash/ding at you ever time. Kind of annoying.
(global-set-key "^[[1;" 'my-bob)
(defun my-bob ()
"Go to beginning of buffer, then quit"
(interactive)
(beginning-of-buffer)
(keyboard-quit))
To avoid the keyboard-quit, I wrote a different version which runs a little snippet of code which deletes the 5H if it exists. It's a little more involved, but does the job.
(global-set-key "^[[1;" 'my-bob)
(defun my-bob ()
"Go to beginning of buffer, then delete any 5H inserted by the binding"
(interactive)
(beginning-of-buffer)
(run-with-idle-timer 0.1 nil 'delete-inserted-chars "5H"))
(defun delete-inserted-chars (chars)
(save-excursion
(backward-char (length chars))
(if (looking-at (regexp-quote chars))
(delete-char (length chars)))))
The delete-inserted-chars can be reused for other bindings in screen which happen to insert characters as well.

One thing you could do it go to line one:
C-u 1 M-g M-g

Related

How to set a keybinding to create and jump to the next line in emacs?

I have the following code that attempts to create a new line and then jump to it. The idea is that move-end-of-line will jump to the end of the current line, and ["C-m"] would act as return/enter. Yet executing this command gives the error: "wrong number of arguments". How do I fix this?
(global-set-key (kbd "C-.") 'new-line)
(defun new-line ()
(interactive)
(move-end-of-line)
["C-m"]
)
I think you need to read the Emacs & elisp manuals: these questions are pretty easy to answer. Here's one way to do it.
(defun insert-line-after-line (&optional n)
(interactive "p")
(end-of-line 1) ;end of current line
(open-line n) ;open n new lines
(forward-line 1)) ;go to start of first of them
But seriously: Emacs has very extensive self-documentation, it is easy to find out how to do these things.
An option is to record a macro and use that.
M-x kmacro-start-macro
C-e
C-m
M-x kmacro-end-macro
If you don't care about the macro persisting, just run it:
C-x e
But if you want it to persist you would save it:
M-x name-last-kbd-macro new-line
M-x insert-kbd-macro new-line
and paste the output into your initialisation file (with your shortcut definition):
(global-set-key (kbd "C-.") 'new-line)
(fset 'new-line
[end return])
["C-m"] is like the way you specify a key for doing a key binding, but this is not the same as how you programmatically tell Emacs to insert a character into a document. You could use (insert-char ?\^M) (see ref here), but that would result in a literal ^M character (try it; another way to do the same thing interactively is Ctrl-Q followed by Ctrl-M). (insert "\n") seems to be what you're looking for.
Also, the reason you're getting the message "wrong number of arguments" is because (move-end-of-line) requires an argument when called out of interactive context. (move-end-of-line 1) works.
That said, possibly an easier way to achieve the result you're looking for is with the following setting:
(setq next-line-add-newlines t)
This will allow you to just do C-n at the end of the file and not worry about the distinction between moving and inserting.

How can I load changes of .el file at startup in Emacs?

I have installed Emacs under Windows 7 and want to use it in my everyday work. Unfortunately Emacs world and other text editors world are completely different and I am getting stuck on every third sequence of keys pressed on keyboard - it's doing something that I don't expect it would do.
I want to make a panic command - when I press ESC ESC ESC it stops doing everything, quitting from minibuffer, stops entering command, unhighlight regexps, etc. It already does what I want, except it killing buffers, the layout of my workspace. So I modified keyboard-escape-quit function in simple.el file (found it by C-h k ESC ESC ESC)
(defun keyboard-escape-quit ()
"Exit the current \"mode\" (in a generalized sense of the word).
This command can exit an interactive command such as `query-replace',
can clear out a prefix argument or a region,
can get out of the minibuffer or other recursive edit,
cancel the use of the current buffer (for special-purpose buffers),
or go back to just one window (by deleting all but the selected window)."
(interactive)
; Stop highlighting regexp
(unhighlight-regexp)
(cond ((eq last-command 'mode-exited) nil)
((region-active-p)
(deactivate-mark))
((> (minibuffer-depth) 0)
(abort-recursive-edit))
(current-prefix-arg
nil)
((> (recursion-depth) 0)
(exit-recursive-edit))
(buffer-quit-function
(funcall buffer-quit-function))
;((not (one-window-p t))
; (delete-other-windows))
((string-match "^ \\*" (buffer-name (current-buffer)))
(bury-buffer))))
I have byte-compiled and loaded this file and it works ok. But I can't figure out why it is not loading at startup.
You cannot modify some special built-in libraries, including simple.el. Emacs never actually loads these special libraries from their source or byte code files. Their byte code is directly included in the Emacs executable at build time, by a process called “dumping”. Emacs loads these libraries from its own binary.
Generally, should not modify any built-in libraries anyway. Your risk breakage, and your customizations are lost when you update Emacs.
Instead, do what you are supposed to do: Add custom functions to your init.el.
Hence, instead of modifying the built-in keyboard-escape-quit, create your own function, e.g. my-emergency-quit, in your init.el, and bind it to a global key, e.g. C-c q, with
(global-set-key (kbd "C-c q") #'my-emergency-quit)
Some final words of advice: I do not think that such a panic command does any good. The first rule of Emacs is: Don't panic. If you are stuck, don't try to quit and kill everything. Rather, try to find out why you are stuck, and how to get “un-stuck” by normal means. You'll learn Emacs better this way, imho.

A quick way to repeatedly enter a variable name in Emacs?

I was just typing in this sort of code for Nth time:
menu.add_item(spamspamspam, "spamspamspam");
And I'm wondering if there's a faster way to do it.
I'd like a behavior similar to yasnippet's mirrors, except
I don't want to create a snippet: the argument order varies from
project to project and from language to language.
The only thing that's constant is the variable name that needs to be
repeated several times on the same line.
I'd like to type in
menu.add_item($,"")
and with the point between the quotes, call the shortcut and start typing,
and finally exit with C-e.
This seems advantageous to me, since there's zero extra cursor movement.
I have an idea of how to do this, but I'm wondering if it's already done,
or if something better/faster can be done.
UPD The yasnippet way after all.
Thanks to thisirs for the answer. This is indeed the yasnippet code I had initially in mind:
(defun yas-one-line ()
(interactive)
(insert "$")
(let ((snippet
(replace-regexp-in-string
"\\$" "$1"
(substring-no-properties
(delete-and-extract-region
(line-beginning-position)
(line-end-position))))))
(yas/expand-snippet snippet)))
But I'm still hoping to see something better/faster.
yasnippet can actually be used to create a snippet on-the-fly:
(defun yas-one-line ()
(interactive)
(let ((snippet (delete-and-extract-region
(line-beginning-position)
(line-end-position))))
(yas-expand-snippet snippet)))
Now just type:
menu.add_item($1,"$1")
and call yas-one-line. The above snippet is expanded by yasnippet!
You could try
(defvar sm-push-id-last nil)
(defun sm-push-id ()
(interactive)
(if (not sm-push-id-last)
(setq sm-push-id-last (point))
(text-clone-create sm-push-id-last sm-push-id-last
t "\\(?:\\sw\\|\\s_\\)*")
(setq sm-push-id-last nil)))
after which you can do M-x sm-push-id RET , SPC M-x sm-push-id RET toto and that will insert toto, toto. Obviously, this would make more sense if you bind sm-push-id to a convenient key-combo. Also this only works to insert a duplicate pair of identifiers. If you need to insert something else, you'll have to adjust the regexp. Using too lax a regexp means that the clones will tend to overgrow their intended use, so they may become annoying (e.g. you type foo") and not only foo but also ") gets mirrored on the previous copy).
Record a macro. Hit F3 (or possibly C-x (, it depends) to begin recording. Type whatever you want and run whatever commands you need, then hit F4 (or C-x )) to finish. Then hit F4 again the next time you want to run the macro. See chapter 17 of the Emacs manual for more information (C-h i opens the info browser, the Emacs manual is right at the top of the list).
So, for example, you could type the beginning of the line:
menu.add_item(spamspamspam
Then, with point at the end of that line, record this macro:
F3 C-SPC C-left M-w C-e , SPC " C-y " ) ; RET F4
This copies the last word on the line and pastes it back in, but inside of the quotes.

How to attach character to the next N lines using Emacs?

Using emacs24 I'd like to attach for example # at the beginning of the next five lines.
So having this:
Line1
line2
line3
get this:
#Line1
#line2
#line3
for the number of lines that I specify. How can I do that? Thanks!
While there may be something built in to Emacs that does this, and you can certainly write a little Lisp to get it done, I would usually use "rectangular editing" features to get this done. Imagine that the buffer contains the following, with . representing the point (where your cursor is)
.Line1
line2
line3
Set the mark
Press C-n twice. This is the state of the buffer now:
Line1
line2
.line3
Press C-x r t.
Type #.
Press enter.
I would find this much more natural than entering a value for the number of times to repeat a command, because you can visually select the lines you want to edit. YMMV
Edit
Here's how to do this using a bit of Emacs Lisp. Note that although I've been using Emacs for a few years now, I only recently began learning how to actually use Emacs Lisp, so this code might not be that great! It does get the job done.
(defun insert-n-times (s n)
(interactive "Mstring:\nNtimes:")
(while (> n 0)
(insert s)
(goto-char (- (point) 1))
(next-line)
(setq n (- n 1))))
Use it by doing the following: M-x insert-n-times RET <type a string> RET <type a number>
Another method is using macro to get such repetitive work done. Here is a page that describes how to use macros in Emacs. You can have a look at it if you are not familiar with it.
In your case, the following keys would work:
Move the cursor to the beginning of Line1
C-x (
Type a '#'
C-n, then C-a
C-x )
Move the cursor to the line to the beginning of which you want to add '#'
C-u 10 C-x e
Basically, step 2-5 will record a macro which will add a # at the beginning, and then move to the beginning of the next line. Step 6-7 will execute the macro 10 times (of course, you can change it to arbitrary number). I guess this will be quite a lot of keystrokes and newbies may not like it. Maybe others have better solutions.
Line1
line2
line3
I wrote the following code:
You first give a digit argument (the amount of times you want to do this), e.g. M-3 (hold alt, hit 3), to do the following 3 times
Either use a key for it, like a suggestion below (f8), or use M-x prompt-for-insert
It will ask you for a string to enter. e.g. "foo" and hit return button.
It will then do as you ask.
(defun prompt-for-insert (val)
(interactive "P")
(let ((astring (read-string "What do you want to insert?"))
(value val))
(while (> value 0)
(insert astring)
(move-beginning-of-line 2)
(decf value)))
)
(global-set-key [f8] 'prompt-for-insert)
The whole sequence will then be:
M-3 [f8] foo RET
Resulting in:
fooLine1
fooline2
fooline3
Why not just query-replace-regexp or replace-regexp? E.g. select the region and do C-M-%^RET#RET!
Try M-x string-insert-rectangle. This command inserts a string on every line of the rectangle.
While comment-region is good in this specific example, check out the multiple-cursors package for a very powerful way to do this kind of thing in general.
You can just hit C-> repeatedly until you have a cursor at the beginning of each line, then hit # and you're done (C-g to get rid of the extra cursors.)
It's a much more interactive form of C-x r t and works with non-rectangular regions too (after a C-s for example.)

emacs equivalent of ct

looking for an equivalent cut and paste strategy that would replicate vim's 'cut til'. I'm sure this is googleable if I actually knew what it was called in vim, but heres what i'm looking for:
if i have a block of text like so:
foo bar (baz)
and I was at the beginning of the line and i wanted to cut until the first paren, in visual mode, I'd do:
ct (
I think there is probably a way to look back and i think you can pass more specific regular expressions. But anyway, looking for some emacs equivalents to doing this kind of text replacement. Thanks.
Here are three ways:
Just type M-dM-d to delete two words. This will leave the final space, so you'll have to delete it yourself and then add it back if you paste the two words back elsewhere.
M-z is zap-to-char, which deletes text from the cursor up to and including a character you specify. In this case you'd have to do something like M-2M-zSPC to zap up to and including the second space character.
Type C-SPC to set the mark, then go into incremental search with C-s, type a space to jump to the first space, then C-s to search forward for the next space, RET to terminate the search, and finally C-w to kill the text you selected.
Personally I'd generally go with #1.
as ataylor said zap-to-char is the way to go, The following modification to the zap-to-char is what exactly you want
(defun zap-up-to-char (arg char)
"Like standard zap-to-char, but stops just before the given character."
(interactive "p\ncZap up to char: ")
(kill-region (point)
(progn
(search-forward (char-to-string char) nil nil arg)
(forward-char (if (>= arg 0) -1 1))
(point))))
(define-key global-map [(meta ?z)] 'zap-up-to-char) ; Rebind M-z to our version
BTW don't forget that it has the ability to go backward with a negative prefix
That sounds like zap-to-char in emacs, bound to M-z by default. Note that zap-to-char will cut all the characters up to and including the one you've selected.