Emacs Evil mode - How to remap 'hjkl'? - emacs

Question

I use Colemak keyboard layout and the conventional Vim 'hjkl' are not comfortable. In my .vimrc I've added the following to replace 'hjkl' with 'neio' (and vice versa).
noremap n h
noremap e j
noremap i k
noremap o l
noremap h n
noremap j e
noremap k i
noremap l o
noremap N H
noremap E J
noremap I K
noremap O l
noremap H N
noremap J E
noremap K I
noremap L O
If possible, how can I do this in Emacs with Spacemacs?

Answer 1

Here's how hjkl are bound in evil-maps.el:
(define-key evil-motion-state-map "h" 'evil-backward-char)
(define-key evil-motion-state-map "j" 'evil-next-line)
(define-key evil-motion-state-map "k" 'evil-previous-line)
(define-key evil-motion-state-map "l" 'evil-forward-char)
You can put similar lines with your own keys in your init.el to bind the directions to whichever keys you want. You'll also need to rebind hjkl, assuming you don't want them left to their original direction bindings.
EDIT: to replace hjkl with neio I believe you'll need to unbind i and o in evil-normal-state-map:
(define-key evil-normal-state-map "i" nil)
(define-key evil-normal-state-map "o" nil)

Answer 2

hjkl in qwerty is hnei in colemak, not neio. i see why you may want to use neio since that brings all arrows right under your fingers (instead of shifted one position to the left), but this is not necessarily a good thing: down/up (jk on qwerty) are frequently used, and use the two strongest fingers.
qwerty hjkl (colemak hnei) is actually pretty ergonomical, so for me it makes sense to keep this when using colemak. and of course unlearning many years of muscle memory is another reason to stick with it.
keeping hnei for navigation and sensibly dealing with the consequences is exactly what i achieved with my evil-colemak-basics package. you may want to check out its documentation since it has an extensive write-up about the design. perhaps you will even end up using it. :)

Answer 3

You can also make these changes in .spacemacs. I couldn't find the
evil-maps.el, but the FAQ recommends changing them in user-config.
(defun dotspacemacs/user-config ()
;; colemak config
;; Make evil-mode up/down operate in screen lines instead of logical lines
(define-key evil-normal-state-map "i" nil)
(define-key evil-normal-state-map "o" nil) ;;neio back,up,down,next
(define-key evil-motion-state-map "i" 'evil-next-visual-line)
(define-key evil-motion-state-map "e" 'evil-previous-visual-line)
(define-key evil-motion-state-map "n" 'evil-backward-char)
(define-key evil-motion-state-map "o" 'evil-forward-char)
;; Also in visual mode
(define-key evil-visual-state-map "i" 'evil-next-visual-line)
(define-key evil-visual-state-map "e" 'evil-previous-visual-line)