Binding M-<up> / M-<down> in Emacs 23.1.1 - emacs

I'm trying to put in a feature that I miss from Eclipse, where Alt+[Up/Down] transposes the lines up or down, but can not for the life of me figure out how to assign to these keys properly. I am using it in -nw mode (so just in a shell window), and typically run in a screen session.
Using a global key binding, I can get it to work with letter combinations, like (kbd "M-m"), but every combination I have tried for the arrow keys just gives me a message that doesn't make sense, I always get:
"ESC <up> is undefined"
What I have tried:
(global-set-key (kbd "M-<up>") 'transpose-line-up)
(global-set-key (kbd "<escape>-<up>") 'transpose-line-up)
(global-set-key [M-up] 'transpose-line-up)
(global-set-key [\e \M-O A] 'transpose-line-up)
And C-h c just returns:
ESC <up> (translated from ESC M-O A) is undefined
None of these work, either using ESC or Alt.
Any idea how I can make this work? I would prefer to have these as Alt+[Up/Down] just because that is what I am used to.
Edit
From the comments:
C-q Up prints ^[OA.
C-q M-Up prints ^[ and moves the cursor up a line.
C-h k (Alt+Up) prints ESC <up> (translated from ESC M-O A) is undefined.
Thanks for the suggestions, but they all turned out the same.

Emacs has a complex mechanism to handle the vicissitudes of function key and modifier encodings on various terminal types. It doesn't work out of the box in all cases. The following settings should work on your terminal:
(define-key input-decode-map "\e\eOA" [(meta up)])
(define-key input-decode-map "\e\eOB" [(meta down)])
(global-set-key [(meta up)] 'transpose-line-up)
(global-set-key [(meta down)] 'transpose-line-down)
You should be able to use (kbd "<M-up>") and (kbd "<M-down>") in place of [(meta up)] and [(meta down)], as long as you've done the step of telling Emacs (via input-decode-map) about the escape sequences that your terminal uses to encode these key combinations.

I always use C-h k (key) (i.e. describe-key) to find out how Emacs refers to (key), and then use (kbd) with that same string to utilise it.
In this case, describe-key returns <M-up>, so I would use (global-set-key (kbd "<M-up>") 'transpose-line-up) (exactly as J.F. Sebastian has done).
Edit:
Running emacs -nw (but not through screen), describe-key reports ESC <up> (translated from ESC M-[ A), and (kbd "ESC <up>") is successful for binding it.
Running screen emacs -nw, describe-key reports ESC <up> (translated from ESC M-O A), which seems to match what you see, and the binding for (kbd "ESC <up>") still works for me.
(n.b. Tested under Cygwin with screen 4.00.03, and Emacs 23.2.1.)

(global-set-key [M-up] 'beginning-of-buffer)
(global-set-key [M-down] 'end-of-buffer)
In my OSX, I have this definition to perform Alt-up/down to jump to top/bottom of buffer.

ugly workaround:
I've typed C-q <M-up> it produced ^[[1;3A on the terminal inside screen inside emacs.
(global-set-key (kbd "<M-up>") 'transpose-line-up)
(global-set-key (kbd "^[[1;3A") 'transpose-line-up)
I've got Lisp error: (void-function transpose-line-up) so the key bindings work.
Note: C-q runs the command quoted-insert.

The following lines work for me on macOS 10.11.6 and GNU Emacs 25.2.1:
(global-set-key (kbd "ESC <down>") 'end-of-buffer)
(global-set-key (kbd "ESC <up>") 'beginning-of-buffer)

Assuming you have the functions transpose-line-up and transpose-line-down already defined (as it seems to be from the example code in your original question):
(global-set-key [(meta up)] 'transpose-line-up)
(global-set-key [(meta down)] 'transpose-line-down)

works on OSX Terminal:
(global-set-key (kbd "ESC <up>") 'transpose-line-up)
(global-set-key (kbd "ESC <down>") 'transpose-line-down)

Related

How to disable Meta-Cursor Shortcuds in markdown-mode?

I switch windows with M-left and M-right. Also Tab, S-Tab and C-Tab are hardwired into my spine. Since I use markdown-mode my workspeed has halved.
How do I disable that markdown-mode re-assigns those keys on loading. The keys I describe are carefully handcrafted shortcuts from my .emacs file, set via global-set-key.
(global-set-key [S-iso-lefttab] 'dabbrev-expand)
(global-set-key [C-tab] 'ispell-word)
(global-set-key [M-up] 'windmove-up)
(global-set-key [M-down] 'windmove-down)
(global-set-key [M-left] 'windmove-left)
(global-set-key [M-right] 'windmove-right)
Set those keys also in markdown-mode, in its keymap (probably markdown-mode-map). For example:
(define-key markdown-mode-map [C-tab] 'ispell-word)
The problem you saw comes from the fact that a local binding overrides a global one. See the Elisp manual, node Active Keymaps.

How do you reference the meta and arrow key combinations in emacs init.el?

I am trying to override Meta + left / right arrow keys in my emacs config and cannot figure out how to refer to the key sequence.
If I interact with Emacs directly I can type
"M-x, global-set-key, M-, next-buffer", and it works fine. But I can't figure out how to type this into my init.el file. These are some things that I have tried:
(global-set-key "\M right" 'next-buffer)
(global-set-key "\M <right>" 'next-buffer)
(global-set-key [\M right] 'next-buffer)
(global-set-key [M right] 'next-buffer)
(global-set-key [M-right] 'next-buffer)
(global-set-key (kbd M-<right>) 'next-buffer)
(global-set-key [M (kbd <right>)] 'next-buffer)
etc.
More Info:
OK, this does work natively: (global-set-key [M-right] 'next-buffer) (thank you) - it's not working on iTerm2 in a VM (minor detail :)
And for that environment: M-x describe-key does not open help but in *Messages* prints: ESC <right> (translated from ESC M-[ C) is undefined
And that's why I was confused and was not able to just paste that into kbd.
And that's why I don't think it is being trumped by another mode.
The easiest way to specify a key binding is always to use kbd.
(global-set-key (kbd "<M-right>") 'next-buffer)
kbd takes as argument an external key description, i.e., what Emacs tells you when you use C-h k.
Use C-h k, press and hold the Meta (e.g. Alt) key, and hit the right arrow key. Buffer *Help* tells you that this key sequence is written "<M-right>". So that's what you pass to kbd.
Solved: (global-set-key (kbd "ESC <right>") 'next-buffer)
Thanks - I needed the combination of kbd and what to pass it.

How can i bind C-x-insert in emacs

I want to bind C-x-insert to a command. This works:
(global-set-key [\C-insert] 'my-func)
But this doesn't:
(global-set-key [\C-x-insert] 'my-func)
C-hcC-xinsert tells me
C-x <insert> is undefined
Which tells me how Emacs refers to that sequence, which in turn means that I can pass the string "C-x <insert>" into the kbd function, and it will Just Work.
(global-set-key (kbd "C-x <insert>") 'my-func)
kbd is your friend.
This seems to work:
(define-key ctl-x-map [insert] 'beginning-of-line)

Defining key binding with arguments

I want to map C-f C-b as moving forward and backward by a fixed amount of lines in a file.
I did this:
(global-set-key (kbd "C-f") 'next-line)
(global-set-key (kbd "C-b") 'previous-line)
but I don't know how to specify an argument before the next-line command. I guess I should use digit-argument but I am unable to write the command in a correct way.
You've changed your question to be about how to bind directly to key sequences
This binds C-c l to C-u 5 C-n
(global-set-key (kbd "C-c l") (kbd "C-u 5 C-n"))
One of the possible alternatives would be define a new function:
(defun my-next-line ()
(interactive)
(next-line 5))
(global-set-key (kbd "C-f") 'my-next-line)
Otherwise, if it is just something you can accomplish with the keyboard you might want to use
M-x name-last-kbd-macro
and save it in your .emacs file
M-x insert-kbd-macro
and have emacs implement the function for you.
It will just get the name you gave in your call to name-last-kbd-macro

Emacs: why does keybinding with M-S-[letter] set mark?

I'm experimenting with new bindings for basic movement in Emacs. Borrowing from this page and ErgoEmacs, this remapping works as expected:
(global-set-key (kbd "M-i") 'previous-line)
(global-set-key (kbd "M-k") 'next-line)
(global-set-key (kbd "M-j") 'backward-char)
(global-set-key (kbd "M-l") 'forward-char)
But defining a Shift-Alt combination gives an unwanted side-effect.
(global-set-key (kbd "M-I") 'cua-scroll-down)
(global-set-key (kbd "M-K") 'cua-scroll-up)
(global-set-key (kbd "M-J") 'backward-word)
(global-set-key (kbd "M-L") 'forward-word)
Running describe-key (C-h k) shows that the bindings were successful. And these bindings move point as they should, but for some reason it sets the mark at my original position, and gives me a highlighted region as I move the point.
How do I correct this?
EDIT:
This has something to do with cua-mode. When I disable cua-mode, the problem disappears. Unfortunately, disabling cua-mode is not a desirable solution.
EDIT:
This is a bug in Emacs. It's tracked as bug#11221, title 'cua-mode activates the mark for shifted bindings'. From the discussion on the mailing list, it sounds like there will be a fix to cua-base.el.
It's indeed likely triggered by shift-select-mode, but it looks like a bug: shift-select-mode should pay attention to the fact that the command is bound to a shifted key. Try to reproduce the problem without using CUA and then please report it with M-x report-emacs-bug.
That's because of the shift selection. You can disable it by setting shift-select-mode to nil.