I'm giving ErgoEmacs mode a try to see if I can use Emacs more comfortably. Some of its keybindings are fairly intuitive, but in many cases I don't want to outright replace the defaults.
For example, in the context of ErgoEmacs' navigation shortcut structure, M-h makes sense as a replacement for C-a--but I want to be able to use both, not just M-h. I tried simply duplicating the commands:
;; Move to beginning/ending of line
(defconst ergoemacs-move-beginning-of-line-key (kbd "C-a")) ; original
(defconst ergoemacs-move-end-of-line-key (kbd "C-e")) ; original
(defconst ergoemacs-move-beginning-of-line-key (kbd "M-h")) ; ergoemacs
(defconst ergoemacs-move-end-of-line-key (kbd "M-H")) ; ergoemacs
But Emacs simply overwrites the first keybinding with the second. What's the best way to address this?
To re-post reply from ergo-emacs mailing list:
Xah Lee said:
that's very easy.
in the
ergoemacs-mode.el file, there's this
line (load "ergoemacs-unbind") just
comment it out. That should be all
you need to do. However, note that
ErgoEmacs keybinding defines those
common shortcuts such as Open, Close,
New, Save... with keys Ctrl+o,
Ctrl+w, Ctrl+n, Ctrl+s etc. About 7 of
them or so. So, i think some of these
will hit on emacs traditional
bindings with Ctrl. if you are new to
ErgoEmacs and trying to explore it,
you might just try starting with few
keys. this page might have some
useful info:
http://code.google.com/p/ergoemacs/wiki/adoption
thanks for checking out ErgoEmacs!
Xah ∑ http://xahlee.org/
As it turns out, ErgoEmacs uses two files to define the keybinding. One is the main ergoemacs-mode.el file, and the other is the specific keyboard layout you select (e.g. ergoemacs-layout-us.el). The latter document creates a constant, which the former uses to create the keybinding. So while I thought I was duplicating the keybinding, I was actually changing the constant which was subsequently used for that purpose.
Solution:
In ergomacs-mode.el:
;; Move to beginning/ending of line
(define-key ergoemacs-keymap ergoemacs-move-beginning-of-line-key 'move-beginning-of-line)
(define-key ergoemacs-keymap ergoemacs-move-end-of-line-key 'move-end-of-line)
(define-key ergoemacs-keymap ergoemacs-move-beginning-of-line-key2 'move-beginning-of-line) ; new
(define-key ergoemacs-keymap ergoemacs-move-end-of-line-key2 'move-end-of-line) ; new
In ergoemacs-layout-us.el:
;; Move to beginning/ending of line
(defconst ergoemacs-move-beginning-of-line-key (kbd "M-h"))
(defconst ergoemacs-move-end-of-line-key (kbd "M-H"))
(defconst ergoemacs-move-beginning-of-line-key2 (kbd "C-a")) ; new
(defconst ergoemacs-move-end-of-line-key2 (kbd "C-e")) ; new
Huh? Is having one and only one way for every function some golden principle of ErgoEmacs? Because normal keybinding works exactly the opposite way: you name one key at a time and specify what it should do. If a mode defines a global variable to mean "the key that end-of-line is bound to", then of course there can be only one value, but with the normal binding commands you can bind the same function to as many combinations as you like. In fact, every keybinding I have ever seen used looked either like this
(global-set-key [(meta space)] 'just-one-space)
or like this
(add-hook 'c-mode-hook 'my-c-mode-hook)
(defun my-c-mode-hook ()
(define-key c-mode-map [(control c) b] 'c-insert-block))
if it's only for a specific mode.
Related
A related question was asked here. But the answer is to get used to the new way autocomplete works in helm. I cannot get used to it, here's why.
Say, I want to open a file /home/user/work/f.txt. I do C-x C-f, it takes me to current dir, say /current/dir/. I hit Backspace and notice that autocomplete won't let me delete /. Ok, turn off autocomplete with C-Backspace. Then kill the line C-a C-k and start typing. Notice that autocomplete doesn't work, turn it back on C-Backspace. Normally I would type the part that I know is probably unique, e.g. /hom and hit Tab.
Not here. As soon as I type /ho, autocomplete resolves it to /home/, but since I type fast, I end up with /home/m, and continue typing now meaningless characters until I notice it. Chances are, by that time I got autocompleted into directories that I had no intent of going.
So I have to constantly watch what autocomplete is doing, rather than rely on what I type and only checking suggested completions when I hit Tab.
I also find myself descending into wrong directories due to occasional typo, and then having difficulty going up a level -- evil autocomplete won't let you fix the situation with a couple of Backspaces.
This interaction of autocomplete behavior and the removal of Tab functionality completely upsets my work, so much that I decided to ask this question. I am looking to either:
restore the old functionality
learn how to use autocomplete in a meaningful way, or
configure helm's C-x C-f to behave more like a linux command line
Please help.
Here are some ido tricks if you want to start using it.
Let me know if helm is better, perhaps I'll switch over.
I tried once shortly, but didn't like it.
Basic setup:
This will give you `ido-find-file on C-x C-f.
(ido-mode)
(setq ido-enable-flex-matching t)
Smex setup:
Install from https://github.com/nonsequitur/smex.
(require 'smex)
(global-set-key "\C-t" 'smex)
Switch buffers with ido:
(global-set-key
"η"
(lambda()(interactive)
(when (buffer-file-name)
(save-buffer))
(ido-switch-buffer)))
(global-set-key
(kbd "C-η")
(lambda()(interactive)
(let ((ido-default-buffer-method 'other-window))
(ido-switch-buffer))))
Tricks:
;; 1
(add-hook 'dired-mode-hook
(lambda()
(define-key dired-mode-map "j" 'ido-find-file)))
(add-hook
'ido-setup-hook
(lambda()
;; 2
(define-key ido-file-dir-completion-map "~"
(lambda ()(interactive)
(ido-set-current-directory "~/")
(setq ido-exit 'refresh)
(exit-minibuffer)))
;; 3
(define-key ido-buffer-completion-map "η" 'ido-next-match)
;; 4
(define-key ido-buffer-completion-map (kbd "C-p")
'ido-fallback-command)
;; 5
(define-key ido-completion-map (kbd "C-.") 'smex-find-function)
(define-key ido-completion-map (kbd "C-,") 'smex-describe-function)))
Quick open file from dired.
Move to home directory one key faster (i.e. ~ instead of ~/).
Cycle buffer candidates with the same key that shows the candidates (a la C-TAB in Firefox).
Useful to have a fall back when you want to create a file-less buffer (ido will try
select an existing buffer unless you fall back).
Useful to jump to function definition/documentation.
If you want TAB completion of directories and file names, map helm-execute-persistent-action to the TAB key:
(define-key helm-map (kbd "<tab>") 'helm-execute-persistent-action)
See also the answer to "How can I change emacs helm-find-file default action[...]".
This s-expression in my .emacs file does not produce the desired result:
(define-key global-map (kbd "C-=") 'djhaskin987-untab-to-tab-stop)
Why can't I bind a command to Ctrl+=?
EDIT for clarification:
I am using emacs23-nox on the standard build of urxvt-256colors for Debian, except that I have recompiled with --disable-iso405776 (or something to that effect) it so that Ctrl+Shift doesn't do the weird 'insert character' thing. I don't know if this affects anything. For example, C-M-i sends M-TAB, which I don't understand.
EDIT II:
I apologize for not making this clear. The function djhaskin987-untab-to-tab-stop has the line (interactive) in it. This part works.
The accepted answer in combination with the link in the first comment to it is enough to get started on a complete solution. The steps are:
make your terminal output escape codes for the key
make Emacs recognise the escape codes as a standard keypress
bind the keypress in a mode map
The first is very terminal and/or operating system dependent.
The link in the first comment shows some examples for X Window System. The key names are available in /usr/X11R6/include/X11/keysymdef.h (or try locate keysymdef.h), prefixed with XK_ (which should be removed for our purposes). I read that symbolic names are preferred over key literals.
I don't currently run X but I think it should look like this in your case:
XTerm.VT100.Translations: #override \
Ctrl ~Meta ~Shift <Key> equal: string(0x1b) string("[emacs-C-=")\n
The first string is the escape, the second is of your choosing.
In iTerm you can use Preferences->Keys and choose Send Escape Sequence as the Action. For example, I have:
Emacs Wiki lists some configuration methods for other terminals.
Now you can teach Emacs to recognize it as a C-=. First define-key into input-decode-map. I have a couple of helper functions:
(defun my/global-map-and-set-key (key command &optional prefix suffix)
"`my/map-key' KEY then `global-set-key' KEY with COMMAND.
PREFIX or SUFFIX can wrap the key when passing to `global-set-key'."
(my/map-key key)
(global-set-key (kbd (concat prefix key suffix)) command))
(defun my/map-key (key)
"Map KEY from escape sequence \"\e[emacs-KEY\."
(define-key function-key-map (concat "\e[emacs-" key) (kbd key)))
So then:
(my/global-map-and-set-key "C-=" 'some-function-to-bind-to)
Some keys (currently: ()\|;'`"#.,) will need escaping in the string, like C-\..
In a terminal, TAB is represented by the same byte sequence as C-i. And typically the terminal has no special byte-sequence for C-=, so it will just send a =. There is nothing that Emacs can do about it. But you might be able to teach your terminal emulator to send some special byte sequence of your choice (check the documentation of your terminal emulator for that), after which you can teach Emacs to recognize it as a C-= (with something like (define-key input-decode-map "...thebytes..." [?\C-=])).
The problem is that you use emacs in the terminal.
The terminal does not allow "C-=".
Try your function in the graphical emacs and it will work.
You will have to find another keybinding for the terminal.
You can map C-= using the default ascii codes: ^[[61;5u. Then you can bind it in Emacs either using:
(global-set-key (kbd "C-=") 'djhaskin987-untab-to-tab-stop))
or let use-package do it, e.g.:
(use-package expand-region
:ensure t
:bind (("C-=" . er/expand-region)))
I do want to thank Sam Brightman, for his wonderful solution. It's a very clean, albeit heavy-handed, approach that will work for any keys that cannot be sent via normal ascii codes. I've been wanting to get C-TAB working inside iterm2 for a long time. I was able to do it by deleting the builtin preferences keys for C-TAB/C-S-TAB and using his approach. With the following, I can be ssh'd into remote Linux boxes and quickly switch through lots of open buffers in projects, just like a desktop editor.
(use-package nswbuff
:defer 1
:after (projectile)
:commands (nswbuff-switch-to-previous-buffer
nswbuff-switch-to-next-buffer)
:config
(progn
(my/global-map-and-set-key "C-TAB" 'nswbuff-switch-to-previous-buffer)
(my/global-map-and-set-key "C-S-TAB" 'nswbuff-switch-to-next-buffer))
:init
(setq nswbuff-display-intermediate-buffers t
nswbuff-exclude-buffer-regexps '("^ "
"^\*.*\*"
"\*Treemacs.*\*"
"^magit.*:.+")
nswbuff-include-buffer-regexps '("^*Org Src")
nswbuff-start-with-current-centered t
nswbuff-buffer-list-function '(lambda ()
(interactive)
(if (projectile-project-p)
(nswbuff-projectile-buffer-list)
(buffer-list)))))
The function you're binding must be interactive. Try:
(define-key global-map (kbd "C-=")
(lambda () (interactive) (djhaskin987-untab-to-tab-stop)))
Cannot get to bind Enter to newline-and-indent in Emacs !!! Very annoying.
I already tried everything on the following thread by changing 'mode' to ruby and still nothing:
How do I make Emacs auto-indent my C code?
I know that the problem is the RETURN key, since if I bind to something else, works fine.
I tried [enter], (kbd "enter"), (read-kbd-macro "enter"), (kbd "RET")
Follow-up 1.
This is what I get from C-hkRET
RET runs the command newline, which is an interactive compiled Lisp
function.
It is bound to RET.
(newline &optional ARG)
Insert a newline, and move to left margin of the new line if it's blank.
If use-hard-newlines' is non-nil, the newline is marked with the
text-propertyhard'.
With ARG, insert that many newlines.
Call auto-fill-function' if the current column number is greater
than the value offill-column' and ARG is nil.
I dont know what to make of it or how to figure out if it's a global
or local binding that gets in the way. trying to remap C-j
also doesnt work.
As a previous comment says, use C-h k (describe-key) to see what the key is bound to at the point when it's not doing what you want. The (kbd "foo") syntax will be correct for whichever foo describe-key refers to it as.
Chances are that you are simply not defining that key in the appropriate keymap.
Note that major and minor mode keymaps take precedence over the global keymap, so you shouldn't necessarily be surprised if a global binding is overridden.
edit:
Myself, I have a hook function for common behaviours for all the programming modes I use, and it includes the sort of remapping you're after. The relevant part looks like this:
(defun my-coding-config ()
(local-set-key (kbd "RET") (key-binding (kbd "M-j")))
(local-set-key (kbd "<S-return>") 'newline)
)
(mapc
(lambda (language-mode-hook)
(add-hook language-mode-hook 'my-coding-config))
'(cperl-mode-hook
css-mode-hook
emacs-lisp-mode-hook
;; etc...
))
See Daimrod's answer for the explanation of why I'm re-binding RET to the current binding of M-j -- although I'm using comment-indent-new-line (or similar) instead of newline-and-indent (or similar), which does what I want in both comments and non-comments.
In Emacs 24, programming modes seem to derive from prog-mode, so you could probably (un-tested) reduce that list to prog-mode-hook plus any exceptions for third-party modes which don't yet do that.
As said earlier, use C-hkC-j because
C-j is the standard key to do newline-and-indent.
If you open a new file, activate ruby-mode and try the previous
command you will see why it doesn't work. Because ruby-mode doesn't
have newline-and-indent but rather
reindent-then-newline-and-indent. Yes that's stupid but you can either ask
to the maintener to change it, or accept it.
However I suggest you to use C-j to do it because
ruby-mode is not the only mode to do so, like paredit-mode which
uses paredit-newline.
I'd like to map a command in emacs to a key-binding. I want the command Control-l to have the same effect as the command Alt-x goto-line followed by a return (since that command first needs a return to be invoked and then a line number).
I modified the init file as follows:
(define-key (M-x goto-line) '\C-l)
but that didn't work. The error was that define-key was being given more than 1 arguments.
Does anyone know how to reset key-bindings in emacs?
Thanks!
M-g g is the default shortcut for goto-line. You might want to try that.
To redefine C-l use:
(global-set-key (kbd "C-l") 'goto-line)
Easiest way to customize lots of keybindings is to install John Wiegley's bind-key module, which is a part of use-package Lisp package. Solution in your init.el:
(require 'bind-key)
(bind-key "C-l" 'goto-line)
Minor modes keys usually override global keys, so if you don't want such behavior, use function bind-key* instead. The package is on MELPA, if you don't know what is it, quickly learn about Emacs package management (should take you 2 minutes to set up MELPA as your repository).
The main problem with keybindings in Emacs is that minor modes keys often override your custom ones. In vanilla Emacs people workaround by creating a minor mode for your own keybindings. If you really wanna understand how Emacs keys work, read Key Bindings # Emacs Manual and Keymaps # Elisp Manual carefully.
I have set as (global-set-key (kbd "C-x g") 'goto-line). You can use that or (global-set-key (kbd "C-l") 'goto-line). I would personally do not touch the C-l key from its default behavior.
If you must use M-x define-key, use
(define-key global-map (kbd "C-l") 'goto-line). The 1st argument to define-key is a KEYMAP.
Though I know how to set a global key-binding in Emacs, I find it hard to even Google out the code for a local (minor-mode specific) key-binding. For instance, I have this code in my .emacs:
;; PDFLaTeX from AucTeX
(global-set-key (kbd "C-c M-p")
(lambda ()
(interactive)
(shell-command (concat "pdflatex " buffer-file-name))))
I don't want to set it globally. Is there a function like local-set-key?
I use the following:
(add-hook 'LaTeX-mode-hook
(lambda () (local-set-key (kbd "C-0") #'run-latexmk)))
to have a bind defined for LaTeX mode alone.
To bind a key in a mode, you need to wait for the mode to be loaded before defining the key. One could require the mode, or use eval-after-load
(eval-after-load 'latex
'(define-key LaTeX-mode-map [(tab)] 'outline-cycle))
Don't forget either '—eval-after-load is not a macro, so it needs them.
You need to identify the key map for that mode (for example, LaTeX-mode-map) and use the function define-key. As an example, along with activating outline-minor-mode within LaTeX mode, I have:
(define-key LaTeX-mode-map [(tab)] 'outline-cycle))
In this case the major mode (LaTeX) holds the key binding, but there is also an outline-minor-mode-map.
None of the other answers satisfied my needs. So this may help other people. I wanted Tab to jump to the beginning of the line if I'm in Evil's normal mode (basically this means everywhere in Emacs), but I instead wanted it to cycle between org item states if I am in an org-mode document.
One option was to mess around with separate bindings and constant binding-rebinding whenever I switched buffers (because evil allows only one binding per key in its normal state).
But a more efficient option was to make Tab run my own code which runs the required function based on which major mode the current buffer uses. So if I am in a org buffer, this code runs org-cycle, and otherwise it runs evil-first-non-blank (go to the first non-whitespace character on the line).
The technique I used here can also be used by calling your custom function via global-set-key instead, for people who use regular non-evil Emacs.
For those who don't know Emacs lisp, the first line after the "if" statement is the true-action, and the line after that is the false-action. So if major-mode equals org-mode, we run org-cycle, otherwise we run evil-first-non-blank in all other modes:
(defun my/tab-jump-or-org-cycle ()
"jumps to beginning of line in all modes except org mode, where it cycles"
(interactive)
(if (equal major-mode 'org-mode)
(org-cycle)
(evil-first-non-blank))
)
(define-key evil-normal-state-map (kbd "<tab>") 'my/tab-jump-or-org-cycle)