Emacs, switch to previous window - emacs

In Emacs, C-x o takes me to the next window.
What keyboard macro takes me to the previous window in Emacs?

You might also want to try using windmove which lets you navigate to the window of your choice based on geometry. I have the following in my .emacs file to change windows using C-x arrow-key.
(global-set-key (kbd "C-x <up>") 'windmove-up)
(global-set-key (kbd "C-x <down>") 'windmove-down)
(global-set-key (kbd "C-x <right>") 'windmove-right)
(global-set-key (kbd "C-x <left>") 'windmove-left)

That'd be C-- C-x o
In other words, C-x o with an argument of -1. You can specify how many windows to move by inserting a numeric argument between C-u and the command, as in C-u 2 C-x o. (C-- is a shortcut for C-u - 1)

Personally I prefer to use window-number.el
To select a different window, use Ctrl-x, Ctrl-j n
Where n is the number of the window, the modeline of each window shows it's number, as shown in the screenshot.
Just download window-number.el, place it in your emacs load-path and use the following in your .emacs
(autoload 'window-number-mode "window-number"
"A global minor mode that enables selection of windows according to
numbers with the C-x C-j prefix. Another mode,
`window-number-meta-mode' enables the use of the M- prefix."
t)
There's another similar mode called switch-window.el which gives you big numbers in the windows... (pressing the number switches the window and reverts the display.)
(source: tapoueh.org)

If you work with multiple emacs windows (>3) a lot and you will want to save some keystrokes add this to your init file and you'll be better off:
(defun frame-bck()
(interactive)
(other-window-or-frame -1)
)
(define-key (current-global-map) (kbd "M-o") 'other-window-or-frame)
(define-key (current-global-map) (kbd "M-O") 'frame-bck)
Now just cycle quickly thru the windows with M-o

There are some very good and complete answers here, but to answer the question in a minimalist fashion:
(defun prev-window ()
(interactive)
(other-window -1))
(define-key global-map (kbd "C-x p") 'prev-window)

Base on idea from #Nate but slightly modified to support backwards cycling between windows
;; Windows Cycling
(defun windmove-up-cycle()
(interactive)
(condition-case nil (windmove-up)
(error (condition-case nil (windmove-down)
(error (condition-case nil (windmove-right) (error (condition-case nil (windmove-left) (error (windmove-up))))))))))
(defun windmove-down-cycle()
(interactive)
(condition-case nil (windmove-down)
(error (condition-case nil (windmove-up)
(error (condition-case nil (windmove-left) (error (condition-case nil (windmove-right) (error (windmove-down))))))))))
(defun windmove-right-cycle()
(interactive)
(condition-case nil (windmove-right)
(error (condition-case nil (windmove-left)
(error (condition-case nil (windmove-up) (error (condition-case nil (windmove-down) (error (windmove-right))))))))))
(defun windmove-left-cycle()
(interactive)
(condition-case nil (windmove-left)
(error (condition-case nil (windmove-right)
(error (condition-case nil (windmove-down) (error (condition-case nil (windmove-up) (error (windmove-left))))))))))
(global-set-key (kbd "C-x <up>") 'windmove-up-cycle)
(global-set-key (kbd "C-x <down>") 'windmove-down-cycle)
(global-set-key (kbd "C-x <right>") 'windmove-right-cycle)
(global-set-key (kbd "C-x <left>") 'windmove-left-cycle)

Just to add to #Nate, #aspirin and #Troydm's answer I find this to be a very helpful addition if you decide to bind the windmove commands to whatever key combination you choose:
(setq windmove-wrap-around t)
With the default configuration you will get an error when you get to attempt to move to a window that doesn't exist which becomes kind of annoying after a while. However when windmove-wrap-around is set then attempting to move off the bottom of the frame for example will instead select the topmost window in the frame. This may be a more intuitive behaviour for you.

M-n and M-p makes the most sense to me, since they are analogous to C-n (next-line) and C-p (previous-line):
(define-key global-map (kbd "M-p") 'previous-multiframe-window)
(define-key global-map (kbd "M-n") 'other-window)
(inspired by to this and that)

In reference to Nate's answer, I replaced the arrow keys to use the traditional p for going up, n for going down, f for going right and b for going left. I also replaced the Ctrl with Super key as C-p, C-n, C-f and C-b are the default movement keys. This combination with M lets you jump characters and lines instead of going through just one by one after each keystroke. Thus Super key felt the best choice to keep it an easy key binding. Also, now you don't have to take your hand off the home row any more!
(global-set-key (kbd "s-p") `windmove-up)
(global-set-key (kbd "s-n") `windmove-down)
(global-set-key (kbd "s-f") `windmove-right)
(global-set-key (kbd "s-b") `windmove-left)
Hope it helps!

(global-unset-key (kbd "M-j"))
(global-unset-key (kbd "M-k"))
(global-set-key (kbd "M-j") (lambda () (interactive) (other-window 1)))
(global-set-key (kbd "M-k") (lambda () (interactive) (other-window -1)))
altj and altk will cycle through your visibles buffers. Forwards and backwards, to be exact.

There is already a package that lets you switch windows by using M-. check this website. Add this to your init file:
(require 'windmove)
(windmove-default-keybindings 'meta) ;; or use 'super to use windows key instead alt

(global-set-key (kbd "C-x a") 'ace-swap-window)
(global-set-key (kbd "C-x q") 'ace-select-window)
download ace-window from the melpa repo if you don't know how to do that
put this in your .emacs file if you don't have one create it
(package-initialize)
(require 'package)
(add-to-list 'package-archives '("melpa" , "http://melpa.org/packages/"))
(package-initialize)
then "m-x list-packages"

The fastest method I have found for switching to the previous window is to mash a couple keys together as a "key-chord". The following lets you use your left pinky+ring fingers together to go to previous window:
(key-chord-define-global "qw" 'prev-window)
(key-chord-define-global "'y" 'other-window) ; bonus for my colemak, adjust otherwise
(key-chord-define-global ";'" 'other-window) ; probably normal
(This is possible because Emacs key chords are order independent, meaning that qw is the same as wq.)

Related

Locally override keybinding for emacs major mode

What is the proper way to override a keybinding for a major mode so it only affects the buffer-local keymap? I thought I could use local-set-key or make-local-variable, but my attempts there affect the keymaps globally (shown below).
Is it necessary to copy the map, as done below, or create a minor mode with a different keymap? It would be nice to be able to make it a local variable if possible.
For example, say I want to have original bound to C-c C-c in the global emacs-lisp-mode-map but after calling jump-to-other-buffer I want C-c C-c to be bound to local-version only in that buffer.
(defun original ()
(interactive)
(message "original"))
(defun local-version ()
(interactive)
(message "local binding"))
;; open new buffer in emacs-lisp mode and set a local key
(defun jump-to-other-buffer ()
(interactive)
(with-current-buffer (get-buffer-create "*test1*")
(emacs-lisp-mode)
;; These change bindings in all elisp buffers
;; (make-local-variable 'emacs-lisp-mode-map)
;; (define-key emacs-lisp-mode-map (kbd "C-c C-c") 'local-version)
;; (local-set-key (kbd "C-c C-c") 'local-version)
(let ((overriding-local-map (copy-keymap emacs-lisp-mode-map)))
(define-key overriding-local-map (kbd "C-c C-c") 'local-version)
(use-local-map overriding-local-map))
(pop-to-buffer (current-buffer))))
;; default binding in elisp buffers
(define-key emacs-lisp-mode-map (kbd "C-c C-c") 'original)

How to enter minibuffer for editing in Emacs?

When running certain commands, the mini-buffer asks input strings, (e.g. the C-M-s).
Sometimes I need to enter complex strings into minibuffer. Therefore, I need to use movement commands such as C-f, C-b, C-a, etc. However, these does not work when I am entering string inside command C-M-s.
So, what is the general command / key-bindings for me to focus point in mini-buffer for extended movement support?
Edit:
I just discovered that M-e will work for searching commands. But I am not sure whether this command is the general command to "switch from buffer to minibuffer for dedicated editing"
Yes, M-e is what you are looking for, if you want to edit the search string. It lets you perform general editing on it. Just hit C-s or C-M-s again when you are ready to search for the edited string.
However, M-e is only for editing the search string. If you instead want to interrupt isearch to do some editing somewhere, then just end isearch to do that, and then resume isearch when done editing, by using C-s or C-M-s again.
I have been happy using these and I bind them to the function button and arrow keys on my Mac keyboard. I frequently block and copy text and move in and out of the mini-buffer. The following example frees up some of the keymap assignments in the minibuffer-local-map and minibuffer-local-completion-map (i.e., by setting them to nil) so that I can use my own custom keyboard shortcuts to enter and exit the mini-buffer.
From inside the mini-buffer, you can use C-h k and then the type the keyboard shortcut to see what function is bound.
When I switch in and out of the mini-buffer window, I use a custom function that changes the mode-line color, and mini-buffer prompt color, and default color inside the mini-buffer, but that is beyond the scope of your question. [I just add the name of my mini-buffer color change function at the tail end of the following four functions -- i.e., after the if / then statements.]
(defun lawlist-windmove-right ()
(interactive)
(if (window-in-direction 'right)
(select-window (window-in-direction 'right))
(other-window 1)))
(defun lawlist-windmove-left ()
(interactive)
(if (window-in-direction 'left)
(select-window (window-in-direction 'left))
(other-window -1)))
(defun lawlist-windmove-up ()
(interactive)
(if (window-in-direction 'above)
(select-window (window-in-direction 'above))
(other-window 1)))
(defun lawlist-windmove-down ()
(interactive)
(if (window-in-direction 'below)
(select-window (window-in-direction 'below))
(other-window -1)))
(define-key minibuffer-local-map [prior] nil)
(define-key minibuffer-local-map [next] nil)
(define-key minibuffer-local-map [home] nil)
(define-key minibuffer-local-map [end] nil)
(define-key minibuffer-local-completion-map [prior] nil)
(define-key minibuffer-local-completion-map [next] nil)
(define-key minibuffer-local-completion-map [home] nil)
(define-key minibuffer-local-completion-map [end] nil)
(global-set-key (kbd "<end>") 'lawlist-windmove-right)
(global-set-key (kbd "<home>") 'lawlist-windmove-left)
(global-set-key (kbd "<prior>") 'lawlist-windmove-up)
(global-set-key (kbd "<next>") 'lawlist-windmove-down)

Emacs: scroll buffer not point

Is it possible to scroll the entire visible portion of the buffer in Emacs, but leave point where it is. Example: point is towards the bottom of the window and I want to see some text which has scrolled off the top of the window without moving point.
Edit: I suppose C-l C-l sort of does what I wanted.
try these. Change M-n and M-p key bindings according to your taste
;;; scrollers
(global-set-key "\M-n" "\C-u1\C-v")
(global-set-key "\M-p" "\C-u1\M-v")
;;;_*======================================================================
;;;_* define a function to scroll with the cursor in place, moving the
;;;_* page instead
;; Navigation Functions
(defun scroll-down-in-place (n)
(interactive "p")
(previous-line n)
(unless (eq (window-start) (point-min))
(scroll-down n)))
(defun scroll-up-in-place (n)
(interactive "p")
(next-line n)
(unless (eq (window-end) (point-max))
(scroll-up n)))
(global-set-key "\M-n" 'scroll-up-in-place)
(global-set-key "\M-p" 'scroll-down-in-place)
This might be of use. According to the EmacsWiki page on Scrolling;
The variable scroll-preserve-screen-position may be useful to some.
When you scroll down, and up again, point should end up at the same
position you started out with. The value can be toggled by the built
in mode M-x scroll-lock-mode.
I think this is better:
(defun gcm-scroll-down ()
(interactive)
(scroll-up 1))
(defun gcm-scroll-up ()
(interactive)
(scroll-down 1))
(global-set-key [(control down)] 'gcm-scroll-down)
(global-set-key [(control up)] 'gcm-scroll-up)
reference : emacs wiki
;; Preserve the cursor position relative to the screen when scrolling
(setq scroll-preserve-screen-position 'always)
;; Scroll buffer under the point
;; 'scroll-preserve-screen-position' must be set to a non-nil, non-t value for
;; these to work as intended.
(global-set-key (kbd "M-p") #'scroll-down-line)
(global-set-key (kbd "M-n") #'scroll-up-line)
Based on Bilal's answer:
(global-set-key [(meta down)] (lambda () (interactive) (scroll-down 1)))
(global-set-key [(meta up)] (lambda () (interactive) (scroll-up 1)))

Useful keyboard shortcuts and tips for ESS/R

I would like to ask regular ESS/R users what key bindings do they use frequently and tips on using ESS/R.
I have set several shortcuts in my .emacs file. The most useful are:
C-tab to switch between the R command line and the file (similar to josh answer, but much faster):
(global-set-key [C-tab] 'other-window)
Control and up/down arrow keys to search history with matching what you've already typed:
(define-key comint-mode-map [C-up] 'comint-previous-matching-input-from-input)
(define-key comint-mode-map [C-down] 'comint-next-matching-input-from-input)
Comment-uncomment a selected region with C-d or C-maj-d
(defun uncomment-region (beg end)
"Like `comment-region' invoked with a C-u prefix arg."
(interactive "r")
(comment-region beg end -1))
(define-key ess-mode-map (kbd "C-d") 'comment-region)
(define-key ess-mode-map (kbd "C-S-d") 'uncomment-region)
Also I've also enabled CUA mode (from options menu) and reconfigured quite a lot of shortcuts to require only two keystrokes (instead of four in standard mode):
;; Delete selection when pressing [delete] key
(delete-selection-mode t)
;; ESS Mode (.R file)
(define-key ess-mode-map "\C-l" 'ess-eval-line-and-step)
(define-key ess-mode-map "\C-p" 'ess-eval-function-or-paragraph-and-step)
(define-key ess-mode-map "\C-r" 'ess-eval-region)
;; iESS Mode (R console)
(define-key inferior-ess-mode-map "\C-u" 'comint-kill-input)
(define-key inferior-ess-mode-map "\C-w" 'backward-kill-word)
(define-key inferior-ess-mode-map "\C-a" 'comint-bol)
(define-key inferior-ess-mode-map [home] 'comint-bol)
;; Comint Mode (R console as well)
(define-key comint-mode-map "\C-e" 'comint-show-maximum-output)
(define-key comint-mode-map "\C-r" 'comint-show-output)
(define-key comint-mode-map "\C-o" 'comint-kill-output)
;; Search with C-f / C-F (control-maj-F for backware search)
(global-set-key "\C-f" 'isearch-forward)
(global-set-key (kbd "C-S-f") 'isearch-backward)
(define-key isearch-mode-map "\C-f" 'isearch-repeat-forward)
(define-key isearch-mode-map (kbd "C-S-f") 'isearch-repeat-backward)
;; Save with C-s / C-S
(global-set-key (kbd "C-s") 'save-buffer)
(global-set-key (kbd "C-S-s") 'write-file)
;; need to redefine them for isearch mode (don't know why)
(define-key isearch-mode-map (kbd "C-s") 'save-buffer)
(define-key isearch-mode-map (kbd "C-S-s") 'write-file)
;; Pause = dedicate window.
(defun toggle-current-window-dedication ()
(interactive)
(let* ((window (selected-window))
(dedicated (window-dedicated-p window)))
(set-window-dedicated-p window (not dedicated))
(message "Window %sdedicated to %s"
(if dedicated "no longer " "")
(buffer-name))))
(global-set-key [pause] 'toggle-current-window-dedication)
;; delete = delete
(global-set-key [delete] 'delete-char)
;; C-b = list buffers
(global-set-key (kbd "C-b") 'bs-show)
You will find many more useful shortcuts in ESS documentation.
C-c C-z ess-switch-to-end-of-ESS
is nice to jump from your source file that you are editing foo.R to the R console
I found this link to be extremely helpful. It provides elisp code to make Shift+Enter do many common tasks in a context dependent fashion.
http://kieranhealy.org/blog/archives/2009/10/12/make-shift-enter-do-a-lot-in-ess/
Great stuff, have been using it for ages. Unfortunately as of 15-11-2013 the uncomment key binding may not work due to EMACS changes (I think, at least it was working before I loaded the latest version). This is because the default uncomment function has 3 arguments but the one defined above has 2. The best way to fix this is to simply delete the uncomment function from the code and retain the keybinding, so it uses the default uncomment function. Or in other words just use this:
(define-key ess-mode-map (kbd "C-d") 'comment-region)
(define-key ess-mode-map (kbd "C-S-d") 'uncomment-region)
M-n and M-p in the ESS R console for next/previous command.

.emacs global-set-key and calling interactive function with argument

In my .emacs i have the following function that transposes a line
(defun move-line (n)
"Move the current line up or down by N lines."
(interactive "p")
(let ((col (current-column))
start
end)
(beginning-of-line)
(setq start (point))
(end-of-line)
(forward-char)
(setq end (point))
(let ((line-text (delete-and-extract-region start end)))
(forward-line n)
(insert line-text)
;; restore point to original column in moved line
(forward-line -1)
(forward-char col))))
And I bind a key to it like this
(global-set-key (kbd "M-<down>") 'move-line)
;; this is the same as M-x global-set-key <return>
However, I want to bind M-up to move-line (-1) But I cant seem to be able to do it correctly:
;; M-- M-1 M-x global-set-key <return>
How do I define the above using global-set-key to call move-line -1?
Not minutes after asking the question I figured it out by copy+pasting code. However I have no clue how it works.
(global-set-key (kbd "M-<up>") (lambda () (interactive) (move-line -1)))
global-set-key only takes 2 arguments: the key sequence and the command you want to bind to it. So
(global-set-key (kbd "M-<down>") 'move-line)
works fine. But if you want to use move-line with an argument you need to wrap it in an anonymous (aka lamba) function so that it presents itself to global-set-key as one value.
You can simply ask for the number of lines you want and convert the input string into an integer:
(global-set-key (kbd "M-<up>")
(lambda ()
(interactive)
(move-line (string-to-int (read-string "Lines: ")))))
I found this when I had the same problem, but I ended up solving it in another way.
(global-set-key (kbd "M-<down>") 'move-line)
(global-set-key (kbd "M-<up>") (kbd "C-u -1 M-<down>"))
Definitely not a perfect solution, since M-<down> could be reassigned and C-u -1 might not make sense on it, but since it's just my local init file, it should be no problem.
Also this obvious only works well for keyboard commands that you want to have reversed.
You might want to check out the "transpose-lines" built-in function.