M-x emacs-thread

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equation groupie: Feb 7, 2004; debased and dread pilled

Oh cool, an Emacs thread.

I don't have any real Emacs tips to offer, but if you use Mac OS X you are probably aware that some of the simple control-prefixed key combinations work - like C-a and C-e and C-f and such. If you miss the meta-prefixed key combinations (in my case, particularly M-v and M-f), you're in luck - you can enable them by editing ~/Library/KeyBindings/DefaultKeyBinding.dict to look like this:

code:

/* ~/Library/KeyBindings/DefaultKeyBinding.dict */

{
	"^ " = "setMark:";
	"^a" = "moveToBeginningOfLine:";
	"^e" = "moveToEndOfLine:";
	"^j" = "setMark:";
	"^v" = "pageDown:";
	"^w" = "deleteToMark:";
	"^x" = {
		"^m" = "selectToMark:";
		"^x" = "swapWithMark:";
    };
	"~" = "deleteWordBackward:"; /* Note: this is C-q backspace in Emacs */
	"~^h" = "deleteWordBackward:";
	"~b" = "moveWordBackward:";
	"~d" = "deleteWordForward:";
	"~f" = "moveWordForward:";
	"~n" = "scrollLineDown:";
	"~p" = "scrollLineUp:";
	"~v" = "pageUp:";
    "@\U007F" = "deleteWordBackward:"; /* cmd-backspace */ 
}

You can define your own using things you see here and examples on the Web. A "^" character denotes control, "~" denotes option, and "@" denotes command.

(Trivia: There are actually two formats for this file, the old-style NeXT formatting, like you see above, and the new-style XML, which is probably the default on your system or you can see an example here. I had converted my file to the new style (or maybe a Mac OS X upgrade did it for me, I don't remember), but then recently I realized that I hit cmd-backspace expecting it to deleteWordBackward (which I believe opt-backspace does by default), but instead it is deleteLineBackward or something else. However, I couldn't get it to work - because, as it turns out, the @\U007F entry for cmd-backspace won't work at all in an XML DefaultKeyBinding.dict.)

Addendum: If you're new to Emacs and you keep hearing about how it's got an email client and a web browser, some caution. Those things won't replace Safari and Mail (or whatever you use) for anything approaching "normal use". If youre curmudeony enough to be able to stomach using Emacs as your MUA, you're probably already doing it. Even jwz doesn't read his email in Emacs anymore. If you're aware of all this and want to experiment, then do so by all means... just don't expect GNUS to be a drop-in Gmail replacement. Like. At all.

OTOH if you're way beyond this and just can't get enough Emacs, I recommend checking out conkeror. It's a browser based on Mozilla XULRunner, which means you get fancy new features like JAVASCRIPT and even BROWSER PLUGINS (unlike emacs-w3m), in a mostly Emacs friendly way. I've tried it several times and I think it's just not for me, but it's at least a step in the right direction. (Unlike, IMO, emacs-w3m.) You might also be interested in stumpwm, which is an X11 window manager written in Lisp in an Emacsy way with an Emacsy UI. When I tried it last, it was pretty nice, but I don't run Linux on the desktop any more so I never use it.

Comedy option: Don't do any of that but instead use SXEmacs. In addition to being a mail and IRC client, SXEmacs can also be your X11 window manager and login shell! (Though apparently not at the same time; "We wouldn't recommend trying to run an X session from it" as your shell.) Terrifying.

Fake edit: also, I have had caps lock mapped to control for years and I have some serious Emacs pinky right now (for the first time in my life). It loving sucks.

Real edit: some binaries links for the OP, if you want them:

On Windows, I used to get them from here. These binaries work, but they're old. They are the only ones to come with a workable installer. If you're brand new, you should probably start here... just click the "Download latest EmacsW32+Emacs patched" button from the download page. If you want Emacs24, you'll have to get it without the installer (which does stuff like register file associations and such) from the official alpha builds distribution point.

On Mac OS X the situation is all so much simpler. You can get some good pre-built packages from https://emacsformacosx.com, including pretest releases such as for Emacs24 from the builds page. (The brew install method may also work very well, I've just never used it for Emacs.)

equation groupie fucked around with this message at 20:45 on Oct 10, 2011