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Ask HN: Emacs users on OS X, what's your setup?

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Re: Ask HN: Emacs users on OS X, what's your setup?

#31

Post by dilap »

I'm new to OS X (from Windows, mostly, with MinGW), but old to emacs. In my brief investigations, I have found Carbon Emacs to be the most friendly -- mainly because it makes no attempts what-so-ever to fit in with the Mac keystrokes, which suits me fine. Like most other people, I bind caps-lock to control, which I recommend whatever your platform.

Now a brief question of my own: is there any way to map command to meta in the apple terminal???

I know about mapping option to meta, but it just ain't the same, especially when I hit command-W hoping to copy text and accidentally close my whole frickin' terminal.

Re: Ask HN: Emacs users on OS X, what's your setup?

#32

Post by msg »

Just like you say, Carbon Emacs + Caps->Control + Cmd->Meta. I dislike using Option as Meta, as you say.

This keyboard and setup is exactly the setup I have for Gnu Emacs on Solaris 8 that I have to use every day at work, and if I ever do serious work on Windows, I'll be able to remap Alt and Caps without trouble. The consistency of key placement is definitely helpful.

Re: Ask HN: Emacs users on OS X, what's your setup?

#34

Post by mmc »

fendale wrote: post #4

I just have Aquamacs with all the default bindings. Then I installed ECB and all the rails goodies, of which I use very few actually! Flymake is the most useful as it highlights syntax errors without even compiling.

I completely forgot about ECB! I don't use it with Python (for no good reason), but it was really great for C++ projects. Love ECB.

Re: Ask HN: Emacs users on OS X, what's your setup?

#35

Post by menloparkbum »

fendale wrote: post #4

I just have Aquamacs with all the default bindings. Then I installed ECB and all the rails goodies, of which I use very few actually! Flymake is the most useful as it highlights syntax errors without even compiling.

I also use Aquamacs and ECB. However, I just upgraded to Aquamacs 1.6, which broke my ECB.

Re: Ask HN: Emacs users on OS X, what's your setup?

#36

Post by jollyjerry »

cpr wrote: post #16

I use Terminal-based Emacs exclusively. Couldn't stand all the "distractions" (bells and whistles) of Aquamacs. But, more importantly, with this mode I can use Emacs everywhere, including my servers over ssh, with exactly the same setup. I bind Option to Meta in Terminal.app and that works very well.

I agree with Terminal emacs being available anywhere. I do miss the anti-aliased fonts that are available in Emacs.app, but I have to be able to start separate emacs processes for different projects.

Also instead of using cmd-c and cmd-v Mac key bindings, I do M-| (shell-command-on-region) to 'pbcopy' to copy the region to the OSX clipboard. It's a godsend.

Re: Ask HN: Emacs users on OS X, what's your setup?

#37

Post by mark_h »

zzkt wrote: post #18
cpr wrote: post #16

I use Terminal-based Emacs exclusively. Couldn't stand all the "distractions" (bells and whistles) of Aquamacs. But, more importantly, with this mode I can use Emacs everywhere, including my servers over ssh, with exactly the same setup. I bind Option to Meta in Terminal.app and that works very well.

(defun remove-distractions () (set-frame-parameter nil 'fullscreen 'fullboth))

Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to work any more in cocoa emacs.

Re: Ask HN: Emacs users on OS X, what's your setup?

#39

Post by madkangas »

jimbokun wrote: post #25

I seem to be the only one here who likes how Aquamacs uses both Mac and Emacs key bindings. I find myself using both. There is probably some reason I sometimes use the Emacs kill/yank/etc. vs. when I use Mac cut/copy/paste, but I'm not sure what it is. I also use Emacs in Windows and Unix at work, but I imagine it is sitting in front of my Mac that triggers the cmd key bindings in my head. Maybe it's just that, with…

+1 for Aquamacs. I've used Emacs on/off for 15 years and I've grown to detest the need to "feather my nest" every time I move to a new seat. I want a usable default configuration, and Aquamacs works reasonably well for me in this regard.

Customizations: Capslock == Ctrl, Emacs menubar is hidden, one .emacs entry for ye olde 'newline-and-indent. That's it.

Re: Ask HN: Emacs users on OS X, what's your setup?

#40

Post by cpr »

jollyjerry wrote: post #36
cpr wrote: post #16

I use Terminal-based Emacs exclusively. Couldn't stand all the "distractions" (bells and whistles) of Aquamacs. But, more importantly, with this mode I can use Emacs everywhere, including my servers over ssh, with exactly the same setup. I bind Option to Meta in Terminal.app and that works very well.

I agree with Terminal emacs being available anywhere. I do miss the anti-aliased fonts that are available in Emacs.app, but I have to be able to start separate emacs processes for different projects. Also instead of using cmd-c and cmd-v Mac key bindings, I do M-| (shell-command-on-region) to 'pbcopy' to copy the region to the OSX clipboard. It's a godsend.

But, but, but, if you use anti-aliased fonts in Terminal, you're all set in Emacs (as well as everything else).
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