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Start Using Emacs – A Thorough Guide for Beginners

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Re: Start Using Emacs – A Thorough Guide for Beginners

#51

Post by ordinary »

liyanage wrote: post #18

I tried to get into Emacs on OS X a few times, but one of the things I don't like is the awkwardness of not having the Meta key mapped to a direct simple key press. Activating the "Use option as meta key" isn't a good solution because I sometimes need to type accented characters that require the option key. How do people deal with this when using Emacs in the OS X Terminal app?

You can enter accented characters into emacs by hitting M-x 8:

  M-x 8 ` e -> è
  M-x 8 / a -> å
  M-x 8 E   -> €
The number of these binds does not cover all of unicode, but it's surprisingly high nonetheless. If your desired character does not have a direct bind like that, or you just can't find one (C-h b lists them), you can insert a character by hitting M-x 8 RET and then typing its name:

  M-x 8 RET "Em dash" -> —
  M-x 8 RET "Hebrew letter double vav" -> װ
Tab completion works for these, of course.

[edit] I just saw the comment where you're more specific about what you're looking for. This isn't it, but having gotten a reply already, I don't want to delete this comment. It won't help you, but maybe it will others :P

Re: Start Using Emacs – A Thorough Guide for Beginners

#53

Post by lord_quas »

ordinary wrote: post #51
liyanage wrote: post #18

I tried to get into Emacs on OS X a few times, but one of the things I don't like is the awkwardness of not having the Meta key mapped to a direct simple key press. Activating the "Use option as meta key" isn't a good solution because I sometimes need to type accented characters that require the option key. How do people deal with this when using Emacs in the OS X Terminal app?

You can enter accented characters into emacs by hitting M-x 8: M-x 8 ` e -> è M-x 8 / a -> å M-x 8 E -> € The number of these binds does not cover all of unicode, but it's surprisingly high nonetheless. If your desired character does not have a direct bind like that, or you just can't find one (C-h b lists them), you can insert a character by hitting M-x 8 RET and then typing its name: M-x 8 RET "Em dash" -> — M-x 8…

Years later, I am still learning new things about emacs regularly.

Re: Start Using Emacs – A Thorough Guide for Beginners

#54

Post by harshreality »

rickdale wrote: post #15

When I was in college I had the privilege to work on a project with a developer that understood emacs as on operating system and used it as a way of life. When we started the project he would yell at me whenever I took my hand off the keyboard and tried to use the mouse. Finally he started to hit my hand with a ruler when I would lift it up. My emacs skills are still probably only 1% of his, but after working that sh…

Finally he started to hit my hand with a ruler when I would lift it up.

The Pai Mei school of teaching. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCbf4DjlHuM#t=0m31s

Re: Start Using Emacs – A Thorough Guide for Beginners

#55

Post by computer »

Question to the Emacs crowd: how do I hit Alt comfortably? My instinct is to use my left ring finger, but have trouble doing that without moving my other fingers much. Could it be because I have very large hands (or because my keyboard sucks)? Is it a good idea to just remap capslock to be the meta key?

Re: Start Using Emacs – A Thorough Guide for Beginners

#56

Post by asgard1024 »

goblinfoblin wrote: post #50
asgard1024 wrote: post #42

I also recently started using Emacs. Not much progress in learning, yet, though. It would be nice if someone made a nice starting package that would set it up more sanely for all the IDE-oriented people (basically take what modern IDE can do out of the box and setup Emacs that way). Something similar to what Ubuntu did for Linux. I have seen lots of personal configs on Github, and read lots of Emacs Wiki on how to se…

The starter packages like prelude and emacs-starter-kit are more like a learning to walk with a crutch when you have perfectly working legs. They offer an easy way to start but once you start using them you'll find it hard to do it the normal way (like when you need to modify your emacs config or add some new elisp that isn't included). It is better just to start emacs do C-h t and start learning, then add and config…

I don't have problem with Elisp. That's actually lot easier than what IDEs offer as a way of customization (Java?), and that's one reason I am interested in Emacs :-). What I don't like is the transition period where I am not set up properly. It doesn't quite feel like learning, but rather reinventing the wheel.

And I don't have big requirements either - I just need some sort of project management (being able to work with multiple files), grep, diff, syntax highlight, ability to indent/unindent and comment/uncomment block on a hotkey, more sane undo and maybe a little bit of completion and language documentation integration.

I can program in Notepad++ and be happy. So if it would be configured to do what that is doing out of the box, great.

Another problem I have, when I want to rebind a key, how do I figure out what keys are used and in what modes? Is there a way for the system to give me a suggestion for a key?

Re: Start Using Emacs – A Thorough Guide for Beginners

#57

Post by jzawodn »

computer wrote: post #55

Question to the Emacs crowd: how do I hit Alt comfortably? My instinct is to use my left ring finger, but have trouble doing that without moving my other fingers much. Could it be because I have very large hands (or because my keyboard sucks)? Is it a good idea to just remap capslock to be the meta key?

I just realized that I use my thumb for that.

Re: Start Using Emacs – A Thorough Guide for Beginners

#58

Post by jcurbo »

computer wrote: post #55

Question to the Emacs crowd: how do I hit Alt comfortably? My instinct is to use my left ring finger, but have trouble doing that without moving my other fingers much. Could it be because I have very large hands (or because my keyboard sucks)? Is it a good idea to just remap capslock to be the meta key?

I tend to use my left thumb. Seems to be close enough on PC and Mac keyboards that muscle memory works fine.

Re: Start Using Emacs – A Thorough Guide for Beginners

#59

Post by spudlyo »

computer wrote: post #55

Question to the Emacs crowd: how do I hit Alt comfortably? My instinct is to use my left ring finger, but have trouble doing that without moving my other fingers much. Could it be because I have very large hands (or because my keyboard sucks)? Is it a good idea to just remap capslock to be the meta key?

The control key is used more often than the meta key, so I'd reserve that choice bit of keyboard real estate (caps-lock) for control. For meta you can hit Esc, or even easier Ctrl+[ which is the same thing. Contorting your hand to hit control and alt in their default locations is going to cause you pain, so don't do it.

I now use a kinesis keyboard, which has two giant thumb keys for your left hand, I use those for control and meta. Before that I used control at caps-lock and meta using Ctrl+[, which worked well and pain-free for me for years.

Re: Start Using Emacs – A Thorough Guide for Beginners

#60

Post by jcreed »

liyanage wrote: post #41
parbo wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use cmd for meta, there is an option for that: (setq mac-option-modifier nil mac-command-modifier 'meta)

I'll have to try that. Is this with the regular emacs in the Terminal app? Does it interfere with shortcuts like Cmd-N to open a new Terminal window?

I use https://github.com/andymcd/cmd-key-happy which swaps option and command, and which lets you whitelist keys (iirc Cmd-N is among the defaults) to be exempt from that swapping.
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