InsectNation

rorschach and prozac and everything is groovy

Useful Emacs bits 'n' bobs

I've hacked my emacs configuration quite a lot in order to support some major modes that I find particularly useful: (php-mode, html-helper-mode, css-mode and the rather more specialist lhcb-c++-mode in particular.

I've also gone to a fair bit of trouble to set some of the more ubiquitous emacs key combinations to a more "normal" behaviour: I've bound C-a to "select all", use S-[cursor keys] to select regions and have bound Home and End to go to the start and end (respectively) of lines rather than the BOF and EOF. I also use the rather wonderful cua-mode to bring the cut-copy-paste-undo shortcuts in line with the rest of computing, not least because I found myself getting some RSI-like hand pains after repeated use of C-y for pasting! The C-s search binding and C-k kill-line bindings remain intact since I find them really handy. I also recommend the AuCTeX package for advanced LaTeX editing in Emacs, as well as php-elisp, the equivalent functionality for PHP editing.

Here's a few handy key combinations I wish I'd been told about when I started using emacs:

  • C-g or ESC ESC ESC: cancel minibrowser session
  • C-s: search for text
  • C-r: search for text backwards
  • C-%: replace text (press space to okay each suggested instance
  • C-M-%: replace regex (press space to okay each suggested instance
  • C-[space]: place mark (I don't use this...see above re. region selection)
  • C-w: cut region (std emacs)
  • M-w: copy region (std emacs)
  • C-k: cut line
  • C-y: paste (yank)
  • C-l: recentre buffer window vertically around active line
  • C-x C-f: open (find) file in buffer
  • C-x C-s: save buffer to file
  • C-x C-w: save buffer to new file
  • C-x C-z: stop (pause) emacs process (re-start with shell fg)
  • C-x k: kill buffer
  • C-x b: change active buffer
  • C-x 1: display only current buffer window
  • C-x 2: split buffer window
  • C-x 0: kill current buffer pane
  • C-x 4 f: open file in new window
  • C-x 4 b: open buffer in new window
  • C-x 5 2: open new frame
  • C-x 5 0: kill current frame
  • C-x 5 f: open file in new frame
  • C-x 5 b: open buffer in new frame
  • C-x o: switch between active sub-window
  • C-x D: enter the very nifty dired-mode
  • M-x global-font-lock-mode: toggle syntax highlighting
  • M-x perl-mode: a lot of code highlights fairly well in Perl mode
  • M-x goto-line: jump to line
  • F10: access menus in text mode (via the minibuffer)
  • M-x byte-compile-file .emacs: compile .emacs or another elisp file for faster operation

For your entertainment, here's a snapshot of my current .emacs file:

.emacs

As you can see, the .emacs just really includes a load of other elisp files. So, here they are:

key-bindings.el

This file defines the bindings of key combinations to functions

mode-hooks.el

This file defines the bindings of file-types (by name) to major emacs modes

pickiness.el

This elisp make emacs look and behave the way I want it to (i.e. very differently from the horrible defaults!)

myfunctions.el

Elisp functions I've written or otherwise hacked together myself