Thread: emacs characters size and feel

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    Registered User hamsteroid's Avatar
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    emacs characters size and feel

    Have anyone of you come across a small text editor that allows you to copy and cut paste with standard keys ctrl+x ctrl+y and highlight sections of text for cutting using the shift and arrow keys? ... but has a look like emacs..

    I played with emacs and the interface is nice - especially the clean sharp small text that's prefect for coding (comes with syntax highlighting). VI is not bad but sometimes for copying and cutting large amounts of text can be slower.

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    Crazy Fool Perspective's Avatar
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    You can quite easily re-map the key bindings in emacs if thats all you want... though I'd recommend getting to know the default emacs ones, you'll be thankful (or crippled) when you do

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    Registered User hamsteroid's Avatar
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    Might try mapping them. Or even just try using vim... although I haven't used copy and paste much in vim.... especially the case where you need to highlight a paragraph and cut and paste it somewhere else. Might be worth going through the tutorial on it.

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    Crazy Fool Perspective's Avatar
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    On emacs you can cut/paste a paragraph in many ways. For example:

    Go to the beginning (or end) of the paragraph and set a mark (ctrl + space). Then go to the end (or beginning) and press cut (ctrl + w). Paste it with ctrl + y.

    You can also go to the beginning and just push ctrl + k repeatedly untill you've grabbed every line. Then paste the same way as above.

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    Officially An Architect brewbuck's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Perspective View Post
    You can quite easily re-map the key bindings in emacs if thats all you want... though I'd recommend getting to know the default emacs ones, you'll be thankful (or crippled) when you do
    Quite a few important Emacs functions are mapped to sequences starting with Ctrl-X. If you "steal" Ctrl-X you lose important abilities such as Open (C-x C-f), Save (C-x C-s), Quit (C-x C-c).

    You would have to remap many other functions in order to be able to use Ctrl-X as cut. IMHO, not worth it. Either learn to use Emacs with its standard keybindings or use some other editor.

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    Registered User hamsteroid's Avatar
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    Or what do people think of VIM? I used it a bit going back and it could be just as good as emacs. I hear a lot of people swear by it.

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    Crazy Fool Perspective's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by hamsteroid View Post
    Or what do people think of VIM? I used it a bit going back and it could be just as good as emacs. I hear a lot of people swear by it.
    There is a long standing war that dates back decades between VI and Emacs. Just google it and you'll find all the debate a person can handle.

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    Registered User hamsteroid's Avatar
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    Played around with emacs and using the mark tool is handy indeed (c-space) and alt-m (cp) or ctrl-y (paste) or ctrl-w (kill region) is almost all I need. Almost at home. I did some reading up on the buffers. Is there any quicker way to "tab" through the buffers rather than going though the menu or the list?

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    Officially An Architect brewbuck's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by hamsteroid View Post
    Played around with emacs and using the mark tool is handy indeed (c-space) and alt-m (cp) or ctrl-y (paste) or ctrl-w (kill region) is almost all I need. Almost at home. I did some reading up on the buffers. Is there any quicker way to "tab" through the buffers rather than going though the menu or the list?
    There is no basic "cycle buffer" command in Emacs (stupid, huh?) People write their own variations on it, but I don't bother. I just type "C-x C-f" and type the filename to jump to -- if the file is already open in some buffer, Emacs just switches to that buffer.

    Also, try "C-x C-b", this splits the window and opens a buffer listing all your buffers (hah!). Now type "C-x o", this moves the focus to the buffer-buffer. Now cursor down to the buffer you want to switch to, and hit Enter. The buffer-buffer now becomes the buffer you selected. Now type "C-x 1" to remove the split-screen.

    In order to make this more user-friendly, you need to find some other genius's elisp code or write some yourself. I never really wanted to learn elisp. I compensate by typing extremely fast :-)

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    Registered User hamsteroid's Avatar
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    They are good tips. Thanks brewbuck.

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    Crazy Fool Perspective's Avatar
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    "ctrl x b" followed by the buffer name will open a buffer, just hitting enter after the command will open the last used buffer.

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