Caveats on remapping keys

Caveats on remapping keys

[Tim Johnson]

Being new to emacs, I've occasionally gotten a little too fast and
lose with redifining keys.  I'm considering using alt & ctrl with
numeric keys.

Now on xemacs in windows I see the following documentation
on 'digit-argument:
   (locally bound to "0", "1", "2", "3", "4", "5", "6", "7", "8", "9")
   (globally bound to "M-0", "M-1", "M-2", "M-3", "M-4", "M-5", "M-6", 
"M-7", "M-8", "M-9", "M-C-0", "M-C-1", "M-C-2", "M-C-3", "M-C-4", 
"M-C-5", "M-C-6", "M-C-7", "M-C-8", "M-C-9", "C-1", "C-2", "C-3", "C-4", 
"C-5", "C-6", "C-7", "C-8", "C-nil")

When I get my linux box back, I will probably be using GNU emacs, and
if I do remap any of the keys above which are now *globally* bound,
what are the implications?

IOWS this is a HMB4IHM (help me before I hurt myself) question.
Comments, caveats and pointers to discussions on this subject are
invited.

Regards
Tim Johnson
===========

Re: Caveats on remapping keys

[Kevin Rodgers]

Tim Johnson wrote:
> Being new to emacs, I've occasionally gotten a little too fast and
> lose with redifining keys.  I'm considering using alt & ctrl with
> numeric keys.
> 
> Now on xemacs in windows I see the following documentation
> on 'digit-argument:
>   (locally bound to "0", "1", "2", "3", "4", "5", "6", "7", "8", "9")
>   (globally bound to "M-0", "M-1", "M-2", "M-3", "M-4", "M-5", "M-6", 
> "M-7", "M-8", "M-9", "M-C-0", "M-C-1", "M-C-2", "M-C-3", "M-C-4", 
> "M-C-5", "M-C-6", "M-C-7", "M-C-8", "M-C-9", "C-1", "C-2", "C-3", "C-4", 
> "C-5", "C-6", "C-7", "C-8", "C-nil")
> 
> When I get my linux box back, I will probably be using GNU emacs, and
> if I do remap any of the keys above which are now *globally* bound,
> what are the implications?

You won't be able to use them to provide prefix arguments to commands.
For example, `M-7 C-n' moves down 7 lines, but not if M-7 is bound
to something other than digit-argument.

-- 
Kevin Rodgers

Re: Caveats on remapping keys

[Tim Johnson]

Kevin Rodgers wrote:

<snip...>
>> Now on xemacs in windows I see the following documentation
>> on 'digit-argument:
>>   (locally bound to "0", "1", "2", "3", "4", "5", "6", "7", "8", "9")
>>   (globally bound to "M-0", "M-1", "M-2", "M-3", "M-4", "M-5", "M-6", 
>> "M-7", "M-8", "M-9", "M-C-0", "M-C-1", "M-C-2", "M-C-3", "M-C-4", 
>> "M-C-5", "M-C-6", "M-C-7", "M-C-8", "M-C-9", "C-1", "C-2", "C-3", 
>> "C-4", "C-5", "C-6", "C-7", "C-8", "C-nil")
>>
>> When I get my linux box back, I will probably be using GNU emacs, and
>> if I do remap any of the keys above which are now *globally* bound,
>> what are the implications?
> 
> 
Hello:
> You won't be able to use them to provide prefix arguments to commands.
> For example, `M-7 C-n' moves down 7 lines, but not if M-7 is bound
> to something other than digit-argument.

Correct. However, on my keyboards, 'C-7 C-n' does the same and is
more natural to my hands. It would appear that rebinding 'M-7' wouldn't
be too awful, you think?

Thanks Kevin
tim

Re: Caveats on remapping keys

[Neon Absentius]

On Tue, Mar 08, 2005 at 06:53:34PM -0900, Tim Johnson wrote:
> Hello:
> >You won't be able to use them to provide prefix arguments to commands.
> >For example, `M-7 C-n' moves down 7 lines, but not if M-7 is bound
> >to something other than digit-argument.
> 
> Correct. However, on my keyboards, 'C-7 C-n' does the same and is
> more natural to my hands. It would appear that rebinding 'M-7' wouldn't
> be too awful, you think?
> 

I find the M-5 (for arbitrary values of 5) binding very convenient
when I want to evaluate an expression and put the result at point, 
M-7 M-: is easier to type than C-7 M-: similarly for commands like
"shell-command-in-region" etc.

I don't know how much of an inconvenience that would cause you though.

> Thanks Kevin
> tim

-- 
Charity in capitalism is like urinating to extinguish a forest fire.
    -- Neon Absentius
absent a.in.cirle sdf period lonestar period org
SDF Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf.lonestar.org

Re: Caveats on remapping keys

[Tim Johnson]

Neon Absentius wrote:

> On Tue, Mar 08, 2005 at 06:53:34PM -0900, Tim Johnson wrote:
> 
>>Hello:
>>
>>>You won't be able to use them to provide prefix arguments to commands.
>>>For example, `M-7 C-n' moves down 7 lines, but not if M-7 is bound
>>>to something other than digit-argument.
>>
>>Correct. However, on my keyboards, 'C-7 C-n' does the same and is
>>more natural to my hands. It would appear that rebinding 'M-7' wouldn't
>>be too awful, you think?
>>
> 
> 
> I find the M-5 (for arbitrary values of 5) binding very convenient
> when I want to evaluate an expression and put the result at point, 
> M-7 M-: is easier to type than C-7 M-: similarly for commands like
> "shell-command-in-region" etc.

<grin>well, let's see..... on my linux box I map my windows key
       to F13, so I could then map F13 to 'eval-expression. F13 sets
       right next to the alt key so then I could do M-7 [F13] ......
ssoo many choices. And I really appreciate the input.
tim