Re: making TAB in text major mode just work

[Giorgos Keramidas <keramida@ceid.upatras.gr>]

On Thu, 22 Nov 2007 12:35:12 -0800 (PST), jwithers <jpwithers@gmail.com> wrote:
> Folks,
>
> In text mode, or in fundamental mode for that matter, if emacs decides
> you are indenting to some point before a tab stop, it helpfully
> decides that you want that indent on following lines. This is a real
> pita when you are doing bullet points, as follows:
>
>         |<-----the first tab stop
> * This is a bullet point
> * This is another bullet point
>
>   This is a paragraph that is now indented incorrectly because emacs
> has decided that my bullet points mean this line should be indented
> two spaces.
>
> I am looking for some way to stop this behavior, so that emacs doesn't
> decide I need smart indentation, [...]

You can bind TAB to `self-insert-command'.  This should do it.

One way of setting this for `text-mode' and its derivatives is:

    (add-hook 'text-mode-hook
              (lambda ()
                (local-set-key (kbd "TAB") 'self-insert-command)))

> And doing a control-q tab isn't really good in my mind. I don't want
> to have to keep remembering to do something different than just type
> when I am in the flow of working.

TAB is equivalent to `C-i' in many terminals.  You can quickly insert a
literal ASCII TAB character by hitting `M-i', or you can use the hook
change shown above... it's all a matter of preference :)

- Giorgos