Emacs command frequencies: [was: emacs-w3m question]

[Alan Mackenzie <acm@muc.de>]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 2133 bytes --]

Hi, Xah!

On Mon, Nov 10, 2008 at 02:38:24PM -0800, Xah wrote:

> also note, when i did research on emacs command frequency, one
> surprising result is that a programer types shortcuts more than he
> actually type letters.

Not _quite_ true from my afternoon session!  See below, or the attached
file.  I was into a heavy edebugging session (the utility recorded hardly
any of these commands; presumably, edebug nullified the hook, somehow),
and writing a log of this activity at the same time.

However, I used frame switching commands 114 times, putting them into
fifth place.  This quite surprised me.

> Of my Emacs Commands Frequency study, 37% of key strokes involves data
> entry (that is, calling the commands ???self-insert-command??? and
> ???newline??? (pressing return), while the rest 63% are calling all other
> commands. This seems counter-intuitive, because one might think typing
> should probably be the bulk of activity and moving cursor and deleting
> text or other commands are only done few times per minute.

You should perhaps include `newline-and-indent' (C-j) in this category
too.

> If we consider commands invoked by the Backspace key as data entry
> too, then 40% are data entry, while 60% are editing commands. Still
> surprising. Going one step further, if we consider the next group of
> most used commands of moving the cursor by the smallest unit (i.e.
> previous-line (C-p), next-line (C-n), backward-char (C-b), forward-
> char (C-f) (also invoked by the arrow keys)) as part of data entry,
> then, 64% are ???data entry??? and 36% are other command calls.

> This data suggests that better shortcut placement is more important
> than better placement of letter keys for programing.

> »
> --------------------

> if you are interested to find out your own pattern of emacs command
> use, you can try the lisp file at the bottom of this page:

> http://xahlee.org/emacs/command-frequency.html

> If you can send me your result, that'll be great.

> Alan, you are very welcome to send me your result too.

Thanks!  Please see the attached file.

>   Xah

-- 
Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).


[-- Attachment #2: Alan_Mackenzie_command-frequencies.txt --]
[-- Type: text/plain, Size: 4206 bytes --]

   1680   53.00%  self-insert-command
    256    8.08%  forward-char
    182    5.74%  next-line
    140    4.42%  previous-line
     89    2.81%  backward-char
     43    1.36%  scrolldown-6n
     42    1.32%  delete-backward-char
     38    1.20%  backward-kill-word
     38    1.20%  (lambda nil Switch to frame F2 (interactive) (select-frame-acm-no 1))
     37    1.17%  previous-history-element
     36    1.14%  c-show-syntactic-information
     32    1.01%  (lambda nil Switch to frame F3 (interactive) (select-frame-acm-no 2))
     31    0.98%  minibuffer-complete
     29    0.91%  (lambda nil Switch to frame F1 (interactive) (select-frame-acm-no 0))
     25    0.79%  isearch-printing-char
     23    0.73%  scrollup-6n
     21    0.66%  execute-extended-command
     18    0.57%  previous-line-6n
     18    0.57%  newline
     17    0.54%  delete-char
     16    0.50%  forward-word
     16    0.50%  new-para-paren-list-o
     15    0.47%  set-mark-command
     15    0.47%  end-of-line
     13    0.41%  acm-text-mode-fixme
     12    0.38%  other-window
     12    0.38%  switch-to-buffer
     11    0.35%  scroll-down
     11    0.35%  save-buffer
     11    0.35%  next-line-6n
     10    0.32%  top-level
     10    0.32%  imenu
     10    0.32%  eval-expression
     10    0.32%  kill-buffer
      8    0.25%  find-alternate-file
      8    0.25%  kill-line
      8    0.25%  fill-paragraph
      8    0.25%  isearch-repeat-forward
      7    0.22%  isearch-repeat-backward
      7    0.22%  undo
      6    0.19%  do-one-test
      6    0.19%  occur
      6    0.19%  load-cc-version
      5    0.16%  back-to-indentation
      4    0.13%  goto-line
      4    0.13%  find-file-other-window
      4    0.13%  (lambda nil Switch to frame F5 (interactive) (select-frame-acm-no 4))
      4    0.13%  scrollup-n
      4    0.13%  compile-defun
      4    0.13%  (lambda nil Switch to frame F4 (interactive) (select-frame-acm-no 3))
      4    0.13%  eval-defun
      4    0.13%  edebug-continue-mode
      4    0.13%  emphasise-line
      4    0.13%  switch-to-buffer-other-window
      4    0.13%  yank
      4    0.13%  end-of-buffer
      3    0.09%  widen
      3    0.09%  narrow-to-defun
      3    0.09%  lisp-complete-symbol
      3    0.09%  c++-mode
      3    0.09%  delete-other-windows
      3    0.09%  isearch-delete-char
      3    0.09%  kill-ring-save
      2    0.06%  ediff-buffers
      2    0.06%  next-history-element
      2    0.06%  defun-name
      2    0.06%  (lambda nil Switch to frame F8 (interactive) (select-frame-acm-no 7))
      2    0.06%  (lambda nil Switch to frame F7 (interactive) (select-frame-acm-no 6))
      2    0.06%  (lambda nil Switch to frame F6 (interactive) (select-frame-acm-no 5))
      2    0.06%  kill-sentence
      2    0.06%  load-file
      2    0.06%  byte-compile-file
      2    0.06%  lisp-indent-line
      2    0.06%  backward-word
      2    0.06%  kill-word
      2    0.06%  next-error
      2    0.06%  isearch-other-meta-char
      2    0.06%  isearch-forward
      2    0.06%  edebug-goto-here
      2    0.06%  move-beginning-of-line
      2    0.06%  mark-sexp
      2    0.06%  acm-text-mode-back-to-bug-label
      1    0.03%  (lambda nil Switch to frame F9 (interactive) (select-frame-acm-no 8))
      1    0.03%  ediff-quit
      1    0.03%  minibuffer-complete-and-exit
      1    0.03%  beginning-of-defun
      1    0.03%  scroll-up
      1    0.03%  narrow-to-region
      1    0.03%  move-end-of-line
      1    0.03%  exchange-point-and-mark
      1    0.03%  delete-blank-lines
      1    0.03%  kill-paragraph
      1    0.03%  c-version
      1    0.03%  isearch-yank-word-or-char
      1    0.03%  isearch-backward
      1    0.03%  ignore
      1    0.03%  delete-horizontal-space
      1    0.03%  backward-kill-sexp
      1    0.03%  toggle-read-only
      1    0.03%  kill-sexp
      1    0.03%  eval-buffer
      1    0.03%  Info-nth-menu-item
      1    0.03%  Info-follow-nearest-node
      1    0.03%  isearch-exit
      1    0.03%  beginning-of-buffer
      1    0.03%  just-one-space
      1    0.03%  list-buffers
      1    0.03%  beginning-of-line
      1    0.03%  command-frequency-mode