Re: Hard to switch from vi

[Pascal Bourguignon <pjb@informatimago.com>]

Wen Weng <WenWeng@charter.net> writes:

> Hi, I am a vi user for years and am now trying emacs.
> I find it hard to get efficient. Can someone teach me some
> commands?

Emacs can do it itself.  The first thing emacs does, when you start
it, is to display a screen that says:

Welcome to GNU Emacs, one component of the GNU/Linux operating system.

Get help           C-h  (Hold down CTRL and press h)
Emacs manual       C-h r
Emacs tutorial     C-h t           Undo changes     C-x u
Buy manuals        C-h C-m         Exit Emacs       C-x C-c
Browse manuals     C-h i
Activate menubar   F10  or  ESC `  or   M-`
(`C-' means use the CTRL key.  `M-' means use the Meta (or Alt) key.
If you have no Meta key, you may instead type ESC followed by the character.)



Then, type CTRL-h and t to get the tutorial that will teach you the
basics. 


> 1. In vi, to delete a line, I do, "dd" and to delete 5 lines, I do
> "5dd". In emacs, how do I delete a complete line? C-k only delete
> from cursor to the end of line. Adding a C-a is really too much work.

C-k  
C-k C-k 

M-5 C-k
C-u 5 C-k
C-5 C-k   ; on X 


> 2. Is there a repeat last command command like the dot command in vi?

No.   But you can repeat any command by prefixing it with
M-<digit>...  or C-u <digit>...

If you have a group of commands that you might want to repeat, you can
put them in a "keyboard macro", and invoke the keyboard macro.

Type: M-x apropos RET kbd-macro RET


> 3. In vi, to find a pairing brace I use the "%" command, is there a
> command like thins in emacs?

C-c , and C-c .   (backward-sexp and forward-sexp)

Also, you can set the variable blink-matching-paren to true to have
the pairing brace be highlighted automatically when the cursor passes
over one of them.

M-x set-variable RET blink-matching-paren RET t RET

Or type in the *scratch* buffer:

(setq blink-matching-paren t) C-x C-e

If you want it always on, you can put the form:

    (setq blink-matching-paren t)

in your ~/.emacs file.


Also, most of the time you don't need to identify manually the
matching parenthese, because you can manipulate the parenthesized
blocks as wholes, using commands such as  kill-sexp (C-M-k).

Imagine I want to exchange the then and else branches:

       if(a==b){
           printf("no");
           a++;
       }else{
           printf("yes");
           b--;
       }

I move on the first {, and type C-M-k

       if(a==b)else{
           printf("yes");
           b--;
       }

then I move forward one word with M-f to reach the remaining {, and
type C-y to yank the first branch there:

       if(a==b)else{
           printf("no");
           a++;
       }{
           printf("yes");
           b--;
       }


and I type C-M-K to kill the else branch, and type C-u 2 C-c ,
to move at the beginning of the else.

       if(a==b)else{
           printf("no");
           a++;
       }

then I type C-y to yank the else branch:

       if(a==b){
           printf("yes");
           b--;
       }else{
           printf("no");
           a++;
       }

There are also specialized minor mode to do even more structuring
editing with some languages, like paredit-mode for lisp and scheme,
where even more low level editing is done automatically.



> 4. Should I really need to switch to emacs?

This is highly advised.   


-- 
__Pascal Bourguignon__                     http://www.informatimago.com/

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