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What do you use escape for in emacs? It’s not in any default kebinding, do you mean vi? Even that doesn’t need escape, ctrl + ] keeps you on the home row. Slig

What do you use escape for in emacs? It’s not in any default kebinding, do you mean vi? Even that doesn’t need escape, ctrl + ] keeps you on the home row. Slightly confused emacs user.

diet_mtn_dew 7y ago
As the meta key, i.e., hitting ESC then x for M-x.
- jefftk 7y ago
  On a Mac I use "option" for this; much shorter reach
  - mitchty 7y ago
    Indeed, never even crossed my mind to set the escape key to meta, definitely not a default even for Cocoa emacs.
  - pantulis 7y ago
    It's funny but I've been using Emacs for almost 25 years and still use ESC instead of ALT/OPTION, guess that's muscle memory from using Emacs via telnet sessions.
    - fortran77 7y ago
      That's my experience, too, I guess it's from learning EMACS and its ancestors on actual VT-100 style terminals with no meta keys.
    - jlokier 7y ago
      Alt+Key doesn't save any keystrokes over Esc+Key anyway, and I think the Esc version is easier to type. Especially things like Esc : (which is Esc then Shift-;) is surely easier to type than Alt-Shift-;.
fortran77 7y ago
Old timers (like me) use it for meta. Ask anyone over 50!
frobware 7y ago
C-x ESC ESC (translated from C-x <escape> <escape>) runs the command repeat-complex-command