8 ms·

They don't work everywhere though, making them basically useless. For example ctrl+a and ctrl+e don't work in the Safari address bar or the text box I'm typing

They don't work everywhere though, making them basically useless. For example ctrl+a and ctrl+e don't work in the Safari address bar or the text box I'm typing this comment in, or TextEdit, and many other native text widgets.

reayn 5y ago
First and foremost, they should work everywhere, especially the places you describe, almost every native widget (even in third party native apps) should support the readline bindings. If, however, you desire more control, you can use Karabiner-Elements [0] and one of the many [1] community made emacs-like configurations to have this behaviour system wide, these also add many many more keybinds (such as C-w to delete last word) to further emacsify your workflow! 1. karabiner-elements.pqrs.org 2. https://ke-complex-modifications.pqrs.org/?q=emacs https://ke-complex-modifications.pqrs.org/?q=emacs
saagarjha 5y ago
They work for me? Do you have an app that might be eating those shortcuts?
- jjoonathan 5y ago
  They work for me too on latest Safari, FF, and Chrome, and pretty much everywhere else. I'd actually flip the critique upside down: ctrl+aedfb are so useful precisely because they are deeply embedded in the lower layers of the OSX text system and therefore work almost everywhere.
- ubercow13 5y ago
  Hm you're right, I thought about it after these replies and it seems they don't work because I'm using a nonstandard keyboard layout which seems to break them somehow. I'll have to work out how to fix that. Thanks.
chrisfinazzo 5y ago
For the places it doesn't work well, you can usually guess the reason. TextEdit and Safari respond to Command as the primary modifier, the same as any other Cocoa application. (FWIW, I just tried this in TextEdit's plaintext mode on Big Sur and it does indeed work - more than likely due to the UNIX heritage, the emacs bindings work here too) It is well known that Command-L will focus the address bar and select any text that might be there, so overriding it is generally a bad idea if you can avoid it. The same goes for 3rd parties - my Dad is a recent convert to macOS and is frequently stumped when Control-A doesn't select text in Microsoft Word - I explained this to him, but in the moment he sometimes forgets.
- kps 5y ago
  You're mixing up Command-A (select all) with Control-A (Emacs-style beginning of line). The biggest and best thing about MacOS shortcuts is that they don't stomp over typing ASCII controls.
  - chrisfinazzo 5y ago
    I am well aware of the shortcuts and just recreated the effect I described in TextEdit... 1. Type a sentence in TextEdit 2. Ctrl-A will go to the beginning of the line 3. Ctrl-E moves the cursor to the end It's a native app, and will dutifully select all text with Command-A - but the other keys still do something. A paradox, to be sure. I do blame Microsoft for the confusion I described, but I'm not sure there's a way they can solve it among their Mac customers without doing as you mentioned and making someone else's life difficult.
    - jjoonathan 5y ago
      Ctrl+a / ctrl+e should be home/end everywhere on mac, and they generally are, which is to say they work everywhere. If a mac app has mapped ctrl+a to select-all, this should not be called "working." It is an abomination and should be purged from the universe hastily and with extreme prejudice before the cancer spreads. I understand and sympathize with the difficulty of moving between ctrl/cmd as super keys, but there are a hundred shortcuts with the same problem and forcing mac to adopt the poor keyboard choices of windows is not the answer.
sodapopcan 5y ago
They work for me literally everywhere. I also add ctrl-w and ctrl-u.
giraffe_lady 5y ago
I use these bindings constantly every minute of every day. I know exactly which apps break it because it annoys the shit out of me, and those aren't the ones. You must have broken a configuration or have some other problem. I'm writing this in safari and can use these bindings in this text box and the address bar right now.

reayn 5y ago

First and foremost, they should work everywhere, especially the places you describe, almost every native widget (even in third party native apps) should support the readline bindings. If, however, you desire more control, you can use Karabiner-Elements [0] and one of the many [1] community made emacs-like configurations to have this behaviour system wide, these also add many many more keybinds (such as C-w to delete last word) to further emacsify your workflow! 1. karabiner-elements.pqrs.org 2. https://ke-complex-modifications.pqrs.org/?q=emacs https://ke-complex-modifications.pqrs.org/?q=emacs

saagarjha 5y ago

They work for me? Do you have an app that might be eating those shortcuts?

jjoonathan 5y ago
They work for me too on latest Safari, FF, and Chrome, and pretty much everywhere else. I'd actually flip the critique upside down: ctrl+aedfb are so useful precisely because they are deeply embedded in the lower layers of the OSX text system and therefore work almost everywhere.
ubercow13 5y ago
Hm you're right, I thought about it after these replies and it seems they don't work because I'm using a nonstandard keyboard layout which seems to break them somehow. I'll have to work out how to fix that. Thanks.

chrisfinazzo 5y ago

For the places it doesn't work well, you can usually guess the reason. TextEdit and Safari respond to Command as the primary modifier, the same as any other Cocoa application. (FWIW, I just tried this in TextEdit's plaintext mode on Big Sur and it does indeed work - more than likely due to the UNIX heritage, the emacs bindings work here too) It is well known that Command-L will focus the address bar and select any text that might be there, so overriding it is generally a bad idea if you can avoid it. The same goes for 3rd parties - my Dad is a recent convert to macOS and is frequently stumped when Control-A doesn't select text in Microsoft Word - I explained this to him, but in the moment he sometimes forgets.

kps 5y ago
You're mixing up Command-A (select all) with Control-A (Emacs-style beginning of line). The biggest and best thing about MacOS shortcuts is that they don't stomp over typing ASCII controls.
- chrisfinazzo 5y ago
  I am well aware of the shortcuts and just recreated the effect I described in TextEdit... 1. Type a sentence in TextEdit 2. Ctrl-A will go to the beginning of the line 3. Ctrl-E moves the cursor to the end It's a native app, and will dutifully select all text with Command-A - but the other keys still do something. A paradox, to be sure. I do blame Microsoft for the confusion I described, but I'm not sure there's a way they can solve it among their Mac customers without doing as you mentioned and making someone else's life difficult.
  - jjoonathan 5y ago
    Ctrl+a / ctrl+e should be home/end everywhere on mac, and they generally are, which is to say they work everywhere. If a mac app has mapped ctrl+a to select-all, this should not be called "working." It is an abomination and should be purged from the universe hastily and with extreme prejudice before the cancer spreads. I understand and sympathize with the difficulty of moving between ctrl/cmd as super keys, but there are a hundred shortcuts with the same problem and forcing mac to adopt the poor keyboard choices of windows is not the answer.

sodapopcan 5y ago

They work for me literally everywhere. I also add ctrl-w and ctrl-u.

giraffe_lady 5y ago

I use these bindings constantly every minute of every day. I know exactly which apps break it because it annoys the shit out of me, and those aren't the ones. You must have broken a configuration or have some other problem. I'm writing this in safari and can use these bindings in this text box and the address bar right now.