3 ms·

Personalizing Emacs Doc Navigation

58 points by kickingvegas 3y ago

kickingvegas 3y ago
Hello! See that my post has gotten interest on HN. Happy to answer any questions about it here!
- finnjohnsen2 3y ago
  My browser doesn't like your sites httpsing, or the lack of such
  - globular-toast 3y ago
    My browser didn't care and since no sensitive information was exchanged and this is a public web page, I didn't care either.
eviks 3y ago
Given so few keybinds and already embracing modality, it's very inefficient to have to resort to modifiers when there are so many single keys left > Forward and backward history navigation using web browser-style M-[, M-] keybindings It's much better to rebind those in the browser to have a consistent and convenient experience everywhere rather than downgrading your text editing experience to match those bad defaults > default bound to l and r which I struggle to this day to remember your left/right muscle memory can help you there, if you locate them together and use the same fingers you use for left/right cursor movements, for example, if you're used to H/L then this would be U/P, one row above using the same fingers (in general, all these alphabetical mnemonics are not very useful, especially for heavily used keys)
globular-toast 3y ago
One thing I've tried to do in my Emacs config is make things uniform across various modes and features. For example, I like C-c C-c to mean "do the obvious thing I do all the time" which is usually something like "run make" or "eval code at point". I like to use M-. and M-, to follow a link then "pop" back (like xref by default). I haven't bothered trying to do this for help stuff but will definitely be copying this config and changing things to fit my own preferences. This is really useful to have all the various modes collected together in one place!
nemoniac 3y ago
While I don't share the author's preferences for keybindings, I am sympathetic to the idea of navigating different doc formats in the same way. view-text-file-as-info-manual is handy for this. It can transform and open a variety of doc formats in an info buffer. It could readily be adapted to output other formats. https://emacsnotes.wordpress.com/2023/09/11/view-info-texi-org-and-md-files-as-info-manual/ https://emacsnotes.wordpress.com/2023/09/11/view-info-texi-o...
- kickingvegas 3y ago
  Thanks for sharing! You might find this post of mine interesting which extends view-mode to have common navigation keybindings. http://yummymelon.com/devnull/enhancing-navigation-in-emacs-view-mode.html http://yummymelon.com/devnull/enhancing-navigation-in-emacs-...
pmontra 3y ago
Reading this I realized that the only emacs internal documentation I read in so many years are the help files of C-h w (where is a function, I'll type its name next), C-h k (what a keybinding does, I'll press it) and maybe the description of the current modes (is it C-h m ?) Everything else is a query to a web search engine. That has the advantage of people explaining things and finding solutions instead of only a reference.
- medstrom 3y ago
  That couldn't ever suffice for me, because I do a dozen things per week that have no answer on StackExchange or anywhere else. Without reading references and thinking for myself, I wouldn't be able to do them at all.

58 points by kickingvegas 3y ago

kickingvegas 3y ago

Hello! See that my post has gotten interest on HN. Happy to answer any questions about it here!

finnjohnsen2 3y ago
My browser doesn't like your sites httpsing, or the lack of such
- globular-toast 3y ago
  My browser didn't care and since no sensitive information was exchanged and this is a public web page, I didn't care either.

eviks 3y ago

Given so few keybinds and already embracing modality, it's very inefficient to have to resort to modifiers when there are so many single keys left > Forward and backward history navigation using web browser-style M-[, M-] keybindings It's much better to rebind those in the browser to have a consistent and convenient experience everywhere rather than downgrading your text editing experience to match those bad defaults > default bound to l and r which I struggle to this day to remember your left/right muscle memory can help you there, if you locate them together and use the same fingers you use for left/right cursor movements, for example, if you're used to H/L then this would be U/P, one row above using the same fingers (in general, all these alphabetical mnemonics are not very useful, especially for heavily used keys)

globular-toast 3y ago

One thing I've tried to do in my Emacs config is make things uniform across various modes and features. For example, I like C-c C-c to mean "do the obvious thing I do all the time" which is usually something like "run make" or "eval code at point". I like to use M-. and M-, to follow a link then "pop" back (like xref by default). I haven't bothered trying to do this for help stuff but will definitely be copying this config and changing things to fit my own preferences. This is really useful to have all the various modes collected together in one place!

nemoniac 3y ago

While I don't share the author's preferences for keybindings, I am sympathetic to the idea of navigating different doc formats in the same way. view-text-file-as-info-manual is handy for this. It can transform and open a variety of doc formats in an info buffer. It could readily be adapted to output other formats. https://emacsnotes.wordpress.com/2023/09/11/view-info-texi-org-and-md-files-as-info-manual/ https://emacsnotes.wordpress.com/2023/09/11/view-info-texi-o...

kickingvegas 3y ago
Thanks for sharing! You might find this post of mine interesting which extends view-mode to have common navigation keybindings. http://yummymelon.com/devnull/enhancing-navigation-in-emacs-view-mode.html http://yummymelon.com/devnull/enhancing-navigation-in-emacs-...

pmontra 3y ago

Reading this I realized that the only emacs internal documentation I read in so many years are the help files of C-h w (where is a function, I'll type its name next), C-h k (what a keybinding does, I'll press it) and maybe the description of the current modes (is it C-h m ?) Everything else is a query to a web search engine. That has the advantage of people explaining things and finding solutions instead of only a reference.

medstrom 3y ago
That couldn't ever suffice for me, because I do a dozen things per week that have no answer on StackExchange or anywhere else. Without reading references and thinking for myself, I wouldn't be able to do them at all.