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My favorites are the emacs-style shortcuts that work in all native textfields is OSX: ctrl+f - move one character forward ctrl+v - move one character backward

My favorites are the emacs-style shortcuts that work in all native textfields is OSX: ctrl+f - move one character forward ctrl+v - move one character backwards ctrl+n - next line ctrl+p - previous line ctrl+k - delete to the end of the line ctrl+d - delete the next character ctrl+h - delete the previous character (backspace) ctrl+o - insert a newline below the current Using the ctrl key takes some getting used to if you've used a Mac for a long time (I mapped mine to caps lock in the system preferences) but once you learn these keys they are incredibly useful.

dchest 18y ago
^T - change letters: colo| -> cool| ^L - center selected line (edit: center current line in window) ^E - move cursor to line end ^A - move cursor to the beginning of the line ^Y - yank (paste previously deleted text with ^K) Corrections: ^B - move one character backwards (^V is page down)
- qqq 18y ago
  Could you explain ^L more clearly? I tried it and nothing happened.
  - dchest 18y ago
    Sure, try moving cursor to some line in TextEdit (with a document that is large enough to have scroll bars), then press ^L — the line with cursor becomes centered.
    - qqq 18y ago
      Ah, the scrollbar gets centered vertically on the current line. Got it.
- mechanical_fish 18y ago
  As an emacs user, two problems with these key combos that are constantly burning me: When I hit ^A in a text field of my webmail app (Fastmail) it reloads the page I'm typing in, losing all the text I've entered so far. You have no idea how hard it is for an emacs user to stop doing this. So be very careful on web pages. I keep using kill-and-yank subconsciously because I'm trained in it. But the kill ring (is it even a ring?) gets preserved... idiosyncratically in Mac OS X, particularly when you move from app to app, and of course it is completely separate from the clipboard where copies and pastes go. I quite commonly kill something and then can't get it to yank, or kill something and then try to paste it and fail.
  - jrockway 18y ago
    Actually, I find C-w more annoying in web browsers. In emacs, I have it bound to backward-kill-word, and use it almost as much as backspace. In firefox, the results are not too good. The tab dies, taking the entire textbox with it. Annoying. The moral of the story is to not use software other than emacs. I use Gnus for mail and w3m for light web browsing, eliminating any problem with keybinding emulation. It is emacs, so it acts like emacs. For heavier web browsing, I use conkeror. It is almost like emacs, but not quite. Better than anything else, though.
    - gecko 18y ago
      You might consider using Conkeror (http://conkeror.org/ http://conkeror.org/), which provides very, very full Emacs support, while using Firefox for the rendering engine.
      - jrockway 18y ago
        This is indeed what I use :) I still have bad memories floating around in my head from when I used Firefox, though.
jacobolus 18y ago
Full list here: http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~jrus/site/system-bindings.html http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~jrus/site/system-bindings.html Also see: http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~jrus/site/cocoa-text.html http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~jrus/site/cocoa-text.html
jrockway 18y ago
I find it amusing that OS X has the best GNU-style keybinding support of any of the major OSes. I tried using emacs-style keybindings in Gtk+, but it just doesn't work as well as Apple's implementation. That's OK, though, because I don't leave emacs very often ;)

dchest 18y ago

^T - change letters: colo| -> cool| ^L - center selected line (edit: center current line in window) ^E - move cursor to line end ^A - move cursor to the beginning of the line ^Y - yank (paste previously deleted text with ^K) Corrections: ^B - move one character backwards (^V is page down)

qqq 18y ago
Could you explain ^L more clearly? I tried it and nothing happened.
- dchest 18y ago
  Sure, try moving cursor to some line in TextEdit (with a document that is large enough to have scroll bars), then press ^L — the line with cursor becomes centered.
  - qqq 18y ago
    Ah, the scrollbar gets centered vertically on the current line. Got it.
mechanical_fish 18y ago
As an emacs user, two problems with these key combos that are constantly burning me: When I hit ^A in a text field of my webmail app (Fastmail) it reloads the page I'm typing in, losing all the text I've entered so far. You have no idea how hard it is for an emacs user to stop doing this. So be very careful on web pages. I keep using kill-and-yank subconsciously because I'm trained in it. But the kill ring (is it even a ring?) gets preserved... idiosyncratically in Mac OS X, particularly when you move from app to app, and of course it is completely separate from the clipboard where copies and pastes go. I quite commonly kill something and then can't get it to yank, or kill something and then try to paste it and fail.
- jrockway 18y ago
  Actually, I find C-w more annoying in web browsers. In emacs, I have it bound to backward-kill-word, and use it almost as much as backspace. In firefox, the results are not too good. The tab dies, taking the entire textbox with it. Annoying. The moral of the story is to not use software other than emacs. I use Gnus for mail and w3m for light web browsing, eliminating any problem with keybinding emulation. It is emacs, so it acts like emacs. For heavier web browsing, I use conkeror. It is almost like emacs, but not quite. Better than anything else, though.
  - gecko 18y ago
    You might consider using Conkeror (http://conkeror.org/ http://conkeror.org/), which provides very, very full Emacs support, while using Firefox for the rendering engine.
    - jrockway 18y ago
      This is indeed what I use :) I still have bad memories floating around in my head from when I used Firefox, though.

jacobolus 18y ago

Full list here: http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~jrus/site/system-bindings.html http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~jrus/site/system-bindings.html Also see: http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~jrus/site/cocoa-text.html http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~jrus/site/cocoa-text.html

jrockway 18y ago

I find it amusing that OS X has the best GNU-style keybinding support of any of the major OSes. I tried using emacs-style keybindings in Gtk+, but it just doesn't work as well as Apple's implementation. That's OK, though, because I don't leave emacs very often ;)