(Screencast) The Best Emacs Modifier Key Setup for OS X

Here is an easy way to use both Emacs and OS X modifier keys when you are inside Emacs:

Toggle the right-option and function key to switch between using them inside Emacs and using them for OS X.

Addendum: <2016-06-08 Wed 08:22>

I used Karabiner to make ENTER send LEFT CONTROL when chorded. I used OS X to make CAPS LOCK be CONTROL. I didn’t change OPTION and COMMAND. I made this change because Emacs couldn’t ignore the key-event when it was coming from Karabiner.

Here is the code:

(help/on-osx
 (setq mac-control-modifier 'control)
 (setq mac-right-control-modifier 'left)
 (setq mac-command-modifier 'meta)
 (setq mac-right-command-modifier 'left)
 (setq mac-option-modifier 'super)
 (setq mac-right-option-modifier 'left)
 (setq mac-function-modifier 'hyper)
 (defun help/toggle-mac-right-option-modifier ()
   "Toggle between passing option modifier either to Emacs or OS X."
   (interactive)
   (let ((old-ropt mac-right-option-modifier))
     (setq mac-right-option-modifier
           (if (eq mac-right-option-modifier 'left)
               'none
             'left))
     (message "Toggled `mac-right-option-modifier' from %s to %s."
              old-ropt
              mac-right-option-modifier)))
 (defun help/toggle-mac-function-modifier ()
   "Toggle between passing function modifier either to Emacs or OS X."
   (interactive)
   (let ((old-func mac-function-modifier))
     (setq mac-function-modifier
           (if (eq mac-function-modifier 'hyper)
               'none
             'hyper))
     (message "Toggled `mac-function-modifier' from %s to %s."
              old-func
              mac-function-modifier))))

If You Like LISP Then You'll Love APL

Notes on Transcription of a talk given by Professor Perlis at the APL’78 Conference held at Foothill College, Los Altos, CA. on 1978-03-29 revealed these gems:

  • Contains all of the best attributes of written language
  • Contains all of the best attributes of LISP… just more so
  • Is a lyrical language

Notes follow…

Continue reading “If You Like LISP Then You'll Love APL”

Ëmäcs and the Heavy Metal Umlaut

Jon’s article reveals the Möglichkeiten for inputting umlauts in Emacs. Maybe you’ve been avoiding some words because they are difficult to input. In particular, maybe you’ve been avoiding using the Metal umlaut.

For example:

  • Motörhead (RIP Lemmy)
  • Mötley Crüe
  • Queensrÿche (Version 1)
  • Blue Öyster Cult

It seems perfectly natural to apply to Emacs, christening it:

Ëmäcs

Give it some time to grow on you, because Magnar Sveen has already established that Ëmäcs Rocks!

Addendum: <2016-04-16 Sat>

Re-published because I broke my RSS feed syndicated for Planet Emacsen and @hober fixed it. Thank you @hober.

Ortho-Linear Emacs and VI Keyboard Design 8

For creating key-binding name-spaces (key-spaces), modifier keys, key-chords (single and dual key) and Hydras each have unique strengths. For my use case, I wanted a bigger modifier key-space so I started there with Super.

Although Super is supposed to be reserved non-native packages, it is already getting scarfed up because the native key-spaces are painfully overcrowded. To top it off, when you run Emacs on Windows, Windows intercepts a bunch of key-presses for itself and never sends them to Emacs. Yea you can disable some, but not all and it is irritating. For my configuration, this is a showstopper issue and all of workaround are too painful. I enjoy using modifier keys, so I turned to Hyper.

Continue reading “Ortho-Linear Emacs and VI Keyboard Design 8”

Switch to nlinum Immediately

A lot of headings in your Org-Mode file can make Emacs unusably slow when you collapse all of them.

My original solution was to avoid collapsing them with #+STARTUP: showeverything. Major problem with that approach is that you still can’t use collapsing because if you do, Emacs because again unusable.

Months ago I switched to nlinum and now there are no more performance issues, even on the largest file that I work on.