#+title: Emacs — Keybinding Managers #+setupfile: ../headers #+property: header-args:emacs-lisp :mkdirp yes :lexical t :exports code #+property: header-args:emacs-lisp+ :tangle ~/.config/emacs/lisp/keybinding-managemers.el #+property: header-args:emacs-lisp+ :mkdirp yes :noweb no-export * Keybinding Managers ** Which-key Which key is, I think, one of my favorite quality of life package. When you begin a keybind, Emacs will show you all keybinds you can follow the first one with in order to form a full keychord. Very useful when you have a lot of keybinds and don’t remember exactly what is what. #+begin_src emacs-lisp (use-package which-key :straight (:build t) :defer t :init (which-key-mode) :diminish which-key-mode :config (setq which-key-idle-delay 1)) #+end_src ** General General is an awesome package for managing keybindings. Not only is it oriented towards keychords by default (which I love), but it also provides some integration with evil so that we can declare keybindings for certain states only! This is a perfect replacement for ~define-key~, ~evil-define-key~, and any other function for defining keychords. And it is also possible to declare a prefix for my keybindings! By default, all keybinds will be prefixed with ~SPC~ and keybinds related to a specific mode (often major modes) will be prefixed by a comma ~,~ (and by ~C-SPC~ and ~M-m~ respectively when in ~insert-mode~ or ~emacs-mode~). You can still feel some influence from my Spacemacs years here. #+begin_src emacs-lisp (use-package general :straight (:build t) :init (general-auto-unbind-keys) :config (general-create-definer phundrak/undefine :keymaps 'override :states '(normal emacs)) (general-create-definer phundrak/evil :states '(normal)) (general-create-definer phundrak/leader-key :states '(normal insert visual emacs) :keymaps 'override :prefix "SPC" :global-prefix "C-SPC") (general-create-definer phundrak/major-leader-key :states '(normal insert visual emacs) :keymaps 'override :prefix "," :global-prefix "M-m")) #+end_src ** Evil Evil emulates most of vim’s keybinds, because let’s be honest here, they are much more comfortable than Emacs’. #+begin_src emacs-lisp (use-package evil :straight (:build t) :after (general) :init (setq evil-want-integration t evil-want-keybinding nil evil-want-C-u-scroll t evil-want-C-i-jump nil) (require 'evil-vars) (evil-set-undo-system 'undo-tree) :config <> <> (evil-mode 1) (setq evil-want-fine-undo t) ; more granular undo with evil (evil-set-initial-state 'messages-buffer-mode 'normal) (evil-set-initial-state 'dashboard-mode 'normal)) #+end_src I want to undefine some default keybinds of Evil because it does not match my workflow. Namely, I use the space key and the comma as leaders for my keybinds, and I’m way too used to Emacs’ ~C-t~, ~C-a~, ~C-e~, and ~C-y~. #+name: evil-undefine-keys #+begin_src emacs-lisp :tangle no (evil-global-set-key 'motion "t" 'evil-next-visual-line) (evil-global-set-key 'motion "s" 'evil-previous-visual-line) (general-define-key :keymaps 'evil-motion-state-map "SPC" nil "," nil) (general-define-key :keymaps 'evil-insert-state-map "C-t" nil) (general-define-key :keymaps 'evil-insert-state-map "U" nil "C-a" nil "C-y" nil "C-e" nil) #+end_src Something else that really bugs me is I use the bépo layout, which is not at all like the qwerty layout. For instance, ~hjkl~ becomes ~ctsr~. Thus, I need some bépo-specific changes. #+name: evil-bepo #+begin_src emacs-lisp :tangle no (dolist (key '("c" "C" "t" "T" "s" "S" "r" "R" "h" "H" "j" "J" "k" "K" "l" "L")) (general-define-key :states 'normal key nil)) (general-define-key :states 'motion "h" 'evil-replace "H" 'evil-replace-state "j" 'evil-find-char-to "J" 'evil-find-char-to-backward "k" 'evil-substitute "K" 'evil-smart-doc-lookup "l" 'evil-change "L" 'evil-change-line "c" 'evil-backward-char "C" 'evil-window-top "t" 'evil-next-visual-line "T" 'evil-join "s" 'evil-previous-visual-line "S" 'evil-lookup "r" 'evil-forward-char "R" 'evil-window-bottom) #+end_src This package enables and integrates Evil into a lot of different modes, such as org-mode, dired, mu4e, etc. Again, I need some additional code compared to most people due to the bépo layout. #+begin_src emacs-lisp (use-package evil-collection :after evil :straight (:build t) :config ;; bépo conversion (defun my/bépo-rotate-evil-collection (_mode mode-keymaps &rest _rest) (evil-collection-translate-key 'normal mode-keymaps ;; bépo ctsr is qwerty hjkl "c" "h" "t" "j" "s" "k" "r" "l" ;; add back ctsr "h" "c" "j" "t" "k" "s" "l" "r")) (add-hook 'evil-collection-setup-hook #'my/bépo-rotate-evil-collection) (evil-collection-init)) #+end_src ~undo-tree~ is my preferred way of undoing and redoing stuff. The main reason is it doesn’t create a linear undo/redo history, but rather a complete tree you can navigate to see your complete editing history. One of the two obvious things to do are to tell Emacs to save all its undo history files in a dedicated directory, otherwise we’d risk littering all of our directories. The second thing is to simply globally enable its mode. #+begin_src emacs-lisp (use-package undo-tree :defer t :straight (:build t) :custom (undo-tree-history-directory-alist `(("." . ,(expand-file-name (file-name-as-directory "undo-tree-hist") user-emacs-directory)))) :init (global-undo-tree-mode) :config <> <> (setq undo-tree-visualizer-diff t undo-tree-visualizer-timestamps t undo-tree-auto-save-history t undo-tree-enable-undo-in-region t undo-limit (* 800 1024) undo-strong-limit (* 12 1024 1024) undo-outer-limit (* 128 1024 1024))) #+end_src An interesting behaviour from DoomEmacs is to compress the history files with ~zstd~ when it is present on the system. Not only do we enjoy much smaller files (according to DoomEmacs, we get something like 80% file savings), Emacs can load them much faster than the regular files. Sure, it uses more CPU time uncompressing these files, but it’s insignificant, and it’s still faster than loading a heavier file. #+name: undo-tree-compress-files #+begin_src emacs-lisp :tangle no (when (executable-find "zstd") (defun my/undo-tree-append-zst-to-filename (filename) "Append .zst to the FILENAME in order to compress it." (concat filename ".zst")) (advice-add 'undo-tree-make-history-save-file-name :filter-return #'my/undo-tree-append-zst-to-filename)) #+end_src ** Hydra [[https://github.com/abo-abo/hydra][Hydra]] is a simple menu creator for keybindings. #+begin_src emacs-lisp (use-package hydra :straight (:build t) :defer t) #+end_src