Книга: Learning GNU Emacs, 3rd Edition

2.7.4 Remapping Keys

2.7.4 Remapping Keys

Another major use of the .emacs file is to redefine things about Emacs that irritate you. You may have ergonomic concerns about Emacs; more than one person has aggravated carpal tunnel syndrome using the default bindings. You may simply be used to reaching for certain keys for certain functions and would rather change Emacs than your habits. Whatever the case, this section gives a brief introduction to key remapping; for more details, see Chapter 10.

If you use the default bindings (rather than CUA mode), you may use C-x u for undo.[19] (Undo is such a common command that it's easy to type C-x C-u by mistake when you undo repeatedly. Unfortunately, C-x C-u is a disabled command for upcase-region. If you type C-x C-u, an annoying message about enabling the command pops up.

If you don't anticipate a big need for upcasing regions, you can redefine C-x C-u so that it also runs undo. To do so, add this line to your .emacs file:

(define-key global-map "C-xC-u" 'undo)

After making this change, typing C-x C-u runs undo, just as C-x u does.

Emacs customization is extremely powerful, and you can make Emacs work just the way you want it to. A far more extensive treatment of customization is found in Chapter 10. This brief introduction is meant to whet your appetite and to make it possible for you to add lines to your .emacs file as we mention potential customizations throughout the book.

The next chapter covers topics such as the many searches offered by Emacs, including query-replace, as well as spell checking and word abbreviation mode (often used to correct typos automatically). If you want to learn about these features, go on to the next chapter. From here on, you can take a selective approach to reading this book, picking and choosing whatever you want to learn about; you don't need to read the rest of the book sequentially.

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