I run terminal-mode Emacs (using the -nw option) inside Screen on my office Debian box. This way, I can log in my box with ssh from anywhere and work even with slow or intermittent connection.
When I log in from Windows using Putty, I miss the possibility of using the Alt-Tab key combination (M-TAB in Emacs parlance). I compensate using the two keys Esc and Tab, but that's two key presses, which is slower.
I just discovered that using Autohotkeys I can make Ctrl-Tab do the same as Alt-Tab with this rule:
LControl & Tab::AltTab
and I can disable Alt-Tab altogether with this other rule:
!Tab::Return
but this is not what I want. I need to copy the functionality of Alt-Tab on some other hot key (Ctrl-Tab is okay and the first rule does that) and additionally I want the Alt-Tab key to be passed to Putty when I am using it (which would pass it to Screen, which would pass it to Emacs). In other words, Alt-Tab should not be disabled, but its special meaning should be deleted.
Is this possible with Windows?
While I don't fully understand the issue you're encountering, this framework should give you something to work with for conditional actions based on the window.
!Tab::
{
WinGetTitle, Title, A
if (RegExMatch(Title, "PuTTY.*"))
{
; Do something if PuTTY is the active window.
}else{
; Do something else if PuTTY is NOT the active window.
}}
Working with the answers I got from several hepful users, I got to the final solution I have used for some time now. Here is the Autohotkeys script that I put on my desktop and that I double-click every time I have to restart Windows:
File "alt-tab to ctrl-tab.ahk"
#NoEnv ; Recommended for performance and compatibility with future AutoHotkey releases.
; #Warn ; Enable warnings to assist with detecting common errors.
SendMode Input ; Recommended for new scripts due to its superior speed and reliability.
SetWorkingDir %A_ScriptDir% ; Ensures a consistent starting directory.
LControl & Tab::AltTab
; !Tab::Return
; #IfWinActive, putty
!Tab::send {Esc}{Tab}
Related
I normally use vim, but sometimes it's convenient to use Visual Studio 19.
I'm trying to keep my keybindings as consistent as possible between the two.
In vim I use ctrl-p to open a file by typing its name. I switched visual studio to use the vscode keymap defaults to get this behavior (vscode also uses ctrl-p for searching by filename). However, when using the dropdown list for this search, I'd like to be able to highlight a different item by using ctl-j and ctrl-k to move up and down, similar to how fzf works in vim.
Is this a key binding I can set, and if so, what is it called?
I used AutoHotKey with this script
#NoEnv
#SingleInstance, force
#Warn
;#IfWinActive, ahk_exe devenv.exe
^h::Send {Left}
^j::Send {Down}
^k::Send {Up}
^l::Send {Right}
Capslock::Esc
;:#IfWinActive
if you want it only to happen when you have vs2019 up, then uncoment the #IfWinActive, by removing the ; , however, I want to be able to use the bindings whenever, not just in VS
You can compile the script and then put them into your start up by pressing Win-R to open the run command dialog, then entering in
shell:startup
and it will open an explorer window to your startup, just drop the exe in there afterwards, and it should start up every time.
you can also create hotkeys for doing other things, like added my VS path to my PATH environment variable, then had autohotkey assign Win-S to open up devenv.exe with this script.
#NoEnv ; Recommended for performance and compatibility with future AutoHotkey releases.
; #Warn ; Enable warnings to assist with detecting common errors.
SendMode Input ; Recommended for new scripts due to its superior speed and reliability.
SetWorkingDir %userprofile% ; Ensures a consistent starting directory.
#s::
Run, *RunAs devenv.exe
Return
It is my first time to use emacs -nw. But I have problem at the first when I type M-x. In the minibuffer, it shows "Mark set" instead of M-x
I don't know why it happens. How can I deal with it?
PS: My os is Macosx and I connect remote by using ssh and then I type emacs -nw but I cannot use M-x
Update:08/30/2015
When I see the options under M-x customize-group ns, it seems that Alt is actually used as Meta? Why it didn’t works.
14Hide Ns Alternate Modifier: [Value Menu] meta |
15 [ State ]: STANDARD. |
16 This variable describes the behavior of the alternate or option key. More |
37Hide Ns Right Alternate Modifier: [Value Menu] Use the value of ns-alternate-modifier |
38 [ State ]: STANDARD. |
39 This variable describes the behavior of the right alternate or option key. More |
When using Emacs in the terminal (switch -nw), you might not have a Meta key, depending on your platform etc. In particular, the Alt keyboard key might not function as the Meta key. You might find some information (e.g. here, or by googling) about how to get it working as Meta for your context (platform etc.), but you might not.
You can always use ESC (the Escape key) followed by a key to act the same as the Meta modifier applied to that key. For example, instead of M-x, you can use ESC x.
(You press and release ESC, and then do the same for x. ESC is not a modifier key -- you do not hold it pressed while hitting x.)
Your problem is that OSX is stealing the key. There are a few things which will make your life easier
Install emacs using homebrew. The version which comes with OSX is old
Use iterm2 instead of the default term.app - much better and feature rich
In iterm2, you can set a key override for either the left or right option as +ESC, which will make it all work.
This will all work on a local machine, but you may run into additional problems if your connecting to a remote machine and running emacs there. It is a similar problem, your key settings may no be getting stolen/dropped by the ssh session - all depends on your terminal, your ssh config and the remote system.
Note that with emacs, you often don't need to run remote. Emacs comes with a built-in system called Tramp, which is very powerful. Using tramp, you can open remote directories and edit the files as if they were local files. You run emacs locally and tramp uses ssh to open the remote files, read the contents into the local emacs buffer and then write the changes back tot he remote file. Helps to have ssh keys setup so you don't have to worry about passwords (but you will need an ssh-agent to make this work easily).
In general, when you find emads does not respond to a key press, especailly if you try C-h k and nothing happens when you hit the key bindings you can't get to work, it is almost certain that something in-between you and emacs is stealing the keys - this is often the window manager or OS, but it can also be due to terminal emulators etc. In over 20 years of using emacs, I've never had emacs 'do nothing' when you hit a key combination - if emacs recieves the key input, it will respond with something, even if that something is to tell you there is no key binding for the keys you pressed. If emacs does absolutely nothing, you know the message just isn't get through!
Open Terminal Preferences
Select Profiles
Keyboard
Check the box for "Use Option as Meta Key"
I've got two keyboards attached to my computer. A normal full-size keyboard and a numeric keypad. I want to "remap" the keys on the numeric keypad, but leave the full keyboard alone. So, when the user presses "5" on the keypad it would get remapped to the "Media Play" key, but if the same "5" was pressed on the keypad of the full keyboard, I'd get a "5". In essence, I want to turn that seperate numeric keypad into a media control device.
Unfortunately I'm not sure how to make this work. There is a "Raw Input" feature of Windows which allows to distinguish between keyboards, but that only allows to read the keys - not remap them. There are keyboard hooks (low level and high level) which can remap the keystrokes, but they don't distinguish between keyboards.
Can I make a combination of the two methods work? For that I'd have to be sure that the raw input message is processed before the keyboard hook kicks in. Is that so?
Also, I've read that Windows for some reason does not allow to use Raw Input and Keyboard Hooks in the same process. I could work around that by making 2 different processes, but that becomes more fragile because of communication latency (keyboard hooks have very limited time in which they must complete their work).
Is this doable at all?
In the end it turned out I needed a custom keyboard driver to accomplish this. Fortunately I found one ready for taking - Interception. The app is ready and works perfectly. :)
I wanted to expand on the answer by Vilx as I've revisited this post several times, and I've only just managed to remap my second keyboard so the keys act uniquely. This is done using Interception and Intercept together, and it's the only working solution that I've managed to get working so far.
I'm also looking into using a raspberry pi to remap a second keyboard. Although early days, I think it it's achievable: Plug keyboard into Pi, plug Pi into PC and write script to turn input keycodes into customized output commands / keycodes. Will update when I have tested.
My working Intercept solution is completely based on a Github tutorial by TaranVH which details the process the best so far. I've copied his solution below with some amends of my own.
DOWNLOADING INTERCEPTION:
Navigate to this page: https://github.com/oblitum/Interception
Click on "download the latest release."
Click on Interception.zip to download it.
Unzip the file to a folder on your computer - I recommend using a folder location that won't ever move. I put my Interception folder into C:\Program Files\ and I'll be using this location in my examples.
INSTALLING INTERCEPTION:
Open a terminal as administrator and type cd "C:\Program Files\Interception\command line installer"
Hit Enter
Now, type in the following line of text exactly as shown:
install-interception.exe /install
Hit Enter
Once the program installs sucessfully, you still must restart your computer in order to complete the installation.
(If you ever want to UNinstall interception, watch this): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hn18vv--sFY
INSTALLING INTERCEPT - (This is different from intercepTION!)
Download Kamaz's intercept.exe zip from one of these locations:
http://octopup.org/img/code/interception/intercept.zip
https://github.com/TaranVH/2nd-keyboard/blob/master/Intercept/intercept.exe
Unzip it if it's a .zip file and locate intercept.exe
To keep these files all in one place, I moved intercept.exe into C:\Program Files\Interception\
Reboot your system.
SETTING UP INTERCEPT
Plug in your second keyboard and ensure that it is working normally.
Go to where you saved intercept.exe and double click to open.
Intercept will open as a terminal, and from there you should have basic instructions to start remapping your keyboard.
Type a to add a key.
On the SECONDARY keyboard, press the Q key once. (this is the key that you are remapping)
You will be prompted with Enter combo for this trigger, end with ESC.
Carefully execute the following keystrokes (it doesn't matter which keyboard): Win + E (That is: hold down the windows key while pressing the letter E. I've found you need to do this quickly and accurately, if you hold down too long, extra keypresses are added)
When I did it, this was shown in the terminal: [Left Windows]↓ [E]↓ [E]↑ [Left Windows]↑
Press Esc and you will be prompted to label the script
I labelled mine Q->WinE so I knew what it was doing.
Press Enter to accept the label
Press S to save the filter, or C to cancel if you made a mistake.
Add more filters or close the terminal.
USING INTERCEPT
Now you've set up a custom key command, you need to apply the filter to use it.
Open up intercept.exe
Press Y to apply the filters, you will get confirmation that the filters have been activated.
Now, when you press Q on your second keyboard, Intercept will change the command to Win+E which will open File Explorer.
Caveat:
Please read TaranVH githubs page on this https://github.com/TaranVH/2nd-keyboard/tree/master/Intercept as it provides some further details and troubleshooting.
Please take care to follow the instructions very exactly as there's very little error handling in this process
In this article http://vlaurie.com/computers2/Articles/remap-keyboard.htm is explained how to remap keys of a keyboard. Hope that helps.
I'm building some code completion style text expansion functionality for text areas and inputs in a web application. I'm trying to work out a safe keyboard shortcut for invoking the completion proposals for browsers running on Mac OS X.
I've eliminated some potential candidates:
Command + Space - activates the Spotlight search field
Control + Space - activates the context menu in Firefox
Esc - cancels any background XMLHttpRequests in Firefox
That leaves Option + Space. I'm aware that may conflict with tools like Ubiquity, but that's something we don't expect our audience to be using.
Are there any conflicts I may have missed with Option+Space? Or do you have a better idea for a keyboard shortcut, and why?
A lot of Mac OS X apps use Option + Esc to do code completion or code hints.
Some kind of tab shortcut sounds like the best and most intuitive approach - users should be used to the 'type-tab-type-tab' workflow - maybe combine it with a modifier if it only wants to be optional.
As I recall, Visual Studio and TextMate both use tab to code-complete. In Visual Studio an intellisense menu pops up as you start typing and tab acts as the selection confirmation.
In TextMate, you start typing part of a command then hit tab to activate said command's associated "bundle". The associated bundle typically generates a code snippet and fills in any dynamic parts of the snippet as you type.
Come to think of it, most command lines work this way as well, auto-completing file names and paths when tab is pressed after typing a few characters.
EDIT: You say tabs are needed for field switching in a web interface, but you may want to try intercepting the keyboard event in the textfield, and check if they're started typing a macro. If they have, auto-complete and swallow the key by returning false; if not, simply let the command bubble through.
I discussed these ideas with our design team. One of them suggested using Control + Enter, which is what we decided to go with. This causes forms that only contain a single input field to automatically submit in Firefox, but we deal with that by preventing the default action caused by the event.
I re-assigned the Spotlight command to Command + Shift + Space. This is easily done via Prefrences.App
I am trying to learn Emacs and trying to find best keyboard layout for me. One thing is really annoying me. I have added following lines to .emacs
(global-set-key "\C-y" 'scroll-up)
(global-set-key "\M-y" 'scroll-down)
When I hold Control and press y a few times, it will page down on every press of y.
However, when I hold the Windows key (mapped as Meta) and press y a few times it will only page up on the first press of y and all subsequent presses of y I get the ‘y’ character inserted in the buffer.
Can the page up behave like page down? I want to hold Meta and keep pressing y to scroll multiple pages up.
I am using GNU Emacs 23.0.60.1 (i386-mingw-nt5.1.2600) of 2008-05-12 on LENNART-69DE564 (patched). It is Emacs with EmacsW32 patch. Is this problem with this Emacs? Problem with Meta key?
I tried original GNU Emacs (not patched) and it works OK with Alt. But my problem is not that I want to scroll without releasing any key. I release key y and press it multiple times but don't want to have to release Meta key. Same problem is described here:
http://groups.google.com/group/gnu.emacs.help/browse_thread/thread/f30f4b75a8b75b10
Problem is not in that I have changed key mapping. It looks like it is a bug in EmacsW32 version. Here is another description of the problem:
Unreleased Meta/Win modifier
Use C-v and M-v.
Don't change C-y, M-y default bindings.
Could this be a side affect of using the Windows key as Meta? I'm thinking this because in a non-Emacs situation if you press and hold the Windows key and another key for a short cut (Win+E for Explorer, Win+R for Run dialog, etc.) the desired action only triggers once, not multiple times if you keep holding it down.
I'd try reassigning Meta to Alt and see if the problem persists. If it doesn't, then I'm not sure what other option you have, since likely it's the OS only sending the Windows key press once to the app in focus.
You should use the patched EmacsW32 version, if you want the Windows key as Meta.
From the site about the patches:
"Changes that makes it possible to use the window keyboard keys as META in Emacs. Without this patch key sequences like E will always do what they by default does in windows, ie in this case open up Windows Explorer. (This patched is not used by default, you have to turn it on.)"