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mac_osx_emacs_keybindings

Installation

Copy DefaultKeyBinding.dict into your ~/Library/KeyBindings/ directory on any version of Mac OSX.

From the file

Additional keybindings for emacs emulation

Originally compiled by Jacob Rus. Modified/embellished/customized by Aaron Cohen.

Sources:

http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/%7Ejrus/Site/cocoa-text.html http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/%7Ejrus/Site/selectors.html

https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/Cocoa/Reference/ApplicationKit/Classes/NSResponder_Class/Reference/Reference.html

WARNING:

This file uses the Option key as a meta key. This overrides the Mac OS keybindings for the option key, which produce common symbols and non-English letters. To access the original binding of an Option combination, simply type Control-Q and the binding, and the original character will be output. If that doesn't work on your platform, run this and you should be g2g:

defaults write -g NSQuotedKeystrokeBinding -string "^q"

NOTES:

We use cut:, copy:, paste: for C-w, M-w, C-y rather than deleteToMark:, selectToMark:, yank: for 2 reasons:

  1. It permits copy/paste or cut/paste across applications

  2. It permits an implementation of M-w that actually works consistently and correctly

To see in xml syntax which keybindings Mac OSX has already defined for you, run the following at a terminal prompt and then open ~/mac_key_bindings.dict -

plutil -convert xml1 /System/Library/Frameworks/AppKit.framework/Versions/C/Resources/StandardKeyBinding.dict -o ~/mac_key_bindings.dict

We deliberately do not repeat herein any keybindings already defined by the OS unless we override them.

To set up C-u to be the repeat count keybinding, run the following at a terminal prompt. Be aware that if you do this any use of C-u (even within a sequence of keys) will eval to the repeat count method.

defaults write -g NSRepeatCountBinding -string "^u"

Finally, I would love to find a way around Macs not allowing the rebinding M-n, M-u, and M-e - I can't help but hope that there's some way of hacking whatever it is that prevents their rebinding. If anybody has any clues, please let me know ...