It might seem intimidating, but you have to remember that Emacs is (IMO) the most powerful and easily modifiable editor, and you pay for that.
If you end up not liking it, it's probably not for you, and that's okay! I just have a lot of fun with it and think other people might as well.
** Terminology
- "Window" is the term for split panes in Emacs. "Frame" is the term for the actual (OS-provided) window.
- "Kill" is often used instead of "delete" or "close"
- "Buffer" is used instead of "file". This is because A) files are on disk, buffers are in memory, and B) things can be a buffer that aren't from files (e.g. ~magit~ is a git interface which is an interactive buffer created in code)
- "Face" is the characters displayed. "Font locks" are what color faces (your theme changes font lock colors)
| ~sort-lines~ | Nice for ordering header files. Comes in handy for random things |
| ~delete-duplicate-lines~ | Also comes in handy for random things |
| ~set-input-method~ | Useful when typing other languages |
** Keybinds
All binds in Emacs are re-bindable. It has the most flexible and powerful keybinding systems of any program I've interacted with.
Notation:
- ~C-g~ means "CTRL-g"
- ~C-S-g~ means "CTRL-Shift-g"
- ~M-g~ means "Alt-g" /(it used to mean "Meta", which was a key on certain old keyboards. Remember, Emacs is one of the oldest Open Source programs still in active use, so it has a lot of history!)/
*** *The Most Important Keys*
**** ~C-g~: Quit/cancel operation/exit menu
This is like Escape in other programs (don't press Esc in Emacs though). If Emacs locks up on a long operation, you can try C-g to stop it
**** ~C-h~: Help
There is so much to Emacs that it would be impossible to make one cheatsheet that covers it all. Luckily, Emacs is pretty well-documented, and all the documentation is built in to the editor. Help lets you access that.
Hit ~C-h~. It will prompt you for another key. *Type '?' to see all the help options*.
Here are some useful help keys (press after C-h):
| k | Tells you what a key does in the current Mode. For example, if you hit ~C-h k C-s~ in most file editing modes, help will tell you that "C-s runs the command save-buffer" |
| m | Tells you about the buffer's current modes. This has descriptions and keybindings. The Major Mode is the primary behavior, while Minor modes augment that behavior and add features |
| f | Describes what a function does and lets you go to its definition |
| v | Describes what a variable represents, what its value is, and lets you go to its definition |
*** Window Management
"Window" is the term for split panes in Emacs. "Frame" is the term for the actual (OS-provided) window.
These keybinds resemble web browser tab management keybinds.
| C-S-t | Split window horizontally |
| M-t | Split window vertically |
| C-S-w | Remove current window split (merge windows) |
*** Buffer Management
Buffers are like tabs in conventional programs.
| C-w | Kill (close) buffer. Select from a list where the first choice is always the current buffer |
| C-b | Switch buffers. This is like clicking a tab to view a different file |
| C-o | Open file |
| C-S-t | Open recent file |
| q | On buffers which aren't files (e.g. Diffs, Magit, Help), hit this to minimize the buffer |
In order to manage whole groups of buffers, Emacs has "desktops". They save a list of all your open buffers so you can switch easily between collections of them. These are similar to Sublime's "workspaces".
| M-d | Create new desktop with current buffers |
| C-S-b | Switch desktops |
Note that at startup your old desktop will not be loaded, but it will be the first in the list when you run ~C-S-b~.
