handy-mode

Copyright (C) 2015-2019 David Capello

What's handy-mode?

handy-mode is a progressive way to migrate your Emacs keyboard bindings to a more friendly keyboard layout: the handy layout.

It contains several levels to make it easy to go from the original Emacs shortcuts to the new ones. The first handy level will give you the most power with the less effort, it's really recommended to start in this level.

How to start? Level 1 JLIK

You should start with the handy level one:

(add-to-list 'load-path "~/handy-mode")
(require 'handy-mode)
(setq handy-level 1)
(handy-mode 1)

This will enable the Alt+JLIK keyboard shortcuts which can be visualized as a set of arrow keys in a QWERTY keyboard where J is the left arrow, L the right arrow, I the up arrow, and K the down arrow, just like this graph:

      .-----.
      |  I  |
.-----'-----'-----.
|  J  |  K  |  L  |
'-----------------'

In this level, Alt+JLIK will be associated to these commands:

• M-j : backward-char
• M-l : forward-char
• M-i : previous-line
• M-k : next-line

And Alt+Shift+JLIK to:

• M-J : backward-sexp
• M-L : forward-sexp
• M-I : scroll-down-command
• M-K : scroll-up-command

We offer some alternatives to the Emacs commands associated with these overriden keybindings:

• M-j : indent-new-comment-line, use ESC M-j instead
• M-l : downcase-word, use ESC M-l instead
• M-i : tab-to-tab-stop, use ESC M-i instead
• M-k : kill-sentence, use ESC M-k instead

If you learn these new shortcuts, you will already be able to replace a big chunk of ackward Emacs keyboard shortcuts. After you get used to these keys, you can forgot the old keybindings:

• C-b : backward-char now is M-j
• C-f : forward-char now is M-l
• C-p : previous-line now is M-i
• C-n : next-line now is M-k
• C-M-b : backward-sexp now is M-J
• C-M-f : forward-sexp now is M-L
• M-v : scroll-down-command now is M-I
• C-v : scroll-up-command now is M-K

This mode is defined in handy-mode-jlik.el file.

Continue with Level 2 NM

(add-to-list 'load-path "~/handy-mode")
(require 'handy-mode)
(setq handy-level 2)
(handy-mode 1)

The Level 2 NM enables the Alt+M prefix which opens a lot of new commands.

            .-----.
            |     |
      .-----'     '-----.
      |                 |
.-----|-----------------'
|  N  |  M  |
'-----------'

This prefix will be used in next levels to replace overriden Emacs shortcuts. You can learn the prefixed commands progressively, the most important ones at this moment are:

• M-n : handy-keyboard-quit (like C-g)

• M-m : prefix

• M-M : execute-extended-command

• M-m h : back-to-indentation

• M-m c : handy-change-case (a way to replace downcase-word/upcase-word/capitalize-word with one command)

Overriden shortcuts:

• M-m : back-to-indentation, use M-m h instead
• ESC M-l : this one was introduced to replace the old M-l (downcase-word), now you can use M-m c k

Get used to the new M-M so you don't have to use M-x to execute commands in the future (execute-extended-command).

This level is defined in handy-mode-nm.el file.

Level 3 UO

(add-to-list 'load-path "~/handy-mode")
(require 'handy-mode)
(setq handy-level 3)
(handy-mode 1)

Enables Alt+UO keys to jump between words or paragraphs (or functions on progmodes):

      .-----.-----.-----.
      |  U  |     |  O  |
      |-----'     '-----|
      |                 |
.-----|-----------------'
|     |     |
'-----------'

New ways to jump between words and paragraphs/functions:

• M-u : backward-word
• M-o : forward-word
• M-U : handy-beginning-of-block (backward-paragraph/beginning-of-defun)
• M-O : handy-end-of-block (forward-paragraph/end-of-defun)

Overridden keybindings:

• M-u : upcase-word, you can use M-m c i from handy-mode-nm
• M-o : facemenu-set-face, you can use M-m M-O from handy-mode-nm

You can forgot about:

• M-f : backward-word now is M-u
• M-b : forward-word now is M-o
• M-{ : backward-paragraph now is M-U in textmodes
• M-} : forward-paragraph now is M-O in textmodes
• M-{ : beginning-of-defun now is M-U in progmodes
• M-} : end-of-defun now is M-O in progmodes

This level is defined in handy-mode-uo.el file.

Level 4 ZB

                                    .-----.-----.-----.
                                    |     |     |     |
                                    |-----'     '-----|
                                    |                 |
.-----------------------------.-----'-----------------'
|  Z     X     C     V     B  |           |
'-----------.                 '-----------|
            |             SPC             |
            '-----------------------------'

This level is defined in handy-mode-zb.el file.

Level 5 YH

                              .-----.-----.-----.-----.
                              |  Y  |     |     |     |
                              |     |-----'     '-----|
                              |  H  |                 |
.-----------------------------|-----'-----------------'
|                             |           |
'-----------.                 '-----------|
            |                             |
            '-----------------------------'

This level is defined in handy-mode-yh.el file.

Level 6 WERD

      .-----------------.     .-----.-----.-----.-----.
      |  W     E     R  |     |     |     |     |     |
      '-----.           '-----|     |-----'     '-----|
            |  D     F     G  |     |                 |
.-----------'-----------------|-----'-----------------'
|                             |           |
'-----------.                 '-----------|
            |                             |
            '-----------------------------'

This level is defined in handy-mode-werd.el file.

Level 7 Modal/RET

This level is defined in handy-mode-modal.el file. Pressing M-p you can lock the Alt key so there is no need to press M- modifier for keyboard shortcuts in all other modes.

This is still a work-in-progress, doesn't work in several modes inside the minibuffer, etc.

Enable all levels

This is recommended only when you already know about all the handy-mode keyboard shortcuts:

(add-to-list 'load-path "~/handy-mode")
(require 'handy-mode)
(handy-mode 1)

License

Distributed under the MIT license.