xah-fly-keys layer

Table of Contents

• Description
  • Features:
• Install
  • Configuration
    • Keyboard layout
    • Cursor appearance for command and insert modes
    • Preferred incremental search function
    • Preferred M-x function
  • Swap the leader keys
• Key bindings
  • Command mode
  • Leader Key Map
  • Sub keymaps

Description

This layer adds an alternative modal editing mode for Emacs.

“like vi, but the design of key/command choice is based on command frequency statistics and ease-of-key score. Most frequently used commands have most easy keys.”

xah-fly-keys has been developed over years of experience by Xah Lee, a long time contributer to the Emacs community.

Gain the modal superpowers of the dark side, without succumbing to evil!

Features:

• You NEVER need to press 【Ctrl+x】or Meta! Use a leader key instead!
• There are about 200 commands with leader key sequences.
• Efficient keys for common navigation and editing tasks in command mode.
• The key bindings are based on experience and observed frequency of use.

Install

Clone this repository into .emacs.d/private/xah-fly-keys, or where ever you keep your private layers:

git clone https://github.com/gcentauri/xah-fly-keys-layer.git ~/.emacs.d/private/xah-fly-keys

Note - the directory the layer files are in must be named xah-fly-keys.

To use this configuration layer, add it to your ~/.spacemacs. You will need to add xah-fly-keys to the existing dotspacemacs-configuration-layers list in this file. You should have the dotspacemacs-editing-style set to =’emacs=.

It is recommended to change some of the defaults in your .spacemacs file, in order to avoid some unwanted cross-over with some key bindings.

• set the dotspacemacs-leader-key to an empty string, as having it set to SPC interferes with the which-key mappings.
• set dotspacemacs-colorize-cursor-according-to-state nil so that the cursor will reflect the xah-fly-keys state instead.

Configuration

Keyboard layout

This layer assumes a qwerty layout and uses that by default. You can configure xah-fly-keys to use other keyboard layouts with the xah-fly-keys-layout variable.

The possible values are:

• azerty, azerty-be
• colemak, colemak-mod-dh
• dvorak, programer-dvorak
• qwerty, qwerty-abnt
• qwertz
• workman

For example, to use the dvorak layout, add the following to your layers list:

(xah-fly-keys :variables xah-fly-keys-layout "dvorak")

Cursor appearance for command and insert modes

You can customize the appearance of the cursor using two variables:

• xah-fly-keys-command-mode-cursor
• xah-fly-keys-insert-mode-cursor

Both variables are a pair of the form (COLOR . CURSOR-TYPE). COLOR is a string, either one of the defined color words in the list-colors-display or a hex code for the color. The CURSOR-TYPE is one of the types that can be set on the cursor-type variable:

t               use the cursor specified for the frame
nil             don’t display a cursor
box             display a filled box cursor
hollow          display a hollow box cursor
bar             display a vertical bar cursor with default width
(bar . WIDTH)   display a vertical bar cursor with width WIDTH
hbar            display a horizontal bar cursor with default height
(hbar . HEIGHT) display a horizontal bar cursor with height HEIGHT
ANYTHING ELSE   display a hollow box cursor

For example,

(xah-fly-keys :variables
              xah-fly-keys-command-mode-cursor '("yellow" . box)
              xah-fly-keys-insert-mode-cursor '("#ff00ff" . hbar))

It defaults to very distinctive, contrasting cursors to help indicate state. 😄

Preferred incremental search function

This will default to either helm-swoop or swiper if helm/ivy layer is used. Otherwise it will be isearch-foward. You can set it to your preferred command.

(xah-fly-keys :variables xah-fly-keys-search-function 'helm-swoop)

Preferred M-x function

This defaults to the standard execute-extended-command, which seems to be remapped by helm or ivy if those layers are installed. Set this variable if you prefer another M-x command or need to configure it explicitly.

(xah-fly-keys :variables xah-fly-keys-M-x-function 'counsel-M-x)

Swap the leader keys

If you’d like to have the Spacemacs leader key on the space bar rather than the xah-fly-keys menu, then it’s possible to swap them.

I tried implementing this with a config variable, but it doesn’t quite work as expected. Until that is sorted out, add this to your dotspacemacs/user-config to swap the leader keys for Spacemacs and xah-fly-keys.

(defun xah-fly-keys-swap-spacemacs-leader ()
      (progn
        (define-key xah-fly-key-map (kbd "SPC") 'spacemacs-cmds)
        (define-key xah-fly-key-map (kbd "M-m") 'xah-fly-leader-key-map)))

(add-hook 'xah-fly-command-mode-activate-hook 'xah-fly-keys-swap-spacemacs-leader)

You’ll also need to set the dotspacemacs-emacs-leader key to an empty string. It appears that sometimes the which-key menu will be affected by this change.

Key bindings

See xah-fly-keys for the modal keymap defined by Xah Lee.

Command mode

Key binding	Description
M-m	spacemacs commands keymap
ESC	xah-fly-leader-key-map
SPC	xah-fly-leader-key-map
~’~	xah-cycle-hyphen-underscore-space
~,~	xah-next-window-or-frame
-	xah-backward-punct
.	xah-forward-right-bracket
/	xah-goto-matching-bracket
0	xah-pop-local-mark-ring
1	xah-extend-selection
2	xah-select-line
3	delete-other-windows
4	split-window-below
5	delete-char
6	xah-select-block
7	xah-select-line
8	xah-extend-selection
9	xah-select-text-in-quote
;	xah-end-of-line-or-block
=	xah-forward-punct
[	hippie-expand
`	other-frame
a	smex
b	xah-toggle-letter-case
c	xah-copy-line-or-region
d	xah-delete-backward-char-or-bracket-text
e	backward-kill-word
f	xah-fly-insert-mode-activate
g	xah-delete-current-text-block
h	xah-beginning-of-line-or-block
i	previous-line
j	backward-char
k	next-line
l	forward-char
m	xah-backward-left-bracket
n	isearch-forward
o	forward-word
p	xah-insert–space-before
q	xah-reformat-lines
r	xah-kill-word
s	open-line
t	set-mark-command
u	backward-word
v	xah-paste-or-paste-previous
w	xah-shrink-whitespaces
x	xah-cut-line-or-region
y	undo
z	xah-comment-dwim
DEL	xah-fly-leader-key-map
<C-f11>	xah-previous-emacs-buffer
<C-f12>	xah-next-emacs-buffer
<f11>	xah-~previous-user-buffer
<f12>	xah-next-user-buffer
<f8>	xah-fly-command-mode-activate-no-hook
<f9>	xah-fly-leader-key-map
<home>	xah-fly-command-mode-activate
<menu>	xah-fly-command-mode-activate

Leader Key Map

Key Binding	Description
SPC TAB	xah-fly–tab-key-map
SPC RET	execute-extended-command
SPC SPC	xah-fly-insert-mode-activate
~SPC ‘~	xah-show-form-feed-as-line
~SPC ,~	xah-fly-w-keymap
SPC 3	delete-window
SPC 4	split-window-right
SPC 5	balance-windows
SPC 6	xah-upcase-sentence
SPC 9	ispell-word
SPC ;	save-buffer
SPC \	toggle-input-method
SPC a	mark-whole-buffer
SPC b	xah-toggle-previous-letter-case
SPC c	xah-copy-all-or-region
SPC d	xah-fly-e-keymap
SPC e	xah-fly-dot-keymap
SPC f	switch-to-buffer
SPC g	kill-line
SPC h	beginning-of-buffer
SPC i	xah-fly-c-keymap
SPC j	xah-fly-h-keymap
SPC k	xah-fly-t-keymap
SPC l	xah-fly-n-keymap
SPC m	dired-jump
SPC n	end-of-buffer
SPC o	xah-fly-r-keymap
SPC p	recenter-top-bottom
SPC q	xah-fill-or-unfill
SPC r	query-replace
SPC s	exchange-point-and-mark
SPC t	xah-show-kill-ring
SPC u	isearch-forward
SPC v	xah-paste-or-paste-previous
SPC w	xah-fly-comma-keymap
SPC x	xah-cut-all-or-region
SPC y	xah-search-current-word
SPC DEL	xah-fly-insert-mode-activate

Sub keymaps

You’ll notice that there are several sub keymaps after pressing a leader key. These are organized by ease of use, and should really be categorized by finger and keyboard row. I’ve listed some of the functionality for each of the keymaps, but use which-key and you’ll discover more details.

• 【SPC ,】 - Eval, kill emacs
• 【SPC k】 - registers, replace, occur
• 【SPC o】 - rectangles, macros, number registers
• 【SPC l】 - modes, view, windows
• 【SPC j】 - help, apropos, info
• 【SPC d】 - inserting chars, brackets, unicode
• 【SPC i】 - files, bookmarks, external apps
• 【SPC w】 - xref, find identifiers
• 【SPC e】 - search, highlight, fonts
• 【SPC TAB】 - indent, expand, abbrev