Advice on getting this working with emacs-mac-port

[huyz]

I'm trying to use https://github.com/railwaycat/emacs-mac-port/ on OS X, but for some reason the keybindings don't work. I've filed an issue here https://github.com/railwaycat/emacs-mac-port/issues/57 but maybe you have some insight as to what keybindings may be overriding simpleclip's.

[rolandwalker]

Hi!

Yes, the Mac port has different modifier bindings than Cocoa Emacs.app.

The Mac port has the meta modifier on ⌘, and reserves the option key for native OS X extended characters. So, by default

• Emacs sees ⌘-v as meta-v, bound to scroll-down-command. (The way to see that is to type the sequence C-h k ⌘-v.)
• Emacs sees option-v as the square root symbol "√".

By contrast Cocoa Emacs.app maps ⌘ to the super modifier, and option to the meta modifier.

So, if you want the modifiers in the Mac port to match Cocoa Emacs.app, you are halfway there: you have meta on both ⌘ and option. Emacs sees them as the same key. This should do what you want:

(setq mac-option-modifier 'meta)
(setq mac-command-modifier 'super)

You may also want to set

(setq mac-pass-command-to-system nil)

However, it seems that I should update the docs for this and several other libraries, because the docs just assume that OS X users are running Cocoa Emacs. But ⌘-v is different on the different ports.

[huyz]

Yay, that did it. I was missing the (setq mac-command-modifier 'super) command.

Thanks!

[huyz]

It turns out that that wasn't my problem. I didn't need to switch the option and command keys.

The problem was that I had lost the use of the "M-x" key, which is the only meta key that I need since I use vimpulse mode.

So to get the M-X key back, I just did:

    (global-set-key "≈" 'execute-extended-command)

These are my settings, if this helps someone else:

(global-set-key [(meta s)] 'save-buffer)
(global-set-key [(meta l)] 'goto-line)
(global-set-key [(meta w)]
                (lambda () (interactive) (delete-window)))
(global-set-key [(meta z)] 'undo)

(if window-system
  (progn
    (require 'simpleclip)
    (simpleclip-mode 1)
    (global-set-key "≈" 'execute-extended-command)))

Note that this doesn't entirely solve the problem of which key is the meta key for Emacs (this only fixes the M-x key).

[huyz]

Ok, now I'm trying to solve a similar problem with regular Emacs 24.3 for Mac OS X . I also lost the use of the M-x key. In fact it looks like the option and cmd keys do the exact thing. I guess they're both mapped to super? so how do i set my option key to be meta?

I tried (setq mac-option-modifier 'meta) but that didn't work

[rolandwalker]

I tried (setq mac-option-modifier 'meta) but that didn't work

Right. The mac- prefix is specific to the Mac port. Cocoa Emacs uses variables starting with ns-. To make option map to the meta modifier:

(setq ns-alternate-modifier 'meta)

Thanks very much for the snippet above regarding vimpulse. I'd like to make simpleclip "just work" under vimpulse/evil/viper, but have not done anything about it since I don't use those modes.

[huyz]

Oh, good to know.

In my attempts to harmonize regular Emacs for Mac OS X and emacs-mac-port (which uses the option key for Mac alternate characters), I ended up reshuffling things. I mapped the option key to Hyper and then got my M-x keybinding back that way:

;; Change function key to hyper so that we can rebind our regular M-x to it
; For regular Emacs for Mac OS X
(setq ns-function-modifier 'hyper)
(setq ns-option-modifier 'super)  ; Doesn't seem to have any effect as option and meta do the same thing
(setq ns-command-modifier 'meta)
; For emacs-mac-port
(setq mac-function-modifier 'hyper)

;; Get back our M-x key, which won't interfere with emacs-mac-port use of the Option
;; key for Mac alternate characters
(global-set-key [(hyper x)] 'execute-extended-command)

;; To backward-kill-word, in Mac we usually do Option-Backspace, but since
;; emacs-mac-port takes over the Option key, we have to rely on the default
;; Ctrl-Backspace or map Fn-Backspace.
;; Note that Fn-Backspace only works in emacs-mac-port so best to use Ctrl-Backspace
;; just like on Windows
(global-set-key [(hyper delete)]  'backward-kill-word)

;; Typical Mac bindings
(global-set-key [(meta s)] 'save-buffer)
(global-set-key [(meta w)]
                (lambda () (interactive) (kill-buffer)))
;                (lambda () (interactive) (delete-window)))
(global-set-key [(meta z)] 'undo)
(global-set-key [(meta backspace)]
                (lambda nil (interactive) (kill-line 0)))

;; Emacs bindings
(global-set-key [(meta l)] 'goto-line)

I wish I could make sense of it all :)