{"id":9925,"date":"2021-08-22T13:24:52","date_gmt":"2021-08-22T17:24:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/irreal.org\/blog\/?p=9925"},"modified":"2021-08-22T13:24:52","modified_gmt":"2021-08-22T17:24:52","slug":"the-most-useful-emacs-operations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/irreal.org\/blog\/?p=9925","title":{"rendered":"The Most Useful Emacs Operations"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The other day it popped into my mind to wonder what the most useful Emacs editing functions are. Various people\u2014<a href=\"http:\/\/ergoemacs.org\/emacs\/command-frequency.html\">like Xah Lee<\/a>\u2014have taken actual measurements of the most <i>used<\/i> functions. The most often used function is, of course, <code>self-insert-command<\/code>, which runs every time you type a displayable character into the buffer. You can read Lee\u2019s excellent analysis at the link.<\/p>\n<p>My question is slightly different and I\u2019m not being nearly as scientific. Rather, this is a subjective opinion on what <i>I<\/i> think the most useful functions are. Emacs, of course, has many whizzbang functions that do amazing things and that\u2019s before we start considering things like Magit and Org. Still, I think it\u2019s the humble navigation commands that are most useful.<\/p>\n<p>Whatever you\u2019re using Emacs for, it\u2019s going to involve entering and editing text. Unless you\u2019re the mythical keyboard maestro who never makes a typo and, additionally, never revises your text, you\u2019re going to need to move around the buffer to fix typos and revise your content.<\/p>\n<p>Being able to move around quickly and easily is a vital feature of any editor. Emacs makes it easy and fast to move around without using the arrow keys or mouse. In addition to the standard movement functions, I use <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/abo-abo\/avy\">avy<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/lewang\/jump-char\">jump-char<\/a> to quickly place the cursor where I need it without depending on the standard cursor movement functions such as <code>forward-char<\/code> and its brethren. As a class, these are the functions I use the most. If your experience is different, leave a comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The other day it popped into my mind to wonder what the most useful Emacs editing functions are. Various people\u2014like Xah Lee\u2014have taken actual measurements of the most used functions. The most often used function is, of course, self-insert-command, which &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/irreal.org\/blog\/?p=9925\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[18],"class_list":["post-9925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-emacs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/irreal.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/irreal.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/irreal.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irreal.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irreal.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9925"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/irreal.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9925\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9926,"href":"https:\/\/irreal.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9925\/revisions\/9926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/irreal.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irreal.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irreal.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}