Every key which can be generated in MicroEmacs '06 has a character string or name representation which can be used to bind and unbind the key to a command. The name of simple keys like "a" or "$" is simply the character, i.e. "a" and "$". Following is a list of other parts to a key name.
There are 3 modifying keys, Shift, Control and Alt, these are represented as "S-", "C-", "A-" respectively. For example the key "A-C-S-up" is generated when the up cursor key is pressed when Shift, Control and Alt keys where also pressed.
The Control and Alt modifiers are case insensitive so C-a is the same as C-A and C-S-a.
Many binding are single stroke key sequences (e.g. "C-a" => beginning-of-line). However MicroEmacs '06 has a prefix(2) command which can be used to bind up to 8 single stroke keys, turning them into two stroke keys; this greatly increasing the number of available bindable key sequences. For example prefix 1 is bound to the escape character (esc), this allows key sequences like "esc a" to be used. Following is a list of prefixes and their default bindings
Following is a complete list of recognized keyboard key names, not all are able to be generated on every platform:-
backspace, delete, down, end, esc, f1, f2, f3, f4, f5, f6, f7, f8, f9, f10, f11, f12, f13, f14, f15, f16, f17, f18, f19, f20, home, insert, kp-0, kp-1, kp-2, kp-3, kp-4, kp-5, kp-6, kp-7, kp-8, kp-9, kp-add, kp-begin, kp-decimal, kp-delete, kp-divide, kp-down, kp-end, kp-enter, kp-home, kp-insert, kp-left, kp-multiply, kp-page-down, kp-page-up, kp-right, kp-subtract, kp-up, left, page-down, page-up, return, right, space, tab, up
The name of any key can be obtained by using describe-key(2).
Following is a list of mouse related keys:-
mouse-pick-1, mouse-pick-2, mouse-pick-3, mouse-pick-4, mouse-pick-5
mouse-drop-1, mouse-drop-2, mouse-drop-3, mouse-drop-4, mouse-drop-5
mouse-move-1, mouse-move-2, mouse-move-3, mouse-move-4, mouse-move-5, mouse-move
mouse-time-1, mouse-time-2, mouse-time-3, mouse-time-5, mouse-time-5, mouse-time
The Shift, Control and Alt modifier keys will also generate key input whenever pressed or released. The keys are however only generated if they are bound to a command. The key names are as follows:
Note that the keys are only generated when another key is pressed, i.e. if the user presses and holds only the shift key, no "S-pick" key will be generated until another key, such as down, is also pressed. If the shift key is released before another key is pressed the event will not be reported.
Pseudo keys events cannot be directly created by the user, they are created internally by MicroEmacs. They are treated like normal keys to allow the user to handle the events properly themselves. Following is a complete list of the system generated pseudo keys:-
idle-pick, idle-drop, idle-time
mouse-time-1, mouse-time-2, mouse-time-3, mouse-time-4, mouse-time-5, mouse-time
The command executed is always given an argument, a non-zero argument indicates a forced complete redraw, an argument of zero indicates that just an up-date is required.
The Alt Key has special binding priorities defined as follows:-
If the ALT key is to be used strictly as the Emacs Meta key then the bindings for the menu should be over-ridden by Direct Key Bindings from the user configuration file i.e. to re-map the default MicroEmacs Alt key to equivalent esc keys then the following keys should be re-bound.
global-bind-key forward-word "A-f" ; Over-ride File menu binding : ; For all of the other menu items. : global-bind-key backward-word "A-b" ; Over-ride the file browser. global-bind-key replace-string "A-r" ; Over-ride tools binding.
This creates a higher priority binding which overrides the underlying default. The commands that are displaced would have to be re-bound to different keys if required.
Keyboard macros do not store the name of keys, instead a more machine oriented format is used (usually in the form "\s??") these will work across platforms (assuming the key bindings are the same) but they may not work across different releases.
As a result it is advised that any long term macro should avoid named keys like up in favor of using a standard key binding such as C-p. See help on execute-string(2) for more information.
Copyright (c) 1998-2006 JASSPA
Last Modified: 2004/01/11
Generated On: 2006/10/07