Emacs: Move Cursor by Text Block ๐
Emacs has commands forward-paragraph
ใCtrl + โใ and backward-paragraph
ใCtrl + โใ. The problem with these is that the definition of โparagraphโ in emacs is not predictable; it depends on what mode you are in. For example, in text-mode
, a paragraph is a text block separated by newline characters. But in html-mode
, it moves by some weird way. (copy source code of this page then paste in emacs, turn on html-mode
and try to move by paragraph.)
Technically, this is because the notion of โparagraphโ in emacs is dependent on emacs's syntax table. (emacs's syntax table is a elementary system that categorize characters into semantic categories.) (info "(elisp) Syntax Tables")
The following commands let you move by paragraph in a predictable way, regardless what major mode you are in.
(defun xah-forward-block (&optional n) "Move cursor beginning of next text block. A text block is separated by blank lines. This command similar to `forward-paragraph', but this command's behavior is the same regardless of syntax table. URL `http://xahlee.info/emacs/emacs/emacs_move_by_paragraph.html' Version 2016-06-15" (interactive "p") (let ((n (if (null n) 1 n))) (re-search-forward "\n[\t\n ]*\n+" nil "NOERROR" n)))
(defun xah-backward-block (&optional n) "Move cursor to previous text block. See: `xah-forward-block' URL `http://xahlee.info/emacs/emacs/emacs_move_by_paragraph.html' Version 2016-06-15" (interactive "p") (let ((n (if (null n) 1 n)) ($i 1)) (while (<= $i n) (if (re-search-backward "\n[\t\n ]*\n+" nil "NOERROR") (progn (skip-chars-backward "\n\t ")) (progn (goto-char (point-min)) (setq $i n))) (setq $i (1+ $i)))))
Note: these commands are in ergoemacs-mode and Emacs: Xah Fly Keys.
You can bind the emacs default keys to it:
(global-set-key (kbd "<C-up>") 'xah-backward-block) (global-set-key (kbd "<C-down>") 'xah-forward-block)
Or, bind it to PageUp PageDown keys:
(global-set-key (kbd "<prior>") 'xah-backward-block) (global-set-key (kbd "<next>") 'xah-forward-block)
A even more efficient keybinding is to combine beginning-of-line
and end-of-line
commands with it. See: Emacs: Move Cursor to Beginning of Line/Paragraph ๐.