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<title>Key Bindings - ne's manual</title>
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<h3 class="section">5.1 Key Bindings</h3>
<p><a name="index-Key-bindings-218"></a><a name="index-Configuring-the-keyboard-219"></a>
<code>ne</code> allows you to associate any keystroke with any command. To
accomplish this task, you have to create a (possibly UTf-8) file named
<samp><span class="file">.keys</span></samp> in your home directory, or in <samp><span class="file">~/.ne</span></samp>. You can change
the default name (possibly specifying a complete path) using the
<code>--keys</code> argument (see <a href="Arguments.html#Arguments">Arguments</a>).
<p>The format of the file is very simple: each line starting with the ‘<samp><span class="samp">KEY</span></samp>’
sequence of capital characters is considered the description of a key binding.
All other lines are considered comments. The format of a key binding
description is
<pre class="example"> KEY <var>hexcode</var> <var>command</var>
</pre>
<p>The <var>hexcode</var> value is the <span class="sc">ascii</span> code of the keystroke. (For
special keys such as <Insert> or function keys, you should take a
look at the file <samp><span class="file">default.keys</span></samp> that comes with <code>ne</code>'s
distribution: it contains a complete, commented definition of
<code>ne</code>'s standard bindings that you can modify with a trial-and-error
approach.) The easiest way to see the code <code>ne</code> uses for a given
key is by using the <a href="KeyCode.html#KeyCode">KeyCode</a> command. It prompts you to press a
key, then reports the code for that key on the status bar.
<p>You can write just the hexadecimal digits, nothing else is
necessary (but a prefixing ‘<samp><span class="samp">0x</span></samp>’ is tolerated). For instance,
<pre class="example"> KEY 1 MoveSOL
</pre>
<p class="noindent">binds to <kbd><Control>-A</kbd> the action of moving to the start
of a line, while
<pre class="example"> KEY 101 LineUp
</pre>
<p class="noindent">binds to the “cursor-up” key the action of moving the cursor
one line up.
<p><var>command</var> can be any <code>ne</code> command, including <code>Escape</code>
(which allows reconfiguring the menu activator) and <code>Macro</code>, which
allows binding complex sequences of actions to a single keystroke. The binding
of a macro is very fast because on the first call the macro is cached in memory.
See <a href="Macro.html#Macro">Macro</a>.
<p>Note that you cannot <em>ever</em> redefine <Return> or <Escape>. This
is a basic issue—however brain damaged is the current configuration, you will
always be able to exploit fully the menus and the command line.
<p>Besides the “standard” combinations (e.g.,
<kbd><Control>-</kbd><var>letter</var>), it possible to program combinations
based on the <Meta> key (a.k.a. <Alt>). The situation in this
case is a bit more involved, because depending on the terminal emulator you are
using, the effect of the <Meta> key can be widely different. For
instance, <code>xterm</code> raises the eighth bit of a character, so, for
instance,
<pre class="example"> KEY 81 MoveSOF
</pre>
<p class="noindent">binds <kbd><Control>-<Meta>-a</kbd> to the action of moving to the
start of the document. However, <code>gnome-terminal</code> will emit the
character of ASCII code 1 prefixed with ESC instead. To handle this case,
<code>ne</code> provides codes from 180 on for <em>simulated <Meta>
sequences</em>: for instance,
<pre class="example"> KEY 181 MoveSOF
</pre>
<p class="noindent">binds the abovementioned sequence to the same action as
before. In general, the code 180+<var>x</var> corresponds to the sequence
ESC followed by the ASCII character of code <var>x</var>. Note that some of
these sequences may be disabled, if they conflict with existing sequences
of your terminal (for instance, ESC followed by ‘<samp><span class="samp">O</span></samp>’ is always
disabled because it prefixes several built-in keyboard sequences).
<p>As a final note, we remark that typing <kbd><Meta>-a</kbd> on
<code>gnome-terminal</code> will produce an ESC followed by ‘<samp><span class="samp">a</span></samp>’. Since it
is obviously easier to press just <Meta> rather than <Meta> and
<Control> at the same time, it is a good idea to associate the same
sequence also to this combination, using
<pre class="example"> KEY 1E1 MoveSOF
</pre>
<p>Moreover, this setting provides the user with a second choice: one can
press <Escape> followed by a letter instead of using modifiers.
<p>This is the approach used by default in <code>ne</code>: this way,
<Control> with <Meta> plus a letter should always work, and
<Meta> should work sometimes (of course, if you're sure to use
always the same kind of emulator you can bind more features). Again, the
best place to look at it's <samp><span class="file">default.keys</span></samp>.
<p>The key binding file is parsed at startup. If something does not work,
<code>ne</code> exits displaying an error message. If you want <code>ne</code> to skip
parsing the key binding file (for instance, to correct the broken
file), just give <code>ne</code> the <code>--no-config</code> argument. See <a href="Arguments.html#Arguments">Arguments</a>.
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