I love how osx supports emacs key-bindings by default for any text field.
I miss this feature a lot when I switch back to windows. I find myself pressing ctrl-n in my browser's address bar, expecting to view my URL history, and instead I get a new windows.
If anyone knows of a way to get similar functionality in windows, I would love to hear about it!
The basic Emacs key-bindings should work in all Cocoa apps. For instance, the URL bar of your web browser, while text editing in just about any editor (maybe even in Office, but I have not tired in a while), etc. Basically, anywhere you have a cursor, the basic line-editing key bindings should work.
So, in practical terms, this means you have 1 + n clipboards[1]. The main global GUI clipboard (using the command key), and then an app-specific clipboard (using the control key with Emacs bindings). As a developer, it is extremely helpful to have two clipboards in TextMate, for instance.
[1] Technically, the clipboard in OS X maintains a history (not sure what the limit is), but the OS X GUI only exposes the last cut/copied item.
ctrl-arrow (which breaks with Lion's Spaces default keys), or shift Home/End in Terminal.
It's not that Macs are crappy, they just have different key bindings. I regularly work with Macs, Windows, and Linux for development and I've just learned to use the different key mappings.
I don't think I'm quite as proficient in any one system because of that, though. For example, I have avoided learning the Emacs key bindings for use in Mac/Terminal. (I don't want to try to remember TWO bindings for Mac, plus I learned vim first so usually avoid Emacs.)
ctrl-arrow jumps to the next word boundary under Linux.
Yes, other systems have other key bindings, but why do common things like jumping to the begin/end of a line need a key combination? And why aren't the characters written onto the keys? Every time I have to type some code on a Mac I have to press all the keys in order to find { } [ ] etc. At leas I learned not to quit the terminal when I want to enter a @ by now. Whose brilliant idea was that?
Not sure if I have it set up differently but mine is Cmd-Left or Cmd-Right to move to the beginning of a line...? Easier to reach than fn (I'm using a real wired BIG Apple keyboard, the RSI inducing one...)
Well, you don't have to follow that glossy mainstream. Just get yourself a new linux desktop with lots of RAM, couple of nice matte monitors, mouse and a good full size keyboard.
That's what I always do. My new PC should be delivered any minute, actually (16 GB RAM; at one intensive work session my current 8 GB where almost a bit scantly - is that the right English word?).
I miss this feature a lot when I switch back to windows. I find myself pressing ctrl-n in my browser's address bar, expecting to view my URL history, and instead I get a new windows.
If anyone knows of a way to get similar functionality in windows, I would love to hear about it!