Introduction to handy

by David Capello

What is handy?

handy (or handy-mode) is a set of keyboard shortcuts that you could use in any text editor. The idea is to offer a progressive way to convert your current keyboard shortcuts to a more easy to use set of shortcuts.

handy offers:

1. Simple cursor movements using the Alt modifier and the home row
2. A progressive path of change to incorporate new keyshortcuts step by step
3. And as a final stage, you will be able to use a modal mode (vim-like mode) where the same shortcuts are accesible without pressing Alt modifier all the time

It's focused on Emacs, but you could configure other text editors and shells:

• VS Code
• Emacs
• bash/readline
• zsh

Motivation

Ten years ago (2009~2010) I started experiencing the Emacs pinky problem. Luckily, I've found a great project by Xah Lee: ErgoEmacs. This was the beginning of a journey to re-learn all Emacs keyboard shortcuts, and learning several good UX improvements like grouping several Emacs commands in one keystroke or repetitive keystrokes.

After modifying ErgoEmacs for my own purposes, I decided to create a text editor with these shortcuts, but it was a failed attempt (as it requires too much work/free-time to finish it). So then the project changed to a more realistic approach: create a progressive set of shortcuts to switch to handy from any text editor (Emacs in the first place).

I'll try to include in this document the imagery that is on my own head when I use handy, that will be helpful for new users to adopt the new shortcuts.

Keyboard Layout

This is the progressive set of levels that you will learn:

• Level 1 JLIK: Move through characters and lines with Alt+J/Alt+L/Alt+I/Alt+K
• Level 2 NM: Execute commands and cancel execution with Alt+N/Alt+M
• Level 3 UO: Move through words/paragraphs/functions with Alt+U/Alt+O
• Level 4 ZB: Undo/Cut/Copy/Paste and Buffers with Alt+Z/Alt+X/Alt+C/Alt+V/Alt+B
• Level 5 YH: Incremental Search and End/Beginning-of-Line/Buffer Movement with Alt+Y/ Alt+H
• Level 6 WERD: Erase stuff with Alt+W/Alt+E/Alt+R/Alt+D/Alt+F/Alt+G
• Level 7 Modal: Switch modes with Alt+P

Level 1 JLIK

In the first level of handy, we have: Alt+J, Alt+L, Alt+I, Alt+K:

      .-----.
      |  I  |
.-----'-----'-----.
|  J  |  K  |  L  |
'-----------------'

This set of keys simulate the arrow keys of any keyboard but they are located in the home row mainly (JKL) so you don't have to move your hand to move the cursor:

• Alt+J: Moves the cursor one character backward (e.g. Left Arrow, cursorLeft on VS Code, backward-char on Emacs)
• Alt+L: Moves the cursor one character forward (e.g. Right Arrow, cursorRight on VS Code, forward-char on Emacs)
• Alt+I: Moves the cursor to the previous line (e.g. Up Arrow, cursorUp on VS Code, previous-line on Emacs)
• Alt+K: Moves the cursor to the next line (e.g. Down Arrow, cursorDown on VS Code, next-line on Emacs)

With the Shift modifier, steps get a little wider:

• Alt+Shift+J: Moves the cursor one balanced expression backward (e.g. backward-sexp on Emacs)
• Alt+Shift+L: Moves the cursor one balanced expression forward (e.g. forward-sexp on Emacs)
• Alt+Shift+I: Moves the cursor one page up (e.g. Page Up, cursorPageUp on VS Code, cua-scroll-down on Emacs)
• Alt+Shift+K: Moves the cursor one page down (e.g. Page Down, cursorPageDown on VS Code, cua-scroll-up on Emacs)

What is a balanced expression? It can be anything that is balanced in the actual programming language. For example, on mathematical expression, it should jump between (...)

x= ( (a+2)  * y -  (5*z) )
    ^-----^       ^-----^
  ^----------------------^

On programming languages it should jump between balanced strings limits "...", scopes {...}, array indexer [...], etc. When none of these characters are found, it should move just through words.

Level 2 NM

            .-----.
            |     |
      .-----'     '-----.
      |                 |
.-----'-----------------'
|  N     M  |
'-----------'

The second handy level enables the prefix key to open an huge range of commands, and to cancel actions/commands:

• Alt+M, ...: Prefix key for other keys shortcuts (like Ctrl+K on VS Code, or Ctrl+C on Emacs)
• Alt+Shift+M: Execute command by name (e.g. Ctrl+Shift+P on VS Code, or execute-extended-command on Emacs)
• Alt+N: Cancels the execution of a command or prefix keys (e.g. Esc key, or Ctrl+G on Emacs)
• Alt+Shift+N: Creates a new untitled file (e.g. like Ctrl+N command in regular desktop apps)

List of Alt+M, ... commands:

• Alt+M, F: Open a file (e.g. Ctrl+O on VS Code, or find-file on Emacs)
• Alt+M, D: Open a folder/directory (e.g. ido-dired on Emacs)
• Alt+M, S: Save the file (e.g. Ctrl+S on regular desktop apps, or save-buffer on Emacs)
• Alt+M, G: Jump to a specific line number (e.g. Ctrl+G on VS Code, or goto-line on Emacs)

Commands about macros:

• Alt+M, M: Start (and then Stop) recording a macro (handy-switch-macro-recording function from handy-mode for Emacs)
• Alt+M, L: Runs the last recorded macro (e.g. kmacro-end-and-call-macro on Emacs)
• Alt+M, J: Edit (and then Save) a macro (e.g. handy-switch-macro-editing function from handy-mode for Emacs)

Commands about bookmarks:

• Alt+M, I: bookmark-jump
• Alt+M, K: bookmark-set
• Alt+M, B: bookmark-bmenu-list

Commands about registers:

• Alt+M, Alt+I: jump-to-register
• Alt+M, Alt+K: point-to-register
• Alt+M, Alt+C: copy-to-register
• Alt+M, Alt+V: insert-register

Level 3 UO

      .-----.-----.-----.
      |  U  |     |  O  |
      |-----'     '-----|
      |                 |
.-----'-----------------'
|           |
'-----------'

• Alt+U: backward-word
• Alt+O: forward-word
• Alt+Shift+U: handy-beginning-of-block
• Alt+Shift+O: handy-end-of-block

Level 4 ZB

                                    .-----.-----.-----.
                                    |     |     |     |
                                    |-----'     '-----|
                                    |                 |
.-----------------------------.-----'-----------------'
|  Z     X     C     V     B  |           |
'-----------.                 '-----------|
            |             SPC             |
            '-----------------------------'

...

Level 5 YH

                              .-----.-----.-----.-----.
                              |  Y  |     |     |     |
                              |     |-----'     '-----|
                              |  H  |                 |
.-----------------------------|-----'-----------------'
|                             |           |
'-----------.                 '-----------|
            |                             |
            '-----------------------------'

...

• Alt+Y/Alt+Shift+Y: Forward/backward incremental search (e.g. isearch-forward/isearch-backward on Emacs)
• Alt+H/Alt+Shift+H: If you press one time the key it goes to the beginning/end of line (e.g. Alt+H goes to the beginning of line), the second time you press it, it goes to the beginning/end of file (e.g. Alt+H, Alt+H goes to the beginning of file) (handy-beginning-of-line-and-buffer/handy-end-of-line-and-buffer)

Level 6 WERD

      .-----------------.     .-----.-----.-----.-----.
      |  W     E     R  |     |     |     |     |     |
      '-----.           '-----|     |-----'     '-----|
            |  D     F     G  |     |                 |
.-----------'-----------------|-----'-----------------'
|                             |           |
'-----------.                 '-----------|
            |                             |
            '-----------------------------'

...

• Alt+W: handy-shrink-whitespace

• Alt+E: backward-kill-word

• Alt+R: kill-word

• Alt+D: delete-backward-char

• Alt+F: delete-char

• Alt+G: kill-char

• Alt+Shift+W: handy-close-file

• Alt+Shift+D: backward-kill-sexp

• Alt+Shift+F: kill-sexp

• Alt+Shift+G: handy-backward-kill-line

Level 7 Modal

In this mode you have just one new keyboard shortcut available: Alt+P

Pressing Alt+P you lock the Alt key prefix for all other levels, so the first Alt is not necessary to be pressed. Pressing Alt+P again you disable the lock and you're back to the normal editing mode (where Alt modifier is required to execute the regular commands in all other levels).

• The bad thing about this is that you cannot write text when Alt is locked (e.g. pressing L key means Alt+L instead of writting the key L).
• The good side is that you can move easily in the file without pressing the Alt modifier all the time.

The idea of Alt+P is that depending on what you need to do you can lock the Alt key (for navigation) or unlock it (for editing).

Text Editors

How to configure each text editor?

• For bash/readline: .inputrc file
• For zshrc: .zshrc file
• For Emacs: handy-mode

Acknowledges

handy is based on ideas from:

• Xah Lee's ideas about Emacs,
• ErgoEmacs and ErgoEmacs keybinding, and
• dacap's ergoprog mode.
• Incomplete experimental handy text editor.