Editor commands are initiated by one or more key sequences . A single key sequence usually involves holding down one of two specially defined modifier keys, while at the same time pressing another key which is usually a character key.
Mac OS users will be familiar with the use of the
Command
key in key sequences such as
Command+C
. These keys always work in the standard Mac OS way in the LispWorks editor. The remainder of this section describes the use of other modifier key.
The two modifier keys referred to are the
Control
(
Ctrl
) key and the
Meta
key .
When using Emacs emulation on a keyboard without a
Meta
key, the
Escape
(
Esc
) key can be used instead. Note that
Esc
must be typed
before
pressing the required character key, and not held down.
When using Mac OS editor emulation,
Esc
is the cancel gesture and you may not have an Emacs Meta key. Therefore LispWorks provides an alternate gesture to access editor commands:
Ctrl+M
. For example, to invoke the command
Find Source for Dspec
, type
Ctrl+M X Find Source for Dspec
To continue the search, type
Ctrl+M ,
.
You can make either the
Alt
or the
Command
key act as the Emacs Meta key. This setting is independent of whether you are using Emacs or Mac OS editor emulation. See the
LispWorks IDE User Guide
for instructions on changing editor emulation.
An example of a single key sequence command is
Ctrl+A
which moves the current point to the start of the line. This command is issued by holding down the
Control
key while at the same time pressing
A
.
Some key sequences may require more than one key sequence. For example, the key sequence to save the current buffer to a file is
Ctrl+X Ctrl+S
. Another multi-key sequence is
Ctrl+X S
which saves all buffers to their relevant files. Note that in this case you do not press the
Control
key while pressing
S
.
A few commands require both the
Ctrl
and
Meta
key to be held down while pressing the character key.
Meta+Ctrl+L
, used to select the previous buffer displayed, is one such command. If the
Esc
key is being used in place of the
Meta
key, then this key should be pressed
before
the
Ctrl+L
part of the key sequence.