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avendael/atomic-emacs

An atomic implementation of emacs keybindings for the Atom text editor.
Source code at GitHub null
avendael/atomic-emacs.json
{
  "createdAt": "2014-02-27T19:36:21Z",
  "defaultBranch": "master",
  "description": "An atomic implementation of emacs keybindings for the Atom text editor.",
  "fullName": "avendael/atomic-emacs",
  "homepage": null,
  "language": "CoffeeScript",
  "name": "atomic-emacs",
  "pushedAt": "2020-06-05T14:55:25Z",
  "stargazersCount": 205,
  "topics": [],
  "updatedAt": "2025-11-16T20:27:41Z",
  "url": "https://github.com/avendael/atomic-emacs"
}

Atomic Emacs

Section titled “Atomic Emacs”

Emacs keybindings for Atom. Build Status

Installation

Section titled “Installation”

On the command line:

  • apm install atomic-emacs

Or in Atom:

  • In Preferences, click the Install tab.
  • Type atomic-emacs in the search box, and click the Packages button.
  • Click Install on the atomic-emacs package.

There’s no need to restart Atom.

Commands

Section titled “Commands”
Section titled “Navigation”
'ctrl-b': 'atomic-emacs:backward-char'
'left': 'atomic-emacs:backward-char'
'ctrl-f': 'atomic-emacs:forward-char'
'right': 'atomic-emacs:forward-char'
'alt-b': 'atomic-emacs:backward-word'
'alt-left': 'atomic-emacs:backward-word'
'alt-f': 'atomic-emacs:forward-word'
'alt-right': 'atomic-emacs:forward-word'
'ctrl-alt-b': 'atomic-emacs:backward-sexp'
'ctrl-alt-f': 'atomic-emacs:forward-sexp'
'ctrl-alt-p': 'atomic-emacs:backward-list'
'ctrl-alt-n': 'atomic-emacs:forward-list'
'alt-{': 'atomic-emacs:backward-paragraph'
'alt-}': 'atomic-emacs:forward-paragraph'
'alt-m': 'atomic-emacs:back-to-indentation'
'ctrl-a': 'editor:move-to-beginning-of-line'
'alt-<': 'core:move-to-top'
'alt->': 'core:move-to-bottom'

Killing & Yanking

Section titled “Killing & Yanking”
'alt-backspace': 'atomic-emacs:backward-kill-word'
'alt-delete': 'atomic-emacs:backward-kill-word'
'alt-d': 'atomic-emacs:kill-word'
'ctrl-k': 'atomic-emacs:kill-line'
'ctrl-w': 'atomic-emacs:kill-region'
'alt-w': 'atomic-emacs:copy-region-as-kill'
'ctrl-alt-w': 'atomic-emacs:append-next-kill'
'ctrl-y': 'atomic-emacs:yank'
'alt-y': 'atomic-emacs:yank-pop'
'alt-shift-y': 'atomic-emacs:yank-shift'

Note that Atomic Emacs does not (yet) support prefix arguments, so to rotate the kill ring forward, use yank-shift (equivalent to yank-pop in Emacs with a prefix argument of -1).

Editing

Section titled “Editing”
'alt-\\': 'atomic-emacs:delete-horizontal-space'
'alt-^': 'atomic-emacs:delete-indentation'
'ctrl-o': 'atomic-emacs:open-line'
'alt-space': 'atomic-emacs:just-one-space'
'ctrl-x ctrl-o': 'atomic-emacs:delete-blank-lines'
'ctrl-t': 'atomic-emacs:transpose-chars'
'alt-t': 'atomic-emacs:transpose-words'
'ctrl-alt-t': 'atomic-emacs:transpose-sexps'
'ctrl-x ctrl-t': 'atomic-emacs:transpose-lines'
'ctrl-x ctrl-l': 'atomic-emacs:downcase-word-or-region'
'alt-l': 'atomic-emacs:downcase-word-or-region'
'ctrl-x ctrl-u': 'atomic-emacs:upcase-word-or-region'
'alt-u': 'atomic-emacs:upcase-word-or-region'
'alt-c': 'atomic-emacs:capitalize-word-or-region'
'ctrl-j': 'editor:newline'
'ctrl-m': 'editor:newline'
'ctrl-/': 'core:undo'
'ctrl-_': 'core:undo'
'ctrl-x u': 'core:undo'
'alt-/': 'atomic-emacs:dabbrev-expand'
'alt-?': 'atomic-emacs:dabbrev-previous'
'alt-q': 'autoflow:reflow-selection'
'alt-;': 'editor:toggle-line-comments'
'ctrl-alt-\\' : 'editor:auto-indent'

Searching

Section titled “Searching”
'ctrl-s': 'atomic-emacs:isearch-forward'
'ctrl-r': 'atomic-emacs:isearch-backward'

While searching:

'enter': 'atomic-emacs:isearch-exit'
'ctrl-m': 'atomic-emacs:isearch-exit'
'escape': 'atomic-emacs:isearch-cancel'
'ctrl-g': 'atomic-emacs:isearch-cancel'
'ctrl-s': 'atomic-emacs:isearch-repeat-forward'
'ctrl-r': 'atomic-emacs:isearch-repeat-backward'
'alt-s c': 'atomic-emacs:isearch-toggle-case-fold'
'alt-c': 'atomic-emacs:isearch-toggle-case-fold'
'alt-s r': 'atomic-emacs:isearch-toggle-regexp'
'alt-r': 'atomic-emacs:isearch-toggle-regexp'
'ctrl-w': 'atomic-emacs:isearch-yank-word-or-character'

Marking & Selecting

Section titled “Marking & Selecting”
'ctrl-space': 'atomic-emacs:set-mark'
'ctrl-alt-space': 'atomic-emacs:mark-sexp'
'ctrl-x h': 'atomic-emacs:mark-whole-buffer'
'ctrl-x ctrl-x': 'atomic-emacs:exchange-point-and-mark'

UI

Section titled “UI”
'ctrl-g': 'core:cancel'
'ctrl-x ctrl-s': 'core:save'
'ctrl-x ctrl-w': 'core:save-as'
'alt-x': 'command-palette:toggle'
'alt-.': 'symbols-view:go-to-declaration'
'ctrl-x ctrl-c': 'application:quit'
'ctrl-x ctrl-f': 'atomic-emacs:find-file'
'ctrl-x b': 'fuzzy-finder:toggle-buffer-finder'
'ctrl-x k': 'core:close'
'ctrl-x 0': 'pane:close'
'ctrl-x 1': 'atomic-emacs:close-other-panes'
'ctrl-x 2': 'pane:split-down'
'ctrl-x 3': 'pane:split-right'
'ctrl-x o': 'window:focus-next-pane'

Other Packages

Section titled “Other Packages”

For a more Emacs-like version of find-file, install advanced-open-file. Atomic Emacs will use that package if it exists by default instead of Atom’s fuzzy-finder. This may be disabled in settings, but note that fuzzy-finder cannot create new files.

Extending Atomic Emacs

Section titled “Extending Atomic Emacs”

Atomic Emacs exposes its core classes via a consumable service. For example, here’s how you could extend it to add subword navigation:

~/.atom/init.coffee:

atom.workspace.packageManager.serviceHub.consume "atomic-emacs", "^0.13.0", (service) ->
  window.emacs = service


forwardSubword = (event) ->
  emacsEditor = emacs.getEditor(event)
  emacsEditor.moveEmacsCursors (emacsCursor) ->
    emacsCursor.skipNonWordCharactersForward()
    emacsCursor.cursor.moveToNextSubwordBoundary()


backwardSubword = (event) ->
  emacsEditor = emacs.getEditor(event)
  emacsEditor.moveEmacsCursors (emacsCursor) ->
    emacsCursor.skipNonWordCharactersBackward()
    emacsCursor.cursor.moveToPreviousSubwordBoundary()


atom.commands.add 'atom-text-editor', 'me:forward-subword', (event) -> forwardSubword(event)
atom.commands.add 'atom-text-editor', 'me:backward-subword', (event) -> backwardSubword(event)

~/.atom/keymap.cson:

'atom-text-editor':
  'ctrl-left': 'me:backward-subword'
  'ctrl-right': 'me:forward-subword'

If you’re writing an extension package, consume the service as described in the [Atom Flight Manual][atom-flight-manual].

[atom-flight-manual] !: https://flight-manual.atom.io/behind-atom/sections/interacting-with-other-packages-via-services/

Documentation for the Atomic Emacs core classes is sparse, but a common starting point is to get the EmacsEditor for the event as above. The EmacsEditor and EmacsCursor classes in the Atomic Emacs source should be fairly easy to follow.

Something missing?

Section titled “Something missing?”

Feel free to suggest features on the Github issue tracker, or better yet, send a pull request!

Windows Note

Section titled “Windows Note”

Some common Emacs keystrokes conflict with the default key bindings on Atom for Windows in unexpected ways. For example, ctrl-k (kill-line on emacs) is a prefix key for a set of pane management commands in Atom for Windows. The result is that after pressing ctrl-k, Atom will wait for 2 seconds to determine if it should treat this as a full command, or the beginning of another command, making kill-line feel “slow”.

You can of course disable this by disabling the all built-in key bindings that start with ctrl-k in your keymaps.config file. You can also do this a little easier with the [disable-keybindings][disable-keybindings] package.

[disable-keybindings] !: https://atom.io/packages/disable-keybindings

Contributing

Section titled “Contributing”
  • Bug reports
  • Source
  • Patches: Fork on Github, send pull request.
  • Include tests where practical.
  • Leave the version alone, or bump it in a separate commit.