Back
Oct 11, 2010

Char search in Emacs as in Vim

In VIM there is a command for char search: f. After first use it can be repeated with ;. I like to navigate in line with it. You see that you need to go to bracket in a middle of a line - you press f( and one-two ; and you are there. There's no such command in Emacs, so I had to write my own. I've managed even to implement repetition with ;.

(setq last-search-forward-char nil)

(defun search-forward-char-continue ()
(interactive)
(if (and last-search-forward-char (or (eq (symbol-function last-command) (symbol-function 'search-forward-char))
(eq last-command this-command)))
(search-forward-char last-search-forward-char)
(progn
(insert ";")
(setq last-search-forward-char nil))))

(global-set-key (kbd "M-s") 'search-forward-char)
(global-set-key (kbd ";") 'search-forward-char-continue)

Key word here is last-command. Using the same principle other commands also can be assigned to same key.

Subscribe for the news and updates

More thoughts
Mar 26, 2025Technology
Common Mistakes and Recommendations for Test Cases

The article highlights common test case mistakes, offers ways to fix them, and provides practical tips to improve and optimize test cases.

Apr 3, 2024Technology
Test Analysis at the Product Level

Test analysis is an essential and crucial activity in the testing process. A well-organized test analysis provides an adequate level of confidence in the overall effectiveness of the testing and contributes to the delivery of high-quality software.

Dec 13, 2022Technology
How to create a timelapse video from frames

We’ll tell you how to create a video timelapse from a sequence of snapshots and provide customers with video playlists optimized for browser playback.

Aug 18, 2022Technology
5 Best Practices of RESTful API Design to Keep Your Users Happy

Dive into our guide to RESTful API best practices

May 18, 2017Technology
Angular2: Development Tips and Trick

In this article we'll discuss some tricks you can use with Angular to make routing cleaner and improve SEO of your application.

Apr 3, 2011Technology
Sprite cache invalidation

When we use css-sprites it's important to make browser cache them for longest period possible. On other hand, we need to refresh them when they are updated. This is especially visible when all icons are stored in single sprite. When it's outdated - entire site becomes ugly.