guru-mode

November 8, 2020 · View on GitHub

Synopsis

Guru mode disables (or warns on) some generic keybindings and suggests the use of the established and more efficient Emacs alternatives instead. Here are a few examples:

It will teach you to avoid the arrow keys and use keybindings like C-f, C-b, etc.
It will teach you to avoid keybindings using Home, End, etc.
It will teach you to avoid Delete/Backspace.

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Installation

Manual

Just drop guru-mode.el somewhere in your load-path. I favour the folder ~/.emacs.d/vendor:

(add-to-list 'load-path "~/emacs.d/vendor")
(require 'guru-mode)

MELPA

If you're an Emacs 24 user or you have a recent version of package.el you can install guru-mode from the MELPA repository.

Emacs Prelude

guru-mode is naturally part of the Emacs Prelude. If you're a Prelude user - guru-mode is already properly configured and ready for action.

Usage

You can enable guru-mode globally like this:

(guru-global-mode +1)

Most likely you'd like to enable guru-mode only in specific modes (like prog-mode in Emacs 24):

(add-hook 'prog-mode-hook 'guru-mode)

If you only want to get warnings when you the arrow keys use the following config:

(setq guru-warn-only t)

You can extend the list of keybindings covered by guru-mode like this:

(add-to-list 'guru-affected-bindings-list '("<C-left>" "M-b" left-word))

The list you're adding is of the format (discouraged keybinding, recommended keybinding, command).

Note: guru-mode operates only on global keybindings and it will never interfere with some mode-specific keybindings.