Spaceleader

Description

Leader-key implementation copied and pasted from inspired by spacemacs 😀.

Installation

TODO: add melpa support.

Straight

You can install this package using the straight package manager and the following recipe.

(straight-use-package
 '(spaceleader :type git :host github :repo "mohkale/spaceleader"))

This package also comes bundled with a file spaceleader-base.el which offers some basic leader bindings which you may or may not want setup for you.

GNU Guix

guix install emacs-spaceleader

Commands

spacemacs	spaceleader
spacemacs/set-leader-keys	leader-set-keys
spacemacs/set-leader-keys-for-minor-mode	leader-set-keys-for-mode
spacemacs/set-leader-keys-for-major-mode	leader-set-keys-for-major-mode
spacemacs/declare-prefix	leader-declare-prefix
spacemacs/declare-prefix-for-mode	leader-declare-prefix-for-major-mode
	leader-with-prefix
	leader-with-major-mode-prefix

NOTE: as of yet, you can't set prefixes for minor-modes see emacs-which-key#212 for why.

Customisation

WARN: You should set any customisations before loading spaceleader.el or you may end up with broken leader-keys.

run M-: customize-group leader to see all the customisation options for spaceleader. by default, spaceleader tries to emulate spacemacs evil configuration as much as possible.

leader-key: the key under which all leader bindings will be assigned.

leader-nnorm-key: the leader-key used for non-normal emacs evil states.

leader-major-mode-prefix: the key under leader-key where major-mode leader-bindings are placed.

leader-major-mode-key: an optional shortcut key for leader-key then leader-major-mode-prefix. only for normal-state maps.

Usage

spaceleader has deviated from spacemacs in a few core ways to make binding leader keys more straightforward.

Bindings & Prefixes

Firstly, there's no seperate function for specifying prefixes and leader keys. Both are done so through leader/set-keys.

For example in spacemacs you may have:

(spacemacs/declare-prefix "a"  "apps" "applications")
(spacemacs/declare-prefix "am" "man")
(spacemacs/set-leader-keys
  "au"  'undo-tree-visualise
  "ax"  'customize
  "amw" 'woman
  "amm" 'man)

Which can just as well be written as:

(leader/declare-prefix
  "a"  '("apps" . "applications")
  "am"  "man")

(leader/set-keys
  "au" 'undo-tree-visualise
  "ax" 'customize

  "amw" 'woman
  "amm" 'man)

declare-prefix For Major Modes

spaceleader also supports declaring prefixes for major-mode bindings. spacemacs also supports this, however it does so indirectly; you have to manually concatenate any of the keys you want to set with the hardcoded major-mode-prefix used by spacemacs (I.E. m).

(spacemacs/declare-prefix-for-mode 'dired-mode "mx" "command-x")
(spacemacs/declare-prefix-for-mode 'dired-mode "my" "command-y")

this quite quickly becomes bothersome, especially if somewhere down the line you decide you want to change the major-mode-prefix. leader/set-keys-for-major-mode will automatically prepend your leader prefix to any specified keybindings, including for prefix declarations.

(leader/declare-prefix-for-major-mode 'dired-mode
  "x" "command-x"
  "y" "command-y")

NOTE: minor mode prefix decleration not yet supported by which-key.

Specifying a Prefix Across Multiple set-key Calls

Have you ever had to define your leader-keys like this?

(let ((my-special-prefix "ox"))
  (spacemacs/set-leader-keys
    (concat my-special-prefix "a") 'command-a
    (concat my-special-prefix "b") 'command-b
    (concat my-special-prefix "c") 'command-c)

  (let ((my-extra-special-prefix (concat my-special-prefix "b")))
    (spacemacs/set-leader-keys
      (concat my-extra-special-prefix "x") 'command-x
      (concat my-extra-special-prefix "y") 'command-y
      (concat my-extra-special-prefix "z") 'command-z)))

I did, and I'm not a fan 😢. spaceleader is designed to take away this hassle, to that end there're 3 macros which will let you specify a prefix and assume it's correctly bound in all the prefix or leader-key declarations you make within it's body; you can even nest prefix declarations and this'll have the obvious affect.

The above can be simplified to:

(leader/with-prefix "ox"
  (leader/set-keys
    "a" 'command-a
    "b" 'command-b
    "c" 'command-c)

  (leader/with-prefix "b"
    ;; total-prefix is "oxb"
    "x" 'command-x
    "y" 'command-y
    "z" 'command-z))

NOTE: there's also: leader/with-major-mode-prefix - which is an alias for (leader/with-prefix leader-major-mode-prefix &rest BODY).

Warnings

Spacemacs Emacs Configuration

I've never actually used spacemacs's emacs configuration (& more importantly don't know how it differs from the evil configuration). Therefore this package doesn't exactly adhere to it. If you'd like to implement such functionality, feel free to do so and then share a pull request.

Tonnes of Maps

By consquence virtue of design, this package ends up creating a lot of keymaps. bind-map creates 3 for each mode based binding. What's more any leader bindings made within the major-mode prefix for a given minor mode requires an extra 3 maps as well (only when the major-mode leader key isn't being simulated).

The format of such maps is:

• leader-<mode>-map-prefix
• leader-<mode>-root-map
• leader-<mode>-map

and for minor modes binding within the major mode prefix:

• leader-<mode>--major-prefix-alias-map
• leader-<mode>--major-prefix-alias-root-map
• leader-<mode>--major-prefix-alias-map-prefix

Similair Packages

• evil-leader