IDEmacs aims to be a set of Emacs configurations which provide an out-of-the-box experience similar (if not identical) to popular GUI IDEs and editors.

It is aimed at…

1. Programmers coming to Emacs from other IDEs, or even first-time programmers familiar with only office applications.

2. Beginner Common Lisp and Scheme programmers, who need the functionality of Emacs (Sly/Geiser + structural editing) without having to perform unnecessary setup and without dealing with an alien style of keybindings. In other words, similar to Portacle or Guile Studio.

   • Some may say that we should improve support for Common Lisp and Scheme in other editors and IDEs instead. Still others may say that we should work on a better Lisp IDE than Emacs instead (such as Second Climacs or Lem). All great points. IDEmacs is just a band-aid for the present situation, where Emacs + Sly/Geiser is the best Lisp/Scheme IDE.
3. Non-programmers who want a fully-featured Org, Markdown, or LaTeX editor with idiomatic shortcuts and mouse-friendly GUI.

It provides…

1. GUI and mouse support, in addition to a keyboard-driven interface.

2. Keybindings that follow popular GUI and IDE conventions.

   • CUA mode is just the start - much more keybinding configuration is needed to provide an unsurprising experince. And that's before we even get to the IDE-specific keybindings.
   • This excludes starter kits that use Evil by default, such as Spacemacs or Doom.

3. A fully-featured, fast, and configuration-free Emacs experience, like any starter kit/distro.

   • The configuration uses idiomatic Elisp and contains a generous amount of comments, valuable to anyone interested in learning to configure Emacs using Elisp.

Perfectly imitating the GUIs and subtle behaviour differences of IDEs is desirable, but not top priority. Given our limited resources, we aim for "good enough".

We hope this gives new users a comfortable starting point, and make them more likely to stick around to discover the possibilities of Emacs' malleability, rather than being driven off by the default experience.

VSCode configuration (WIP)

This is the first and currently the only IDE configuration provided.

Currently, it brings together -

1. VSCode Dark Plus theme
2. Treemacs for the sidebar file browser ("Explorer")
3. Centaur Tabs for the tab bar
4. breadcrumb to show file paths as breadcrumbs
5. idle-highlight-mode to automatically highlight occurrences of the symbol at point
6. Emulation of most keybindings listed in the "General", "Basic Editing", "Rich Languages Editing", and "Multi-cursor and selection" sections of the VSCode keyboard shortcuts cheatsheet.
7. All editing packages required for emulation, including whole-line-or-region, expand-region, multiple-cursors, and smartparens
8. vc and magit for version control
9. diff-hl and blamer to show in-buffer version control information
10. A comprehensive collection of completion packages - Vertico, orderless, Consult, marginalia, and company.
11. Lisp editing packages - sly, geiser, and adjust-parens (similar to Parinfer)
12. eat for terminals
13. Sensible Emacs defaults, and other goodies - org-superstar, pdf-tools, undo-tree, helpful, rainbow-mode, …

use-package is used to keep the code organized.

Keybinding coverage

An empty command cell means we haven't bound anything to these keys yet.

General

Keybinding	VSCode description	IDEmacs-VSCode command	Notes
C-S-p	Show Command Palette	execute-extended-command	VSCode also binds F1 to this, but we currently leave that to the Emacs help prefixes.
C-p	Quick Open, Go to File	consult-locate	FIXME - behaviour differs from VSCode. Without a search term, VSCode suggests currently- and recently-opened files. Once a search term is entered, it searches for currently- and recently-opened files and the files in the currently opened project.
C-S-n	New window/instance	make-frame
C-w	Close window/instance	idemacs-kill-buffer-noprompt
C-,	User Settings	customize
C-k C-s	Keyboard Shortcuts		We need to make an interface for this.

Keys not mentioned in the VSCode keyboard shortcuts PDF

Keybinding	IDEmacs-VSCode command	Notes
<escape>	idemacs-escape	Tries to provide VSCode behaviour while also acting as C-g
C-a	idemacs-select-all
C-k C-o	treemacs-select-directory	FIXME - behaviour differs from VSCode. This should not just open a directory in Treemacs but also load the corresponding desktop file for it.

Basic editing

Keybinding	VSCode description	IDEmacs-VSCode command	Notes
C-x	Cut line (empty selection)	cua-cut-handler	empty selection behaviour is TODO
C-c	Copy line (empty selection)	cua-copy-handler	empty selection behaviour is TODO
M-<up> / M-<down>	Move line up/down	drag-stuff-up / drag-stuff-down
C-S-k	Delete line	whole-line-or-region-kill-region
C-RET / C-S-RET	Insert line below/above	idemacs-open-line / idemacs-open-line-above
C-S-\	Jump to matching bracket
C-] / C-[	Indent/Outdent line
<home> / <end>	Go to beginning/end of line	move-beginning-of-line / move-end-of-line	vanilla Emacs defaults
C-<home> / C-<end>	Go te beginning/end of file	beginning-of-buffer / end-of-buffer	vanilla Emacs defaults
C-<up> / C-<down>	Scroll line up/down	scroll-down-line / scroll-up-line
M-<prior> (Page Up) / M-<next> (Page Down)	Scroll page up/down
C-S-[ / C-S-]	Fold/unfold region
C-k C-[ / C-k C-]	Fold/unfold all subregions
C-k C-0 / C-k C-j	Fold/unfold all regions
C-k C-c	Add line comment	idemacs-comment-line	In VSCode, subsequent presses add additional comment characters to the start of the line, whereas IDEmacs-VSCode just toggles the comment.
C-k C-u	Remove line comment	idemacs-comment-line	In VSCode, subsequent presses remove additional comment characters from the start of the line, whereas IDEmacs-VSCode just toggles the comment.
C-/	Toggle line comment
C-S-a	Toggle block comment
M-z	Toggle word wrap	toggle-truncate-lines

Rich languages editing

Keybinding	VSCode description	IDEmacs-VSCode command	Notes
C-SPC, C-i	Trigger suggestion
C-S-SPC	Trigger parameter hints
C-S-i	Format document
C-k C-f	Format selection
<f12>	Go to definition	xref-find-definitions
C-S-<f10>	Peek definition
C-k <f12>	Open definition to the side
C-.	Quick fix
S-<f12>	Show references	xref-find-references
<f2>	Rename symbol
C-k C-x	Trim trailing whitespace	delete-trailing-whitespace
C-k m	Change file language

Multi-cursor and selection

Keybinding	VSCode description	IDEmacs-VSCode command	Notes
M-<down-mouse-1>	Insert cursor	mc/toggle-cursor-on-click
M-S-<up> / M-S-<down>	Insert cursor above/below	mc/mark-previous-lines / mc/mark-next-lines
C-u	Undo last cursor operation
M-S-i	Insert cursor at end of each line selected	mc/edit-ends-of-lines
C-l	Select current line
C-S-l	Select all occurrences of current selection	mc/mark-all-like-this
C-<f2>	Select all occurrences of current word	mc/mark-all-words-like-this
M-S-<right>	Expand selection	er/expand-region
M-S-<left>	Shrink selection	er/contract-region
M-S-<down-mouse-1>	Column (box) selection	idemacs-mouse-drag-rectangle

Display

Keybinding	VSCode description	IDEmacs-VSCode command	Notes
<f11>	Toggle full screen	toggle-frame-fullscreen	vanilla Emacs defaults
M-S-0	Toggle editor layout (horizontal/vertical)
C-\= / C--	Zoom in/out	text-scale-increase / text-scale-decrease
C-b	Toggle sidebar visibility
C-S-e	Show Explorer/ Toggle focus	idemacs-treemacs
C-S-f	Show Search
C-S-g	Show Source Control	magit-status
C-S-d	Show Debug
C-S-x	Show Extensions	list-packages	We need to write a better interface. Elpaca may be an option.
C-S-h	Replace in files	isearch-query-replace	We need an incremental, multi-file replacement UI.
C-S-j	Toggle Search details
C-S-c	Open new command prompt/terminal
C-k C-h	Show output panel
C-S-v	Open Markdown preview
C-k v	Open Markdown preview to the side
C-k z	Zen Mode (Esc Esc to exit)

Search and replace

Keybinding	VSCode description	IDEmacs-VSCode command	Notes
C-t	Show all symbols
C-g	Go to line	consult-line
C-p	Go to file	consult-locate	FIXME - behaviour differs from VSCode
C-S-o	Go to symbol	consult-imenu-multi	FIXME - behaviour differs from VSCode
C-S-m	Show problems panel
<f8>	Go to next error or warning
S-<f8>	Go to previous error or warning
C-S-<tab>	Navigate editor group history
C-M--	Go back
C-S--	Go forward
C-m	Toggle Tab moves focus

Editor management

Keybinding	VSCode description	IDEmacs-VSCode command	Notes
C-w	Close editor	idemacs-kill-buffer-noprompt	FIXME - behaviour differs from VSCode
C-k f	Close folder
C-\	Split editor	split-window-right
C-1 / C-2 / C-3	Focus into 1st, 2nd, 3rd editor group	select-window-1, select-window-2, select-window-3	FIXME - behaviour differs from VSCode
C-k C-<left>	Focus into previous editor group
C-k C-<right>	Focus into next editor group
C-S-<prior>	Move editor left
C-S-<next>	Move editor right
C-k <left>	Move active editor group left/up
C-k <right>	Move active editor group right/down

File management

Keybinding	VSCode description	IDEmacs-VSCode command	Notes
C-n	New file	untitled-new-buffer
C-o	Open file	find-file
C-s	Save	save-buffer
C-S-s	Save As	write-buffer
C-w	Close	idemacs-kill-buffer-noprompt
C-k C-w	Close all
C-S-t	Reopen closed editor
C-k Enter	Keep preview mode editor open
C-<tab>	Open next
C-S-<tab>	Open previous
C-k p	Copy path of active file
C-k r	Reveal active file in Explorer
C-k o	Show active file in new window/instance