Emacs key binding in Eclipse IDE

Question

Hello;

I am an Emacs lover probably because I love the key binding and I am able to do things very quickly. I also use Eclipse IDE for my Java/Android/Python/ development because it is free, most of my peers use it, and it works. I find myself switching between emacs and Eclipse and the workflow just isn't great. What I would like to do is setup the key bindings in Eclipse so that they are like Emacs.

Can someone suggest the best Eclipse plugin I could use for this. Or can anyone talk about how they've used Eclipse to be more Emacs like. Thanks in advance

Answer 1

No plugin needed!

Just go to Windows -> Preferences -> General -> Keys and select "Emacs" under Scheme.

Answer 2

First try turning on the Emacs key bindings in your key preferences. If that doesn't give you all that you need, then you might try installing the Emacs+ plugin. Of course, if you have any elisp customizations, I think you might be out-of-luck.

Personally, I always prefer to just learn editor-centric way to do things so that I am not helpless when I sit at someone else's computer.

Answer 3

The Emacs+ plugin does a good bit better job providing Emacs keys than the standard Eclipse install.

Answer 4

I have to second the recommendation of Emacs+. I've been using and loving Emacs since the dawn of time and the key bindings and functionality of Emacs are hard-wired into my fingers and brain by now. Before Emacs+ came along, I found Eclipse to be a complete bear to use, as years of muscle memory and knowing how to get things done without even thinking about it, were not only useless in Eclipse, but in fact detrimental.

Emacs+ has fixed all of this for me. Now using Eclipse is nearly as seamless as using Emacs, plus I get all the features of a modern IDE. It's practically the best of all worlds. The only thing I still really miss from Emacs is M-q filling of "//" comments.

I should also point out that this is far more than a simple set of key-bindings. It faithfully reproduces a lot of subtle Emacs behavior that you take for granted, until it's not there.