Emacs Rocks! Episode 02: A vimgolf eagle

http://emacsrocks.com - Rocking emacs tricks and tips screencast.

Follow me on twitter: @emacsrocks

Hi! Welcome back to Emacs rocks!

It's episode 2 and today I have a real treat for you. Check it out!

It's VimGolf! Yay!

VimGolf is really cool, I really wish there was one for Emacs.

It's a competition and the goal is to transform

the starting file into the ending file

in as few keystrokes as possible.

So, this is challenge number 6 and

there is a one to ten in letters and a one to ten in numbers

and the goal is to get the one to ten lined up in two columns.

So the best score into Vim is 17, is the winning score.

So let's see if Emacs might do a little bit better.

Ok, I'll run through it one time without commentary

and then I'll run through it again and tell you what I'm doing.

So pay attention to the keystrokes.

Haha! Now wasn't that awesome.

Let's see it again in slow motion.

Ok, now we are back to the start.

This is the first episode where I use macros but it won't be the last!

Macros is a powerhorse in Emacs.

So I start by defining a macro pressing F3

then jump to the bottom and I delete all.

This puts it into the kill ring and I erase the space

and then I press Control-9

Control-9 doesn't do anything on it's own,

but it makes my next command repeat 9 times.

Which is command p for previous line, 9 lines up

Control-E, tab, yank, and my macro is finished.

So I press F4 to complete my macro and now

I can run that macro nine times, Control-9 F4.

Done.

And that was 12 keystrokes.

Let me remind tou, best in Vim, 17.

So, to reiterate

Emacs rocks!