Trying to get "better-jumper" work.

I transitioned to (vanilla) Emacs two months ago, after using Vim for the last 8 years or so---I'm loving it! I also forced myself out of the comfort zone and practiced plain Emacs keybinding, and I'm quite comfortable with it. However, the only thing I miss from (Neo)vim as an ex-vimmer is `C-o` and `C-i` to jump back and forth. I found this [better-jumper](https://github.com/gilbertw1/better-jumper) package and tried to use it: ```emacs-lisp (use-package better-jumper :ensure t :init (better-jumper-mode 1) :config (define-key input-decode-map "\\C-i" \[C-i\]) :bind (("C-o" . 'better-jumper-jump-backward) ("C-i" . 'better-jumper-jump-forward))) ``` But it doesn't seem to automatically record positions. For instance, I want to move back to where I was after I `C-M-.` via `C-o`. Is there a way to automatically do this without full-fledged Doom emacs or evil-mode? I'm fine with cherry-picking only this feature from evil-mode, btw. Thanks!

Indeed you have to tell better-jumper to record positions by calling `better-jump-set-jump` in hooks or advices. Doom does something like this: `(advice-add #'imenu :around #'doom-set-jump-a)`. To cherry-pick, I would first go steal Doom's config for better-jumper (just 2 or 3 functions is enough) and then advise more functions, using evil (or maybe just vi) as reference. See the "Similar Packages" section of this package, [https://github.com/Overdr0ne/gumshoe](https://github.com/Overdr0ne/gumshoe), for a list of alternatives. Gumshoe automatically records positions after idling for a few seconds if I'm not mistaken, so if you want something closer to Vim then you'd have to start by disabling some features.

Have you tried out using Emacs mark ring for navigating? From the little I know of the Vim feature you refer to, it's probably quite different, but I often jump using the mark ring and I think it works well. Many Emacs commands that move point also at mark. Not all do, but enough do, in my view. Read more here: https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Mark-Ring.html I'm sure there are also articles written but the manual seems to cover a lot. Good luck!

Mark ring may be what you want. If you want to jump around a code base, Dumb Jump is great: https://github.com/jacktasia/dumb-jump

Thank you! The gumshoe package looks promising.

To be honest, I didn’t try hard to use the mark ring. I think I should learn how to use the mark ring to navigate around the Emacs way! Thanks for the reference. +)Is there a way for automating c-spc c-spc to set a mark and push it onto the ring?

I’ll take a look at it, thank you!

* (Others have mentioned the *mark ring*. Yes, this, of course.) * Beyond what that offers, [***autonamed bookmarks***](https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/BookmarkPlus#AutonamedBookmarks). (You need [Bookmark+](https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/BookmarkPlus) for this.) By default, autonamed bookmarks are ***temporary*** - not saved to your bookmark file. You can control this with option `bmkp-autotemp-bookmark-predicates`. See [Temporary Bookmarks](https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/BookmarkPlus#TemporaryBookmarks). You can even [highlight](https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/BookmarkPlus#HighlightingBookmarkLocations) the locations of bookmarks, in case that helps. You can do that by bookmark type -- e.g., highlight only autonamed bookmarks.

Yes. I've written how to do this here: https://www.masteringemacs.org/article/fixing-mark-commands-transient-mark-mode

`:bind` works with non-global keymaps too, so there's no need to use `define0key`. As for jumping, I use `counsel-mark-ring`

Do you use evil?

About the define-key, the purpose was to differentiate the physical tab key and the c-i combo. Is there a better way to do this / can it be done with :bind?

Thank you, that’s super useful :)

No, I don’t!

> can it be done with :bind? that's what I was talking about https://github.com/jwiegley/use-package#binding-within-local-keymaps

As others have mentioned, better-jumper doesn’t automatically record points to jump back to. For that’s there’s both [dogears](https://github.com/alphapapa/dogears.el) and [gumshoe](https://github.com/Overdr0ne/gumshoe). In case it’s of any help to you, I recently setup better-jumper in my own config [here](https://github.com/jimeh/.emacs.d/blob/de722509f5dd4008d5ed7b2c47aea64c9c4fb8c7/modules/navigation/siren-better-jumper.el). I specifically use it to record a jump point before and after triggering various jump to definition/reference functions, and nothing else so far.