Are modal editing packages wrappers around multiple keymaps?

I'm not very good at elisp, or programming in general, but I've been reading through Modalka and Boon's source and I haven't really found much that specifically says "this is the modal part" in big neon letters. But I did notice that Modalka defines fewer keymaps than Boon does. Modalka only provides two modes for editing and everything else, while Boon provides more modes. So I suspect that really what's happening is that they are managing keymaps. Is this actually true? Or am I missing something important?

yes, they can be (though, not necessarily). check out my comment on the Modalka github page: > Note that the target key binding cannot be a prefix key (prefix keys will be ignored). I'm not sure what you (Mark Karpov) mean by this, but I want to make it clear that this works because it sounds like you mean prefix keys are not possible with Modalka: ``` (setq keymap (make-sparse-keymap)) (define-key keymap "C-x" #'ctl-x-map) (define-key modalka-mode-map "x" ctl-x-map) (define-key ctl-x-map (kbd "e") 'eval-last-sexp) (define-key ctl-x-map (kbd "s") 'save-buffer) ``` `x` works like `CTL-x` does. that is, x acts just like the normal prefix key. I think it's a game changer. hat tip to u/Horrih for the tip PS apologies if I misunderstood you. end of GitHub comment. Modalka is great. and thanks again to Horrih for the great help

> I suspect that really what's happening is that they are managing keymaps. Is this actually true? If you type a key/sequence in Emacs and something happens, it's because of a keymap.

Yes. Overriding keymaps, then managing the overrides.

Thanks, stating it this way makes the whole thing fairly easy to understand. :)

This sounds like there's a lot of potential for things to become messy. I'm assuming that this means major/minor modes create keymaps to do things. Won't this lead to clashes?

Could you explain a bit more about what you mean with "though, not necessarily"? That GitHub comment was very valuable thank you! It didn't occur to me that this is possible.

Read all of https://www.masteringemacs.org/article/mastering-key-bindings-emacs -- it should explain most questions you might have about keymaps and key bindings generally. Clashes are in part covered by https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/elisp/Key-Binding-Conventions.html

yeah, so, with Modalka, you can tap into other keymaps with Modalka's standard translation abilities, e.g. ``` (modalka-define-kbd "a" "C-a") ; move-beginning-of-line (modalka-define-kbd "e" "C-e") ; move-end-of-line ``` or you can create your own Modalka map that does not rely on anything else ``` (define-key modalka-mode-map (kbd "a") #'move-beginning-of-line) (define-key modalka-mode-map (kbd "e") #'move-end-of-line) ``` I think the "correct" way, if such a thing exists, is to tap into other keymaps so that they are accessible when I'm not in Modalka, like using `ctl-x-map` above. I believe this is proper technique. it's easier to remember and accessible everywhere

This is a really awesome idea thanks! :) Do you think one could use this technique to have one prefix key that defaults to the current major mode? Or would this have to be set for every mode?

Thank you, I'll read through that. :)

interest idea. i hadn't thought about it. i don't know