Switching C-u and C-x

I was reading this [article](https://esrh.me/posts/2022-04-07-dvorak-and-editing.html) and one snippet was : > Undoubtedly the worst binding I’ve had to deal with is C-x on emacs. I took the suggestion from the emacswiki and swapped C-u and C-x. I barely use C-u anyway, and this places C-x right under the pointer in the home row, which is very comfortable. Common sequences like C-x C-s and C-x C-e become optimal homerow rolls. I was wondering how to do that natively in emacs without using karabiner/xmodmap or other OS dependent solution?

just remap Ctrl to Command and you will be able to use thumb and index finger of your left hand to press any key combos.

thanks, but that's not what I am asking (:

(keyboard-translate ?\C-x ?\C-u) Or (global-set-key (kbd "C-u") 'ctl-x-map)

The following should do (mostly) what you want. ``` (define-key global-map (kbd "C-u") ctl-x-map) (define-key global-map (kbd "C-x") #'universal-argument) ;; or the following to override minor-mode bindings for C-x (I'm not sure whether this is actually a good idea) (define-key override-global-map (kbd "C-x") #'universal-argument) ``` I recommend reading https://www.masteringemacs.org/article/mastering-key-bindings-emacs#keymap-lookup-order

Thats actually a good idea x is in a really awkward position for how often its used

My preferred method would be this: (edited because I forgot the arguments need to be characters, not key sequences) (keyboard-translate ?\C-u ?\C-x) (keyboard-translate ?\C-x ?\C-u) This swaps the keys anywhere they appear in a key sequence. So "C-x C-x" (for `exchange-point-and-mark`), becomes "C-u C-u", a double-press of the same key, just like the original keybinding. And "C-x C-u" (for `upcase-region`) becomes "C-u C-x". (I personally never use that one since I have M-u bound to `upcase-dwim`, which handles the same task). Another popular key to swap with "C-x" on Dvorak is "C-t". I actually like that one more than "C-u", because it's under the right hand. But "t" as a base key is used for the transposition bindings. So `transpose-chars` would be moved from "C-t" to "C-x". And "C-x C-t" (for `transpose-lines`) would be accessible via "C-t C-x". For consistency, you might also want to swap "M-t" (`transpose-words`) with "M-x" (`execute-extended-command`) and "C-M-t" (`transpose-sexps`) with "C-M-x" (`eval-defun`). However, since Emacs doesn't view "M-t/M-x" and "C-M-t/C-M-x" as regular characters, you can't use the `keyboard-translate` function to swap them. Instead, you would want to use `define-key` or `global-set-key` to swap the commands bound to those keys.

Thanks for the detailed answer, very helpful.. Have a good day!

It's interesting to see how one's "solution to the Ctrl key issue" will make some things more comfortable than others. In my case, because I use right alt as ctrl, C-x is actually much more comfortable than C-u.

For whatever reason when i hit C-x it stays as C-x and switches to C-u when i press another key C-u doesn’t do this

I edited my comment because the original code gave an error since `keyboard-translate` doesn't accept output from `kbd`. The new version should work. Just be sure to evaluate the lines in the order they appear now, if you're using "C-x C-e". Are you sure you were using the `keyboard-translate` version when this happened?

Yes i was it still does it now if i change it back but after running the new one it works fine