Keymap problem setting up custom keybindings

[jacksonbenete]

• M-: emacs-version: 26.3
• M-: (lm-version "binder.el"): 0.4.2

I don't know why but while following the tutorial, I noticed that a lot of keybindings didn't worked. After closing and opening Emacs some more times all keybindings stopped working.

Considering that they stopped working, and also because I had some problems with the keys sequence of some default keybindings, I've tried to set my custom keybindings:

(global-set-key (kbd "<C-kp-subtract>") 'binder-previous)
(global-set-key (kbd "<C-kp-add>") 'binder-next)
(global-set-key (kbd "<C-kp-divide>") 'binder-reveal-in-sidebar)
(global-set-key (kbd "<C-kp-multiply>") 'binder-toggle-sidebar)

The problem is that I'm always receiving the message "set-transient-map PCH: (wrong-type-argument keymapp nil)", this only happens with custom keybindings set up as global-keys, the custom keybindings stills works fine but it prevents the usage of some other things, like to rename a note since it uses the echo area/minibuffer to rename and the message appears every time a key is pressed.

If I try to remap for the binder-mode only, I receive "Wrong argument type: keymap nil" and the keybinding didn't work at all.

(global-set-key (kbd "<C-kp-divide>") #'binder-reveal-in-sidebar)
(eval-after-load 'binder
  '(define-key binder-mode (kbd "<C-kp-subtract>") #'binder-previous))
(eval-after-load 'binder
  '(define-key binder-mode (kbd "<C-kp-add>") #'binder-next))
(eval-after-load 'binder
  '(define-key binder-mode (kbd "<C-kp-multiply>") #'binder-toggle-sidebar))
(eval-after-load 'binder
  '(define-key binder-mode (kbd "C-\\") #'binder-notes-expand-window))

[rnkn]

First thing's first... do the default key bindings work when you load Emacs with this?

emacs -Q -l PATH/TO/binder.el -l PATH/TO/binder-tutorial.el

[jacksonbenete]

Nice, they do work!

I'm pretty new to Emacs but looks like this -Q just ignore the init.el (thus ignoring installed packages) except for those I'm explicitly loading.

So, the problem might be installed packages being in conflict with binder?

[rnkn]

Yes, when debugging it's essential to test with -Q to bypass the init.

If you're new to Emacs and you've been pasting random stuff into your init file (probably encouraged by people on reddit) that's not a good way to go about it. This is essentially the manual override option, and implies that you really know what you're doing. Use M-x customize-option to set things up until you're fluent in Elisp. (You can still learn how options are set in lisp by clicking State > Show Saved Lisp Expression.)

That said, currently the only way to override key bindings is in your init, but you can safely add these after the custom-set-* declarations. With the binder-next|previous commands, these are not in the global map, so:

(with-eval-after-load 'binder
  (define-key binder-navigation-map (kbd "<C-kp-add>") 'binder-next)
  (define-key binder-navigation-map (kbd "<C-kp-subtract>") 'binder-previous))

Let me know if this still raises an error, which will be because the key sequence is read as a single character.

[jacksonbenete]

Thanks for the heads up, I don't really paste things randomly on my init.el. :}

I've started a Vanilla Emacs some weeks ago to learn more about it and cherry picked 40 packages. I read on how to keep init.el clean and safe and I keep my .emacs.d as a git repo so I can keep track of changes and revert back if something goes wrong. My Emacs loads in about 0.3 seconds with only 40 packages, or 0.9 seconds if I enable the Dashboard package, a --debug-init doesn't warn about any conflict or broken things. I will look if I can uninstall some packages for it to be cleaner and safer, maybe 40 packages is too much. Is also good to know about M-x customize-option, never heard anyone talking about that. I will try it to see how it goes if I have to change something in the future, I'm already using M-x customize-themes instead of enabling it manually so customize-option might be the way to go.

I wrote the keybindings using binder-nativation-map instead of binder-mode as you said:

(with-eval-after-load 'binder
  (define-key binder-navigation-map (kbd "<C-kp-add>") 'binder-next)
  (define-key binder-navigation-map (kbd "<C-kp-subtract>") 'binder-previous)
  (define-key binder-navigation-map (kbd "<C-kp-divide>") 'binder-reveal-in-sidebar)
  (define-key binder-navigation-map (kbd "<C-kp-multiply>") 'binder-toggle-sidebar))

It worked, but Emacs still echo the keymap error, so when I'm trying to rename a note it's difficult as every time I press any key it echoes the error and I can't read what is being written.

[rnkn]

Sorry, only the commands binder-next and binder-previous live in binder-navigation-map, whereas the other keys are in binder-mode-map. The latter inherits from the former, so you could bind everything in binder-mode-map but it's binder-navigation-map that allows repeating the last key for just that map e.g. C-c ] ] [ [.

I've added some more safety to the way this gets activated. Please update from MELPA (unstable) in a few hours, or from this repo, and report back if you still get the same issue.