• Keymaps

Conkeror has a sophisticated keyboard interface for interacting with web content. Unfortunately, in this area, power comes at the price of some complexity. Conkeror's keymap system may seem more complex than that of its mentor software, Emacs, but this complexity is unavoidable given the complexity of the GUI-web environment that Conkeror must deal with. For example, there must be a set of key bindings for use in text boxes, and another for checkboxes, a set for viewing web pages, and another for non-webpage buffers. In fact many keymaps for the many different contexts of focus that the user can be in. When you want to bind a command so it is available in suitable contexts, you need to pick the proper keymap to bind it in. In this article, we will try to describe all of the available keymaps to help you select the right one.

There are a few keymaps used for specialty purposes for specific commands, which we will discuss later, but all of the most important keymaps are arranged in a single hierarchy. Keymaps deeper into the hierarchy inherit key bindings from their ancestors. Child keymaps can override bindings in parent keymaps.

Hierarchy of Contexts

• default_base_keymap

  Commands bound here will be available in any context of the hierarchy without an override. Very few commands actually belong in this keymap because commands that work in the minibuffer usually involve extra processing compared to their normal-buffer counterparts. An example of a command for which this keymap is appropriate is universal-argument, which works the same in all buffers, as well as the minibuffer.

  • default_global_keymap

    This keymap is the parent of all keymaps for interacting with content, both in normal web browsing buffers and special buffers like *Download* and *Help*. It is not the ancestor of any minibuffer keymaps.

    • content_buffer_normal_keymap

      • The context of this keymap is content-buffers, a.k.a. web browser buffers. This keymap contains a wide variety of commands--everything related to navigation, scrolling, and much more.

      • content_buffer_caret_keymap

        This keymap contains the movement and selection bindings for conkeror's caret-mode. (M-x caret-mode)

      • content_buffer_form_keymap Base keymap for form elements.

        • content_buffer_checkbox_keymap

          • Aforementioned keymap for when a checkbox input element on a webpage has focus.

        • content_buffer_select_keymap

        • content_buffer_text_keymap

          • content_buffer_textarea_keymap

            • content_buffer_richedit_keymap

              • gmail_richedit_keymap (page mode)

            • gmail_textarea_keymap (page mode)

          • gmail_text_keymap (page mode)

      • google_calendar_keymap (page mode)

      • google_maps_keymap (page mode)

      • google_reader_keymap (page mode)

      • google_search_results_keymap (page mode)

        This is the keymap of the page-mode, google-search-results-mode.

      • reddit_keymap (page mode)

    • download_buffer_keymap

    • help_buffer_keymap

  • hint_keymap

  • isearch_keymap

  • minibuffer_base_keymap

    • minibuffer_keymap

  • single_character_options_minibuffer_keymap

Command-specific keymaps

• default_help_keymap

• minibuffer_message_keymap

• content_buffer_quote_keymap

• content_buffer_quote_next_keymap

• key_binding_reader_keymap

• universal_argument_keymap

  This keymap is invoked by the command universal-argument (C-u) as an overlay that provides bindings on the number keys and the subtract key for typing a numeric prefix argument.