Find-char

A taste of the f operator of vim in Emacs.

Usage

• Bind find-char to some key, say M-j.
• Hit M-j and the character that you want to move to.
• Press “ ’ ” to move forward, ; to move back.
• Press any other key to finish

Extra:

• You can combine numerical arguments with find-char, e.g., C-3 find-char, C-- C-4 find-char.
• Press the character you are searching for to move forward, Press the reversed case of it to move backward. E.g,
  • M-j f, f forward, F backward
  • M-j F, F forward, f backward.
• Case-sensitivity is controlled by case-fold-search.

Note: find-char doesn’t search the whole buffer since it’s just for short distance jumping.

Convenient commands

key	Command
C-d	Quick delete region (like df)
C-w	Quick copy region
C-v	Toggle highlight of region

The mark is set to where you began jumping, you can do whatever you want with that.

Customization

Variable	Description
find-char-search-range	find-char doesn’t search the whole buffer, but only a portion around point
find-char-stop-at	where does find-char stop, can be 'beginning or 'end
case-fold-search	controls case-sensitivity when searching

You can customize find-char-transient-map, the map that activates during jumping. Default value is:

(defvar find-char-transient-map (let ((map (make-sparse-keymap)))
                                  (define-key map (kbd "'") #'find-char-forward)
                                  (define-key map (kbd ";") #'find-char-backward)
                                  (define-key map (kbd "C-'") #'find-char-forward)
                                  (define-key map (kbd "C-;") #'find-char-backward)
                                  (define-key map (kbd "C-d") #'find-char-quick-delete)
                                  (define-key map (kbd "C-v") #'find-char-toggle-region-highlight)
                                  (define-key map (kbd "C-w") #'find-char-copy-region)
                                  map)
  "Transient map for find-char.")

Plus the dynamically binded search char and reverse case of search char mentioned in “usage” section above.

Comparison with jump-char

I’ve been using jump-char for quite a while and it is great. Here is the differences between jump-char and find-char:

• jump-char uses isearch, which brings advantages and disadvantages. It is more like searching than a jumping. E.g., there is no trivial way to jump with region activated AFAIK .
• jump-char integrates ace-jump while find-char doesn’t.