The “lost commands” of the Emacs tab bar.
That is, simple and convenient commands that help with common tab bar use-cases regarding the creation, selection and movement of tabs without the need to use prefix arguments (for reasons of ergonomics: in my own experience at least, frequently needing to type prefix arguments breaks my flow enough to be distracting).
If you use MELPA, an easy way to install this package is via
package-install. Alternatively, download tab-bar-lost-commands.el,
put it in your load-path and require it.
If you use both MELPA and use-package, you can use this, too:
(use-package tab-bar-lost-commands
:ensure)Table of available commands and their description.
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
tab-bar-lost-commands-switch-to-first-tab | Switch to the first tab |
tab-bar-lost-commands-switch-to-last-tab | Switch to the last tab |
tab-bar-lost-commands-move-tab-backward | Move the current tab backward by one |
tab-bar-lost-commands-move-tab-forward | Move the current tab forward by one |
tab-bar-lost-commands-move-tab-first | Move the current tab to the first position |
tab-bar-lost-commands-move-tab-last | Move the current tab to the last position |
tab-bar-lost-commands-switch-to-or-create-tab | Like tab-bar-switch-to-tab, but allow for the creation of a new, named tab on the fly |
Note that this package doesn’t bind any keys by itself.
In my local configuration, to mimic my browser’s keyboard shortcuts for
switching tabs, I use s-{ and s-} to switch to the previous or next
tab (using pre-existing Emacs tab bar commands).
I then add the meta key to these bindings to make them switch to the first or last tab. Also, I add the control key to these bindings to make them move the current tab backward or forward by one. Lastly, I add both the control and the meta key to make them move the current tab to the first or last position.
I also rewrite C-x t <return> (“switch to tab by name”) to run an
enhanced version of that command that allows for the creation of a new,
named tab on the fly.
(use-package tab-bar
:bind (("s-{" . tab-bar-switch-to-prev-tab)
("s-}" . tab-bar-switch-to-next-tab)))
(use-package tab-bar-lost-commands
:ensure
:bind (("M-s-{" . tab-bar-lost-commands-switch-to-first-tab)
("M-s-}" . tab-bar-lost-commands-switch-to-last-tab)
("C-s-{" . tab-bar-lost-commands-move-tab-backward)
("C-s-}" . tab-bar-lost-commands-move-tab-forward)
("C-M-s-{" . tab-bar-lost-commands-move-tab-first)
("C-M-s-}" . tab-bar-lost-commands-move-tab-last)
:map tab-prefix-map
("<return>" . tab-bar-lost-commands-switch-to-or-create-tab)))