Conkeror: "Firefox for Emacs users"
This is my OLD blog. I've copied this post over to my NEW blog at:
http://www.saltycrane.com/blog/2008/01/firefox-for-emacs-users/
You should be redirected in 2 seconds.
I recently discovered Conkeror via Bill Clementson's article, Firefox for Emacs users . I must say it is pretty sweet. It's the type of thing that makes you have to get up and go to the bathroom because it's so exciting.
So I switched over to Emacs from Eclipse about 4 months ago. Though it has been slow learning everything in Emacs, I am starting to feel pretty comfortable now and actually feel uneasy when I'm using another editor. It is very nice to be able to do everything with the keyboard in Emacs. I can do all cursor movement, scrolling, and selection very nicely in Emacs. And all text manipulation commands are immediately accessible from the keyboard. Pair that with a bash command line running inside GNU screen, and I can do about 50% of my work without using a mouse. Of the other 50%, one big chunk is Microsoft Outlook which, as far as I know, I need because we are using an Exchange server. But the other big chunk is web browsing, which, up until now, has been very mouse dependent.
Enter Conkeror, the keyboard-driven web browser that "conkers" the web
without a mouse. (I just made that up, btw. I do not know the origin of
the name "Conkeror".) Conkeror is a Mozilla-based browser (e.g. Firefox) with
an Emacs-like skin. Emacs users should feel at right home-- screen-stealing
toolbars and menubars are gone. In their place is the modeline and
mini-buffer. Commands are entered using M-x, switch
buffers using C-x b, incremental search using
C-s, and edit text using Emacs editing conventions. (Being
a relative Emacs newbie, I actually rebound a lot of these to be more
Windows/Firefox friendly. But I expect long time Emacs users would rejoice.)
In my opinion, the best part about Conkeror is the hyperlink navigation
design. Hitting the f key while browsing highlights all
possible hyperlinks (or focus areas) within the current view.
Limiting the scope of choices to the current view is smart because you
most likely won't want to follow a link that's not in the current view.
To follow a link, there are two options. The first is to type in the link
number which is overlaid in the top left corner of each link. The second
method is to start typing any part of the link text and tab through the
remaining selections. A different color highlight shows which link is
currently selected. The second method is very fast-- however, the first
method is more robust in that it can handle links with no text or a large
number of links with similar text.
Conkeror is currently being actively developed and can be considered to be alpha stage software so there are issues and bugs. Also the documentation seems to be pretty sparse. However, to me, it looks like a really great tool with a potential for much more efficient and comfortable browsing. Kudos to the authors.
Will I ditch Firefox for Conkeror? That question remains to be answered. I hope the answer will be yes. I plan to use it for a few days and see if I run across any deal-breakers. Hopefully, with Conkeror, I can up my mouseless activity to around 70%.
Below are some notes on using Conkeror. I am using the snapshot XULRunner version of Conkeror on Windows XP.
How to set a proxy server
Assuming you have your proxy configured in Firefox already...
- Type
g about:configand hit ENTER in Conkeror. - Hit ENTER to promise you'll be careful.
- Hit TAB to get to the "Filter:" box and type in "proxy".
- Go to
about:configin Firefox and filter on "proxy". - Make the relevant settings in Conkeror match Firefox. Make sure you set "network.proxy.type" in addition to the proxy servers. (If you were wondering, no, I don't know how to set these preferences without using the mouse.)
Here is my .conkerorrc file:
See also dotfiles.org for a few more.
// new bindings
define_key(default_global_keymap, "C-w", "kill-current-buffer");
// rebound from global.js
define_key(default_global_keymap, "h", "find-url");
define_key(default_global_keymap, "f1", default_help_keymap);
define_key(default_global_keymap, "b", "switch-to-buffer");
define_key(default_global_keymap, "C-f", "isearch-forward");
// note, i had to comment out the "C-f" binding in basic-commands.js to make this work
// rebound from isearch.js
define_key(isearch_keymap, "C-f", "isearch-continue-forward");
// rebound from normal.js
define_key(content_buffer_normal_keymap, "back_space", "go-back");
define_key(content_buffer_normal_keymap, "S-back_space", "go-forward");
// rebound from element.js
//define_key(content_buffer_normal_keymap, "k", "bookmark");
// rebound from basic-commands.js
define_key(content_buffer_normal_keymap, "home","beginning-of-line");
define_key(content_buffer_normal_keymap, "end","end-of-line");
define_key(content_buffer_normal_keymap, "C-home","cmd_scrollTop");
define_key(content_buffer_normal_keymap, "C-end","cmd_scrollBottom");
// rebound from text.js
define_key(content_buffer_text_keymap, "home", "cmd_beginLine");
define_key(content_buffer_text_keymap, "end", "cmd_endLine");
define_key(content_buffer_text_keymap, "C-left", "cmd_wordPrevious");
define_key(content_buffer_text_keymap, "C-right", "cmd_wordNext");
define_key(content_buffer_text_keymap, "C-y", "cmd_redo");
define_key(content_buffer_text_keymap, "C-z", "cmd_undo");
define_key(content_buffer_text_keymap, "C-v", "cmd_paste");
define_key(content_buffer_text_keymap, "C-x", "cmd_cut");
define_key(content_buffer_text_keymap, "C-c", "cmd_copy");
// new for textarea.js
define_key(content_buffer_textarea_keymap, "home", "cmd_beginLine");
define_key(content_buffer_textarea_keymap, "end", "cmd_endLine");
define_key(content_buffer_textarea_keymap, "C-left", "cmd_wordPrevious");
define_key(content_buffer_textarea_keymap, "C-right", "cmd_wordNext");
define_key(content_buffer_textarea_keymap, "C-y", "cmd_redo");
define_key(content_buffer_textarea_keymap, "C-z", "cmd_undo");
define_key(content_buffer_textarea_keymap, "C-v", "cmd_paste");
define_key(content_buffer_textarea_keymap, "C-x", "cmd_cut");
define_key(content_buffer_textarea_keymap, "C-c", "cmd_copy");
// rebound for textarea.js
define_key(content_buffer_textarea_keymap, "C-home", "cmd_moveTop");
define_key(content_buffer_textarea_keymap, "C-end", "cmd_moveBottom");
// rebound from zoom.js
define_key(content_buffer_normal_keymap, "C-subtract", "zoom-out-text");
define_key(content_buffer_normal_keymap, "C-add", "zoom-in-text");
// webjumps
add_delicious_webjumps ("sofengboe");
add_webjump("g", "www.google.com/search?q=%s");
add_webjump("d", "del.icio.us/sofengboe/%s");
add_webjump("blank", "about:blank");
add_webjump("iwi", "iwiwdsmi.blogspot.com");
add_webjump("pandora", "www.pandora.com");
add_webjump("reader", "www.google.com/reader");
How to search the Conkeror mailing list archive
Don't use the one linked from the Conkeror website. Instead use: http://www.nabble.com/MozDev---conkeror-f11304.html
How to get out of Adobe reader when visiting a pdf file
See this thread on the MozDev - conkeror mailing list archive.
How to copy a link
Use the c command.
add_command doesn't work!Per the ChangeLog, it was renamed to interactive. I still
can't figure out how to use message though.
How to uninstall XULRunner
Run the command xulrunner --unregister-user and then delete
the xulrunner directory. If you deleted the xulrunner directory without unregistering,
delete the registry items in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\mozilla.org\GRE
on Windows, or the directory ~/.gre.d on Linux.
[Read the full post...]
