Important features for editors

[Skip Montanaro]

Wasn't it C-x ( ? From the manual

In addition to the <F3> and <F4> commands described above, Emacs
also supports an older set of key bindings for defining and executing
keyboard macros. To begin a macro definition, type `C-x ('
(`kmacro-start-macro'); as with <F3>, a prefix argument appends this
definition to the last keyboard macro. To end a macro definition, type
`C-x )' (`kmacro-end-macro'). To execute the most recent macro, type
`C-x e' (`kmacro-end-and-call-macro'). If you enter `C-x e' while

(We are getting a bit off-topic, but I suppose that's not too unusual...)

Thanks for pointing that out.

Things moved around on me while I wasn't looking. For a long, long
time, I have used C-x e as a prefix for a number of ediff commands. I
imagine that comes from my old XEmacs habits. C-x c was always bound
to call-last-kbd-macro, and I'm pretty sure it used to be that way in
older versions of GNU Emacs. The kmacro package probably appeared
while I was using XEmacs. I found that in the interim, the GNU folks
inserted all sorts of extra keys, so that many things I used to do
with two keystrokes are now done with three. I understand the logic
of what they did (easier to increase the number of keystrokes required
for some commands than to increase the number of keys on the
keyboard), but prefer many things the way I used to do them.

So, call-last-kbd-macro got unbound in the GNU switch to kmacro, and
reasserting my preference for the way I called ediff commands meant
that the new spelling of the kmacro stuff got dropped. I do use C-x (
and C-x ) to define macros.

Skip