File: repeat.el.html

Sometimes the fastest way to get something done is just to lean on a key; moving forward through a series of words by leaning on M-f is an example. But 'forward-page is orthodoxly bound to C-x ], so moving forward through several pages requires
  Loop until desired page is reached:
    Hold down control key with left pinkie.
    Tap <x>.
    Lift left pinkie off control key.
    Tap <]>.
This is a pain in the ass.

This package defines a command that repeats the preceding command, whatever that was, including its arguments, whatever they were. This command is connected to the key C-x z. To repeat the previous command once, type C-x z. To repeat it a second time immediately after, type just z. By typing z again and again, you can repeat the command over and over.

This works correctly inside a keyboard macro as far as recording and playback go, but edit-kbd-macro gets it wrong. That shouldn't really matter; if you need to edit something like
  C-x ] ;; forward-page
  C-x z ;; repeat
  zz ;; self-insert-command * 2
  C-x ;; Control-X-prefix
you can just kill the bogus final 2 lines, then duplicate the repeat line as many times as it's really needed. Also, edit-kbd-macro works correctly if repeat is invoked through a rebinding to a single keystroke and the global variable repeat-on-final-keystroke is set to a value that doesn't include that keystroke. For example, the lines
  (global-set-key "\\C-z" 'repeat)
  (setq repeat-on-final-keystroke "z")
in your .emacs would allow edit-kbd-macro to work correctly when C-z was used in a keyboard macro to invoke repeat, but would still allow C-x z to be used for repeat elsewhere. The real reason for documenting this isn't that anybody would need it for the edit-kbd-macro problem, but that there might be other unexpected ramifications of re-executing on repetitions of the final keystroke, and this shows how to do workarounds.

If the preceding command had a prefix argument, that argument is applied to the repeat command, unless the repeat command is given a new prefix argument, in which case it applies that new prefix argument to the preceding command. This means a key sequence like C-u - C-x C-t can be repeated. (It shoves the preceding line upward in the buffer.)

Here are some other key sequences with which repeat might be useful:
  C-u - C-t [shove preceding character backward in line]
  C-u - M-t [shove preceding word backward in sentence]
        C-x ^ enlarge-window [one line] (assuming frame has > 1 window)
  C-u - C-x ^ [shrink window one line]
        C-x ` next-error
  C-u - C-x ` [previous error]
        C-x DEL backward-kill-sentence
        C-x e call-last-kbd-macro
        C-x r i insert-register
        C-x r t string-rectangle
        C-x TAB indent-rigidly [one character]
  C-u - C-x TAB [outdent rigidly one character]
        C-x { shrink-window-horizontally
        C-x } enlarge-window-horizontally

Defined variables (17)

Defined functions (11)

Defined faces (0)