Question

Is there a way I can stop needing C-X before any shortcut and, for example, just use C-c to leave?

Also, if possible, what disadvantages could this have?

I’m looking for a simpler way of using GNU Emacs, but not sure if I can find one.

Answer 1

(this is too long for a comment)

Not really an answer but I know that some people hate the “C-x anything” in Emacs not just because you have to “type a lot of keys” but also because from a touch-typing point of view C-x doesn’t make that much sense.

But of course in Emacs everything is configurable. I’m using “C-,” instead of C-x and I honestly find it much easier this way.

I use my left pinky to hit CTRL, which is the key physically located at the left of ‘a’ on a QWERTY keyboard: i.e. the key that used to be CTRL but that now often is labelled CAPS-Lock [and you can remap it to CTRL].

I then touch-type ‘,’ with my right hand.

To this end I added this to my config:

(define-key global-map [(control ,)] ctl-x-map)

You won’t have less keys to type to do, say, a C-x C-c (which you can now do both by doing C-x C-c or by doing C-, C-c), but at least you won’t be distorting your fingers as much ; )

Also note that as explained here (see user “scottfrazer”‘s +40+ upvoted and accepted answer) it may be better to create a minor mode for all your key mappings instead of directly define a global mapping:

Globally override key binding in Emacs