C-m, RET and Return Key in Emacs
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I use Emacs to write blog. In the recent update, I found M-RET no longer behave as leader key in org mode, but behave as org-meta-return. And even more strange is that in other mode, it behave as leader key. And M-RET also works in terminal in org mode. In GUI, pressing C-M-m can trigger leader key.
SO I opened this issue, with the help of these friends, the issue has been fixed. Here is the cause of the bug.
In Emacs, RET is not a key in keyboard, it’s a logical key). Emacs bind RET to C-m in source code. In terminal, <Enter> and C-m both send <CR> (ASCII 13) character, so <Enter> / <Return> key is equal to RET. In GUI, pressing <Enter> / <Return> key actually sends <return> to Emacs, and Emacs automatically translate <return> to RET.
This can be proved: type SPC h d k <Enter> in spacemacs, it will output RET (translated from <return>) runs the command org-open-at-point, which is an interactive compiled Lisp function in ‘org.el’.
Pressing C-m or <Enter> key usually given the same result, but you can also bind these with two different command. Take M-RET as example. If only <M-return> is bind, the M-RET is unbinded. If only M-RET is binded, then M-return is implicitly also bind to same command as M-RET.
In org mode scr:
(org-defkey org-mode-map (kbd "M-<return>") #'org-meta-return)
(org-defkey org-mode-map (kbd "M-RET") #'org-meta-return)
These two keys were binded to org-meta-return.
The unfixed Spacemacs configuration file binds C-M-m as dotspacemacs-major-mode-emacs-leader-key.
In GUI, the <Enter> key will send <return> to Emacs. Org mode has explicitly bind M-<return> to org-meta-return, so org-meta-return is triggered. In other mode, the M-<return> key binding is not defined, so <return> will translate to RET, then trigger leader key.
In the fixed version, dotspacemacs-major-mode-emacs-leader-key bind to M-<return> in GUI, and this override org mode’s binding. Finally meta return becomes leader key again.