I am using company to auto-complete. It works generally fine, with the exception of the M-(digit) shortcuts, which have no impact at all. I have no idea why.
This is my init code:
(defun company--my-insert-spc() (interactive)(company-abort)(insert-char #10r32))
(defun company--my-insert-dot() (interactive)(company-abort)(insert-char #10r46))
(use-package company
:config
(global-company-mode)
(setq company-minimum-prefix-length 3)
(setq company-auto-complete t)
(setq company-show-numbers t)
:bind
(("C-<tab>" . company-complete)
:map company-active-map
("ESC" . company-abort)
;; prevent company from completing on its own when we type regular characters
("SPC" . company--my-insert-spc)
("." . company--my-insert-dot)
)
)
This is the result of M-x describe-keymap company-active-map:
company-active-map
------------------
For more information check the manuals.
Keymap that is enabled during an active completion.
key binding
--- -------
C-d company-show-doc-buffer
C-g company-abort
C-h company-show-doc-buffer
TAB company-complete-common
RET company-complete-selection
C-s company-search-candidates
C-w company-show-location
ESC company-abort
SPC company--my-insert-spc
. company--my-insert-dot
<down> company-select-next-or-abort
<down-mouse-1> ignore
<down-mouse-3> ignore
<f1> company-show-doc-buffer
<mouse-1> company-complete-mouse
<mouse-3> company-select-mouse
<remap> Prefix Command
<return> company-complete-selection
<tab> company-complete-common
<up> company-select-previous-or-abort
<up-mouse-1> ignore
<up-mouse-3> ignore
<remap> <scroll-down-command> company-previous-page
<remap> <scroll-up-command> company-next-page
Indeed, the M-(digit) shortcuts are not there. Neither M-n or M-p. I am relatively new to emacs, and I don't know how to pinpoint the cause of this.
I did try to workaround this problem by explicitly setting again the shortcuts in the use-package :config section:
(dotimes (i 10)
(define-key company-active-map (read-kbd-macro (format "M-%d" i)) 'company-complete-number))
... but I get a really baffling warning: while: Key sequence M-0 starts with non-prefix key ESC. Why does ESC appear here? I also get this same warning for the M-n and M-p shortcuts:
(define-key company-active-map (kbd "M-n") 'company-select-next)
(define-key company-active-map (kbd "M-p") 'company-select-previous)
This warning does appear to give a clue, but I can't figure out to what exactly.
Update
Based on the warning above, I commented out the ESC keybinding to company-abort, and it made M-(digit) work as expected. So now the question is: why does this incompatibility between ESC and M-(digit) happen and how can I use both shortcuts?
Update 2
The helpful comments by @TianxiangXiong and @phils identified the problem: ESC is the prefix char for M, so emacs will be confounded by the keybindings I've given it. This is a pity since I really wanted those shortcuts. However, based on this comment, I was able workaround this and get what I wanted by simply changing ("ESC" . company-abort) to ("<escape>" . company-abort) in the :config. At least in my system (Ubuntu 16.04) this worked.
