Emacs Keybindings in Visual Studio 2012 or 2013

I figured out how to get the emacs emulation extension for VS 2010 to install and run on VS 2012. This is a bit from memory, but here is what I did.

1. Download the Emacs emulation extension.

2. Rename it from EmacsEmulations.vsix to EmacsEmulations.zip and unzip into a folder.

3. Edit the <VisualStudio Version="10.0"> value on the extensions.vsixmanifest file (XML):

   <SupportedProducts>
       <VisualStudio Version="11.0">
       <Edition>Pro</Edition>
       </VisualStudio>
   </SupportedProducts>
   

Note: Visual Studio 2013 works by setting Version="12.0". And VS Express can be used by setting <Edition>Express_All</Edition>

4. Zip the content inside the folder back up and rename it back to EmacsEmulations.vsix.

5. Run the vsix file as administrator. This is required so the extension can write Emacs.vsk into the program files folder. I wasn't sure the best way to do this so I ran a command prompt as admin and then executed start emacsemulations.vsix from the prompt.

6. Start VS 2012 as Administrator (one time only). At this point, the extension should show up as installed in the extension manager and the keybinding should be listed in Tools/Options/Keyboard. Select the emacs keybindings.

7. At this point it should be working. It wasn't working for me though, but I neglected run step 5 as admin so had to manually copy emacs.vsk into the right spot. When it still wasn't working I brought up the VS command window (Windows/Other Windows/Command Window) and typed Edit.EmacsBreakLine and the prompt and voila.

I don't have any more information than that so YMMV. Good luck!

FYI: The emacs emulation extension is now open source.

• https://github.com/zbrad/EmacsKeys
• http://zbrad.github.io/tools/EmacsKeys/

If you want to make it work with the Express editions of VS2013, be sure to also change the Edition line to <Edition>Express_All</Edition>. See also the description of the Edition element.