7. The command line and the keys

This step runs a command from the command line, opens the window that lists every key, and quits tt. Open it again if you closed it:

tt --demo

Run a command

Press :. The bottom bar becomes a line that starts with :. Type nosuch and press Enter. The bar says:

Unknown command 'nosuch'.

Press j, then type :index.first 3 and press Enter. The bar says message 3 of 200: the command does what 3gg does. Every key but Ctrl-c runs a command like this one, and the line runs the same commands by name. Esc closes the line and runs nothing.

See every key

Press ?.

Checkpoint

You should see a window over the whole screen:

┌─Key bindings──────────────────────────────
│global
│  :      commandline.start
│  <C-w>  focus.next
│  ?      help.show_keys
│  ZZ     app.quit
│
│dialog
│  <C-w>  focus.next
│  <Esc>  window.close
│
│list
│  /           search.start

Each block is a context: global works everywhere but on the command line, list only in the list of messages. Each line is a key, the command it runs and its description when it has one. The window scrolls with the keys of the reader, j, k and G. Press q to close it.

Where the keys come from

Every key of the window is a line of ~/.config/tilde/scripts/keybind.lua, the file that the first start wrote. To change a key, see Change a key.

Quit

Press ZZ. Or type :q and press Enter. q alone does not quit the main screen, and Ctrl-c quits at once.

You should see your shell prompt again.

Next: Next steps.