No I don't want 2, Emacs

This blog, and the vast majority of the code I write, is written in Emacs with evil (a vim emulation mode). I have a nasty habit of mashing :w2<ret> when I really was trying to save the current buffer with :w<ret> . :w2 writes the current buffer to a new file called 2, which I don’t believe I have ever done on purpose.

So, I added this little gem to my .emacs, and it’s saved me any number of times:

(defun my:evil-write (&rest args)
  "I constantly hit :w2<ret> and save a file named 2.  Verify that I want to do that"
  (if (equal "2" (nth 3 args))
      (y-or-n-p "Did you really mean to save a file named 2?")
    t))
(advice-add #'evil-write :before-while #'my:evil-write)

The :before-while advice lets you run a function that gets the same arguments as the advised function. If it returns a truthy value, the advised function is run as usual, but if it returns nil, the original function is never run.

Share and enjoy.

Update Apr 16, 2024

To be clear: I’m not criticizing Emacs or evil here. To the contrary, I’ve got a personal problem, and thanks to the infinite flexibility of Emacs I was able to craft a personal solution in 6 lines. I wish the rest of my software were so flexible.