Some (emacs) global keys are inaccessible in insert state but accessible in normal state?

[Inc0n]

The global keys I am refering to is such as the basic:

• M-f, M-b,
• C-M-i (the completion), C-M-k (kill-sexp), M-DEL,
• including M-x?

Which are all accessible in normal state, but inaccessible in insert state.

There are some others which as accessible, such as:

• C-f, C-b

Is this the intended behaviour? Could it be a mis-configuration on my side?

From the above non-exhausstive listing, it seems something is affecting the meta key for these binds to function properly under insert state.

[DogLooksGood]

By default m means M-, and g means C-M-. So M-f is SPC m f, and C-M-f is SPC g f.

The prefixs are customizable.

[Inc0n]

It's great to hear that theses could be customized, however, I still don't see how I can access M-f in insert state?
Could you point me into the right direciton please, to provide some examples that would bring more clarity.
Thank you

[DogLooksGood]

You just use M-f in insert state. Meow provides a modal based on vanilla Emacs keybinding, you can still use all builtins.

[Inc0n]

It's great to hear that but as you can see in my descriptions I am having trouble accessing these however.
Would you happen to have any idea that why this might be?

[DogLooksGood]

Check what command is bound to M-f?

[Inc0n]

It is undefined.
My apology, I have came to realised that this is because I have bound C-[ to meow-insert-exit in insert state, which caused all meta prefixed keys inaccessible.
This was possible to do in evil.

[Inc0n]

I have bound C-[ to meow-insert-exit in insert state which made all meta prefixed keys inaccessible.
Which is a habit carried over from evil of some sort.

[Linerre]

I used to be a Vim user and learned that C-[ means ESC (to exit INSERT).
Since I switched to Emacs and meow, I have never bound C-[ to anything in any of meow's modes and it behaves exactly like ESC.

Proof:

1. C-h k to describe a keybinding
2. C-[
3. ESC- (Emacs automatically translates C-[ to ESC and thinks I want to use it as a prefix'.

So I agree with you on that is not a good habit.

[Inc0n]

There is a post I found about this topic on stackoverflow about it and in more details.
Essentially, the work around I found that if you really desire C-[ binds is to have:

(define-key input-decode-map [?\C-\[] [C-\[])
(define-key global-map [C-\[] [?\C-g])

And replace [?\C-g] with your configuration of choice, but of course, as outlined in the post (link) above, this may have undesired consequences when using emacs in terminals. Since I am a GUI user, I am satisfied with this.

Note: (kbd "C-[") and [?\C-\[] are equivalent.
And for better readability, you may want to use [control-bracketleft] also.

[loganrios]

+1 to this--I had the same idea (mapping C-[ to meow-insert-exit) and had been struggling to figure out why all my M-<key> bindings had broken. Thanks so much for documenting your solution!