The excellent Symbol Overlay package for Emacs lets one highlight a programming language symbol (such as a variable or function/method) and perform operations on it. Common operations on a highlighted symbol include bulk renaming and navigating between different instances of said symbol. Out of the box, Symbol Overlay defines a keymap (symbol-overlay-map) where the user is intended to specify their preferred bindings to different symbol-overlay commands. This setup adds more friction than I’d like though, as a user is forced to define and remember these bindings to get at the nice features of Symbol Overlay.

For folks who like working with highlighted symbols but are less enamored with remembering more bindings, I’m happy to announce a new Transient user interface for Symbol Overlay: Casual Symbol Overlay, now available on MELPA.

A screenshot of this menu is shown below:

Note that keymap symbol-overlay-map will only be active over a highlighted symbol. To actually highlight a symbol, you'll need to define a binding for the command symbol-overlay-put. I leave it to the reader to determine which binding to use here but personally, I have that assigned to a pre-released Casual Transient menu which I intend to release soon. For readers who prefer a menu-driven workflow, consider the binding for symbol-overlay-put to be an interim solution until then.

If symbol-based operations are new to you, I encourage you to give them a try, especially if you code. They can be genuinely useful.

emacs