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When I try enter commands via C-x, it takes 1-2 seconds until the echo area shows this prefix key, as C-x-. I'm quite new to Emacs, so this often confuses me, and I get lost.

The ESC key acts similar to this, so when I try to escape out of some half-entered command, I often end up looping pressing ESC and again after 1-2 second I see ESC- in the echo area.

Is there a way to decrease the time it takes to show a reaction in the echo area, am I doing something wrong, or is this somehow intended?

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1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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(setq echo-keystrokes 0.01)

will result in near-instantaneous echoing of the keystrokes. Alternatively, you could customize the variable (M-x customize-variable RET echo-keystrokes).

The variable determines the delay, in seconds, before echoing unfinished commands. If the value is 0, then do not echo at all (which is why you need to choose a very short delay, like 0.01 s).

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    works perfectly - are there any downsides/is there a reason for echo-keystrokes to be 1 initialy? Commented Jan 28, 2018 at 18:32
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    Not sure why — possibly to avoid clutter/over-verbosity when somebody presses the keys quickly. Neither the docstring of the variable (C-h v) nor the info manual list any downsides: gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/elisp/… Commented Jan 28, 2018 at 18:38
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    great – thank you! will keep it .01sec then until I don't get lost anymore and eventually be annoyed by the clutter ^^ Commented Jan 28, 2018 at 18:43
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    "is there a reason for echo-keystrokes to be 1 initialy" I would guess that it is a legacy setting. On a slow terminal you wouldn't want to waste bandwidth echoing commands that the user doesn't need to see. Commented Jan 29, 2018 at 3:39

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