On 11 Oct 2011, Natan Yellin wrote:

What is the difference between these two lines?

(define-key evil-normal-state-map ",b" 'ido-switch-buffer) (evil-define-key 'normal ",b" 'ido-switch-buffer)

You use the first correct and second wrong. To cite the docstring (C-h f evil-define-key): ,---- | (evil-define-key STATE KEYMAP KEY DEF &rest BINDINGS) | | Create a STATE binding from KEY to DEF for KEYMAP. | STATE is one of `normal', `insert', `visual', `replace', | `operator', `motion' and `emacs'. The remaining arguments | are like those of `define-key'. For example: | | (evil-define-key 'normal foo-map "a" 'bar) | | This creates a binding from "a" to `bar' in Normal state, | which is active whenever `foo-map' is active. It is possible | to specify multiple bindings at once: | | (evil-define-key 'normal foo-map | "a" 'bar | "b" 'foo) | | See also `evil-declare-key'. `---- You miss the `KEYMAP'. To come back to the original question: `define-key' defines a key in a keymap `evil-define-key' defines a key in `state' whenever `keymap' is active. So the second in a correct form would be along (evil-define-key 'normal 'org-mode-map ",b" 'ido-switch-buffer) The functions are complementary (well you can emulate `evil-define-key' with `define-key' yourself, but you don't want to do that). Maybe you are interested in `evil-leader': https://github.com/cofi/evil-leader Michael