Evil equivalent of imap

Question

How do I make ae in evil insert mode produce æ? This would be the equivalent of inoremap ae æ in vim. (I tried (define-key evil-insert-state-map (kbd "ae") (kbd "\C-kae")), but after this typing a (without an e after it) didn't produce an a, but rather the error a is undefined.)

Answer 1

You could try something like

(add-hook 'post-self-insert-hook
          (lambda ()
            (and (eq last-command-event ?e)
                 (looking-back "ae" (- (point) 2))
                 (replace-match "æ"))))

Answer 2

have a look at the key-chord emacs package. it allows you to define mappings of multiple keys and take action on them. in your case the action would just be (insert "æ").

alternatively, insert a digraph by typing C-k a e in evil's insert mode. this invokes (evil-insert-digraph) and reads a and e, then produces æ.