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I generally prefer AucTeX over the built-in tex-mode, but one thing that is much better in tex-mode is navigation by s-expression. Namely, in tex-mode, forward-sexp (C-M-f) treats LaTeX environments as s-expressions; with the point right before \begin{foo}, forward-sexp will take you to after the corresponding \end{foo}. Other sexp based functions also do the right thing, for example backward-up-list (C-M-u) will take you to the enclosing \begin{foo}.

How can I get this functionality in AucTeX?

(I noticed tex-mode defines a latex-forward-sexp and sets forward-sexp-function to that function. I tried loading tex-mode after AucTeX and evaluating (setq-local latex-forward-sexp #'latex-forward-sexy) but that didn't seem to change the behavior of forward-sexp in the AucTeX buffer.)

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    AUCTeX provides LaTeX-find-matching-begin (C-M-a) and LaTeX-find-matching-end (C-M-e). Have you tried them? – Arash Esbati Jul 7 '18 at 19:33
  • Those are great, @ArashEsbati, and I was unaware of them. This goes a long way to satisfying my sexp-navigation needs, but forward-sexp in tex-mode also knows about $math$, \(math\) and \[math\]. – Omar Jul 8 '18 at 0:47
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    The package latex-extra on melpa adds support for that kind of navigation to auctex – João Cortes Oct 20 '18 at 16:27
  • I wish AUCTeX could simply re-use the functionality of the built-in tex-mode instead. – Stefan Oct 20 '18 at 18:30
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After stepping through the latex-forward-sexp-1 function from tex-mode (long live edebug!), I figured out why it works in tex-mode buffers, but not in AucTeX: it's because tex-mode gives the backslash syntax class /, but AucTeX gives it syntax class \!

So, I've simply added this to my AucTeX configuration to get tex-mode's better sexp-navigation:

(autoload #'latex-forward-sexp "tex-mode" nil t)
(modify-syntax-entry ?\\ "/" LaTeX-mode-syntax-table)
(defun fix-LaTeX-sexp ()
   (setq-local forward-sexp-function #'latex-forward-sexp))
(add-hook 'LaTeX-mode-hook #'fix-LaTeX-sexp)

(I like how wrong it feels to load tex-mode in my AucTeX configuration. :P)

I'd love it if someone comes up with a different approach.

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  • Changing the syntax class for ?\\ globally in LaTeX-mode-syntax-table looks like asking for trouble to me. Why not using with-syntax-table to change the syntax class locally and execute your function? The original syntax table is restored afterwards. – Arash Esbati Jul 8 '18 at 19:26
  • @ArashEsbati, it doesn't seem like anything broke in this case, but you're right that in general it is safer to make the change locally. – Omar Jul 9 '18 at 22:45

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