Mapping new command involving <escape> clear all predefined <escape> commands

Question

I have the command fill-paragraph mapped to key <escape> q, it is mapped by default in emacs.

Now I want to map the opposite command, unfill-paragraph, to key <escape> p.

However, when I do this all predefined commands with <escape> stops working. I need to explicitly remap all of them.

I am mapping the command like this:

(global-set-key (kbd "<escape> p" ) 'unfill-paragraph)

Is this the expected behavior? How can I map new commands to escape keys without clearing all predefined?

Answer 1

I have the command fill-paragraph mapped to key <escape> q, it is mapped by default in emacs.

In fact, it's mapped to ESC q by default, which is slightly different. ESC is the ascii escape character, while <escape> is the keyboard key at top left of your keyboard (but if you're using Emacs from a text terminal, the terminal probably sends ESC, not <escape>, when you press that key). When there is no binding for <escape> Emacs will translate it to ESC and lookup bindings for ESC instead.

So if you map your unfill-paragraph to ESC p things should work as you expect:

(global-set-key (kbd "ESC p" ) 'unfill-paragraph)

Note that ESC <key> is equivalent to M-<key> (i.e., you can probably use Alt+p and Alt+q as well, see (emacs) User Input)