[ESS] Trouble assigning to keys in Emacs Modified for MacOS 30.2

[Tyler Smith]

On Wed, Jan 21, 2026, at 9:50 AM, Steve Gutreuter via ESS-help wrote:
> (use-package ess
>   :bind (:map ess-r-mode-map
>          ("C-|" . " %>% ")
>          :map inferior-ess-r-mode-map
>          ("C-|" . " %>% ")))
> (use-package ess
>   :bind (:map ess-r-mode-map
>          ("C-=" . " <- ")
>          :map inferior-ess-r-mode-map
>          ("C-=" . " <- ")))

I think the `:bind` directive indicates the following code will be evaluated *before* the package is loaded. Which will generate the error you describe, since the keymaps aren't defined at that point. 

I use the following (on Linux, but this should be OS-independent I hope):

```
(use-package ess
  :config
  ...
  (define-key ess-r-mode-map "_" #'ess-insert-assign)
  (define-key inferior-ess-r-mode-map "_" #'ess-insert-assign)
  
  (define-key ess-r-mode-map (kbd "C-c >") #'tws-ess-insert-then)
  (define-key inferior-ess-r-mode-map (kbd "C-c >") #'tws-ess-insert-then)

  (define-key ess-r-mode-map (kbd "C-c ;") #'tws-ess-insert-pipe)
  (define-key inferior-ess-r-mode-map (kbd "C-c ;") #'tws-ess-insert-pipe)

  ...

  )
```

Note that the function `ess-insert-assign` is provided with ESS to insert the `<-` symbol. It works as a toggle, so if you type the character twice it switches back. Which is convenient if you bind it to something you might occasionally want to actually insert as-is (in my case, the underscore).

I use the following for magrittr and regular pipes. Using `just-one-space` instead of a hard-coded " " usually produces the desired spacing around these.

```
(defun tws-ess-insert-then ()
  (interactive)
    (just-one-space 1)
    (insert "%>%")
    (just-one-space 1))

(defun tws-ess-insert-pipe ()
  (interactive)
    (just-one-space 1)
    (insert "|>")
    (just-one-space 1))
```

- tyler