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Kinto: Mac-style shortcut keys for Linux and Windows

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Re: Kinto: Mac-style shortcut keys for Linux and Windows

#191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just solve that terminal issue by using a terminal that has "smart copy". The two I know of that do are pantheon-terminal (from elementaryOS) and kitty. The idea is that Ctrl+C behaves normally (sends SIGINT) unless you have text selected, in which case it will copy the selected text then clear the selection. So if you had something selected, you just hit Ctrl+C twice to send an interrupt if you need to, with the c…

You don't even need to use Ctrl+C in kitty. You can just select it and it will be in your clipboard. And then just middle click to paste again.

I _don't_ want that though. I use text selection as a reading aid, so selecting stuff immediately clobbering my buffers is very much not what I want. I prefer to be explicit about when I want to copy stuff.

Re: Kinto: Mac-style shortcut keys for Linux and Windows

#192
post #12

The difference between Mac and PC keyboards is a real usability problem. If you're used to PC's or Linux, moving to a Mac and dealing with their shortcuts is painful, and vice-versa. The worst is using a mixture of both Mac's and PC's on a daily basis. Moving back and forth between platforms daily means you either have to get used to hitting the wrong shortcuts or use a hack to swap keys around on one platform so you…

I work roughly 60/40 from my office (Windows workstation) and home (macOS laptop). I have a significant insight into how they work and their shortcuts; not only that, but I use Sublime Text and VSCode in both, and am familiar with the differences between macOS/Windows for those shortcuts. That being said, in terms of productivity, ergonomics, and things generally being well thought-out, Windows is nowhere near macOS. It does certain small things right, like Win-Shift-S copying to clipboard by default (you need to hold Ctrl while releasing the capture to get the same behaviour on macOS), and overall is much snappier due to macOS being a bloated mess. Overall, though, Windows is garbage for developers (yes, yes, if you're using Microsoft technologies or oblivious to what happens outside of your IDE you will probably be happy enough) -- and I have tried WSL2, Cygwin, working from a VM (yuck), and many other similar options.

I've recently discovered VSCode's remote functionality (more specifically, how incredibly well it works), so I've set up an SSH box and can now seamlessly work from anywhere (side note, having tools that only serve you is incredibly fast if you're used to things like GitHub or managed CI).

Re: Kinto: Mac-style shortcut keys for Linux and Windows

#193
I'm a fan of standup comics and love when comics in podcasts (like Rogan and whatnot) start ranting about "clean comedy", which means "not using the bad words".

But: every comment in this thread that uses a bad word is at best misguided, while comments without bad words are informative and keep the general mood in check.

I know people tend to bypass word filters by occluding letters ("B*rcelona") while retaining meaning; but maybe a word filter would cut dang's work by $A_LOT %.

Re: Kinto: Mac-style shortcut keys for Linux and Windows

#194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just solve that terminal issue by using a terminal that has "smart copy". The two I know of that do are pantheon-terminal (from elementaryOS) and kitty. The idea is that Ctrl+C behaves normally (sends SIGINT) unless you have text selected, in which case it will copy the selected text then clear the selection. So if you had something selected, you just hit Ctrl+C twice to send an interrupt if you need to, with the c…

This sounds to me like one of those ideas that's great in theory but real-life situations are too fragile to make it work. Suppose you're trying to copy something out of the window with a long-running process. You select some text and then press Ctrl-c, but whoops your hand jerked and you tapped c twice. Process killed. Or as you moved your hand to hit the shortcut, whoops you bumped the trackpack and clicked, desele…

This is a fair concern, but personally, 99% of the time I'm copying from a terminal, it's when there is not an active process (usually copying an unexecuted command from the current prompt). So I don't see any issue with this for my use.

Re: Kinto: Mac-style shortcut keys for Linux and Windows

#195
This also frustrated me when I was using OS X and Linux in parallel when I was using an identical Apple keyboard on both - really messes with your muscle memory. As long as I did not use an external keyboard on my MacBook I was fine.

It seems my muscle memory is application dependent, i.e. I never hit ^C when I intend to copy in a terminal. On the other hand I might hit Ctrl+Shift+C on browsers once in a while if I am switching context a lot... ;)

Unfortunately this requires X11 anyway :(

Re: Kinto: Mac-style shortcut keys for Linux and Windows

#196
I use this on my Manjaro KDE work machine and it has been a life saver since switching from Mac after 10+ years.

It works shockingly well.

Only annoyance is that applications are not necessarily aware of the new mac layout so if you're using an unfamiliar application looking up the keyboard shortcuts won't map exactly to what you need to press.

Re: Kinto: Mac-style shortcut keys for Linux and Windows

#197

What I really want, though, is Mac-style character-entry in Linux. It's so much easier to type accented characters in Mac.

You will inevitably need dedicated keys (e.g. use the numbers row for this, keypad for numbers) for accented characters if you use type in an accented language actively.

For cases when you just want an accent occasionally compose key is great.

The Mac way (long-press, select) looks cool but it hardly is convenient to press and wait seconds for every accent if it's there in almost every word.

Re: Kinto: Mac-style shortcut keys for Linux and Windows

#198
My theory is that Apple purposefully switched alt and control around to create a sort of usability trap; everytime a mac-user ever touches a different brand pc, their experience is filled with frustrations, making sure they'll never switch away. Of course the fact that every mac since needs an apple-certified keyboard is 'just a happy (very profitable) coincidence' for apple.

Disguising this move under the banner of 'be different'™, mac-lackeys immediately went to work spreading the gospel of 'it's better because it's closer together'.

Ultimately there already was an international standard, there is value in keeping practices standard, and Apple was the one who broke the standard. It should not be celebrated, it should be ridiculed as the shameless cash-grab trap that it is.

Instead of making an app for every platform out there that makes that platform more 'mac-like', there should be an app for mac, that makes that platform behave like the established standards.

OFC Apple don't allow such modifications, because what they say goes, and what they do, apple-fanboys will like anyway.

Re: Kinto: Mac-style shortcut keys for Linux and Windows

#199

This is great, btw. Kinto is 100% a sanity saver. Please note the following rant is mostly tongue-in-cheek. 'cuz it turns out, I personally hate how Windows and Linux do things with `ctrl`. Coming from a Mac, my biggest and most consistent annoyance is that the `ctrl` key is fucking useless at best... One of the most common use cases for the `ctrl` key is COPYING shit and followed by PASTING shit and it DOES NOT WORK…

Get a Japanese[1] keyboard and remap some keys around and you can accomplish this on Windows. You will need SharpKeys[2] and Autohotkey[3] at least in my set up. [1]: https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61oeDlRN4QL... [2]: https://www.randyrants.com/category/sharpkeys/ [3]: https://www.autohotkey.com/

nice, just tried to find some places where can find more models, like smaller layouts etc, but couldn't anything, neither on ali, amazon and ebay. Where do people buy Japanese keyboards except in Japan?

Re: Kinto: Mac-style shortcut keys for Linux and Windows

#200
post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Get a Japanese[1] keyboard and remap some keys around and you can accomplish this on Windows. You will need SharpKeys[2] and Autohotkey[3] at least in my set up. [1]: https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61oeDlRN4QL... [2]: https://www.randyrants.com/category/sharpkeys/ [3]: https://www.autohotkey.com/

nice, just tried to find some places where can find more models, like smaller layouts etc, but couldn't anything, neither on ali, amazon and ebay. Where do people buy Japanese keyboards except in Japan?

Try https://www.amazon.co.jp/
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