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Moving the Ctrl Key

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Re: Moving the Ctrl Key

#81

Post by wnolens »

rgoulter wrote: post #75
wnolens wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same. Caps lock is such a dumb key, I don't even rebind it. So I have 3 CTRLs.

> Caps lock is such a dumb key It's convenient to have a mode for typing in caps for stuff like "MAX_NUM_WORKERS". -- Especially if you're using Shift on the opposite hand from the letters you're typing, rather than just stretching to hold down shift the entire time. But, the standard keyboard design isn't a very practical one. -- I think Caps Lock is better placed behind a Fn key, in the same way that "brightness up…

If I wanted to be clever, I'd use software to detect a quick double-tap of shift to be caps lock.

Nowadays I have convenient access to it via a mod-key on a programmable keyboard, but still don't use it.

Holding shift seems to feel totally fine for my hand geometry, it's the extra distance to CTRL for my pinky (without shifting my forearm down) that gives me wrist pain.

Re: Moving the Ctrl Key

#82

Post by rgoulter »

wnolens wrote: post #81
rgoulter wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Caps lock is such a dumb key It's convenient to have a mode for typing in caps for stuff like "MAX_NUM_WORKERS". -- Especially if you're using Shift on the opposite hand from the letters you're typing, rather than just stretching to hold down shift the entire time. But, the standard keyboard design isn't a very practical one. -- I think Caps Lock is better placed behind a Fn key, in the same way that "brightness up…

If I wanted to be clever, I'd use software to detect a quick double-tap of shift to be caps lock. Nowadays I have convenient access to it via a mod-key on a programmable keyboard, but still don't use it. Holding shift seems to feel totally fine for my hand geometry, it's the extra distance to CTRL for my pinky (without shifting my forearm down) that gives me wrist pain.

With a programmable keyboard & a desire to avoid using the pinky finger with Ctrl, I'd suggest taking a look at home-row modifiers

Re: Moving the Ctrl Key

#83

Post by philsnow »

TacticalCoder wrote: post #49
BeetleB wrote: post #17

I've had a lot of ergo issues from typing, and I'm always disappointed that Emacs users focus on remapping the Caps Lock key while ignoring the advice most ergonomists give: There are two Alt and Ctrl keys on the keyboard. Use both, and use both halves of the keyboard If you're doing a combination like Ctrl F, use the right control key. If you're doing Ctrl-l, use the left control key. In general, when using these mo…

Your comment assumes everybody is using a "normal" keyboard. Since then a great many have come up with actually ergonomic keyboards and they virtually all have something in common: modifiers easily reached with the thumbs while the hands are in their home position. No crazy "moving the entire left hand to not hit ctrl with the pinky" . That's not ergonomic. At all. If the layout is QWERTY, left hand on asdf, right an…

> Super is dedicated only to the window manager and nothing else.

This is the thing I miss most from X vs MacOS. On Mac, the command key is the primary shortcut modifier both for apps and for the OS / "window manager".

Re: Moving the Ctrl Key

#84

Post by bjoli »

phoebefactorial wrote: post #20

Back in college I saw that all of my professors were suffering from varying degrees of RSI, and resolved not to succumb myself. My final changes were, in order of effectiveness: - Put Ctrl on Alt, next to the space bar. Use thumb to press. This saves a huge amount of pinky and wrist contorting. - Put Alt on Win, next to the now Ctrl key. Also use thumb to press. With both of these my pinkies have way less to do. - Pu…

I have had this idea as well but for me there is too much space wasted by the space bar. I feel I have to get the thumb to far in under my hand for that setup to be comfortable. I would like a 3-4 unit space-bar.

Re: Moving the Ctrl Key

#85

Post by alexgrover »

TacticalCoder wrote: post #49
BeetleB wrote: post #17

I've had a lot of ergo issues from typing, and I'm always disappointed that Emacs users focus on remapping the Caps Lock key while ignoring the advice most ergonomists give: There are two Alt and Ctrl keys on the keyboard. Use both, and use both halves of the keyboard If you're doing a combination like Ctrl F, use the right control key. If you're doing Ctrl-l, use the left control key. In general, when using these mo…

Your comment assumes everybody is using a "normal" keyboard. Since then a great many have come up with actually ergonomic keyboards and they virtually all have something in common: modifiers easily reached with the thumbs while the hands are in their home position. No crazy "moving the entire left hand to not hit ctrl with the pinky" . That's not ergonomic. At all. If the layout is QWERTY, left hand on asdf, right an…

Take it a step further and use home row mods and thumbs for layer keys. And consider switching away from qwerty ;)

Re: Moving the Ctrl Key

#86

Post by ulrikrasmussen »

I remap CapsLock to Esc and use that as my toggle key in god-mode: https://github.com/emacsorphanage/god-mode

This makes the Ctrl sticky, thus emulating the modal behavior of vim, but using emacs bindings. It also has some clever escape sequences that let you input complex chords without ever having to press more than one button at a time.

I have gotten so used to it that I have started looking into a way to make a solution that is global across my whole system (Linux). So far I can emulate some of the behaviour using something like kmonad (https://github.com/kmonad/kmonad) although some things like repeated keystrokes cannot easily be expressed using the configuration language and requires a more low-level approach.

Re: Moving the Ctrl Key

#87

Post by lawn »

TacticalCoder wrote: post #49
BeetleB wrote: post #17

I've had a lot of ergo issues from typing, and I'm always disappointed that Emacs users focus on remapping the Caps Lock key while ignoring the advice most ergonomists give: There are two Alt and Ctrl keys on the keyboard. Use both, and use both halves of the keyboard If you're doing a combination like Ctrl F, use the right control key. If you're doing Ctrl-l, use the left control key. In general, when using these mo…

Your comment assumes everybody is using a "normal" keyboard. Since then a great many have come up with actually ergonomic keyboards and they virtually all have something in common: modifiers easily reached with the thumbs while the hands are in their home position. No crazy "moving the entire left hand to not hit ctrl with the pinky" . That's not ergonomic. At all. If the layout is QWERTY, left hand on asdf, right an…

> Since then a great many have come up with actually ergonomic keyboards and they virtually all have something in common: modifiers easily reached with the thumbs while the hands are in their home position.

There's also home-row mods that's very popular with tiny keyboards, and is arguably even more ergonomic.

Re: Moving the Ctrl Key

#88

Post by s4i »

psychphysic wrote: post #7

I have foot pedal ctrl and alt keys. One set at home, one at the office. Some guitar pedals wired as momentary switches wired to a teensy. It's been using it for so long I forget they are there. I haven't even checked on the teensy since I can remember. I instinctive tape my feet even if I'm working away from my desk. If I'm zoned in I can even stamp my foot as though the pedal has become unresponsive... I don't use…

What software do you use to make this work? What OS?

Re: Moving the Ctrl Key

#89

Post by lawn »

rgoulter wrote: post #62

The most comfortable for typing is "home row modifiers". With tap-hold functionality, the key behaves the same when tapped, but as the modifier key when held. So, you can put Shift/Ctrl/Gui/Alt as tap-hold underneath asdf and jkl; on the home row. This can be achieved on a fancy keyboard, or with cross-platform software like kmonad.

I've been experimenting with home-row combos instead. So you press multiple keys at once, enabling the use of one-shot mods so you don't have to hold keys down for modifiers and can instead tap them

A one-shot shift under one thumb is also amazing, if you have such a keyboard.

Re: Moving the Ctrl Key

#90

Post by vladvasiliu »

pwiecz wrote: post #26
BeetleB wrote: post #17

I've had a lot of ergo issues from typing, and I'm always disappointed that Emacs users focus on remapping the Caps Lock key while ignoring the advice most ergonomists give: There are two Alt and Ctrl keys on the keyboard. Use both, and use both halves of the keyboard If you're doing a combination like Ctrl F, use the right control key. If you're doing Ctrl-l, use the left control key. In general, when using these mo…

Unfortunately both Alts are not equivalent. The right one, the AltGr is uaef in many languages to type letters with diacritics. E.g. in Polish AltGr+Z is Ż, while AltGr+X is Ź. Still using both Ctrls itself helps a lot, and one may have a right Windows to remap as Meta.

That can be fixed outside of Windows [0].

What you're looking for, is a ISO Level 3 Shift (at least as far as X11 is concerned. Don't know the terms on windows).

I configured my keyboard to use the WIN keys as that. Super I only use for window-management related things, which I don't use is all the time and I can configure the actions to be on my right-hand. Therefore, since CAPS is useless, I remapped it to Super.

This way, with the dead keys, you can create many composed symbols. For writing French, an US layout is perfect, and I can type as fast as on a French keyboard. For your particular case, I don't know how to create the Ż, but Lvl3 + e + Z -> Ź. It's likely that if you used a different layout, this would be possible.

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[0] I've tried multiple times to get a keyboard layout like on a mac, with its deadkeys system, but never managed to remap the AltGr properly.

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