I have remapped caps lock on my keyboard to Esc, so it works everywhere, not only for Vim. Very convenient, symmetric to Enter. I hardly ever need caps lock as such.
Vim Foot Pedal
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Re: Vim Foot Pedal
#12I have remapped caps lock on my keyboard to Esc, so it works everywhere, not only for Vim. Very convenient, symmetric to Enter. I hardly ever need caps lock as such.
The only downside is that it's a pain to work with a regular keyboard due to muscle memory. Though that doesn't occur often in my case.
Re: Vim Foot Pedal
#13I swear sometimes I feel like I’m the only person in the world that thinks hitting the ESC key is easy and no big deal. Maybe it’s decades of doing it, and I don’t consider myself especially dexterous, but I never have any problem with it.
I tend to use escape in most circumstances, but I am increasingly partial to Ctrl-[ when using certain keyboards where the escape key is a bit too far for me. It's another option that's always available by default.
Re: Vim Foot Pedal
#14I swear sometimes I feel like I’m the only person in the world that thinks hitting the ESC key is easy and no big deal. Maybe it’s decades of doing it, and I don’t consider myself especially dexterous, but I never have any problem with it.
For ages I lived with X40 and X60 form-factor ThinkPads, which have perfectly sized keyboards for my hands. The ESC key is easily accessed on these for me without leaving home row placement, palms comfortably planted.
Every ThinkPad I've had since then has been a regression in this department, beginning with the X201s and now I'm on an X230 and my typing is awful compared to the 4:3 X-series glory days. Reaching for the ESC key is noticably annoying compared to what I know so well to be the ideal. Why Lenovo kept stretching the keyboard to accommodate their widescreen transition instead of relocating better speakers to the keyboard flanks is beyond me.
But having suffered through this mess I fully understand why vi(m) users remap ESC to CAPS or pursue other mitigations. ESC key access is highly sensitive to keyboard-size:hand-size, and I suspect for many it's just inconveniently distant like my X230 is for me.
Re: Vim Foot Pedal
#15I wrote a post a while ago about getting an inexpensive three-button foot pedal to work under Linux.[1] I have the different buttons mapped to different keys in Xorg (which can then be mapped to any commands in .vimrc), but I'm not sure how to map the keydown and keyup events to different keys so that the "clutch" behavior can be implemented in software only.
1: https://catswhisker.xyz/log/2018/8/27/use_vecinfinity_usb_fo...
Re: Vim Foot Pedal
#16I swear sometimes I feel like I’m the only person in the world that thinks hitting the ESC key is easy and no big deal. Maybe it’s decades of doing it, and I don’t consider myself especially dexterous, but I never have any problem with it.
I tend to use escape in most circumstances, but I am increasingly partial to Ctrl-[ when using certain keyboards where the escape key is a bit too far for me. It's another option that's always available by default.
Ctrl-[ is so ingrained in my muscle memory that even when I finally mapped capslock to esc I still never use it.
Re: Vim Foot Pedal
#17I swear sometimes I feel like I’m the only person in the world that thinks hitting the ESC key is easy and no big deal. Maybe it’s decades of doing it, and I don’t consider myself especially dexterous, but I never have any problem with it.
Agreed. Most vim users swap esc with caps lock anyway, making it even easier to reach. I don't think pedals bring any significant ergonomic benefit, but pedal setups look cool nonetheless. Swapping keys isn't interesting and you can't write a blog post about it.
> Most vim users swap esc with caps lock anyway
"Some", sure, but "most"? Not so sure about that.
Besides, everyone knows what Ctrl is the One True Key™ in place of the Caps Lock and that only degenerate infidels map it to anything else.
Re: Vim Foot Pedal
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agreed. Most vim users swap esc with caps lock anyway, making it even easier to reach. I don't think pedals bring any significant ergonomic benefit, but pedal setups look cool nonetheless. Swapping keys isn't interesting and you can't write a blog post about it.
> Most vim users swap esc with caps lock anyway "Some", sure, but "most"? Not so sure about that. Besides, everyone knows what Ctrl is the One True Key™ in place of the Caps Lock and that only degenerate infidels map it to anything else.
Emacs pinky isn't really a problem if you don't use Emacs keybindings ;)
Re: Vim Foot Pedal
#19It's a fun idea, but I'd imagine it's far too slow to press down your foot compared to tapping your fingers.
I personally use a home-row combo as escape, by pressing down the left index and ring finger at the same time.
Re: Vim Foot Pedal
#20Map holding caps lock to control and esc on tap, you never use it anyway :)
For me, caps lock is no better than ctrl. There's only one, meaning key combos on your left require stretching your 4th (pinky) finger out. I caused permanent damage to my 4th finger that way. Do not recommend.