In Vim’s predecessor, vi, switching modes was easy, with the ESC key located neatly by the Q on the keyboard of the ADM-3A terminal. On modern keyboards, though, it’s a pain …
A simple trick in vim to alleviate the pain of reaching for the ESC key is using alt + l.
However, this may or may not work depending on the install. I don’t remember what exactly this keybind is for but on some systems I’ve seen it insert a special character. I’ve found it typically works with vim-enhanced and neovim.
I have switched ESC and Caps Lock for years now. It really makes things so much easier, but now I am the guy in that meme. At least partly: I struggle to find the ESC key on other people’s computers, but sadly I’m not 23 anymore.
I think the thing that saves me from doing stuff like this is that as I get older I’ve begun to hate extraneous cables on and around my desk. For the longest time I’ve stuck with cabled peripherals, but I think my next buy will be wireless in that department. Now if we could make this foot pedal wireless…
I went the opposite way, got sick of all the wireless stuff disconnecting, battery dying, or not working before the os boots so I switched to wired everything, I went as far as running a usb over ethernet extender to my couch area so I can have a wire keeb and mouse while gaming on the tv
I wheeze-laughed at “Ran out of keys to bind years ago, has to use pedals under desk to switch between layouts.”
Now I kinda want to do that.
Here you go. Grab your soldering iron.
https://hackaday.com/2022/12/16/foot-pedal-ups-vim-productivity-brings-ergonomic-benefits/
A simple trick in vim to alleviate the pain of reaching for the ESC key is using
alt + l.However, this may or may not work depending on the install. I don’t remember what exactly this keybind is for but on some systems I’ve seen it insert a special character. I’ve found it typically works with vim-enhanced and neovim.
I have switched ESC and Caps Lock for years now. It really makes things so much easier, but now I am the guy in that meme. At least partly: I struggle to find the ESC key on other people’s computers, but sadly I’m not 23 anymore.
It’s “setxkbmap -option caps:swapescape” btw.
Or get a keyboard where the thumbs aren’t entirely wasted solely on the space key.
Or just disable caps and use that
I think the thing that saves me from doing stuff like this is that as I get older I’ve begun to hate extraneous cables on and around my desk. For the longest time I’ve stuck with cabled peripherals, but I think my next buy will be wireless in that department. Now if we could make this foot pedal wireless…
I went the opposite way, got sick of all the wireless stuff disconnecting, battery dying, or not working before the os boots so I switched to wired everything, I went as far as running a usb over ethernet extender to my couch area so I can have a wire keeb and mouse while gaming on the tv
I’d imagine setting this up should not be impossible: https://www.amazon.com.au/LEKATO-Bluetooth-Rechargeable-Wireless-Tablets/dp/B09CP8HLG4
Weaksauce. Everyone knows you configure at least one Vulcan-nerve-pinch dead-key chord that primes the following key chord to switch the layout.
Only half joking. I’m the guy with Ctrl-Super-Alt-Shift-Pause set to put the PC into Suspend mode.
Unrelatedly, I hope the meme name isn’t a dog-whistle of some sort, because that really would be weaksauce.
Ooooh yeah. I didn’t even consider that, but it looks like it comes from 4chan so there’s a good chance you’re right about the dog whistle.
My favorite part of your suspend shortcut is that you can call it “hyper pause” and that describes both the shortcut and the action lol
Thanks! I wanted something hard to hit by accident but with a nice mnemonic in it.
A cat-on-keyboard situation could just about manage it, but I don’t have a cat.
I’m pretty sure Emacs can do that