Holding the escape key

stewSquared · 2012-10-27 02:03:08

To be honest, what I'd really like to be able to do is be able to hold the CAPS key instead of push the ESC key every time I want to, say, move back a word (i.e. CAPS+bbbb should behave as ESC+b, ESC+b, ESC+b, ESC+b).

My solution so far is to use setxkbmap -option caps:escape (which I found by running "grep -r escape" in /usr/shar/X11/xkb/). This works great, as CAPS now behaves as ESC, but it's not exactly ESC that I want.

Thanks

Trilby · 2012-10-27 02:06:06

??

I assume you are talking about in vim?

Why not map the caps lock to shift, and map B to what you want it to do in vim?

stewSquared · 2012-10-27 02:11:03

I don't use vim, actually, but emacs. Basically, I want caps lock (sorry I should have typed it out) to behave as an extra meta key (I never use caps lock for anything else). And it does do that, but I want to be able to hold it down and have continue to behave as a meta key. As it is now, holding caps lock, then pushing 'b' twice moves me back one word, then prints 'b'

jasonwryan · 2012-10-27 02:17:02

It works as you described for me, if I have understood you correctly.

I have remapped CapsLock to Escape and, in a shell, if I hold down CapsLock and then hit b repeatedly the cursor skips back a word for every press of the b.

stewSquared · 2012-10-27 02:25:19

jasonwryan wrote:

It works as you described for me, if I have understood you correctly.
I have remapped CapsLock to Escape and, in a shell, if I hold down CapsLock and then hit b repeatedly the cursor skips back a word for every press of the b.

Wait, really? And you ran the same command the same command?

If I were to type the words "These are four words" and then hold CapsLock and push b, the result is still something like "These are four bbbbbbwords"

I thought, for a moment, that it might just be my shell (I'm using xterm), but I see the same behavior for any X program that I run.

jasonwryan · 2012-10-27 02:47:16

stewSquared wrote:

jasonwryan wrote:
It works as you described for me, if I have understood you correctly.
I have remapped CapsLock to Escape and, in a shell, if I hold down CapsLock and then hit b repeatedly the cursor skips back a word for every press of the b.
Wait, really? And you ran the same command the same command?

Yes: holding CapsLock and hitting b four times takes me back to the start of the
line…

I'm using urxvt{c,d}, bash and vi-mode.

stewSquared · 2012-10-27 03:10:27

jasonwryan wrote:

stewSquared wrote:
jasonwryan wrote:
It works as you described for me, if I have understood you correctly.
I have remapped CapsLock to Escape and, in a shell, if I hold down CapsLock and then hit b repeatedly the cursor skips back a word for every press of the b.
Wait, really? And you ran the same command the same command?
Yes: holding CapsLock and hitting b four times takes me back to the start of the
line…
I'm using urxvt{c,d}, bash and vi-mode.

What happens if you push esc-b? Maybe our escape keys behave differently.

WonderWoofy · 2012-10-27 03:28:53

jasonwryan uses vi mode, whereas you are using emacs mode. Try changing your xterm to vi mode and see if it works then.

jasonwryan · 2012-10-27 04:18:50

stewSquared wrote:

jasonwryan wrote:
stewSquared wrote:
Wait, really? And you ran the same command the same command?
Yes: holding CapsLock and hitting b four times takes me back to the start of the
line…
I'm using urxvt{c,d}, bash and vi-mode.

What happens if you push esc-b? Maybe our escape keys behave differently.

The same. Escape is Escape: wherever it is mapped...

stewSquared · 2012-10-27 11:33:39

WonderWoofy wrote:

jasonwryan uses vi mode, whereas you are using emacs mode. Try changing your xterm to vi mode and see if it works then.

Technically, I think it's changing bash (not xterm) to vi mode, but thanks -- I see what's happening now. M-b works how I'd like it to in vi mode, but I have no intention of using vi mode (I want emacs keybindings). I'd like the emacs-mode escape to behave like the vi-mode escape. Any suggestions as to how to do this?

Last edited by stewSquared (2012-10-27 13:01:32)

angelfalls · 2012-10-27 16:54:25

What's about console (bash shell)? i tried to use loadkeys to remap caps lock to control and control to caps lock but it doesn't work, because i think use caps lock is easier than press control when i move around keyboard. so i wonder:
1. how can i remap caps lock to Control and Control to caps lock in bash (in tty)
2. how can i remap caps lock to ESC in vim (in tty)

I tried to modify /usr/local/share/kbd/keymaps/personal.map

keycode 58 = 29
keycode 29 = 58

58 is caps lock keycode
29 is control keycode.

Thanks in advanced!

jasonwryan · 2012-10-27 21:44:19

stewSquared wrote:

M-b works how I'd like it to in vi mode, but I have no intention of using vi mode (I want emacs keybindings). I'd like the emacs-mode escape to behave like the vi-mode escape. Any suggestions as to how to do this?

I should have looked more closely at this. In vi-mode, Escape (whatever it is bound to) puts you in command mode--and it only needs to be pressed once, therefore holding Escape and hitting b four times is the same as hitting Escape once and then hitting b four times.

I don't think that you can replicate modal behaviour in emacs mode, as it is a chordal paradigm. You can see all the readline bindings here:
http://linux.about.com/library/cmd/blcmdl3_readline.htm
you might find some way to hack it.

anglefalls wrote:

questions about keymapping...

Please don't hijack threads https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fo … _Hijacking

Start your own thread with more information about your setup and what you have tried.

Arch Linux

#1 2012-10-27 02:03:08

Holding the escape key

#2 2012-10-27 02:06:06

Re: Holding the escape key

#3 2012-10-27 02:11:03

Re: Holding the escape key

#4 2012-10-27 02:17:02

Re: Holding the escape key

#5 2012-10-27 02:25:19

Re: Holding the escape key

#6 2012-10-27 02:47:16

Re: Holding the escape key

#7 2012-10-27 03:10:27

Re: Holding the escape key

#8 2012-10-27 03:28:53

Re: Holding the escape key

#9 2012-10-27 04:18:50

Re: Holding the escape key

#10 2012-10-27 11:33:39

Re: Holding the escape key

#11 2012-10-27 16:54:25

Re: Holding the escape key

#12 2012-10-27 21:44:19

Re: Holding the escape key

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