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NuSkool

Member

Registered: 2015-03-23

Posts: 297

Keyboard Shortcut Terminology

I've looked into this and didn't find anything. I'm sure it's because I don't know what "word/s" to google.

I've been using Ratpoison WM. The default key binding was set up, press 2 keys, then release, then press another key/s. I set up the keyboard shortcuts to be simple to use and more intuitive to me:  Press the SUPER_L key and release it, then press other single keys to do different tasks.

What would the SUPER_L key be called? What would this type of keybinding be called, where rather than pressing multiple keys at the same time, you would press a key or keys, release them, then press another key/s?

Can other WM's be set up similar without major rework? I've gotten used to my Ratpoison keybindings, and would like to use it to try some other WM's. I played around a bit with i3, but never did get the keybindings setup to my liking.

EDIT:

Did some more searching and came up with "prefix key" keybinding. It seems xchainkeys may give me what I'm looking for. If anyone has more info, please contribute. I also came across an old i3 faq, discussing what I asked about with i3. I'll take a closer look at xchainkeys unless I learn of something I currently don't know. 

Xchainkeys:
http://henning-bekel.de/xchainkeys/
https://github.com/hbekel/xchainkeys

Old i3 faq
https://faq.i3wm.org/question/7588/keybinding/

EDIT:

Installed xbindkeys. Have not had time to set it up and not sure it will do the "prefix key" thing yet.

Last edited by NuSkool (2017-06-10 06:07:19)

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Docbroke

Member

From: India

Registered: 2015-06-13

Posts: 1,475

Re: Keyboard Shortcut Terminology

You can use prefix keys in i3, using mode, there is resize mode example in default i3 config file.

mode "resize" {
        
        # same bindings, but for the arrow keys
        bindsym Left resize shrink width 10 px or 10 ppt
        bindsym Down resize grow height 10 px or 10 ppt
        bindsym Up resize shrink height 10 px or 10 ppt
        bindsym Right resize grow width 10 px or 10 ppt

        # back to normal: Enter or Escape
        bindsym Return mode "default"
        bindsym Escape mode "default"
}

bindsym $mod+r mode "resize"

Here $mod+r is your prefix key. You can setup your other shortcuts in similar way.
Also look at sxhkd.

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