Arch Linux

onguarde

Member

Registered: 2008-09-14

Posts: 144

Xmodmap - Make Letter Keys Function as Modifer Key as well

Peace all!

In an effort to make the keyboard easier to use, I'm thinking of binding modifer keys to letters on the home row. The idea is, when you're typing normally, typing one letter at a time, the key merely outputs letters. But when you hold the key and press another, it acts as a modifer. For example, you can bind the letter "f" to Control as follows.

.Xmodmap

add Control = f

Then each time you need to execute a function key like Ctrl+A, you simply hold the "f" key and press "a". This would be much faster than stretching your finger all the way to the Ctrl key.

However, there are some glaring problems. When I hold the key to use it as a modifer, the letter "f" gets outputted as well. Is there a way to somehow configure Xmodmap to output "f" only upon release of the key?

Thanks in advance!