Yesterday, I decided to put in action two of the neato keyboard layout optimization tricks that I got from the the vim tips rss feed.
optimization 1: ( $caps_lock, $esc ) = ( $esc, $caps_lock )
In vim, one hits ESC a gazillion time a day and
CAPS LOCK maybe, on two or three times a century. Yet, the first
key is located at the outside periphery of the keyboard while the
second sits, fat and proud, in the middle of things. Not fair. Well,
doing a xmodmap escapswapper fix that engineering blunder,
where escapswapper is:
! Swap caps lock and escape remove Lock = Caps_Lock keysym Escape = Caps_Lock keysym Caps_Lock = Escape add Lock = Caps_Lock
optimization 2: y/123456789/!@#$%^&*()/
When one programs in Perl, one gets to type '$', '@' and '%' six times per line (or more, if you're a Perl golfer or swear a lot in your comments). In comparison, numbers are used a wee bit less frequently. And yet, it's the symbols that get the shift tax. Not fair. Again, a little remapping easily corrects this gross injustice:
in ~/.vimrc
autocmd FileType perl source ~/.vim/my/perl_map.vim
and in ~/.vim/my/perl_map.vim
" map each number to its shift-key character inoremap 1 ! inoremap 2 @ inoremap 3 # inoremap 4 $ inoremap 5 % inoremap 6 ^ inoremap 7 & inoremap 8 * inoremap 9 ( inoremap 0 ) " and then the opposite inoremap ! 1 inoremap @ 2 inoremap # 3 inoremap $ 4 inoremap % 5 inoremap ^ 6 inoremap & 7 inoremap * 8 inoremap ( 9 inoremap ) 0
In vi I use the ':' function all the time. I seldomly use ';'. More than 20 years ago, I started mapping ';' to ':' in vi, and when I started to use a better programmable vi-clone, I simply reversed the meaning of ':' and ';'.
From my
bind-key execute-named-command;
bind-key repeat-char-scan:
Re:Another swap.
Yanick on 2006-09-14T19:02:20
Good one, I'm trying to add it to my config.
As I was expecting, the fingers will need a little bit of time to get used to the new layout of the keyboard. After five hours of coding, I had to momentarily change back to a plain vanilla setting to prevent my brain of bursting.
Funnily enough, though, not five minutes later I remapped ESC to CAPS LOCK, 'cause as slightly confusing its new position is, it's leagues better than its far-away original location.:-) Re:Another swap.
Yanick on 2006-09-14T19:04:09
Gaah. Wrong formatting!
Good one, I'm trying to add it to my config.
As I was expecting, the fingers will need a little bit of time to get used to the new layout of the keyboard. After five hours of coding, I had to momentarily change back to a plain vanilla setting to prevent my brain of bursting.
Funnily enough, though, not five minutes later I remapped ESC to CAPS LOCK, 'cause as slightly confusing its new position is, it's leagues better than its far-away original location.:-)
