Left-handed typing

[neylitalo]

The short story: I hate frequently moving my right hand between the keyboard and mouse, so I often try to limit my IM, IRC, etc., responses to words that can be constructed with my left hand only. Now I can type anything I want with my left hand.

 

See this blog post for the whole picture. They've created an XKB file (for Unix-like operating systems only, sorry!) that will mirror the right-hand side of the keyboard to the left-hand side, when you press and hold Caps Lock. I never use Caps Lock anyway, so yay for finally making it do something useful.

 

Now, you can either download mirrorboard.xkb from the xkcd blog that I linked you to, or you can get the "fixed" version from my website. It used to have a little bug where the Tilde and Shift-Tilde mappings were reversed, but I fixed it. Instructions for using the file are in the blog and in the XKB file, but if it doesn't Work For You , then post here and we'll see what we can do.

[cmgmyr]

wow, that's pretty cool. I don't use Unix all that much but I think it's pretty neat that you can do stuff like that.

 

So what happens when you want to use the caps lock? You should make a work around where it's like Shift+Caps to actually turn the Caps on. Just a thought

[neylitalo]

So what happens when you want to use the caps lock? You should make a work around where it's like Shift+Caps to actually turn the Caps on. Just a thought

 

That's a possibility, I'll see what I can do.

[cmgmyr]

ok cool, I just don't wanna see someone NOT use your product for something like that.

[neylitalo]

It seems that X doesn't assign a keymap to Shift+Caps Lock, so the Shift just gets ignored. I don't really want to modify the system keymap files, but there's a section in the XKB file that looks as though it might be able to handle the addition of extra keymaps:

 

xkb_keycodes  { include "xfree86+aliases(qwerty)" };

 

But I can't get it to add the shift+caps keycode - I keep getting syntax errors, and I can't figure out how xkb source files are arranged. Here's how it would look in the US QWERTY keymap file:

 

shift keycode 58 = Caps_Lock

 

And then, this line in the xkb source file needs to be changed:

 

// old line, without Shift + Caps Lock
key <CAPS> { type[Group1] = "ONE_LEVEL", symbols[Group1] = [ ISO_Level3_Shift ] };

// the new line, which, ideally, would make Shift + Caps Lock turn Caps Lock on.
key <CAPS> { type[Group1] = "ONE_LEVEL", symbols[Group1] = [ ISO_Level3_Shift, Caps_Lock ] };

 

Anybody who can work some magic, please do, and then post it somewhere we can get it.

[emehrkay]

I've developed a habit of either using all mouse or all keyboard when doing things on the computer. I think that having to relearn all of the keyboard and mouse shortcuts will make it hard(er) for me to change my os.

 

This looks cool though

[zq29]

I've developed a habit of either using all mouse or all keyboard when doing things on the computer. I think that having to relearn all of the keyboard and mouse shortcuts will make it hard(er) for me to change my os.

 

This looks cool though

Assuming you're talking about moving from Windows to "Linux", a large amount of the keyboard shortcuts are the same or similar

[steelmanronald06]

I can only think of one reason anyone would want to type with their left hand and have the right free...but it is perverted so I'll leave it at that

[akitchin]

i second emerhkay.  i've learned to live with using entirely the keyboard when engaging in long bouts of typing.  thank god for the alt/ctrl+tab and some of the various windows button (yes i know, hisssssss) shortcuts for desktop and explorer.