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    Poor Man's Extends with xcape and xmodmap

    • Started by primetime
    • 3 Replies:
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    • Registered: 06-Oct-2020
    • Posts: 6
    07-Nov-2020 03:53:14#1 Poor Man's Extends with xcape and xmodmap

    After many failed attempts at getting extends/BBKT working on my system, I stumbled on this bare-bones setup. It gives me 85% of the extends functionality that I need whilst working out of the box with my system.

    Caps-lock is the modifier on long presses, and an escape key on single presses.  So far I've managed to port over the arrow keys, and 'modifier + o' as backspace from extends.

    Now I'm looking to add:
    1.  'modifier + t ' as Left control
    2. 'modifier + spacebar' as Return

    My setup works as follows:
    Created this file: "~/.xmodmap"

    keycode 66 = Mode_switch
keysym i = i I Right
keysym o = o O BackSpace
keysym e = e E Up
keysym n = n N Down
keysym h = h H Left

    Added these two lines to bashrc:

    xmodmap ~/.xmodmap
xcape -e 'Mode_switch=Escape'

    How might I go about adding these features with xcape and xmodmap?

    The setup was taken from:
    https://unix.stackexchange.com/question … aps-to-esc

    Last edited by primetime (07-Nov-2020 03:53:42)
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    • From: Viken, Norway
    • Registered: 13-Dec-2006
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    08-Nov-2020 16:54:22#2 Re: Poor Man's Extends with xcape and xmodmap

    Do I understand you right that you're in effect using the AltGr layer for some Extend mappings then? If you don't need the AltGr symbols, that's a neat alternative indeed.

    However, unless you can add home row mods I don't see how you can get "85% of your Extend needs" with this! Because the home row mods are what separates Extend from any old Fn layer. As described in the BigBag Extend topic, this ability to create comfy combos is very very powerful. I'd also add the F# keys on numbers and the rest of the nav block (PgUp/Dn, Home/End) at the least.

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    09-Nov-2020 01:37:44#3 Re: Poor Man's Extends with xcape and xmodmap

    Those are some good ideas. Let me see what I can come up with.

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    • From: Viken, Norway
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    09-Nov-2020 10:56:20#4 Re: Poor Man's Extends with xcape and xmodmap

    The Extend keys I use the most are, roughly speaking:
    • The full 2×5 nav block JLUY;/MNEIO
    • The home row mods AST
    • Copy/Cut/Paste on XCV
    • F# keys on numbers
    • Esc Q, Enter on Spc
    • The mouse scrolling WR, Back/Forward on FP
    • Multimedia keys on F# (mostly volume keys)
    • Sometimes the mouse button and MouseUp/Dn
    • Either Right MouseBtn or Menu

    Last edited by DreymaR (09-Nov-2020 10:58:05)

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