Re: [xmonad] automatically generating template xmonad.hs if it doesn't exist

On 2008.01.05 12:05:18 +0100, Joachim Breitner scribbled 2.1K characters:

Hi,

Am Freitag, den 04.01.2008, 22:24 +0000 schrieb Thomas Adam:

...

Hello --

On 04/01/2008, gwern0@gmail.com wrote:

...

# Does it *have* to be mod1Mask? It makes more sense to steal Alt than Ctrl, I'll grant, but stealing the useless Windows is even better since even fewer apps use that; I notice that there are at least 4 or 5 configs on the wiki which change mod1Mask to mod4Mask.

I'd argue yes, seeing as the Windows key is not a ubiquitous key on all keyboards. Leaving it as Alt, whilst potentially annoying for some users, is tough, IMO. :)

We could be more bold, without overriding existing key combinations, and remap the CapsLock key (which most people don’t use) to a modifier key and use that per default. It’s what I’m doing :-)

PRO: * Does not conflict with other Ctrl or Alt bindings. * Quite a handy spot on the keyboard. * Most people don’t use the CapsLock.

CON: * Some already remap that key (but they are power users that most likely modify their xmonad config anyways) * Some might actually want to USE THE CAPSLOCK KEY :-) * It might be a bit less intuitive than the Alt key.

Greetings, Joachim

As much as I hate to rain on this suggestion (since I was the one who said, 'Hey! Let's steal the Win-key! What could go wrong?'), I don't think this would really work. I dunno about your pros and cons, but this strikes me as a difficult task. I've ported my configuration files among several computers/OSs by this point, and as many keyboards - and in general, figuring out what is the capslock keyboard and then using it seems to be pretty hard. I eventually gave up on using .xmodmap and began configuring the Caps-as-Ctrl through the installation process. It certainly would be neat if we could somehow build in a facility to try to steal Win if it existed, Caps if it existed, and then fall back to Alt... but I don't know of anyway to build that into the core in any easy way (although I haven't looked too hard through the X11 library, so feel free to correct me). -- gwern GSM Submarine E. 510 ddnp building y friends RDI JCET