Better support for international keyboards

[markus-oberhumer]

I'm using a German keyboard layout and currently have to use quick hack/patch below to easily use Left bracket and Right bracket.

Would it be hard to implement keymaps for submenus like these?

--- a/helix-term/src/keymap/default.rs
+++ b/helix-term/src/keymap/default.rs
@@ -104,7 +104,7 @@ pub fn default() -> HashMap<Mode, KeyTrie> {
             "a" => select_textobject_around,
             "i" => select_textobject_inner,
         },
-        "[" => { "Left bracket"
+        "[" | "ü" => { "Left bracket" // better support for German keyboard
             "d" => goto_prev_diag,
             "D" => goto_first_diag,
             "g" => goto_prev_change,
@@ -117,7 +117,7 @@ pub fn default() -> HashMap<Mode, KeyTrie> {
             "p" => goto_prev_paragraph,
             "space" => add_newline_above,
         },
-        "]" => { "Right bracket"
+        "]" | "+" => { "Right bracket" // better support for German keyboard
             "d" => goto_next_diag,
             "D" => goto_last_diag,
             "g" => goto_next_change,

[TornaxO7]

Hi! May I suggest you to try NeoQwertz? You won't have to relearn QWERTZ but you can access all special characters (brackets, backticks, etc.) easier through it. I can highly recommend it.

Otherwise I'd suggest to remap your the keybindings because adding default international keybindings doesn't sound easy to maintain in my opinion.

[pascalkuthe]

This can be handled by a simple remap with3 lines in your config. No need to change the default keymap.

I am also german and I would also recommend to save your hands and switch to a better keyboard layout. QWERTZ somehow manages to be significantly worse than QWERTY (which is itself not a good layout).

[markus-oberhumer]

This can be handled by a simple remap with3 lines in your config. No need to change the default keymap.

Nice, but how can I change this? In vim/neovim I'm using

nmap ü [
nmap + ]

but in helix something like this is invalid:

[keys.normal]
"ü" = "["

[sicher]

This can be handled by a simple remap with3 lines in your config. No need to change the default keymap.

Nice, but how can I change this? In vim/neovim I'm using

nmap ü [
nmap + ]

but in helix something like this is invalid:

[keys.normal]
"ü" = "["

https://docs.helix-editor.com/remapping.html

[markus-oberhumer]

@sicher Thanks, but I did read the docs (and even had a glimpse at the Rust source code).

So please show me the actual lines for config.toml.

[TornaxO7]

@markus-oberhumer
I think you can't just remap a key to imitate another key. Have you tried

[keys.normal.ü]
"d" = "goto_prev_diag"
"D" = "goto_first_diag"
"g" = "goto_prev_change"

for example?

[markus-oberhumer]

@TornaxO7 The point of this issue is that I want to remap ü to the "Left bracket submenu".

[sicher]

@TornaxO7 The point of this issue is that I want to remap ü to the "Left bracket submenu".

That's not possible atm. You have to create a new, or overwrite the bindings for a minor mode. Like in the docs.

[markus-oberhumer]

Well, that why my OT says:

Would it be hard to implement keymaps for submenus like these?

[sicher]

Well, that why my OT says:

Would it be hard to implement keymaps for submenus like these?

Your example code showed a hard-coded solution for your specific keyboard. That's very easy to do (you did it), but it would not help me at all on my Swedish keyboard.

There are a few open PR:s that may be relevant. Check out #5046 for instance.

[markus-oberhumer]

@sicher @pascalkuthe My example code is explicitly annotated as quick hack/patch to show the work-around I'm currently using because of what I think is a missing keymap feature.

(NOTE to self: don't include patches unless necessary)

[sicher]

@sicher @pascalkuthe My example code is explicitly annotated as quick hack/patch to show the work-around I'm currently using because of what I think is a missing keymap feature.

There are PR:s that intend to address remapping. I linked to one above.

(Edit: Or perhaps there's just that single one. I dunno - haven't dug through all open PR:s)

[markus-oberhumer]

@sicher #5046 looks like something different (a complete keyboard remap, which is not what I suggested. I don't want to transform ü to [ while in insert mode...)

[sicher]

@sicher #5046 looks like something different (a complete keyboard remap, which is not what I suggested. I don't want to transform ü to [ while in insert mode...)

I might misunderstand that PR totally, but one example given seems to me like exactly what you're after:

[[editor.layout-remap]]
from = 'э'
into = "'"

EDIT: For your case that would be (I guess):

[[editor.layout-remap]]
from = 'ü'
into = "["

EDIT 2: And, your point about insert mode is explicitly addressed in the PR description:

These translation mappings are applied in every mode except for (obviously) the Insert mode.

[markus-oberhumer]

Well, I'd guess the correct way to tackle this is to introduce something like a left_bracket_menu command which then can get mapped in [keys.normal].

[markus-oberhumer]

@pascalkuthe As you have closed this issue: I'd still like to see your config.toml changes for simple remap with3 lines in your config.

Maybe I'm missing something here.

[the-mikedavis]

Easier remapping of minor modes like [/] is #5734

The current way to remap this is:

# config.toml
[keys.normal."ü"]
d = "goto_prev_diag"
D = "goto_first_diag"
g = "goto_prev_change"
G = "goto_first_change"
f = "goto_prev_function"
t = "goto_prev_class"
a = "goto_prev_parameter"
c = "goto_prev_comment"
T = "goto_prev_test"
p = "goto_prev_paragraph"
space = "add_newline_above"

[keys.normal."+"]
d = "goto_next_diag"
D = "goto_last_diag"
g = "goto_next_change"
G = "goto_last_change"
f = "goto_next_function"
t = "goto_next_class"
a = "goto_next_parameter"
c = "goto_next_comment"
T = "goto_next_test"
p = "goto_next_paragraph"
space = "add_newline_below"

[markus-oberhumer]

@the-mikedavis Many thanks for that info, this is at least a workaround I can live with for now!