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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Make Ctrl+Arrow Keys the default? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 1 year ago by testman@lemmy.ml to c/linux@lemmy.ml

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You know how cursor behaves in practically any text field / text area / command line, where arrow keys move cursor by single character, but holding down Ctrl while pressing arrow keys moves cursor by whole word.

What kind of wizardry would one do in order to switch this around?
As in, make the move-by-word the default behaviour, but make holding down Ctrl move cursor by just a single character? Some keyboard input binding, where ⬅ is an alias for Ctrl+⬅ ? But no idea how to make the opposite of this. Make Ctrl+⬅ an keyboard shortcut for xdotool key Left or something?
Does a setting like this already exist?

Also not sure if /c/linux is the most appropriate community for this question. Feel free to suggest more appropriate one or even cross-post to there.
Thank you

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[–] palordrolap@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

This all depends on what "level" you want the feature to take effect.

You might have some success, for example, by generating your own keyboard table (man keyboard to start down that particular rabbit hole) that swaps the functionality of arrow and ctrl+arrow to the point that most software will think you have pressed ctrl+arrow when pressing the arrow and vice versa.

At the other end of the scale, a window manager might be able to override one or the other, or possibly both, depending on available features.

For example, in Cinnamon (and possibly other GNOME variants) it's possible to set up triggers for most keypress combinations (occasionally single keys too), capturing and processing before being passed to any software that might be running. Triggers can call commands like xdotool or anything else really. You may need to throw a sleep 0.5 before the call to xdotool in the script / command-line to allow control to switch back to the running software. YMMV.

(If you're really clever, you could assign a keypress that shuffles some symbolic links around, modifies a configuration, or some such, effectively allowing a feature to be toggled without having to modify the keypresses. Exercise for the reader, etc.)