Remap that caps lock key that you never use to ctrl. Your life is changed. You are welcome :)

As a dyed in the wool Vi user. I still want ctrl where I can reach it easily.

Ctrl-[ for escape and when in Insert mode, ctrl-h backspace; ctrl-w delete word; ctrl-u delete line; Ctrl-m return; ctrl-i tab, etc.

I once swapped Ctrl and Alt and never looked back. It feels so natural and it happens to match Symbolics Space-Cadet Keyboards layout too http://xahlee.info/kbd/space-cadet_keyboard.html

Advised by http://xahlee.info/kbd/linux_swap_modifier_keys.html

    ! -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
    ! 2013-02-04 swap Alt and Ctrl http://xahlee.info/

    !  xmodmap -pke | egrep '(Control|Super|Alt|Menu)'
    ! keycode  37 = Control_L NoSymbol Control_L
    ! keycode  64 = Alt_L Meta_L Alt_L Meta_L
    ! keycode 105 = Control_R NoSymbol Control_R
    ! keycode 108 = Alt_R Meta_R Alt_R Meta_R
    ! keycode 133 = Super_L NoSymbol Super_L
    ! keycode 134 = Super_R NoSymbol Super_R
    ! keycode 135 = Menu NoSymbol Menu
    ! keycode 147 = XF86MenuKB NoSymbol XF86MenuKB
    ! keycode 204 = NoSymbol Alt_L NoSymbol Alt_L
    ! keycode 206 = NoSymbol Super_L NoSymbol Super_L

    clear control
    clear mod1
    keycode 37 = Alt_L Meta_L
    keycode 105 = Alt_R Meta_R
    keycode 64 = Control_L
    keycode 108 = Control_R
    add control = Control_L Control_R
    add mod1 = Alt_L Meta_L

Im a broken record in this thread right now... for goodness sake, remap capslock to ctrl!!

That's the first thing I do when I start a new MBP.

Yep, me too. The second thing I do is to remap the right alt key (used to be a numeric keypad 'enter' key back on my original MacBook Pro) to a second ctrl key.

I'm always confused by laptop designers who only include one ctrl key. How are we supposed to properly touch type modifiers otherwise?

> I'm always confused ...

Just stating the obvious: you’re not their target consumer.

Maybe, there's probably some truth to that.

Apple do make it easy to remap the Alt key though and include a terminal and CLI commands by default so they must have some interest in business from people like me. ;)

(I would like to start a campaign to get the Mac Unix science page back again https://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/apple-drops-science-...)

different strokes for different folks. I did not know about those insert mode keystrokes. Thanks!

Yeah, I have some problems with RSI in my right wrist (stop sniggering at the back).

I think it's mostly down to the way I twist to reach backspace rather than move my whole hand from the home row. Ctrl-h, Ctrl-w and Ctrl-m really help with that.

The only problem I have is that I don't know how to remap Ctr-m to return in X windows applications. I use Karabiner on a macOS and Gnome Tweak tool on Linux for the others.

It's somewhat frustrating to have different shortcuts in the terminal, where I spend most of my time and the browser where I spend most of the rest.

Edit: (If anyone can suggest a good way of mapping ctrl-m to return in Linux browsers I'd really appreciate it.)

Also ctrl-c does everything esc does in vim. When capslock is remapped to ctrl, its far easier and faster in most cases than reaching for esc.

Doesn't ctrl-c clear the whole line (maybe SIGINT related?) in vi-mode?

Well, in vanilla vi - I'm not sure (quite frankly, anyone who stands by vanilla vi as a great way to edit text is fudging insane). In typical VIM installs, ctrl-c and esc are aliases of one another.

Yeah, I meant vi(m)-mode in Bash/readline as mentioned in this discussion. When editing or correcting a command it may be inconvenient to destroy the whole line when switching to movement-mode (which does not happen, if it is not ctrl-c).

On the Japanese keyboard, Ctrl is where it should be: above Shift, replacing the useless and memetastic CapsLock.

You can always use ctrl-[ instead of esc.