On Fri, Mar 23, 2018 at 10:03 PM, Robert Bower <frrobe...@gmail.com> wrote: > I am a occasional Vim user. It is my default rescue editor and I use it for > a few tasks but not many. I would like to use it for more because it is so > customizable. What holds me back is I am a one handed left handed touch > typist. I only have use of my left arm. > > The problem I have with Vim is while the key maps are natural for a two > handed touch typist, they are awkward for for a one handed typist. The home > row for one handed typing is fghj. That makes the direction keys of hjkl > somewhat unnatural. > > Before, I create my own map, I was wondering has anyone found a remapping for > one handed typing? > > Thanks in advance.
I'm not a touch-typist, but I usually type one-handed, with most of the fingers of my right hand, which jumps this way and that over the keyboard in a manner similar to how a pianist's hands may jump from one octave to another. I don't use "special" one-handed mappings, though; the mappings I use are either for key sequences which I use often, or ones which are difficult to find on my Belgian AZERTY keyboard (e.g. <F9> for Ctrl-] in both Normal mode [to follow Vim's help hotlinks] and Insert mode [to end an abbreviation or to avoid triggering it]). So if you find out that there are complex key sequences that you use repeatedly, or key combinations which are awkward to get on your particular national keyboard, that's what you should assign to the {rhs} of your mappings — which will probably be different than mine, because they should suit you, not me. As {lhs} I recommend the Fn and Shift-Fn keys with the exception of <F1> (Help) and maybe also <F10> (Menu). Or, in Normal mode only, any non-ASCII key (if there are any) present on your national keyboard: mine has ² ³ é § è ç à ° ù µ £ but yours may have a different set. IMHO any Vim user, touch-typist or not, left-handed, right-handed or both, should learn which keys do what in Vim (in Insert mode, of course, most keys used just by themselves, or only with Shift, insert a character into the current editfile; but even in Normal mode, most keys do something), then it's just a matter of remembering which key or key combination does what. And my counsel is not to try to use only hjkl to move the cursor to the next character cell: Vim understands what the arrow keys do, and it listens to the mouse, so don't be afraid to use them. (Of course, on a desktop keyboard the arrow keys are usually on the far right, and that could be awkward for someone who hasn't got a usable right hand, but it is common to all programs, not only Vim.) To learn which keys do what, I recommend the "vimtutor" utility, distributed together with Vim: it moves the beginner step by step through the elementary use of Vim; and then I recommend to all users, beginners or otherwise, to make good use of the online help: AFAIK, no program available today has such a complete and detailed help system, available at every user's fingertips without even leaving the program. Best regards, Tony. -- -- You received this message from the "vim_use" maillist. Do not top-post! Type your reply below the text you are replying to. For more information, visit http://www.vim.org/maillist.php --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "vim_use" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to vim_use+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.