https://github.com/frobware/cmd-key-happy

Swap cmd and alt keys in Terminal (useful when running emacs over ssh)
https://github.com/frobware/cmd-key-happy

emacs mac-osx macos maverick swap-cmd terminal

Last synced: 11 days ago
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Swap cmd and alt keys in Terminal (useful when running emacs over ssh)

• Host: GitHub
• URL: https://github.com/frobware/cmd-key-happy
• Owner: frobware
• License: mit
• Created: 2009-10-31T08:55:33.000Z (about 15 years ago)
• Default Branch: master
• Last Pushed: 2022-10-26T21:11:43.000Z (about 2 years ago)
• Last Synced: 2024-10-25T05:50:13.021Z (17 days ago)
• Topics: emacs, mac-osx, macos, maverick, swap-cmd, terminal
• Language: C
• Homepage:
• Size: 1.45 MB
• Stars: 135
• Watchers: 9
• Forks: 16
• Open Issues: 0
• Metadata Files:
  • Readme: README.md
  • License: LICENSE

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README

        
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Swap cmd and alt (or command and option) keys in Mac OS X (macOS).

This program allows you to swap the command and alt (or option) keys in any application, but in particular Terminal.app. This can be extremely handy when ssh'ing into other UN*X boxes and running "emacs -nw". It also allows you to have the traditional readline navigation work properly when using Bash (i.e., alt-backspace, alt-f, alt-b, etc) in the Terminal.

The decision to swap the keys is based on a customizable script (Lua). This script allows you to exclude certain key combinations per application, or globally.  For example, "cmd-tab" is an exclusion in my Lua script regardless of which application is running, as I still want this key combination to cycle the active set of applications.  I have "cmd-c" and "cmd-v" as exclusions when the front most application is the Terminal -- these combinations are so universal that I find it easier to leave them as they are -- but all other key combinations involving the cmd key get swapped with alt.

The motivation for this program was the many years of hitting alt- in Linux only to find that it does not generate the same behaviour in Terminal.app.  Having the ability to run "emacs -nw" from within Terminal.app is now useable!

Mavericks

If you upgrade to Mavericks you'll get the following error "failed to create event tap!" when cmd-key-happy starts.  The granularity of using the accessibility APIs which is what cmd-key-happy depends on is both different and now much finer.  To fix this please reread the INSTALL file.

Note (1 Feb 2017): I rewrote this in C++ (see cpp directory) some

years ago and it is probably the better implementation for newer

versions of macOS but I never promoted it as I have stopped using

macOS on a regular basis.