Introduction

It was created and tested to work on ubuntu 16+. This script is used to turn on and off a particular remapping of the keyboard keys. It displays an icon on the top bar showing when the remapping is on. It also creates a system wide keybinding ("Ctrl+[" is e one I use) to quickly turn the remapping on and off.

Dependencies:

1. Python 3+
2. xbindkeys
3. xvkbd
4. the python modules you can see in the file vim-keybindings.py

Installation and Usage

1. In your preferred folder, clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/DiogoFerrari/vi-keybinding.git

2. Copy the file .xbindkeysrc to ~/ and modify that file according to your preferences (see xbindkeys)
3. Open the terminal, go to the local folder you saved the repository and run

python3 vim-keybindings.py &

4. Close the terminal
5. Use ctrl+[ to change the keyboard functionalities

Note: in ubuntu, I particularly have a shortcut to start the script: System Settings -> keyboard -> Shortcuts -> Custom Shortcuts. Then add a new shortcut with keybinding you prefer and command

python3 <path-to-the-script>/vim-keybindings.py

This shortcut will be used only to start the script. The ctrl+[ will still be used to change the keyboard setup

Details

The xbindkeys is an application that uses a file "~/.xbindkeysrc" in which the keybindings and remaps are defined. For more details, check here. I use that file to also call other keyboard remapping application, xvkbd (you find more details xvkbd). Basically, after installing these two applications, you run xbindkeys -p, and the keyboard will use whatever is defined in the file "~/.xbindkeysrc". When you modify "~/.xbindkeysrc", you run xbindkeys -p to update the configuration. Given that, my script just select all the lines below a line mark that I use in the file "~/.xbindkeysrc" and comment (uncomment) them when I (do not) want to use my alternative keyboard map. Then, it reloads the configuration by executing xbindkeys -p again. So you need to create your own "~/.xbindkeysrc" (for instance, by running xbindkeys -d > ~/.xbindkeysrc) or use the "~/.xbindkeysrc" of this repository (copy it to ~/).

I use the same global keybinding to turn on and off the two system-wide keyboard configurations I use (the standard and the vim-like one). My personal choice was to use "Crtl+[" for that purpose. So, the script vim-keybindings.py keeps track of the current keyboard state (standard versus vim-like). When I press "Crtl+[", it just changes the system to the other state.

Why do I need this?

I use emacs evil mode to emulate the vim navigation with hjkl as usually in vim. I also use Vimium, which is a vim-like navigation extension for chrome. The vimium has a limitation. It does not work when one opens a pdf in the browser and in other situations too (when the focus in on a text input box, for instance). So, the script allow me to turn on the keyboard functionalities that I need even in those cases in which vimium fails.

I use an additional setup to work on chrome in all situations, including pdfs, as following (=> means remapped to using xbindkeysrc):

• Alt+Shift+Tab => Shift+j : previous tab
• Alt+Tab => Shift+k : next tab
• Ctrl+w => q : close tab
• Ctrl+s => z : save
• Ctrl+t => t : new tab

Enjoy !