Editing & Navigating Layer

The Editing & Navigation layer is one of the most important layer that I use. I was using a much different version of this layer even before I had an ergonomic keyboard. The layer is broken up into a few different sections.

Starting with right-hand-side, the arrow keys are put in a comfortable j, i, k, l position in cyan. In red are ways to delete text with the Macro delete line on p. The ctrl+A and ctrl+e means go to the start line or end line even if the line is wrapped which is very useful in an editor or terminal. The thumb Hyper keys in white are actually VS code related because I am often in this layer when I context switch to a different terminal, file, or command.

On the left-hand-side, the light blue macros are select all, line and word. The orange macros are new line above and below. On the bottom light purple is the usual undo, cut, copy, paste. There is also a paste 2nd oldest history macro on the "b" key which comes in handy all the time.

The section above in purple are modifiers. They are used in combination of keys on the right hand side. With the left thumb on a layer key and different modifiers held down an action on the right can be done such as an arrow key, delete key or page move key. A full chart of all the combinations are in the table below. I structured the modifier order as ctrl, option, command shift because it seemed the most comfortable because shift is the most situational key and can easily be lifted up and down.

Another cool feature is that additional commands can be made using modifier combinations. For example, if I want to move left by 3 words or up by 3 lines, I can create a macro using karabiner-elements by mapping an unused combination, like cmd+option+letter to the macro.

This layer has gone through many iterations and actually used to be 2 layers. I was using this layer before I had an ergonomic keyboard because it was that useful and is what really got me into creating layers and macros. Typically, I do 4-5 actions in this layer and then go back to the default layer. I prefer having a press and hold functionality that is based on positional keys instead of modes with mnemonic like in vim.

Editing & Navigating Layer

Description	Original Hotkey	Updated Hotkey
left arrow	left_arrow	j
right arrow	right_arrow	l
up arrow	up_arrow	i
down arrow	down_arrow	k
page up	page_up	y
page down	page_down	n
back space	back_space	u
delete	del	o
escape	esc	q
undo	cmd+z	z
cut	cmd+x	x
copy	cmd+c	c
paste	cmd+v	v
start of line	cmd+left_arrow	cmd+j
end of line	cmd+right_arrow	cmd+j
top of line	cmd+up_arrow	cmd+i
bottom of line	cmd+down_arrow	cmd+k
move left one word	option+left_arrow	option+j
move right one word	option+right_arrow	option+l
backspace left one word	option+backspace	option+u
delete right one word	option+del	option+o
backspace to start of line	cmd+backspace	cmd+u
delete to end of line	karabiner-elements(ctrl+k)	cmd+o
select letter left	shift+left_arrow	shift+j
select letter right	shift+right_arrow	shift+l
select line above to cursor	shift+up_arrow	shift+i
select line below to cursor	shift+down_arrow	shift+k
select left one word	option+shift+left_arrow	option+shift+j
select right one word	option+shift+right_arrow	option+shift+l
select to start of line	cmd+shift+left_arrow	cmd+shift+j
select to end of line	cmd+shift+right_arrow	cmd+shift+l,
select to page up	shift+page_up	shift+y
select to page down	shift+page_down	shift+n
move line up	vs code(option+up_arrow)	option+i
move line down	vs code(option+right_arrow)	option+j
copy line up	vs code (option+shift+up_arrow)	option+shift+i
copy line down	vs code (option+shift+down_arrow)	option+shift+k
left arrow x3	karabiner-elements	cmd+option+j
right arrow x3	karabiner-elements	cmd+option+l
up arrow x3	karabiner-elements	cmd+option+i
down arrow x3	karabiner-elements	cmd+option+k
left selection x3	karabiner-elements	cmd+option+shift+j
right selection x3	karabiner-elements	cmd+option+shift+l
go to start of line w/ word wrap	ctrl+a	m
go to end of line w/word wrap	ctrl+e	.
select word	macro	r
select line	macro	e
select all	cmd+a	w
delete line	macro	p
new line above cursor	macro	t
new line below cursor	macro	g
paste 2nd last item	macro	b
go to file	vs code(cmd+p)	F1
show all commands	vs code(cmd+shift+p)	F4
terminal focus/unfocus	vs code(custom)	F2

## Karabiner-element macros

{
    "global": {
        "check_for_updates_on_startup": true,
        "show_in_menu_bar": true,
        "show_profile_name_in_menu_bar": false
    },
    "profiles": [
        {
            "complex_modifications": {
                "parameters": {
                    "basic.simultaneous_threshold_milliseconds": 50,
                    "basic.to_delayed_action_delay_milliseconds": 500,
                    "basic.to_if_alone_timeout_milliseconds": 1000,
                    "basic.to_if_held_down_threshold_milliseconds": 500,
                    "mouse_motion_to_scroll.speed": 100
                },
                "rules": [
                    {
                        "manipulators": [
                            {
                                "description": "Global Navigation left left left",
                                "from": {
                                    "key_code": "left_arrow",
                                    "modifiers": {
                                        "mandatory": [
                                            "command",
                                            "option"
                                        ]
                                    }
                                },
                                "to": [
                                    {
                                        "key_code": "left_arrow",
                                        "modifiers": [
                                            "left_option"
                                        ]
                                    },
                                    {
                                        "key_code": "left_arrow",
                                        "modifiers": [
                                            "left_option"
                                        ]
                                    },
                                    {
                                        "key_code": "left_arrow",
                                        "modifiers": [
                                            "left_option"
                                        ]
                                    }
                                ],
                                "type": "basic"
                            }
                        ]
                    },
                    {
                        "manipulators": [
                            {
                                "description": "Global Navigation right right right",
                                "from": {
                                    "key_code": "right_arrow",
                                    "modifiers": {
                                        "mandatory": [
                                            "command",
                                            "option"
                                        ]
                                    }
                                },
                                "to": [
                                    {
                                        "key_code": "right_arrow",
                                        "modifiers": [
                                            "left_option"
                                        ]
                                    },
                                    {
                                        "key_code": "right_arrow",
                                        "modifiers": [
                                            "left_option"
                                        ]
                                    },
                                    {
                                        "key_code": "right_arrow",
                                        "modifiers": [
                                            "left_option"
                                        ]
                                    }
                                ],
                                "type": "basic"
                            }
                        ]
                    },
                    {
                        "manipulators": [
                            {
                                "description": "Global Selection right right right",
                                "from": {
                                    "key_code": "right_arrow",
                                    "modifiers": {
                                        "mandatory": [
                                            "command",
                                            "option",
                                            "shift"
                                        ]
                                    }
                                },
                                "to": [
                                    {
                                        "key_code": "right_arrow",
                                        "modifiers": [
                                            "left_option",
                                            "shift"
                                        ]
                                    },
                                    {
                                        "key_code": "right_arrow",
                                        "modifiers": [
                                            "left_option",
                                            "shift"
                                        ]
                                    },
                                    {
                                        "key_code": "right_arrow",
                                        "modifiers": [
                                            "left_option",
                                            "shift"
                                        ]
                                    }
                                ],
                                "type": "basic"
                            }
                        ]
                    },
                    {
                        "manipulators": [
                            {
                                "description": "Global Selection left left left",
                                "from": {
                                    "key_code": "left_arrow",
                                    "modifiers": {
                                        "mandatory": [
                                            "command",
                                            "option",
                                            "shift"
                                        ]
                                    }
                                },
                                "to": [
                                    {
                                        "key_code": "left_arrow",
                                        "modifiers": [
                                            "left_option",
                                            "shift"
                                        ]
                                    },
                                    {
                                        "key_code": "left_arrow",
                                        "modifiers": [
                                            "left_option",
                                            "shift"
                                        ]
                                    },
                                    {
                                        "key_code": "left_arrow",
                                        "modifiers": [
                                            "left_option",
                                            "shift"
                                        ]
                                    }
                                ],
                                "type": "basic"
                            }
                        ]
                    },
                    {
                        "manipulators": [
                            {
                                "description": "Global Navigation up up up",
                                "from": {
                                    "key_code": "up_arrow",
                                    "modifiers": {
                                        "mandatory": [
                                            "command",
                                            "option"
                                        ]
                                    }
                                },
                                "to": [
                                    {
                                        "key_code": "up_arrow"
                                    },
                                    {
                                        "key_code": "up_arrow"
                                    },
                                    {
                                        "key_code": "up_arrow"
                                    }
                                ],
                                "type": "basic"
                            }
                        ]
                    },
                    {
                        "manipulators": [
                            {
                                "description": "Global Navigation down down down",
                                "from": {
                                    "key_code": "down_arrow",
                                    "modifiers": {
                                        "mandatory": [
                                            "command",
                                            "option"
                                        ]
                                    }
                                },
                                "to": [
                                    {
                                        "key_code": "down_arrow"
                                    },
                                    {
                                        "key_code": "down_arrow"
                                    },
                                    {
                                        "key_code": "down_arrow"
                                    }
                                ],
                                "type": "basic"
                            }
                        ]
                    },
                    {
                        "manipulators": [
                            {
                                "description": "Global Forward Delete to end of line",
                                "from": {
                                    "key_code": "delete_forward",
                                    "modifiers": {
                                        "mandatory": [
                                            "command"
                                        ]
                                    }
                                },
                                "to": [
                                    {
                                        "key_code": "k",
                                        "modifiers": [
                                            "left_control"
                                        ]
                                    }
                                ],
                                "type": "basic"
                            }
                        ]
                    }
        }
   ]
}
                    

Macros

A macro is a series of key strokes. Most keyboard software has a dedicated section for creating macros. Here are the macros I used in the editing / navigating layer.

select word

• option left_arrow, shift+option+right_arrow

select line

• cmd left_arrow, shift+cmd+right_arrow

delete line

• 1, ctrl+a, shift+cmd+right_arrow, backspace, backspace

  • I add a 1 as an arbitrary value so that if the line is blank then the expected output is still produced and not deleting the last character on the above line.

new line above

• ctrl+a, enter

new line below

• ctrl+e, enter

VS Code

To shift between the terminal and editor quickly, I use this script. hyper f4 can be changed to another variable, but I used it to avoid conflicts and to indicate its a thumb key on my keyboard. This can be added to your configuration by going to code -> preferences -> keyboard shortcuts -> select the open keyboard shortcuts (JSON) icon of a folder. Then paste the below code in.

{ "key": "ctrl+shift+alt+cmd+f4", "command": "workbench.action.terminal.focus"},
{
    "key": "ctrl+shift+alt+cmd+f4",
    "command": "workbench.action.focusActiveEditorGroup",
    "when": "terminalFocus"
},