Kaleidoscope-DualUse

There are a number of keys on our keyboards that we usually hold in combination with others. We also have keys that we usually press and release, and don't want to hold them for repeating. Then we have the others which we sometimes hold to repeat them, such as Space held to insert a number of whitespace characters. The interesting thing that falls out of this, is that there are keys we hold, but never tap, and others which we never hold. What if we could combine these?

What if we had a key that acted as Control when held, but Esc when tapped in isolation? No useful functionality lost, and we have one key less to place on the keyboard! We can even put Esc to a more convenient position, perhaps.

Dual-use keys do just this: if you hold them, and press any other key, they will act as a modifier or momentary layer switcher. If you hold them for a longer period, they - again - will act as modifiers / momentary switchers. But if you tap and release them in isolation, they will act as another key instead.

Using the plugin

{c++}
#include <Kaleidoscope.h>
#include <Kaleidoscope-DualUse.h>

// in the keymap:
CTL_T(Escape), LT(_LAYER, Escape)

void setup(void) {
  Kaleidoscope.use(&DualUse);

  Kaleidoscope.setup();
}

Keymap markup

The plugin provides a number of macros one can use in keymap definitions:

CTL_T(key)

A key that acts as the left Control when held, or used in conjunction with other keys, but as key when tapped in isolation. The key argument must be a plain old key, and can't have any modifiers or anything else applied.

ALT_T(key)

A key that acts as the left Alt when held, or used in conjunction with other keys, but as key when tapped in isolation. The key argument must be a plain old key, and can't have any modifiers or anything else applied.

SFT_T(key)

A key that acts as the left Shift when held, or used in conjunction with other keys, but as key when tapped in isolation. The key argument must be a plain old key, and can't have any modifiers or anything else applied.

GUI_T(key)

A key that acts as the left GUI when held, or used in conjunction with other keys, but as key when tapped in isolation. The key argument must be a plain old key, and can't have any modifiers or anything else applied.

MT(mod, key)

A key that acts as mod when held, or used in conjunction with other keys, but as key when tapped in isolation. The key argument must be a plain old key, and can't have any modifiers or anything else applied. The mod argument can be any of the modifiers, left or right alike.

LT(layer, key)

A key that momentarily switches to layer when held, or used in conjunction with other keys, but as key when tapped in isolation. The key argument must be a plain old key, and can't have any modifiers or anything else applied.

Plugin methods

The plugin provides a single object, DualUse, with the following property:

.time_out

The number of milliseconds to wait before considering a held key in isolation as its secondary role. That is, we'd have to hold a Z/Control key this long, by itself, to trigger the Control role.

Defaults to 1000.

Dependencies

• Kaleidoscope-Ranges

Further reading

Starting from the example is the recommended way of getting started with the plugin.