Produce another key when combined with shift

[boris-arkenaar]

I am looking for a way to produce a different key stroke when pressed in combination with the shift key.

For example: I would like the comma and dot key to behave normally when pressed alone. But when pressed with the shift key held down I would like the keyboard to produce a SHIFT+9 and SHIFT+0 instead (i.e.: the comma and dot keys produce parentheses when shifted, instead of the less than and greater than symbols).

[ezuk]

Well there's a somewhat crazy way to do this: You could make an entire layer that's a "shift" layer (i.e, sends capital letters and $ and whatnot), and just map those two keys to send ( and ). Then you could remap the Shift key on the keyboard to temporarily toggle that layer on.

In use, this would do exactly what you need -- press and hold "Shift" (which is really a momentary toggle layer switch), then press , and you get (.

@jackhumbert - is there a simpler way to do this?

[boris-arkenaar]

Thanks. If I'm right that would mean though that you would have to define the shifted state for all keys, not just the dot and comma keys, right?

[jackhumbert]

That's the easiest way I know how! Defining the shift layers is a bit easier with S().

[plgruener]

I've got the same issue (a hardcoded non-qwerty layout), and a question arises: will there be any disadvantages not having a "normal" Shift-key? Eg. shortcuts not working etc?
(not having my ergodox-ez yet, so cannot test).

[jackhumbert]

The only odd behaviour I can think of is when you're holding a shifted key, the next key you press will also be shifted, which might cause some confusion when typing symbols quickly.

[eltang]

It turns out that someone other than me does notice that! Do you think that it is possible to fix this by redefining S(key) to apply Oneshot Shift rather than regular shift?

[ezuk]

@jackhumbert back atcha :)

[jackhumbert]

That issue is a dup of #50 :)

[eltang]

I was referencing your comment:

The only odd behaviour I can think of is when you're holding a shifted key, the next key you press will also be shifted, which might cause some confusion when typing symbols quickly.

.

[jackhumbert]

Ah, gotcha - that's really a separate issue. I'll make a new issue.