acclimating myself to the Mac keyboard layout by reclaiming keyboard shortcuts. https://twitter.com/#!/abachman/status/59323764772569088

0. why

For the last two years I've been using Ubuntu Linux for software development.
Last week I got a MacBook Pro and have been changing over. I run a heavily
customized vim setup, so the change was particularly difficult with regards to
my keyboard layout.

These step show what I did to make my Mac work like my Linux machines which all
have caps-lock remapped to control. I used OSX's built in keyboard setup tool
to remap my caps-lock key to be a command key, since command, for the most
part, takes the place of control as the primary shortcut key modifier.

The hardest part is managing vim shortcuts that rely on control. Partly because
MacVim maps default Command-[letter] shortcuts, and partly because Mac OSX
itself has some default Command-[letter] shortcuts.

1. disable Mac system shortcuts

First, I took out some Mac OSX default keyboard shortcuts. In this case I want to reclaim 
<Command-h> and change it to <Command-Shift-h>. Advice taken from 
http://www.hoboes.com/Mimsy/hacks/disabling-quit-rewriting/

From the command line ($ is my prompt character): 

    $ defaults write org.vim.MacVim NSUserKeyEquivalents -dict-add "Hide MacVim" "@\$H"

This is a command in the form:

    defaults [action] [domain] [key] [value]

I can check before I write by using the `read` action and I got the domain by
ls-ing ~/Library/Preferences. e.g.: 

    $ ls ~/Library/Preferences | grep -i vim 
    org.vim.MacVim.LSSharedFileList.plist 
    org.vim.MacVim.plist

Keyboard modifiers are: @ = command, ~ = option, $ = shift, ^ = control. I had
to use "@\$h" on the command line because otherwise the $ would be interpreted
as a variable prefix by bash.

As a quick aside, if you want to change a shortcut in another app, find the app
domain in your preferences folder and the name of the menu command to use in
the [value] argument. For example, to replace <Command-q> with
<Command-Shift-q> for closing Google Chrome (so I don't fat finger it), I used:

    $ defaults write com.google.Chrome NSUserKeyEquivalents -dict-add "Quit Google Chrome" "@\$Q"

2. disable MacVim shortcuts

In my ~/.gvimrc file, I include: 

  " key unbinding
  if has("mac")
    macm File.New\ Tab key=<nop>
    macm File.Close key=<nop>
    macm File.Close\ Window key=<nop>
    macm File.Print key=<D-P>
    macm File.New\ Window key=<nop>
    macm Tools.List\ Errors key=<nop>
    macm File.Save key=<nop>
  endif

That lets me reclaim <D-t>, <D-w>, <D-W>, <D-l>, and <D-s>. Use :help :macmenu 
to find more info on fiddling with the menu.

(in vim config language, <D-t> means <Command-t>)

3. setting new MacVim shortcuts

Now I can remap to my hearts content (in ~/.vimrc): 

  if has("mac")
    map <D-w>s <C-w>s      " create window splits with <Command-w>{s,v}
    map <D-w><D-s> <C-w>s  " in case I fat finger it
    map <D-w>q <C-w>q
    map <D-w><D-q> <C-w>q
    map <D-w>v <C-w>v
    map <D-w><D-v> <C-w>v
    imap <D-w>s <C-w>s      " create window splits with <Command-w>{s,v}
    imap <D-w><D-s> <C-w>s  " in case I fat finger it
    imap <D-w>q <C-w>q
    imap <D-w><D-q> <C-w>q
    imap <D-w>v <C-w>v
    imap <D-w><D-v> <C-w>v
    imap <D-w> <C-w>

    imap <D-p> <C-p>
    imap <D-n> <C-n>

    map <D-t> :CommandT<CR>
    noremap <D-t> :CommandT<CR>
    inoremap <D-t> :CommandT<CR>

    " paste current yank buffer
    inoremap <D-V> <esc>""pi

    map <D-s> :w<CR>        " just save
    imap <D-s> <esc>:w<CR>  " save and return to normal mode (saves a keystroke)

    " navigate splits quickly with the normal movement keys
    inoremap <D-h> <esc><C-w><C-h>
    inoremap <D-j> <esc><C-w><C-j>
    inoremap <D-k> <esc><C-w><C-k>
    inoremap <D-l> <esc><C-w><C-l>
    noremap <D-h> <C-w><C-h>
    noremap <D-j> <C-w><C-j>
    noremap <D-k> <C-w><C-k>
    noremap <D-l> <C-w><C-l>

    " esc
    inoremap <D-[> <esc>

    " format paragraph
    map <D-p> vipgq
  endif

hey, I know this is old, but I'm currently going through much the same thing - have you found any way to completely swap control and command for macvim? I'm wanting to do it across the (macvim) board, instead of just for a few key sequences.

Nope, unfortunately. I've added to the has("mac") section, in fact. The full vimrc is up at https://github.com/abachman/dotfiles/blob/master/.vimrc but I've updated the file here to reflect that block.

Because I'm using some of MacVim's native command key shortcuts (e.g., system copy and paste), I didn't want to do anything that would hurt those. I also want to make sure my .vimrc keeps working on my linux machines which all have caps lock remapped to control. It has caused some problems, with trying to use macvim in a terminal specifically, but it's been working well since I set it all up.