[chmln]

> One of the most common use cases for the `ctrl` key is COPYING shit and followed by PASTING shit and it DOES NOT WORK in a fucking TERMINAL... Because `ctrl-c` sends an interrupt

Most terminals today have a copy-on-select feature, which means you don't need to ctrl-c at all. Just select and ctrl-v.

[jacobolus]

A large number of keyboard shortcuts are in conflict. "One specific keyboard shortcut has a mouse-based workaround" is not really a good answer.

The Windows GUI copied the Mac’s keyboard shortcuts (originally from Lisa?) but didn't have a dedicated key for them so re-used the existing Ctrl key, which already had a meaning on text-based operating systems. (This happened because Microsoft had no input into hardware keyboard layouts, and wanted to make software compatible with the plethora of IBM-Model-M-layout keyboards available in 1985–1990.)

Then Linux GUIs wholesale copied every feature of Windows they could including the keyboard shortcuts, in a context where this was even worse, because now existing Ctrl-based shortcuts from terminal software were directly in conflict with new Ctrl-based shortcuts from Windows.

[fishywang]

>One specific keyboard shortcut has a mouse-based workaround

Except for that particular action (select some text on terminal then copy) you have to use mouse to do the "select" part anyways.

[matthewmacleod]

I want to chip in here with a rant of my own because I absolutely fucking hate this feature. The idea that something I think of as a passive action—selecting text—can destructively alter my clipboard makes my skin crawl, and it's baffling that anyone thinks it's a replacement.

The thing is it's the default on iTerm2 on the Mac, so every time I set it up I spend a week thinking "why is my clipboard always completely full of shite" before I remember and turn it off.

(YMMV, you may like this, you may actually have proper clipboard management, and so on. I didn't say this was a logically consistent rant.)

[michaelmrose]

I don't think Mac OS actually natively supports select to copy so ITerm2 as an app implements it by filling the same clipboard buffer you would otherwise use.

X11 by contrast has by default 2 buffers so you never clobber your buffer filled by control+c however some clipboard management software optionally syncs the 2 buffers bringing back the behavior you dislike.

[toxik]

That’s not true, iTerm2 doesn’t overwrite your clipboard. It, like it’s forebears, uses a separate selection buffer. The only way to paste from it is middle mouse button as far as I know.

[thomastjeffery]

Usually in Linux (specifically in Xorg) it's select to copy and middle click to paste; which uses a separate buffer from the C-c/C-v clipboard.

Personally I find this method much more usable than the traditional windows-style clipboard.

Either way, you want to generally avoid C-c for copy in terminals because it's already bound to the all important "send sigterm signal to foreground process". This is on a long list of ancient cruft that exists in terminal emulators and shells.

[rbreaves]

The nice thing about how I wrote Kinto is that it supports numerous Terminal applications and the Cmd key location becomes Ctrl+Shift+(the_key_press), so you effectively have everything you'd want without needing contort your fingers for another modifier key.

I am serious about not wanting users of Kinto to feel like they are dying a death of a thousand paper cuts because they have to stop what they are doing and add yet another keymapping. Kinto can't get every app remapped right 100% of the time - but it gets awfully close still.

Initially I did not write Kinto that way because I didn't think it to be all that possible and with setxkbmap it was very difficult to understand and properly implement such a configuration. Probonopd, who does write some wonderful articles about UX related topics that I've also seen hit the frontpage here mentioned not wanting to remap terminals at all - I agreed and eventually delivered. He also made sure that I worked out wordwise hotkeys as well.

Also with it being rewritten, several months ago, to use xkeysnail it is also very simple to add additional hotkey remappings to as well.

[quesera]

> generally avoid C-c for copy in terminals

Absolutely. But it's not cruft. It's the original meaning of the character, and the standard method of generation.

Ctrl+C is just like any other keypress which maps to a standard ASCII representation.

The error is in reusing ASCII chars for GUI actions. This was an obviously-bad idea in 1985, and it has never become a better idea.

[1996]

> Either way, you want to generally avoid C-c for copy in terminals because it's already bound to the all important "send sigterm signal to foreground process". This is on a long list of ancient cruft that exists in terminal emulators and shells.

stty intr ^X

Then ctrl-c will no longer bother you, and your muscle memory will quickly adapt as X is very close to C

[francislavoie]

That's actually the worst though. I use selecting to highlight text that I'm reading as an aid. Copy-on-select is a huge dealbreaker for me because it clobbers my clipboard when I don't want it to.

[michaelmrose]

To be pedantic X11 has a copy on select feature which works on virtually all applications. This means you get by default 2 different clipboards although some environments/applications have an option to sync them among other additional features like being able to select from the last n pastes which may be optionally persisted through reboots for example.