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Comment by emh68 | Hacker News Reader

This is cool and all, but coming from the emacs world, all I want is a keyboard with four meta keys. Ctrl/alt/command/option maybe. All in a row to the left/right of the spacebar. That would be ideal.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space-cadet_keyboard

Also, if you have a 104/105 key keyboard with "windows" and "menu" keys, you do& have a keyboard with four modifier keys. From my .Xmodmap file:

    clear Mod1
    clear Mod3
    clear Mod4
    clear Mod5

    ! left alt -> Meta
    keycode 64 = Meta_L
    add Mod1 = Meta_L

    ! right alt -> Alt
    keycode 108 = Alt_R
    add Mod4 = Alt_R

    ! left windows -> Super
    keycode 133 = Super_L
    add Mod3 = Super_L

    ! right windows -> Hyper
    keycode 134 = Hyper_R
    add Mod5 = Hyper_R

Emacs uses all four automatically, as M- A- s- H- respectively. (alternatively, see: http://ergoemacs.org/emacs/emacs_hyper_super_keys.html )

Caution, that kills the ISO_Level3_Shift mapping on the regular 105 layout.

Much less intrusive solution is to leave Super_L, Alt_L, ISO_Level3_Shift as well as the control and shift keys unchanged and simply map Super_R to Meta_R and map Menu to Hyper_R.

Have you tried Japanese keyboards? They tend to have smaller spacebars and extra modifiers.

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