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Comment by plufz | Hacker News Reader

Have you tried remapping esc to capslock? (Or ctrl to capslock and esc to ctrl). I would never go back to normal esc.

For my part: I've thought about it, but I have huge hands. Sometimes, when I'm reaching for Shift or Tab, I hit Caps Lock on accident. I would be frustrated if I hit Caps Lock on accident and it broke me out of insert mode.

I can understand how it can be more ergonomic and usable for some people, though.

> Have you tried remapping esc to capslock? (Or ctrl to capslock and esc to ctrl)

¿Why not both?

I have (on Linux, not on Mac, but it shouldn't matter):

* "caps lock" + key = Ctrl+key

* "caps lock" (release) = Esc

It works like charm and I can definitely recommend it.

How do you map it to do that?

Karabiner - https://pqrs.org/osx/karabiner/

I have mine mapped to:

* caps (no other key) => esc * caps + home row => corresponding symbol key

Extremely nice for programming when '(' and ')' are on 'L' and ';' keys - directly under my fingers.

You can use https://github.com/alols/xcape on linux.

I guess there are other ways and tools, I use this:

1. to put Ctrl on CapsLock:

    setxkbmap -option caps:ctrl_modifier

2. to have "dual" CL as described above:

    xcape -e 'Caps_Lock=Escape'

So simple, I wish I had thought about it before. Thanks.

The irony is that I do have capslock mapped to escape, but my fingers frequently rest where the esc key should be, so I catch it when I wasn't expecting it.

Sure, this is my problem, its just only my problem on MacBook Pros.

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