For those not knowing, Windows Terminal uses Ctrl+C to abort the current process (as we'd expect) when nothing is selected, but copies when there is a selection. Similarly, Ctrl+V just pastes. So convenient!
Being used to that, Linux terminals become rather annoying. Yes there's other ways under Linux, but they don't have 25+ years of muscle memory associated with them, and so when the key shortcuts don't work as expected it's like nails on a chalkboard.
So yes keyboard remapping is an option. But there's just differences you can't remap because of the extra meta keys on Mac (and I guess on Windows too, with the Copilot or Start keys in play).
Right, and even on Linux you can do it by using the four-fifths forgotten CUA shortcut Ctrl-Insert for copy (and Shift-Insert for paste.) Although I'll admit to using Ctrl-Shift-C/V most of the time.
However, for most all other applications in Mac, I dislike the Mac command key. Especially in IDEs like vscode, etc.
And I really hate that the actual Ctrl key on a Mac is in the wrong place, having swapped places with Fn. It's like the first thing I have to remember to do on each Mac setup, swap those two keys.
Because I'm toggling between mac/windows/linux all day long, my poor muscle memory is always confused. And it would be nice if this could be unified. Unfortunately, I'm guessing it would have to be solved more by Apple than by Microsoft or Linux.
Control in its typical position however drives me crazy.
I feel the opposite, the near-thumb position for the most used modifier is a godsend vs pinky strain.
Ctrl in caps lock is debatably better but that key is arguably better used for esc in vim setups (or the harder to setup “ctrl if held, esc if tapped”).
caps-as-an-extra-ctrl helps with all of that, but leaves you with the problem of overlapping shortcuts in the terminal. Cmd also fixes that.
I hate how hard it is to get anything remotely like it working in Linux. All the solutions are partial and very janky.
[EDIT]: so ... tried it ... very, very nice BUT:
what of CTRL-V ???
Yeah, but CTRL+V is actually used e.g. in VIM.
And I can't see a way for ghostty to "guess" what to do based on context like it does in the case something is selected.
Sorry, should have explained better.
This is called the Primary Selection and is separate from the Clipboard (Ctrl+C/Ctrl+V). IMO the Primary Selection is more convenient than the Clipboard.
I thought about remapping copy and paste to their own keys, possibly a single one. Maybe on the number pad, which I never use. Or remapping ctrl-c.
Speaking for myself (although I suspect many others), I haven't used a mouse in well over a decade. To be clear, I am in the terminal all the time. So this is not a universal solution.
Of course still a nice option (esp. in terminals where the proper copy/paste are nerfed and selecting for editing is annoyingly not a thing), but far from a replacement for the proper clipboard.
For those unaware:
> Unix interactive terminals use Control-V to mean "the next character should be treated literally" (the mnemonic here is "V is for verbatim"). This allows a user to insert a literal Control-C or Control-H or similar control characters that would otherwise be handled by the terminal. This behavior was copied by text editors like vi and Unix shells like bash and tcsh, which offer text editing on the command line.[3]
Running in tmux, marking anything on my terminal immediately puts it into the tmux buffer, without me having to click anything on the keyboard. Pressing middle-mouse pastes it.
THAT is convenience.
Can you paste in a non-terminal app though (like a web browser) ?
Are there any legitimate reasons to send Ctrl-C except to abort, that this could interfer with?
Kitty has a copy_or_interrupt action that behaves like you describe. Although, I think it would interfere with apps where ctrl-c is handled specially.
Edit: kitty also has a copy_or_noop action that passes through the ctrl+c if there is no selection.
You, uh, never tried middle clicking?
Basically, yeah: you had to use the mouse to select it in the first place. Using the mouse to paste it is easier, not harder.