Vim: Mapping capslock to esc has issues

[billti]

---

Please _thumbs-up_ 👍 this issue if it personally affects you! You can do this by clicking on the emoji-face on the top right of this post. Issues with more thumbs-up will be prioritized.

---

What did you do?

Attempted to map the caps lock key to the escape key, via the below in keybindings.json

{"key": "capslock", "command": "extension.vim_escape"} 

Note: I also tried via the below, using "capslock" and "", but this had no effect, as it appears from the codebase <CapsLock> isn't recognized notation.

{
    "vim.insertModeKeyBindings": [
        {
            "before": ["capslock"],
            "after": ["<Esc>"]
        }
    ]
}

What did you expect to happen?

This should allow me to exit insert mode via the close-by caplock key.

What happened instead?

It does kinda work via the first form above, however if also toggles caps lock on/off, which makes it impossible to use (as every key press is then a capital after exiting insert mode). Preferably the "vim.insertModeKeyBindings" would work, and recognize the capslock key and intercept it - preventing it from toggling caps-lock.

Technical details:

• VSCode Version: 1.5.3
• VsCodeVim Version: 0.3.0
• OS: Windows 10

[jpoon]

Interestingly, I don't see the capslock key being bubbled up into our extension. We'll need to ask VS Code to add this to their extension API.

[billti]

Actually, I just noticed even in Windows this usually requires some system changes via the registry or a utility to work correctly - so maybe it wasn't as simple as I hoped :-/ See http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/VimTip75

[johnfn]

Yeah, Vim does not support caps lock mapping. People generally map it with some sort of broader keymapping program.

[vyorkin]

for Mac OS X I personally use Seil + Karabiner or Karabiner-Elements (if you are on Sierra).
you could take a look at this awesome post: http://stevelosh.com/blog/2012/10/a-modern-space-cadet/

[ljbuza]

On Linux Gnome desktops, Tweak Tool, under the "Typing" menu, will let you set your cap lock behavior. Setting it to "Make Caps Lock an additional ESC" works well for me.

[fkjogu]

Doing

setxkbmap -option caps:swapescape

on Linux swaps the escape and caps lock Xorg wide. But since code 1.11 this extension does not recognise this. To get out of insert mode, I have to press the original esc key, which at the same time toggles CAPS. This is really annoying.

Might be a problem with code itself: Microsoft/vscode/issues/23991

[johnfn]

Would probably be good to test with other parts of VSCode that use an ESC key to trigger something. We don't really have anything to do with capslock binding, unfortunately!

[tallpants]

It's definitely an issue with VS Code itself. Going back to 1.10 brings back the expected behavior, so it's something in the 1.11 update that's broken it.

[johnfn]

@areyoureddy In that case, definitely go open up an issue on their repository then. :)

[tallpants]

Microsoft/vscode#23991 Already done :+1:

[Fr4nks]

Issue resolved?
keybindings.json
// Place your key bindings in this file to overwrite the defaults
[ {"key": "capslock", "command": "extension.vim_escape",
"when": "editorTextFocus && vim.active && !inDebugRepl" }
]

Ubuntu 16.04, VS Code 12.2.2
Doesn't work correctly in window 10.

[freddie-freeloader]

@Fr4nks This works for me just well under Linux.

[GummyDonut]

@Fr4nks solution worked for me to, thank.

[nayzawoo]

@Fr4nks Thanks!

[nazarimilad]

@Fr4nks First it didn't work for me. But after adding "keyboard.dispatch": "keyCode" in the settings file which was suggested as a workaround here, it's now working correctly.

VS Code version: 1.14.1

[hui00]

@Fr4nks thank you!

[ghost]

@Fr4nks Thanks!

[Ding-Fan]

I put this in keybinds.json

// Place your key bindings in this file to overwrite the defaults
[
  {
    "key": "capslock", 
    "command": "extension.vim_escape",
    "when": "editorTextFocus && vim.active && !inDebugRepl" 
  }
]

And toggle this in User Settings

"keyboard.dispatch": "keyCode"

Now I can use caps lock as esc in vim insert mode. But
I have to press caps lock again because it capitalize my letters. 😓

[Chillee]

@Ding-Fan I suggest using some kind of external caps lock to escape rebinding program. I use caps2esc on Arch Linux.

[Ding-Fan]

@Chillee I'm using Karabiner-Elements on macOS now, it's amazing. 😃

[mmyoungman]

In case it is of use to anyone, on macOS, I had set capslock to be escape, and it was previously working fine, but after using setting sync to import my settings, I stopped being able to get out of insert mode. It turned out that "vim.enableNeovim": true, was the culprit. I set it to false and everything was fine again.

[janhesters]

On mac you can also map caps lock natively: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/127591/using-caps-lock-as-esc-in-mac-os-x/40254864#40254864

[Rimseg]

On Fedora 29 I just needed to change an option in the Settings (File > Preference > Settings).

Keyboard: Dispatch "keyCode"

[bergmul]

@Ding-Fan I suggest using some kind of external caps lock to escape rebinding program. I use caps2esc on Arch Linux.

I'm also using caps2esc and it works fine everywhere but in code. Sometimes it works for a couple of minutes, then pressing capslock does not trigger esc anymore.

EDIT: Adding "keyboard.dispatch": "keyCode" to user configs solves the problem. Thank you, @Fr4nks.

[n0irx]

Issue resolved?
keybindings.json
// Place your key bindings in this file to overwrite the defaults
[ {"key": "capslock", "command": "extension.vim_escape",
"when": "editorTextFocus && vim.active && !inDebugRepl" }
]

Ubuntu 16.04, VS Code 12.2.2
Doesn't work correctly in window 10.

works on ubuntu

[seanwarman]

If anyone's wondering, as I had a problem finding keybindings.json through the vscode UI, it's in ~/.config/Code/User/.

And you can find some docs about it in VSCode's Docs

[mjarkk]

@seanwarman In vscode you can get to the keyboard shortcuts using:
Ctrl + Shift + P and type Open Keyboard Shortcuts (json)

[Christopher-Hayes]

For Windows users, after realizing how difficult it would be to implement with VS code settings, I found just changing the registry to be much easier and less finnicky. This same guide shows how to do it with various tools like AHK too. https://vim.fandom.com/wiki/Map_caps_lock_to_escape_in_Windows
For Windows 10, I created a file.reg with the following text:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layout]
"Scancode Map"=hex:00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,03,00,00,00,3a,00,46,00,01,00,3a,00,00,00,00,00

Double-clicked that file from explorer, then restarted my computer and it works like a charm. Of course, if you use the CAPS lock outside VS code, this solution isn't for you.

[bradleysawler]

Win10 I had a similar issue as others by having to 2nd press the cap lock to turn the cap lock back off. So I decided to just map CapLock + CapLock. So a double caps Esc and turns the caps back off.