Question

In my .vimrc file I have the line

inoremap jj << Esc>> 

(I can’t live without this :))

I wish to have the same remap while using ksh in set -o vi mode, any advice on how to do this is appreciated.

Answer 1

Give this a try:

_key_handler () {
    # by Dennis Williamson - 2011-01-14
    # for http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4690695/remapping-keys-for-ksh-vi-mode
    # 2011-01-15 - added cursor color change

    typeset timeout=1    # whole seconds

    # the cursor color change sequences are for xterms that support this feature
    if [[ $TERM == *xterm*color* ]]
    then
        typeset color=true   # change cursor color when chars are held
        # cursor colors - set them as you like
        typeset nohold="\E]12;green\a" hold="\E]12;red\a"
    else
        typeset color=false
    fi

    if [[ ${.sh.edmode} == $'\x1b' ]]    # vi edit mode
    then
        case ${.sh.edchar} in
            j)
                if [[ $_kh_prevchar == j ]]
                then
                    if (( $SECONDS < _kh_prevtime + timeout ))
                    then
                        .sh.edchar=$'\E'    # remapped sequence
                        _kh_prevchar=''
                        $color && printf "$nohold"
                    fi
                else
                    _kh_prevchar=${.sh.edchar}
                    .sh.edchar=''
                    $color && printf "$hold" &&
                      # jiggle the cursor so the color change shows
                      tput cuf1 && sleep .02 && tput cub1
                fi
                _kh_prevtime=$SECONDS
                ;;
            *)
                if [[ -n $_kh_prevchar ]]
                then
                    .sh.edchar=$_kh_prevchar${.sh.edchar}
                fi
                _kh_prevchar=''
                $color && printf "$nohold"
                ;;
        esac
    fi
}
trap _key_handler KEYBD
set -o vi

Put it in a file, ~/.input.ksh for example, and source it from your ~/.kshrc or similar.

Pressing “j” will put it on hold. If the time runs out before pressing another “j”, the first “j” will be output and the next one will be held. If another key besides “j” is pressed, the held “j” and the next character are output together. If a second “j” is pressed before time runs out, the remapped sequence will be output.

Example: Pressing “j”, pause, then press “jj” will yield no response at first then “j<< Esc>>” all at once.

A difference between this and vim is that vim will go ahead and output the held character after the time runs out even if another key hasn’t been pressed yet. Also, the timeout in this is in whole seconds, while in vim it’s in milliseconds.

I’ve only tested this a little and only with ksh93.

Edit: Added cursor color change.