Mapping ctrl-; (ctrl semicolon)

[Karl Guertin]

I'm trying to set up a mapping on ctrl-; but vim seems to be unable to
detect the keystroke:

:imap <c-;> blah

Vim seems to read it as a modifier-free semicolon regardless of what I
do. I'm on MacVim snapshot 51 based on Vim 7.2.303. I've tested with
the --noplugin switch and through SSH to a linux 7.0 version. I'm
unaware of any mac shortcuts that would interfere nor any terminal
control characters. I am able to receive the event in other
applications. Searching is somewhat difficult due to the trouble with
search engines indexing ; and there is no mention in the help files.

Is anybody else experiencing this? Is there a workaround?

[Tim Chase]

> I'm trying to set up a mapping on ctrl-; but vim seems to be unable to
> detect the keystroke:
>
> :imap <c-;> blah
>
> Vim seems to read it as a modifier-free semicolon regardless of what I
> do. I'm on MacVim snapshot 51 based on Vim 7.2.303. I've tested with
> the --noplugin switch and through SSH to a linux 7.0 version. I'm
> unaware of any mac shortcuts that would interfere nor any terminal
> control characters. I am able to receive the event in other
> applications.

When you say that other applications see it, are they GUI or
console apps (especially via SSH)? In insert mode, you can try
typing control+V followed by control+; and see if Vim sees the
character. You might also try the same experiment in gvim. I
don't think ctrl+; is a standard key encoding in terminals, so
vim won't likely get a chance to see it to process it.

-tim

[Karl Guertin]

On Dec 1, 7:34 am, Tim Chase <v...@tim.thechases.com> wrote:
> When you say that other applications see it, are they GUI or
> console apps (especially via SSH)?

Sorry. That'd be gui apps (tested with a quick firebug onkeypress
handler in firefox).

> In insert mode, you can try typing control+V followed by control+;
> and see if Vim sees the character.  You might also try the same experiment
> in gvim.

This was being done in MacVim (which I know is slightly different) and
it does not see the event. It gets a plain ;. The term seems to be
eating ctrl-; and vim never even gets it. I was writing here mostly to
see if anybody else was seeing it or it's something with my system
setup that I'm missing.

[Chris Jones]

Same here, on linux debian, both with xterm & rxvt.

On a US keyboard, the following all appear to behave likewise, both with
the Ctrl and Ctrl+Shift modifiers:

, . ; ' - = 0 9 1 2

< > : " _ + ) ( ! @


CJ

[Tony Mechelynck]

No, there isn't.

The only printable keys which can reliably be used with Ctrl, with
predictable results, in cooked mode on any OS, are those defined by
ASCII, and that means the following AND NO OTHERS:

- ASCII characters 0x40 to 0x5F (i.e. uppercase A to Z, plus the six
nonalpha characters at-sign, left-bracket, slash, right-bracket,
circumflex and underscore), where Ctrl subtracts 0x40, thus mapping them
to 0x00 to 0x1F respectively. This explains why Ctrl-[ means Esc, Ctrl-I
means Tab, Ctrl-M means Enter, etc.
- Lowercase letters, whose Ctrl counterpart is the same as for the
corresponding uppercase (thus Ctrl+letter and Ctrl+Shift+letter are
always the same for a given letter)
- In addition, Ctrl-? is mapped to 0x7F (DEL).

Vim may or may not see other Ctrl-combinations, but that depends on the
terminal, and in most cases it won't see them, or confuse them with
something else such as the same key without Ctrl.


Best regards,
Tony.
--
hundred-and-one symptoms of being an internet addict:
216. Your pet rock leaves home.