Dec 21
2011

I finally got around to writing a script to auto-generate the documentation for my DefaultKeyBinding.dict file. The script now reads my comments in the file and creates tables of keystrokes and descriptions ready for GitHub. From now on, my fickle changes will be reflected in the readme​.md file in the repo and the keystrokes will stay current. You can see the current output here.

Dec 04
2011

I just stumbled upon another keybinding tip from Jacob Rus. It allows you to enter a numeric string before running a text command and repeat the command the specified number of times. Emacs and Vim do it… turns out that any Cocoa text field can, too. The tip is from 2006, so this is old news, but still new to me.

Nov 15
2011

As the next part in the keybindings series I’m demonstrating some improvements I’ve made to the original “surround” commands since my first time around. This set of commands is designed to wrap selected text in a variety of paired characters. The keys are the same, but the commands now work inside of single-line text fields (like you often find in Safari), prevent auto-pairing in…

Nov 10
2011

If you’ve poked around this blog at all, you know I dig System Services and TextExpander snippets more than is probably healthy. I have a new obsession, though, and it’s been taking up a lot of my playtime. Welcome to part two of (what is now) an ongoing series about Mac OS X Key Bindings. Originally inspired by Lauri Ranta, I’ve come to believe that system-wide keybindings for…

Aug 13
2011

There’s a somewhat mysterious individual who is consistently leaving brilliant little pieces of code and information in my comments. Dr. Drang has been visited by this apparition as well. We’re both duly impressed with what he (or she?) does.

So, I’m digging through the code Lri’s posted and I find a DefaultKeyBinding.dict file. It’s the best one I’ve ever seen, and…

Aug 13
2010

I love the keyboard, and I love keyboard shortcuts. It’s one of the reasons TextMate and I get along so well. There’s one thing that bothers me any time I’m editing text (in any application), though: having to move my right hand all the way over to the arrow keys just to move forward a couple of characters, say, after an auto-paired set of parenthesis that I want to get out of.