Ask HN: How do you handle Esc/backtick on a 60% or 65% mechanical keyboard?

1 points by brundolf 5y ago ↗ HN

I recently got a 65% mechanical keyboard for work, which I love, but for programming I found myself mapping the Esc key to backtick/tilde so I don't have to hold Fn for those (which I use constantly). Luckily I don't use Vim so I'm generally fine with not having Esc at all, but for those who do use an editor where Esc is central, what's the standard approach for reconciling the difference? Do you just use Fn all the time?

Edit: I just discovered that using the escape key in Vim is apparently not suggested https://vim.fandom.com/wiki/Avoid_the_escape_key

2 comments

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jfengel 5y ago ↗

TIL: "The 60 percent keyboards are mechanical keyboards that have 60 percent of the keys that a standard full-size keyboard does" and "a 65% keyboard is very similar to a 60% keyboard, but with arrow keys."

selftest 5y ago ↗

I put all my oft used symbols on the home row on a layer. I have fewer keys than a 60/65% board on my daily driver, but I like it so much that I generally map all my keyboards the same way, even full-size or larger boards.