Stuck on an issue?

Reviving this – I’m working on updated keybindings for Dance on Mac (and for alternative keyboard layouts). Given that the user will have a set-up step where they’ll choose their layout and OS, what do you think should be changed to make Dance friendlier to macOS? Ideally we wouldn’t need system-wide changes or Karabiner.

I wanted to share my workaround:

I’m using Karabiner to remap option to control-option and updated all the shortcuts in VScode.

In the end I went even further. I remapped spacebar to control-option when pressed together with another key and to space when pressed alone.

Here’s what the setup looks like in Karabiner Elements.

{
                        "description": "Change spacebar to control+alt in VScode for Dance actions",
                        "manipulators": [
                            {
                                "conditions": [
                                    {
                                        "bundle_identifiers": [
                                            "com\\.microsoft\\.VSCode",
                                            "com\\.microsoft\\.VSCodeInsiders"
                                        ],
                                        "type": "frontmost_application_if"
                                    }
                                ],
                                "from": {
                                    "key_code": "spacebar",
                                    "modifiers": {}
                                },
                                "parameters": {
                                    "basic.to_if_alone_timeout_milliseconds": 240,
                                    "basic.to_if_held_down_threshold_milliseconds": 5
                                },
                                "to_if_alone": [
                                    {
                                        "key_code": "spacebar"
                                    }
                                ],
                                "to_if_held_down": [
                                    {
                                        "key_code": "left_control",
                                        "modifiers": ["left_option"]
                                    }
                                ],

                                "type": "basic"
                            }
                        ]
                    }

In my experience this is what the timeouts mean:

basic.to_if_alone_timeout_milliseconds → the maximum time you have to finish pressing and then releasing the spacebar to be registered.

basic.to_if_held_down_threshold_milliseconds → the minimum time the spacebar has to be pressed down to be considered as a modifier key. If you press the second key sooner than this timeout, it will not work.