Can we get <c-.>, <c-,> to work?

[daboross]

Feature

I'd really like to be able to use <c-.>, <c-,> (ctrl-dot, ctrl-comma) as keybindings. Currently, kakoune just doesn't recognize them. In searching around, I found a stackoverflow question for vim mentioning this - it seems like they aren't defined codes in ASCII.

Usecase

Two extra keys to attach useful commands to! In my case, I set ctrl-. as a keybinding in another editor, and already have useful muscle memory attached to it, so I'd ideally like to be able to use it in kakoune as well.

[SolitudeSF]

terminals cant differentiate ctrl-dot/comma and dot/comma

[Screwtapello]

Kakoune runs inside a terminal, and (as the StackOverflow question you link to mentions) there's no traditional terminal sequence for <c-.> or <c-,>. If the terminal doesn't send anything to Kakoune when you press those keys, there's nothing Kakoune can do about it.

However, some terminals can be configured to send "CSI u" codes for keys without a traditional terminal sequence, and Kakoune understands those keys out of the box. The only terminal I know of that sends those codes is xterm, and only with a specific custom configuration:

XTerm*modifyOtherKeys:  1
XTerm*formatOtherKeys:  1

If you're not using xterm, your terminal emulator may support custom mappings or macros. If it does, you should be able to configure <c-,> to send the magic string ^[[44;5u and <c-.> to send ^[[46;5u (where ^[ means the "ESC" control character, ASCII code 0x1B, not the ^ and [ characters) and then they should Just Work in Kakoune.

Alternatively, the keystrokes <a-,> and <a-.> are supported by Kakoune in any terminal. <a-.> is actually a default keybinding, but not a commonly used one, so not much of an inconvenience.

[lenormf]

Related #3912

[vbauerster]

Related #2209

[vbauerster]

It works in kitty out of the box.