Cannot type right curly brace in VIM

keyboardvi

For some reason, I cannot type right curly braces (}) in VIM. On my German keyboard, the shortcuts are <ALT-8> and <ALT-9> for left and right braces, respectively. These work in all applications, except for VIM, which does not recognize <ALT-9>.

I use VIM 8 in iTerm2 on macOS 13.3. There are no plugins installed in VIM. None of the different :*map commands lists anything related to <ALT-9>.

How do I get my right curly brace back into VIM?

Best Answer

While checking the questions from @arcdale's comment, I found that <ALT-9> does not produce a } on the commandline, too. The cause of this was simply that I had mapped the navigation shortcut to switch panes in iTerm to <ALT-Number>. Hence, binding switching panes to another combo solved the problem.

Howvever, this does not explain why there was a problem with <ALT-9>, while all the other combinations, <ALT-5> to <ALT-8>, worked as expected.

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MacOS – Command-Control-Arrow beeps (plays alert sound) in Lion

The beeping you are hearing in this context is not because those key commands are mapped to something but quite the contrary because they are not.

Typing an unmapped key command will result in an audible bell.

As you note Command-Control-Right in results in an audible bell in Mail.app. You will also note that Command-N results in a new message.

So here's a proof to confirm my assertion:

Open System Preferences > Keyboard
Select Keyboard Shortcuts from the pillbox at the top
From the menu at the right choose Application Shortcuts
Click the small + sign at the bottom left of the right panel
From the Application pull down select Mail
In the Menu Title field type "New Message" (no quotes)
Place your cursor in the Keyboard Shortcut field and type Command-Control-Right
Click Add

Now return to Mail and type Command-Control-Right. A new message will be created but if you type Command-N you will hear the audible bell. This is because Command-N is no longer mapped to anything. We replaced it.

So when you hear the audible bell it often means that you are trying to do something that is not possible (i.e. typing a key command that has no meaning for the current application).

Mac – Lion: Map Option + arrow to home/end

To remap home and end in Terminal, run f=~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.terminal.plist; plutil -convert xml1 $f; open $f -e, and change this:

<key>F729</key>
<string>scrollToBeginningOfDocument:</string>
<key>F72B</key>
<string>scrollToEndOfDocument:</string>

To this:

<key>F729</key>
<string>&#x1b;OH</string>
<key>F72B</key>
<string>&#x1b;OF</string>

To change them in normal text views, create ~/Library/KeyBindings/ and save a property list like this as DefaultKeyBinding.dict:

{
    "\UF729" = moveToBeginningOfParagraph:;
    "\UF72B" = moveToEndOfParagraph:;
    "$\UF729" = moveToBeginningOfParagraphAndModifySelection:;
    "$\UF72B" = moveToEndOfParagraphAndModifySelection:;
}

Another option would be to use KeyRemap4MacBook. See the "Use PC Style Home/End (except in Virtual Machine,RDC)" setting in https://raw.github.com/tekezo/KeyRemap4MacBook/master/Tests/lib/string/data/checkbox.xml.

Best Answer

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MacOS – Command-Control-Arrow beeps (plays alert sound) in Lion

Mac – Lion: Map Option + arrow to home/end

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