TIL: Take key repeats to 11

One of my gripes when setting up a new computer is that the default for repeating key presses isn’t nearly as fast enough. I want to be able to hold down the delete key and absolutely rip through the preceding text. I want the arrow keys to fly around paragraphs. People who use vim would advise that I get better at chording and manipulating text. I prefer to simply get fast.

You can control this in the macOS keyboard settings:

I turn down delay until repeat and crank up repeat speed. But even that is not fast enough for me, so I use this command to write a faster repeat speed than the UI allows:

defaults write NSGlobalDomain KeyRepeat -int 1
defaults write NSGlobalDomain InitialKeyRepeat -int 10

(With the settings from the screenshot above, you get KeyRepeat=2, InitialKeyRepeat=15.)

A couple OS versions ago this box started getting in the way:

This is meant to make it easier to type diacritics. Historically on macOS you typed a letter like ñ by “loading” the mark with a shortcut, then typing the combining letter. For example, for ñ you do option + n to load ~, then n. To type ã you do option + n then a; for é it’s option + e, then e. The new UI is more user-friendly and mirrors how you get these letters in iOS.

No thanks, I prefer speed. You can disable the diacritic popup with this command:

defaults write -g ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool false

This keyboard goes to 11.