[Vimoutliner] Mapping the Windows key to Esc?

[Charles Burkins]

On Apr 22, 2007, at 6:01 PM, Steve Litt wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> Is there any way within Vim to map the Windows key to Esc? For  
> years I've
> sought a faster way of returning from insert mode to edit mode, but  
> neither
> Ctrl+C nor a comma comma command was really faster. It's possible  
> that the
> Windows key might be faster -- it's closer to home position than Esc.
>

I can't answer your question exactly, but I can give you a quick vim- 
only hack that has served the same purpose, and works on Win32,  
MacOSX, and Linux/BSD. This command:

:map! jk <esc>

will cause a quick 'jk' to kick you from Insert into Normal mode. It  
takes a little while to get used to, but it increased my efficiency  
so much that I can't work on a vim without it. (luckily it's a pretty  
easy command to remember). It has one advantage in my opinion over a  
number of similar hacks in that if you are in Normal mode to start  
with, a 'j' and a 'k' just moves the cursor up a line and down a  
line, essentially causing the cursor to flicker and ending up in the  
same location. In the unlikely event you need to type a 'j' followed  
by a 'k' in your file, just wait a second after typing the 'j'. I  
never have to do this.

If this is too much of a hack for you, don't forget that Ctrl-[ is  
the same as <esc>, as far as I can tell.

Hope this helps,

Chuck Burkins