** Changed in: xkeyboard-config (Ubuntu)
Status: Confirmed => Invalid
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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/822872
Title:
LeftCtrl+LeftAlt+Key should be equivalent to RightAlt+Key
Status in “xkeyboard-config” package in Ubuntu:
Invalid
Bug description:
This is a _major ergonomics issue_ (not to mention Windows-Ubuntu
compatibility and newbie-friendliness). I shall explain why hereafter.
One of the principles for speedy and ergonomic touch typing is that one hand
should generally not need to press a key and its modifier at the same time. You
can see this in the fact that keyboards have both a right and a left
Shift/Ctrl/Alt/Win/Fn… key.
So, for example, a capital A should not be typed by pressing LeftShift+A, but
rather RightShift+A (using both hands, that is): this, to my knowledge, is what
professional typists do, to reduce the burden on a single hand and distribute
it on both.
For this reason, the Windows OS treats LeftCtrl+LeftAlt as a third level
chooser equivalent to RightAlt+Key. The advantage of this may not be apparent
to someone using a standard US keyboard, but many European keyboards, in fact,
make extensive use of third level keys to input characters as vital as @, [ or
].
The Ubuntu keyboard preferences let one specify other third level choosers,
but:
1) such a feature should be included by default in the Ubuntu OS, because it
is vital for anybody extensively typing (one of the main uses of a computer!)
through an extended keyboard layout (such as European layouts) and because
anybody switching from Windows would expect to find it (just as one would
expect LeftAlt+F4 to close a window, which it does in both OS);
2) none of the left-hand alternatives offered in the preferences is
satisfactory (specifically: the left Win key is now used by Unity for the dash
and launcher and is less comfortable to reach than LeftCtrl+LeftAlt; LeftAlt
cannot be used for this, as its shortcuts [such as LeftAlt+F4] would then stop
working; CapsLock already has a major function that cannot be traded off; “<”
is a common character, and as such probably very important to some users).
I hope I have managed to set forth why it is so important to make
LeftCtrl+LeftAlt equivalent to RightAlt (AltGr) . If one still doesn’t
think so, I kindly ask that one try to press RightAlt and Y at the
same time with one’s right hand only and keep the unused fingers still
on the home row (one of the rules of good touch typing). Isn’t it then
evident how hard and bad for one’s hand that was? Now, what if (as it
is) one had a vital character there, an often needed character: one
would end up either injuring one’s right hand or switching back to
Windows!
I have taken care to write so much, because a previous (2006) report
of this problem (Bug #34126: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source
/xkeyboard-config/+bug/34126) turned into a flame for being
misunderstood and underestimated.
I have found many instances of such disregarded/misunderstood help requests
on the net (mainly by Europeans) regarding this problem, none of them solved,
which contributes to prove this bug’s importance. Here are a couple of links:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-general-1/how-to-make-control_l-alt_l-act-like-alt_r-alt-gr-449531/
http://serverfault.com/questions/264681/xfree86-keyboard-make-ctrl-alt-work-like-altgr
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=853249
http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/15212/
Help, please. Thank you very much.
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