Feature request: No Compose key

[greywatcher]

As an alternative to pressing a Compose key and then typing the sequense of symbols, an option to instead hold the first key and then type the rest. For example: • Hold a and while holding it press e to get æ • Hold either o or c and while holding that key press the other to get © • Hold < and while holding it press 3 to get ♡ • Hold ( and while holding it press 7 and then ) to get ⑦

This would essentialy make every key to a symbol modifier key. For most symbols this would feel even more natural. A problem is that this method would not allow the first and the second symbol in a sequense to be the same. Nor would it allow a good way to type sequenses for emojis.

[samhocevar]

I’m afraid I don’t like this idea very much. It will lead to undesired behaviour when one types very quickly; for instance this is me typing the word “bae”. You can see that I press the “e” key 60 milliseconds before the “a” key release is detected. Under your proposal this would type “bæ”. The additional problem is that these look pretty similar and the user may not even notice the typo.

One way to solve this would be to define a reasonable delay to make sure the first key is actually held and not just pressed. However this will probably lead to the keyboard autorepeat feature to be accidentally triggered if the key is pressed for too long. In addition, if the computer is being slow, the user intention may be misunderstood. In general I think timing-aware key combinations do not provide for a good user experience.

In conclusion this has far too many drawbacks as it is. However I’ll leave the issue open in case you come up with a more robust proposal.

[JapanYoshi]

I agree that there is absolutely no way for this to work. Think of the gamers! And think of the sequences with repeated letters (e.g. Compose * * = ★)!