Modex is an unpublished VSCode extension that implemented some of my favourite navigation keybindings at the time.
Capslock toggles between two modes: normal and insert. Insert mode leaves VSCode's default keybindings unchanged. Normal mode maps navigation keys to the right hand of the home row, and editing shortcuts to the left. The active mode is displayed on the status bar and indicated using an alteration to the caret:
Since capslock is used to toggle modes by default, system capslock state is altered during use. This is fine for users who use shift to capitalise.
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| Capslock | Switch mode |
| i | Up |
| j | Left |
| k | Down |
| l | Right |
| u | Home |
| o | End |
| n | PageUp |
| m | PageDown |
| ; | Backspace |
| p | Delete |
| c | Copy |
| x | Cut |
| v | Paste |
| e | Undo |
| r | Redo |
This project was aimed at replacing an AutoHotKey script I wrote to remap keydown events on Windows. At the time, the VSCode extension API didn't give access to keydown events, which was necessary to get modifier-key shortcuts that involve keys targeted by Modex to work correctly without manually mapping them all to VSCode commands, such as Ctrl+j to cursorWordLeft. This limited Modex keybindings to unmodified keys only.