Chinese Punctuations to Halfwidth Forms (Mac Karabiner)

When using Chinese in markdown and code, to speed the format switch of the halfwidth/fullwidth input, we can map each inputting punctuation to its halfwidth form by pressing function key fn.

当在markdown或者code中运用中文时，为了更快地转换半角/全角（港台：半形/全形）的符号输入，我们可以通过同时按着fn键把对应正在输入的符号变为半角形式。

Note: If you are a user of other fullwidth langauges (Japanese, Korean, etc.), you may need to modify both the json and shell script files for your need.

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List of All Mapped Keys（映射的个键列表）:

fn key +

• ， -> ,
• 。 -> .
• ； -> ;
• ： -> :
• ‘ -> '
• “ -> "
• ” -> "
• · -> `
• ～ -> ~
• ！ -> !
• ？ -> ?
• （ -> (
• ） -> )
• 【 -> [
• 】 -> ]
• 「 -> {
• 」 -> }
• 《 -> <
• 》 -> >
• ¥ -> $
• …… -> ^
• —— -> _
• 、 -> \
• ｜ -> |

Note: in the case of the multi-key values, we should press all the usual keys plus the fn key. For instance, when mapping …… to ^, we should press shift + fn + 6.

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Prerequisite（所需软件）: Karabiner

Download Link: https://pqrs.org/osx/karabiner/

Installation（安裝）:

Steps:

1. Download them as zip file and then decompress [1]
2. Copy fn_halfwidth.json file to ~/.config/karabiner/assets/complex_modifications
3. Copy halfwidth_convert file to ~/.config/karabiner/assets/complex_modifications/helpers [2]
4. Enable rule in the complex modifictaions tag in Karabiner, see the guide

[1] It's recommended that you doanwload as zip file to preserve the permission, otherwise you may need to chmod ug+x ~/.config/karabiner/assets/complex_modifications/helpers/halfwidth_convert in terminal to activate the shell script for the first time use

[2] you may need to create the helpers folder at first

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Limitations

Since we use the ruler pboard here, sometimes the pasted characters come in a weird way in some special environments (I haven't figured out the mechanism yet).

You may delete all the lines

,{
  "shell_command": "pbpaste -pboard ruler | pbcopy" 
}

in the json file to avoid this limitation, at the cost of messing up your general pboard.

I will fix this bug in the future once I have time.

Why don't we use text-replacement functions?

There are lots of fancy text-replacement tools such as MacOS bulit-in keyboard text-replacement and Alfred 4 script.

However, for the markdown and coding scenes of fullwidth langauges, the just-in-time (JIT) halfwidth conversion is more efficient and intuitive. By using Karabiner, we can type the halfwidth punctuations just by holding a hotkey and then it would switch back to fullwidth input automatically and immediately, instead of typing a verbose replacement string each time.