Add alternative easier to read action names with symbols

[eugenesvk]

Describe your changes. Use imperative present tense.

Allow shorter, but more importantly, easier-to-differentiate vs letters-only, actions. And as a bonus in many cases you get vertical alignment for free since symbols have the same width unlike words

So instead of

  os2 (one-shot-press 2000 lsft)
  os3 (one-shot-release 2000 lctl)

You can use

  os2 (one-shot↓ 2000 lsft)
  os3 (one-shot↑ 2000 lctl)

Or instead of

  oar (tap-hold-press   200 200 o @arr) ;; tap: o      hold: arrows layer
  ech (tap-hold-release 200 200 e @chr) ;; tap: e      hold: chords layer

You can use

  oar (tap🠿 200 200 o @arr) ;; tap: o      hold: arrows layer
  ech (tap🠽 200 200 e @chr) ;; tap: e      hold: chords layer

with a thick arrow indicating a stronger action (hold)

Checklist

• Add documentation to docs/config.adoc
  • Yes or N/A
• Add example and basic docs to cfg_samples/kanata.kbd
  • Yes or N/A
• Update error messages
  • N/A
• Added tests, or did manual testing
  • Yes

[rszyma]

The title of this PR says "Add alternative easier to read action names" but for me half of the symbols in the above conversarion just don't render properly (on mobile at least). So it actually achieves the complete opposite.

[eugenesvk]

He-he, yeah, same here, unfortunately phones are still a lagging platform in such basics

But then are you reading/editing your config file on a mobile? I need help reading/editing large config files, which I only do on a proper computer, and that's where an alphabet soup starts to blur various actions while icons and alignment help

[rszyma]

But then are you reading/editing your config file on a mobile?

I sometimes help people out in issues or discussion, so yes, I read configs on mobile.

[rszyma]

IMO "🖱↑" is nice, but other changes are questionable. Things that mix ascii and fancy symbols like "on↓fakekey" feel weird

[eugenesvk]

I actually find the 2nd one more useful: it's easier to auto-complete since it starts with ascii and not as ambiguous as the mouse wheel (couldn't find a good symbol, think the actual 🛞 , is better, but then this wheel has even worse support than other symbols as it's a newer unicode version)

Used these in Karabiner/Goku config and in AutoHotkey (one of the few languages awesome enough to allow unicode in identifiers) in function/variable names and though editing is sometimes harder (for rarely used symbols), reading is better as ↓↑ is more obvious than names

[jtroo]

Thanks for the callout for mobile rszyma.

I originally checked this on my desktop but I also occasionally look at issues/discussions on mobile. For me the following symbols don't display on Android 14 properly:

• 🗙
• 🖰
• 🠿

Some alternatives that work:

• ╳
• ↳, ↧, or ⇩ for hold
• 🖱: for mouse move
  • 🖱📜 : for mouse-wheel. A paper scroll is used because the wheel is used to scroll.
  • 🖱 𐃏 might be better though

I would like not having to review configs that do not display correctly on my phone :)

---

Going back and checking on fancy key symbols on mobile, which I didn't do before, fortunately it looks like only 🖰 for mouse actions and ⭾ for tab do not display on mobile.

[eugenesvk]

Re. hold: maybe ⬓ as a half-pressed button? The point of the squished arrow was less the direction, but the squished form implying that you hold the key down, otherwise ⇩/↧ don't conceptually differ much from ↓

Re. cancel: do the smaller crosses work ⤫⤬

explicit wheel 🖱𐃏 is better, nice that this one is supported unlike 🛞

(By the way, eventually with the mobile updating to the later Unicode versions and better fonts more symbols become available.)

[jtroo]

Re. hold: maybe ⬓ as a half-pressed button? The point of the squished arrow was less the direction, but the squished form implying that you hold the key down, otherwise ⇩/↧ don't conceptually differ much from ↓

Sounds good to me

[eugenesvk]

Unfortunately the Mycenaean Greek wheel 𐃏 isn't supported on Desktop (Windows), so it's even worse than no mobile. And it's from 2003, so it's not because it's new

The 🛞 is a 2021 EMOJI wheel, so has a much higher chance of being supported in the future (e.g., it's already supported on the desktop with https://fonts.google.com/noto/specimen/Noto+Emoji)

By the way, do you see the other old mouse icon

• 🖯?

Could use that for move and keey the 3-mouse button icon 🖱 for the scroll

Or we could use 🖱⇳ or a simpler circle 🖱🖸 or 🖱☰ signifying wheel notches

[jtroo]

By the way, do you see the other old mouse icon 🖯?

This does not display for me on mobile. Maybe wheel of dharma which seems old enough and displays on desktop and mobile for me: ☸.

---

🖱⇳

This is ambiguous for movement vs. scroll

---

🖱🖸

This does not display on mobile

---

🖱☰

This is ok but I prefer circle/wheel-like symbols.

[eugenesvk]

curious tidbid: was wondering why 1/2 button mice symbols aren't available on mobile even though they are 10 unicode years old (2014), but then only the 3-button mouse is part of the Emoji Version 1 (2015), so that's likely why