# Kakoune for non-qwerty layouts?

**URL:** <https://discuss.kakoune.com/t/kakoune-for-non-qwerty-layouts/403>\
**Category:** FAQ\
**Created:** [March 24, 2019, 8:32pm UTC](https://discuss.kakoune.com/t/kakoune-for-non-qwerty-layouts/403 "2019-03-24T20:32:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 5

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**Author:** ![CBenoit](https://discuss.kakoune.com/user_avatar/discuss.kakoune.com/cbenoit/32/107_2.png) [@CBenoit](https://discuss.kakoune.com/u/CBenoit)\
**Post date:** [March 26, 2019, 6:18am UTC](https://discuss.kakoune.com/t/kakoune-for-non-qwerty-layouts/403/5 "2019-03-26T06:18:36Z")

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Thank you all for your answers!

To conclude, I decided to use kakoune mostly without remapping because semantic meaning can be useful to learn as pointed out (though often there is no _apparent_ semantic meaning like `<a-;>`, `o`, `<a-o>`, …).  
However, there are numerous awkward mapping for bépo (I mean _really_ uncomfortable).  
I believe most of the `<a-'something'>` mappings for qwerty or maybe dvorak can be done using left hand for `alt` and right hand for the character, while with bépo it’s the left hand for both. I wish I could bind `altgr` to alleviate the issue, but it doesn’t seems possible. The worst I noted is `<a-;>`. On a qwerty keyboard, it would be `alt+shift+f`.  
Also, the `hjkl` become `>pbo`. I don’t know if I would grow into liking this separation, but for now, I prefer to keep those on my home row.

So I decided to simply remap the critical parts to make it more comfortable and leave the rest as it.

Here is my current mapping for anyone intersted.

```auto
map global normal t j -docstring "move down"
map global goto t j -docstring "buffer bottom"
map global view t j -docstring "scroll down"
map global normal T J -docstring "extend down"
map global normal j t -docstring "select to next character"
map global goto j t -docstring "window top"
map global view j t -docstring "cursor on top"
map global normal J T -docstring "extend to next character"

map global normal s k -docstring "move up"
map global goto s k -docstring "buffer top"
map global view s k -docstring "scroll up"
map global normal S K -docstring "extend up"
map global normal k s -docstring "select regex matches in selected text"
map global normal K S -docstring "split selected text on regex matches"

map global normal r l -docstring "move right"
map global normal <a-r> <a-l> -docstring "select to line end"
map global goto r l -docstring "line end"
map global view r l -docstring "scroll right"
map global normal R L -docstring "extend right"
map global normal <a-R> <a-L> -docstring "extend to line end"
map global normal o r -docstring "replace with character"
map global normal O R -docstring "replace selected text with paired yanked text"
map global normal <a-O> <a-R> -docstring "replace selected text with all yanked texts"
map global normal l o -docstring "insert on new line below"
map global normal <a-l> <a-o> -docstring "add a new empty line below"
map global normal <c-l> <c-o> -docstring "jump backward in jump list"
map global normal L O -docstring "insert on new line above"
map global normal <a-L> <a-O> -docstring "add a new empty line above"

map global normal c h -docstring "move left"
map global normal <a-c> <a-h> -docstring "select to line begin"
map global goto c h -docstring "line begin"
map global view c h -docstring "scroll left"
map global normal C H -docstring "extend left"
map global normal <a-C> <a-H> -docstring "extend to line begin"
map global normal h c -docstring "cut selected text"
map global normal <a-h> <a-c> -docstring "cut selected text without yanking"
map global goto h c -docstring "window center"
map global normal H C -docstring "expand a new cursor below"

map global normal + ( -docstring "rotate selections"
map global normal <minus> ) -docstring "rotate selections backward"
map global normal <a-+> <a-(> -docstring "rotate selections content"
map global normal <a-minus> <a-)> -docstring "rotate selections content backward"

map global normal à <a-`> -docstring "swap case"
map global normal À '<a-;>' -docstring "flip the selections' direction"

```

Edit: updated version in my dotfiles repo: [https://github.com/CBenoit/dotfiles/blob/master/kak/.config/kak/mappings.kak](https://github.com/CBenoit/dotfiles/blob/master/kak/.config/kak/mappings.kak)

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