LeftCtrl+LeftAlt+Key should be equivalent to RightAlt+Key

[Arturo Orlando]

This is a _major ergonomics issue_ (not to mention Windows-Ubuntu compatibility and newbie-friendliness). I shall explain why hereafter.

One of the principles for speedy and ergonomic touch typing is that one hand should generally not need to press a key and its modifier at the same time. You can see this in the fact that keyboards have both a right and a left Shift/Ctrl/Alt/Win/Fn… key.
So, for example, a capital A should not be typed by pressing LeftShift+A, but rather RightShift+A (using both hands, that is): this, to my knowledge, is what professional typists do, to reduce the burden on a single hand and distribute it on both.
For this reason, the Windows OS treats LeftCtrl+LeftAlt as a third level chooser equivalent to RightAlt+Key. The advantage of this may not be apparent to someone using a standard US keyboard, but many European keyboards, in fact, make extensive use of third level keys to input characters as vital as @, [ or ].

The Ubuntu keyboard preferences let one specify other third level choosers, but:
1) such a feature should be included by default in the Ubuntu OS, because it is vital for anybody extensively typing (one of the main uses of a computer!) through an extended keyboard layout (such as European layouts) and because anybody switching from Windows would expect to find it (just as one would expect LeftAlt+F4 to close a window, which it does in both OS);
2) none of the left-hand alternatives offered in the preferences is satisfactory (specifically: the left Win key is now used by Unity for the dash and launcher and is less comfortable to reach than LeftCtrl+LeftAlt; LeftAlt cannot be used for this, as its shortcuts [such as LeftAlt+F4] would then stop working; CapsLock already has a major function that cannot be traded off; “<” is a common character, and as such probably very important to some users).

I hope I have managed to set forth why it is so important to make LeftCtrl+LeftAlt equivalent to RightAlt (AltGr) . If one still doesn’t think so, I kindly ask that one try to press RightAlt and Y at the same time with one’s right hand only and keep the unused fingers still on the home row (one of the rules of good touch typing). Isn’t it then evident how hard and bad for one’s hand that was? Now, what if (as it is) one had a vital character there, an often needed character: one would end up either injuring one’s right hand or switching back to Windows!

I have taken care to write so much, because a previous (2006) report of this problem (Bug #34126: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xkeyboard-config/+bug/34126) turned into a flame for being misunderstood and underestimated.

I have found many instances of such disregarded/misunderstood help requests on the net (mainly by Europeans) regarding this problem, none of them solved, which contributes to prove this bug’s importance. Here are a couple of links:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-general-1/how-to-make-control_l-alt_l-act-like-alt_r-alt-gr-449531/
http://serverfault.com/questions/264681/xfree86-keyboard-make-ctrl-alt-work-like-altgr
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=853249
http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/15212/

Help, please. Thank you very much.

[Alex Tomala (alegomaster)]

Can anyone prove that this issue is still going on, and that it wasnt fixed other then by Arturo.

[Arturo Orlando (arturo-orlando)]

Well, actually the problem can be reproduced by anyone (including you), as I have explained. You only need to choose a keyboard layout containing third-level keys (most European ones do, as well as the US/UK international one) and then try to input such a key by pressing it at the same time as left Ctrl and left Alt, which won’t work.
However, I understand the need for other users’ feedback. I will now go back to the links above, where many other users complain about this same problem, and ask those users to participate in this report.

To anybody unfamiliar with the use of third-level keys, and especially to those who might think that having a left-hand third-level chooser is not an issue, I suggest a glance at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AltGr_key whereby is evident what an extensive (and vital) use European keyboards make of third-level keys.

[Arturo Orlando (arturo-orlando)]

In the meantime, I have found a temporary workaround: in the keyboard layout options (System>Preferences>Keyboard>Layouts>Options…):
1) under “Key to choose 3rd level” check “Left Alt” and “Right Alt”,
2) under “Alt/Win key behavior” select “Left Alt is swapped with left Win”.

The first step solves the problem of also having a comfortable left-hand third-level chooser (left Alt; left Win would have been uncomfortable), so that you may comfortably type right-hand third-level keys. The second step allows you to keep the shortcuts associated with the left Alt key by transferring them over to the left Win key: to close a window, for example, you’ll have to press LeftWin+F4, instead of LeftAlt+F4. As for the Unity launcher/dash shortcut, it is also preserved, but only through the right Win key (no more also through the left one, which now functions as left Alt’s substitute).

I need to highlight that this solution is not ultimate, as a left-hand third level chooser needs to be set in Ubuntu by default, to allow comfortable touch typing (one of the main uses of a computer), as most (European) users would have a hard time figuring out this solution, especially when they’re used to the LeftCtrl+LeftAlt+Key - RightAlt+Key equivalence in Windows.

[Arturo Orlando (arturo-orlando)]

I have though of another way of explaining the problem: imagine you only had a right shift key, and not also a left one. Now force yourself to input capitals (and other second level keys) of right-hand keys through that right shift only, instead of pressing the left shift with your left little finger and the key with your right hand (which is recommended practice). Following the rules of good touch typing, you will also have to keep your unused fingers on the home row. Try this repeatedly for all right hand keys (keeping your little finger on the right shift key). See how uncomfortable that was? It’s even impossible for keys that would pertain to the little finger: you have to move your whole right hand (bad practice) to type those! That’s pretty much what we European users face due to the lack of a default left-hand third-level chooser.

[Arturo Orlando (arturo-orlando)]

For the sake of completeness, one must add that LeftCtrl+LeftAlt is not a _perfect_ left-hand third-level chooser, because:
1) it involves pressing two keys instead of one, which is more stressful on the hand;
2) it doesn’t allow for fourth level keys, since it already includes the Shift (thus making you fall back again on right hand only for the fourth level).
So, in a utopian world, it would ideally be substituted by a single left-hand key (as in my makeshift workaround above).

However:
1) it is still much more comfortable than no left-hand third-level chooser (that is, always having to resort to RightAlt);
2) fourth level keys are nevertheless much rarer and less important than third level keys;
3) it _is_ the Microsoft Windows standard, and all users coming from Windows expect it to behave that way.

[Arturo Orlando (arturo-orlando)]

My sentence “it doesn’t allow for fourth level keys, since it already includes the Shift (thus making you fall back again on right hand only for the fourth level)” was an obvious mix up. It was supposed to be: “it doesn’t allow for comfortable typing of fourth-level keys, which would require three contemporary keystrokes by the left hand”.

[Denis Moyogo Jacquerye (moyogo)]

upstream: https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=37232

[Paddy Landau (paddy-landau)]

I have just found this bug, and I disagree completely. Ctrl+Alt+T, for example, should not be the same as AltGr+T. The two have different meanings and functions. For example, on Ubuntu, Ctrl+Alt+T opens the Terminal; whereas AltGr+T creates a character: ŧ

This bug should be marked as invalid.

[Jon Hanna (jonhanna)]

The Ctrl+Alt equivalence to AltGr is a Windows workaround to the fact that some keyboards didn't have an AltGr (such keyboards are still sometimes found in the US) to enable people with such keyboards to attempt to write languages like Spanish and English (okay, there are other ways of writing words like façade and naïve, but Windows didn't support those either, and indeed the Ctrl+Alt technique still leaves many characters out - so copy-paste from charmap or autocorrect bindings are still needed on Windows to write many languages).

This is a reasonable workaround in that system for the following reasons:
1. They were stuck for anything else to try, because there simply wasn't an AltGr key on those keyboards.
2. They don't have many uses for other Ctrl+Alt bindings, and those they do use (Ctrl+Alt+Delete of course) don't have AltGr bindings on most keyboard layouts.

It remains a reasonable workaround for that system, because it's a fixed workaround for that system - this leads to item 2 remaining true, and people don't create Ctrl+Alt bindings.

Strictly, that last point isn't true; people sometimes do program bindings to Ctrl+Alt combos that have no built-in binding in their locale, and then have internationalisation problems, but the workaround dug a hole that it's now next to impossible to dig out of because so many Windows users are used to it.

This is not a reasonable workaround on other systems.
1. It isn't needed for most keyboards (though admittedly such keyboards do still exist).
2. There are a large number of cases where Ctrl+Alt is bound to something. Ctrl+Alt L will default to locking the screen, Ctrl+Alt T will launch a terminal window; clearly we cannot have those happening when someone tries to type a letter, or vice versa.

Windows did something decades ago that seemed like a good idea at the time, and arguably was, and has to live with the negative consequences because Windows users are used to it.

*nix did something different decades ago that seemed like a good idea at the time to people who did have AltGr keys, was largely invisible to most who didn't (who mostly make little use of the characters it allows anyway), and has to live with the fact that it confuses Windows users because *nix users are used to it.

[Petra Baum (petra-baum)]

In my opinion there should be added an option to enable <Ctrl> and <Alt> as a replacement for <Alt Gr> just for the keys where it is necesary.
On a german keyboard, combination of <Ctrl>, <Alt> and + could be used to make ~ because it is not used for an other function. Even if it is also not comfortable to use <Ctrl> and <Alt>, many Windows users are used to it.