There are these characters. You enjoy them, but only need every so often. For me, it's the § (silcrow/section sign).
It's not printed on my key caps, but... I *know* it's up there, somewhere! Hiding behind a number key, in need of an alt and/or shift. And so, inevitably, I just go and riffle
¡™£¢∞§¶
I'm stuck in this local maximum where this genuinely is the quickest way, yet improving muscle memory in no way whatsoever.
I can't be the only one doing this right?
@krinkle
I either use BabelMap (similar to CharMap, but with search features) to look up the character, or, if I have a browser open, use my (unpublished) #FiXaNotes extension to copy the appropriate symbol from my quick list stored in my notes.
@krinkle
alternatively you could create your own keyboard layout where you put the symbols behind logical altgr combination?
@RyunoKi
that's something I kinda miss from the C64 era; having modifier states printed on the side of the keycaps: https://eftm.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/cropped-videoplayback.00_00_47_16.Still004-1.jpg
(of course that's not really an option on low profile keys of for instance a laptop keyboard...)
But perhaps @krinkle can add stickers to the appropriate keys, which might help train the muscle memory?
@krinkle if you want to invest the time, you could put a little cheat sheet in front of you and then create a game/quiz to match them as quickly as you can until they’re memorized.
Like…
Quick, reply back with ∞§™$¶@£¿~™°§∞$¶¢?¶§%∞™&¢!
@krinkle my doctoral thesis was on a project called C∀, and any time I want to type ∀ and am not in a LaTeX environment (including now), I look up the Wikipedia page for universal quantification and copy the character.
@krinkle I happily use the Compose Key, which both lets us use variations for most things (Eg 12 different ways to get the section sign: https://fsymbols.com/keyboard/linux/compose/ ), and many of them are inherently memorable ( t+m = ™). It's default in Linux, but apparently exists for win/mac, too!
@krinkle For me it's ™ (alt-gr + 8 on an Italian keyboard). § is conveniently shift + ù. :)