Alt+` is not recognised on german keyboard

[itsanonmelody]

Summary

Typing a simple backtick ` on a german keyboard requires three keystrokes: Shift+', Space. Helix recognises this. However, when I try to input a backtick with Alt, it doesn't work anymore. Only the backtick is recognised.

Reproduction Steps

I tried this:

1. hx
2. i
3. hElLo woRLd
4. <Esc>
5. x
6. Shift+Alt+', Space / Shift+Alt+', Alt+Space / Shift+Alt+', Shift+Alt+Space

I expected this to happen:

With default keybinds, all the characters in the text hElLo woRLd should be uppercased: HELLO WORLD.

Instead, this happened:

The text is lowercased instead. Alt+` seems to be recognised as `.

Helix log

~/.cache/helix/helix.log

2023-12-12T00:14:13.891 helix_view::editor [ERROR] editor error: 1 unsaved buffer(s) remaining: ["[scratch]"]
2023-12-12T00:16:25.177 helix_view::editor [ERROR] editor error: 1 unsaved buffer(s) remaining: ["[scratch]"]
2023-12-12T00:38:46.206 helix_view::editor [ERROR] editor error: 1 unsaved buffer(s) remaining: ["[scratch]"]

Platform

Arch Linux

Terminal Emulator

kitty 0.31.0

Installation Method

Arch extra repository through pacman

Helix Version

Helix 23.10-1

[CptPotato]

As a workaround you could try rebinding the keys to not use Alt. I'm using these on a German keyboard layout:

"´" = "switch_to_lowercase"
"`" = "switch_to_uppercase"

[pascalkuthe]

Do these key sequences work in other tui programs (your shell, nvim)? Kitty should just forward us the keycode there isn't too me for us to do

[Brixy]

Hi,

I use this environment variable, and helix’s `Alt+`` works as expected:

export XKB_DEFAULT_VARIANT=nodeadkeys

In order to write letters with accents like é è etc. I use this line:

export XKB_DEFAULT_OPTIONS=compose:caps

In order to type an è for example you need to press:

• Caps
• Shift+´
• e

Also, I prefer these settings for writing code with ticks and backticks.

[itsanonmelody]

Do these key sequences work in other tui programs (your shell, nvim)? Kitty should just forward us the keycode there isn't too me for us to do

I tried binding Alt-` to a command in Neovim and it doesn't work either. The solution from @Brixy works well as it removes the requirement to do two keystrokes to type a backtick.

[xchray]

Hi, all, thanks for discussion so far. I have same issue in Windows, is there any possible solution on Windows?

Thanks so much.