mac os x

CapsLock keyboard layouts switching in Parallels Desktop

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I like Mac OS X very much. But I also have to use MS Windows for some tasks that Mac OS X cannot do, such as full-featured MS Office, MS Project, MS Visio, MindJet/MindManager, stock trading terminals, most games, etc.

And I also like to switch my keyboard layouts with CapsLock instead of default Cmd+Space or Alt+Shift.  You would never believe how convenient it is until you try it for yourself.

But when I use both Parallels Desktop with MS Windows as a guest OS and PCKeyboardHack for CapsLock keyboard layout switching, I find myself limited to only one of these scenarios:

  • Use CapsLock to switch keyboard layouts in Windows as in Mac OS X, but Cmd+Tab goes to Windows and switches between Windows applications instead of Mac OS X applications.
  • Use Cmd+Tab to switch between Mac OS X applications, but Windows keyboard layouts should be switched with native Alt+Shift or Ctrl+Shift, not with CapsLock as in Mac OS X.

Actually, this limitation affects all Mac OS X system shortcuts, not only Cmd+Tab. For example, Cmd+Shift+4 does not work for screenshots, Cmd+Ctrl+N does not work for Evernote, etc.

The perfect scenario — Cmd+Tab for Mac OS X applications and CapsLock for keyboard layouts both in Mac OS X and Windows — is impossible with these tools. Here is a solution how to implement this perfect scenario.

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CapsLock input source switching in Mac OS X

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As a software developer and true introvert, I type a lot. I type for coding, I type for blogging, I type for chatting, I type for sexing ;-) My two most used keyboard layouts are English and Russian; I also use Esperanto sometimes. And as I type, I want to switch the keyboard layouts fast and insensibly.

Mac OS X default installation suggests Cmd+Space keyboard shortcut for selecting the input source, yet it is configurable. Windows suggests Alt+Shift or Ctrl+Shift, and you cannot change it to anything more sophisticated.

Both these options are far from convenient since they require the user to press two keys simultaneously, which is not good when you type fast and focus on the content rather than typing itself. Two-key shortcut in the corner of the keyboard forces you to move your whole palm from its position over the keyboard, and then to reposition it back — this causes a break in text flow for a fraction of second.

There is much better option for Mac OS X: select input sources with CapsLock key, which is almost never used for its direct purpose of locking the capital case mode (two Shifts are more than enough). Besides it is only one single key to press, you can also press it with your left little finger, keeping your other fingers on their positions, thus not causing the break.

I know there are lots of manuals how to do that. Here is yet another one just for further references in this blog, and as a beginning episode of a keyboard tricks series.

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Swapping Backquote/Tilda and Section/Paragraph keys on MacBook EU/RU keyboard in Mac OS X Lion 10.7

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Recently I’ve changed my MacBook US keyboard to European one. Everything is fine with it except for the Tilda(~) key, which is located between Left Shift and Z keys on the EU keyboard, whereas usually it is located under Esc key on US and most PC keyboards. I do not know what was the purpose of this relocation or what historical background are behind it; I don’t care. What I care is that such location makes the use of Tilda key very annoying. And here is how I’ve solved it.

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Building 32-bit ZooKeeper Python bindings in 64-bit Mac OS X

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If you need to build ZooKeeper Python bindings in 32-bit mode on 64-bit Mac OS X, it can be hard to do since ZooKeeper building scripts ignore the usual “-arch” flags for the compiler. But there is a simple workaround for this. And here it is.

Why?

If you have Mac OS X and you need Oracle InstantClient for your work as I do, you are in trouble: the 64-bit InstantClient crashes with “segfault” error code 11 on 64-bit Mac OS X. The only solution is to use 32-bit InstantClient, which does work.

But this workaround entails to every single bit of software, that uses InstantClient, should be 32-bit too. For example, if you code Python as I do, you need cx_Oracle to be 32-bit to work with 32-bit InstantClient (64-bit cx_Oracle binary part cannot work with 32-bit InstantClient libraries, obviously). And if you have 32-bit cx_Oracle, you ought to have 32-bit Python to load that 32-bit cx_Oracle. And if you have 32-bit Python, you ought to make all other binary libraries to be 32-bit. Thank you, Oracle, for this fun!

And if you use ZooKeeper together with InstantClient as I do, you have to build 32-bit ZooKeeper binaries and libraries. Well, lets work up to it from the beginning.

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NTFS-3G in Mac OS X Lion (10.7) with read-write support

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UPD 21.08.2011: There is even better way to solve the same issue with native Mac OS X drivers, but it has its own pros and cons. Read at the end for details.

UPD 12.09.2011 (IMPORTANT): Native driver makes NTFS unusable. Read below for details.

Mac OS X Lion (10.7) was released recently, in the end of July 2011. And many users had started to complain that their NTFS disks stopped working. And the much worse problem is that “old” solutions do not work well.

But after one or two weeks of researching of this issue, I’ve managed to make NTFS work in Mac OS X Lion (10.7). The key here is a proper combination of software versions.

So I will shortly describe the usual choices for external data storages, and what problems arises with each of them. And later I will show how you can get the most universal way — NTFS — to work where it does not work by default, with links and pictures.

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