Seriously no key repeat in Lion?

Yes, the Delete key is disabled in Finder (let's not even get started on that POS). You can get around this with KeyRemap4MacBook (a free utility); there's an application-specific mode so you can make the Delete key (the real one) send stuff to the trash when Finder is active. The only problem is that it can't tell when you're renaming a file, so if you hit Delete while changing a filename, the file will disappear to the trash.

KeyRemap4MacBook can also correct other deficiencies, such as making the Home and End keys go to the beginning and end of the current line instead of the entire document.

I dug up an IBM Model M keyboard the other day and got an active USB adapter for it (passive ones won't work). Despite the lack of any key to replace Command (since these '80s keyboards don't have a Windows key), I set the left Alt key to be Command with KeyRemap4MacBook, and it works great with my iMac. I even have the Pause key controlling iTunes stop/start and Ctrl+arrow keys doing track selection and volume.

Haven't done anything with Scroll Lock yet!

Yes, at work, I have a Logitech keyboard and mouse that do a decent job of correcting the issues. But when I'm at home or away from my desk at work, I have to shift gears in my head and retrain my fingers... and my habits. Makes things awful fun when mapping keys to macros for writing code. I'm sure with an unlimited budget, I could make this machine work almost just like I'd expect it to. THAT is the reason for the burgeoning market for third-party devices for Apple products. [smiley!]

Hmmmm, you could take your work home with you. Other than that, I don't know. Snow Leopard? Windows? Or perhaps wait for the next update of Lion and see if they have reason to address it in general.

Cheers

Word of caution. Turning the Press and Hold back on by runnning the above command and setting it to 'true' will apply it globally. Including apps such as Terminal and Vim (which were able to have repeating keys with Lion's default settings).

I had to go back and reset it to false again. I'm hoping that installing Mountain Lion will get all the defaults back in place.

How do you enter the code? I typed it directly into the Terminal (after it says who logged in), restarted the computer and nothing changed. Am I doing it wrong?

Hi Mateusk. I'm new to all of this. I don't know how to do anything. I just got a macbook pro for Christmas. (Yay!) But I noticed right away that there's no key repeat!! So I found your solution, but I don't know what to do with that information. Where is the terminal to enter that code? Would you be able to tell me step-be-step of how to get key repeat?

Oh nevermind. I found the Terminal app and entered the code, restarted. And I can now repeat characters as well. It's just very slow, even after I changed the options to no pause and fast repeat. BLAH. Thanks though!

Run the following in Terminal to re-enable key repeat for all apps:

defaults write -g ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool false

You may need to restart an app for the key repeat to kick in.

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