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I'd like to force myself to use the correct (right side or left side) Shift, Ctrl, and Alt keys depending on what letter I'm typing. For instance I'd like to use the right Shift key when typing 'A' and the left Shift key when typing 'P'. I find myself using only the left side a lot and I'm looking for a way to set the mappings on my machine so that it only responds to correct pairings. I'm running Fedora, but any Linux distro support would be an acceptable answer.

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> I find myself using only the left side a lot   I’m the opposite; I almost exclusively use the right-hand Shift key, which is just hell on my poor pinky (and is likely why it’s become so problematic). :-( Actually, I find that I do use the left-hand Shift key to enter special/accented characters because the macro program I use to enter them does not respond for the right-hand one. – Synetech Mar 12 '12 at 23:48
If you could do without NumLock (or the Windows/Super key), I'm thinking you might be able to use xmodmap to remap the right Shift, Ctrl, and Alt keys to, say, mod2, 3, and 5, and then change the keymap so that LShift-Q maps to NoSymbol and RShift-Q maps to Q. – Dr Kitty Mar 13 '12 at 1:19
I don't see the benefit of trying to force yourself by blocking the opposite. Rather, I recommend you get some electrical tape and cover all the keys so that you learn where things are by feel and not by looking. The rest will come to you as and how your brain rewires itself. You will find you think about doing the right thing less and less, the more you let yourself only look at the screen. I don't think that the ctrl and alt-being opposite the key you are pressing them with begins to enter into it. Ctrl+T for example is done entirely with the left hand, by many adept programmers. – Warren P Mar 13 '12 at 2:41
@WarrenP The benefit would be for some ergonomic benefit. I definitely use only my left hand for Ctrl+T and it hurts! My pinky has to flex back a long way. Using the right Ctrl in that instance places a lot less stress on my hand. I'm not doing anything by looking, so I don't think electrical tape would help. I agree that with some disciplined practice, I could train myself to do the right thing, but I was hoping for a training mechanism and I feel like it should be possible. – brewerja Mar 13 '12 at 3:19
@TheElectricMuffin That's precisely the kind of thing I'm looking for help doing. I'm wanting to do this on a laptop, so I don't have a NumLock key and I like to use my Windows key for the zoom out feature in Fedora. – brewerja Mar 13 '12 at 3:22

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There is a game called Typing of the dead, which will train you to write with 10 fingers and the correct shift keys in a funny way. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Typing_of_the_Dead

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+1 for a creative answer. I'm not really a gamer, but this looks quirky enough to be interesting and fun. – brewerja Mar 31 '12 at 15:13

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