Keyboard layout

If you use a keyboard with a layout other than QWERTY, like for example QWERTZ (common in German speaking countries) or AZERTY (common in French speaking countries), it is important that you specify it in your vemrc file. This will make keyboard actions to keep the same spatial distribution across the keyboard even if letters change positions in your layout with respect to the others.

To set your keyboard layout, add a line like this to your configuration:

let g:vem_layout = '<layout>'

where <layout> can be:

qwerty (default)

qwertz

azerty

Vem's documentation includes layout information for those actions that are assigned to different keys across them.

Setting the layout changes what actions are assigned to some letters, however, this doesn't apply to symbols. A given symbol will always perform the same action across layouts irrespective of its position.

Vem doesn't support Dvorak or Colemak keyboard layouts currently due to their big differences from the layouts mentioned in this section. Their key distribution makes many action mappings not very intuitive and in many cases directly unfeasible.

Autodetecting the layout in your vemrc file.

Vem is unaware of your keyboard layout until you explicitly set it (and takes QWERTY by default), but you can autodetect it in your vemrc file. For example, in linux you could do something like:

let g:vem_layout = system('setxkbmap -query 2> /dev/null | grep -o -E "(querty|quertz|azerty)$" || echo "querty"')[:-2]

Tip provided by /u/mirsella.