Key Options¶

Key options help when constructing a modular config:

Guarded

~/chat.wks¶

<s i g n a l> "Signal"
{
    # some bindings
}

~/music.wks¶

<s p o t i f y> "Spotify"
{
    # some bindings
}

~/main.wks¶

a "Apps"
{
    :include "chat.wks"
    :include "music.wks"
}

Naive

~/chat.wk¶

s "Signal"
{
    # some bindings
}

~/music.wks¶

s "Spotify"
{
    # some bindings
}

~/main.wks¶

a "Apps"
{
    :include "chat.wks"
    :include "music.wks"
}

In the guarded example, “Signal” is bound to a s while “Spotify” is bound to a p. In the naive example, “Spotify” overrides “Signal” because they both try to bind to the same key. Last wins during such collisions, and “Spotify” is bound while “Signal” is silently dropped.

Key options avoid this. Instead of binding to a single, constant trigger key, a set of options is given between the brackets (<a b c>). In the above example, “Signal” comes first, and the first key option, s, is chosen because it is not taken. When “Spotify” is parsed, we see that s is already taken, so the next option p is chosen from the list. If all options are already defined, then wk will print an error stating that all key options are already bound instead of silently droping the key chord.