SUMMARY After upgrading to Plasma 5.21 Beta, I found really weird that by default holding a key doesn't repeat the key. I use this all the times with delete, for example. Of course, I found a new option in Input Devices -> Keyboard -> When a key is held, and I changed it to "Repeat the key being held". But why wouldn't this be the default? What is the logic behind this change?
I also found the default values for delay and rate a bit different from my experience before the upgrade, but maybe this is just me. I changed them to a delay of 500 ms and a rate of 30.
This is a new feature designed to make it easier to type accented and related keys. It is modeled on the same feature on other platforms, where holding a key shows alternatives rather than repeating that key. Those platforms include Android, iOS, and macOS. So basically everything except for Windows and other FOSS OSs now do things like this. The idea behind changing the default is that the user is probably more likely to want to type a character not physically present on their keyboard than they are to want to type aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa really quickly. :) We knew that this decision might be somewhat controversial, which is why we added the option to return to the old behavior if you don't like the new one. It sounds like you would be a good candidate for using that option. :) Regardless, the feature is going to be reverted in the final release of Plasma 5.21 as we couldn't get it working quite right. It will hopefully return in Plasma 5.22.
Oh, I see, and I would really like that feature to see other similar characters. But even in Android, iOS and macOS there are still some keys that are repeated on hold (such as del or supr). I hope to see this new feature in good shape in Plasma 5.22 ;)
Yes, those should still be repeated, for sure. If that's not happening, please file a new bug report to Plasma Integration | Character alternatives palette. Thanks!
Okay, I will.