How to disable typing special characters when pressing option key in Mac OS X? [closed]

Answer 1

I have a solution! Place a file at: ~/Library/KeyBindings/DefaultKeyBinding.dict as:

/* ~/Library/KeyBindings/DefaultKeyBinding.dict */
 {
    /* Additional Emacs bindings */
    "~f" = "moveWordForward:";
    "~b" = "moveWordBackward:";
    "~<" = "moveToBeginningOfDocument:";
    "~>" = "moveToEndOfDocument:";
    "~v" = "pageUp:";
    "~d" = "deleteWordForward:";
    "~^h" = "deleteWordBackward:";
    "~\010" = "deleteWordBackward:";  /* Option-backspace */
    "~\177" = "deleteWordBackward:";  /* Option-delete */

    /* Escape should really be complete: */
    "\033" = "complete:";  /* Escape */        
}

It will hide the original textual input. But you can still get that by using Ctrl-Q before the combination. So Ctrl-Q Alt-f gives me ƒ for example. In fact, I'm writing this answer with the option keybindings enabled. You can also add other keys you like! Official reference: https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/EventOverview/TextDefaultsBindings/TextDefaultsBindings.html

Here is a good list of things you can bind to: https://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~jrus/site/selectors.html

Oh, by the way, if you bind a key to an undefined action, your application will have a memory leak and your system will run out of memory in a few seconds. Tested on el capitan, in the hard way.