Comma Snippets

Snippets are a handy productivity tool. However, if you use snippets a lot, you may run into an aliasing problem: something you have typed turns out to be a registered snippet. Your snippet engine fires, causing confusion.

I found that using a comma as the leader key for my snippets solves the ambiguity really well. Comma has all the desirable properties:

• Comma is easily reachable as a key. No need for chording or stretching.
• In most text, comma is followed by a space. Unless you are working with CSV files, it’s unlikely you will ever run into a conflict.

I use such comma-based snippets for all kinds of things:

• ,mL turns into a Markdown link with the URL from my clipboard [](CLIP).
• Math and special characters: ,neq → ≠, ,rarr → →, ,bp → ‱.
• ,shrug → “¯\_(ツ)_/¯”.

Diacritics

I have one major exception to the comma-as-a-leader key style, and those are diacritics. For diacritic characters, I follow the pattern <base-character>,<mark>. For example, e,: turns into ë, a,' into á and so forth. Quite useful to write that occasional special character. I do it this way, because it flows more naturally to type the base letter first and then modify it. It’s still unambiguous due to that mark after the comma.

BTW, I use Espanso for snippets. I wholeheartedly recommend it.