Default value for `NSGlobalDomain InitialKeyRepeat `? What is the default for NSGlobalDomain InitialKeyRepeat?  I believe the value is 20, but I'm trying to verify this in order to understand the dynamics of shifting the value.

Most suggestions I see simply tell you to set it to defaults write NSGlobalDomain InitialKeyRepeat -int 12, but I've not been real happy with this and as I have a system that takes some time to startup, I don't like the rinse-and-repeat method of rebooting several times to tweak it.  If we know the default value then this will take the guesswork out.

One person went so far as to say that lower values were slower than higher values, but again, I don't trust that.

FWIW, The most common changes I'm seeing for getting back quick repeat settings in 10.12.x (Sierra) are:

defaults write NSGlobalDomain ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool false
defaults write NSGlobalDomain KeyRepeat -int 1
defaults write NSGlobalDomain InitialKeyRepeat -int 12
The defaults for a freshly installed macOS Sierra 10.12.5 (16F73) are: InitialKeyRepeat = 25 and KeyRepeat = 6.

Please note that if running defaults read NSGlobalDomain KeyRepeat before changing the value (either by the GUI or the CLI), then you get an error like this:


  2017-07-04 14:19:02.131 defaults[29186:269276]  The domain/default pair of (kCFPreferencesAnyApplication, ApplePressAndHoldEnabled) does not exist


The step values that correspond to the sliders on the GUI are as follow (lower equals faster):

KeyRepeat: 120, 90, 60, 30, 12, 6, 2

InitialKeyRepeat: 120, 94, 68, 35, 25, 15