How Exactly Does tap-hold and its Variants Work?

[TZProgrammer]

I am a bit confused on how tap-hold and its variants work. More specifically, what exactly is the tap timeout and hold timeout?

If I were to set the tap timeout to 1 and hold timeout to 1000, what is the behaviour? What if I set them both to 1? How about if I set them both to 1?

Here is my config:

Ignore the comment saying that ctrl is pressed as soon as caps is pressed, I later removed that because it was too convoluted.

My desired behaviour is for programming. If I press and release caps, I instantly want to get an Esc input. If while caps is pressed I press another key, that key will come from my symbol layer. For a little more context, "utl" is defined as "utl (layer-toggle utility).

This approach works but has some problems. If I press things too fast, I end up just triggering the hold behaviour, even though I want the tap behaviour. Any advice?

Update:
I went back to my config with fresh eyes and found a solution that has not given me any problems (yet).

My new definition of cap is (multi @UTL (tap-hold-press 500 500 esc XX)). Although I still would like to know what the "500 500" is doing in this case, and if there is any way to make the ctrl key be pressed while held until another key is pressed (in which case the ctrl key is released and another is pressed)

[jtroo]

Although I still would like to know what the "500 500" is doing

The doc describes what they do: https://github.com/jtroo/kanata/blob/main/docs/config.adoc#tap-hold

Could you point to specific parts of the doc that could use improvement?

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make the ctrl key be pressed while held until another key is pressed (in which case the ctrl key is released and another is pressed)

I can't think of a convenient way to do this off the top of my head, the way that I immediately think of is to use multi with release-key on every relevant action.

[TZProgrammer]

The tap timeout is the number of milliseconds within which a rapid press+release+press of a key will result in the tap action being held instead of the hold action activating.

The hold timeout is the number of milliseconds after which the hold action will activate.

I am not sure I understand this correctly. Does this mean that if I set my tap timeout to 500ms, and I rapidly press that key, release, and press it again, it will count as one long press instead of a press, release, press?

Does this also mean that having the tap timeout > hold timeout can be of use in some cases?

[jtroo]

It is not one long press - it would still be press+release+press of the tap action.But the 2nd press will be the tap action, even if held. Whereas if the tap timeout is 0 for example, the 2nd press will activate the hold action of held. The tap timeout can indeed be larger than hold timeout if desired.

[gerhard-h]

if there is any way to make the ctrl key be pressed while held until another key is pressed (in which case the ctrl key is released and another is pressed)

what is the use case for pressing control if it can't be combined with other keys? Maybe an example would help.

[TZProgrammer]

Being able to sprint in games that have that set as the sprint key was what I was aiming for.