On my Macbook Pro, I wasn't able to use just the tilde key (~) as an activation key in
Visor (a Quake-like terminal). The app's preferences window allows only tilde with some of modifiers like Option or Control. But you can change it back to the single-key Quake-like behavior if you wish. First quit Terminal if its running.
Open ~/Library » Preferences » com.apple.Terminal.plist in Property List Editor (or PListEdit Pro). Find the dictionary entry called
VisorHotKey, open it, and make it look like this:
- DoubleModifier: false (unchecked)
- KeyCode: 50
- Modifiers: 256
Save the file. Now, run Terminal again and check if it works by pressing only tilde.
[
robg adds: With this hint active, it seems you won't be able to type a tilde in any program -- though I haven't tested this myself to confirm.]