Chris Jones wrote: > On Mon, May 04, 2009 at 11:42:34AM EDT, Barclay, Daniel wrote: ... >> Have you tried mapping the Control key back to where it was when Emacs >> was designed (and where it belongs--just to the left of the A key (on >> QWERTY keyboards))? > > Used that for a long time .. the location of the left Control key on PC > keyboards may make sense for those who never use it (like it's out of > t he way so you won't hit by accident and break everything :) .. ??? > > A couple of years ago, I eventually switched to remapping the "Windows" > keys to Ctrl and using my thumbs for Alt/Ctrl modifiers - kinda keeps > modifiers separate from the "action keys" and provides some form of > symmetry with Alt or Ctrl actioned with left thumb and the "key" with > one of the right hand's four fingers and vice-versa). > >> If not, be sure to try that. Using Emacs (and Bash) control-character >> keystrokes is an entirely different experience when the Control key is >> in the right place. > > More worried about having to deal with impossible to reach stuff like > arrow keys, page up/down.. end, home.. delete.. etc.
Are you still talking in the context of Emacs? If so: You won't need to reach the arrow keys, etc., once you've learned the traditional Emacs movement keystrokes. (In fact, that would also apply to vi.) But you need the control key in a reachable place so you can use those traditional keystrokes (reasonably). > Not to mention double modifiers such as Alt+Ctrl .. !! Note that you can type Esc as a prefix for Meta in place of pressing Alt as a modifier for Meta. > Even stuff like Ctrl-X Ctrl-F for frequently needed does not strike me > as ergonomically sound. At least for that particular key combination, it sounds like you haven't tried it enough times to notice how easy it gets. For that one in particular, you can just roll your hand over the three keys. That is, you don't have to do the sequence Control-down, x-down, x-up, Control-up, Control-down, f-down, f-up, Control-up. You can go: Control-down, x-down, f-down, Control-up, x-up, f-up; and that can be done in one rolling motion in about 1/3 of a second. Sure, not every keystroke combination is that easy, but many are easier than they seem initially. If you want to and have time to give Emacs a fair shake, use it long enough for you fingers to learn the more common keystrokes, and then see if you like Emacs' style of commands or not. > I do like the emacs bindings in the shell, though .. takes a bit of > practice before they become second nature, but it's worth it.. once you > get there, you fly. I think your last 6 six words apply to Emacs too (as long as the control key is in the right place, or another other place that's as convenient for you). Daniel -- (Plain text sometimes corrupted to HTML "courtesy" of Microsoft Exchange.) [F]
