Re: Some developement questions

[hw <hw@adminart.net>]

Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> writes:

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>
>   > Why can they not edit efficiently with Emacs without learning the
>   > movement keys described in the tutorial?
>
> What alternative would be better?  Arrow keys require moving your hands
> away from the center.  Moving the graphical pointer, even more so.

The arrow keys (that includes PgUp and PgDown and Home and End) in
combination with C-a and C-e are better.  That's all I use for moving
around.

For example, to press C-u, I have to move my left hand over to the left
to press the left Ctrl key, and then my right hand moves one key over to
the left to press U because I'm not on the rows anymore anyway.  You
might say it's not efficient.  It is how nowadays keyboards are.  C-u is
difficult to press, and the chance of hitting an unwanted key when
trying that is very high.  It is like the most inefficient way to scroll
up.

Add to that that Emacs is the only program with such key bindings, and
it is not efficient when I need to think differently with every program
about how to move the cursor.

When I move the cursor around, I'm thinking about what I've been
writing.  I do not need my fingers to be on the home rows then.

>   > There is much more to learn about Emacs than key bindings for cursor
>   > movement, and the movement keys in the tutorial may be amongst the least
>   > relevant things that help efficient editing.
>
> Please give more detail.

Think of all the modes.  They all come with their own key bidings.

I'm using org for only two things: editing tables and hiding stuff with
'*'.  The only specific key binding I know is C-c SPc because it the
only one I need, and it makes editing tables much more efficient.  I've
been using org-mode for years and found out about this key binding only
a few weeks ago because I happened to frequently delete a cells content
and thought there should be an easier way to do that.

Emacs can work with CVS systems like git.  I haven't found yet out how
to make use of this feature, yet I'm sure there are lots of key bindings
that make editing source code much more efficient when you are using CVS
systems.

Gnus comes with a lot of key bindings without which you can't edit your
emails (unless you use the menu perhaps).

Think of many functions you may more or less frequently use, like
query-replace, indent-region, sort-lines ....  Some of them may have key
bindings, but I use ESC-x and call them name.  There are only so many
key bindings one can remember.

Think of bookmarks and registers.  They are essential for moving around.

So I would consider key bindings to move the cursor around as a
non-issue and put those into their own tutorial about "special key
bindings".  In an "important key bindings" tutorial, I would mention C-a
and C-e and ESC-< and ESC-> because they are extremely useful not only
for Emacs, and because when in a terminal, Cltr-End and Ctrl-Home don't
work.  And I would point to registers and bookmarks, and make a tutorial
about them if tutorials were categorized like "move around", "do this",
"do that".