From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: "James K. Lowden" Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: [OFFTOPIC] Re: Invoking a function from a list of functions Date: Mon, 19 Nov 2018 17:23:58 -0500 Organization: http://www.NewsDemon.com Message-ID: <20181119172358.802ce30c54f2fd20f8c300c4@speakeasy.net> References: <67c4a534-d41c-4736-8839-c2dbbdf7f9c2@googlegroups.com> <2da7504a-8bbf-41b9-993e-a7bacd6c97b2@googlegroups.com> <20181116114002.3ba6bcc8dc1e699ba58e08b8@speakeasy.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: blaine.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Trace: blaine.gmane.org 1542666207 14493 195.159.176.226 (19 Nov 2018 22:23:27 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@blaine.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 19 Nov 2018 22:23:27 +0000 (UTC) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Mon Nov 19 23:23:23 2018 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by blaine.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.84_2) (envelope-from ) id 1gOrwx-0003eH-45 for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Mon, 19 Nov 2018 23:23:23 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:59221 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1gOrz3-0004Io-DK for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Mon, 19 Nov 2018 17:25:33 -0500 Original-Path: usenet.stanford.edu!goblin1!goblin2!goblin.stu.neva.ru!newsfeed.xs4all.nl!newsfeed8.news.xs4all.nl!85.12.16.70.MISMATCH!peer03.ams1!peer.ams1.xlned.com!news.xlned.com!peer01.fr7!futter-mich.highwinds-media.com!peer02.iad!feed-me.highwinds-media.com!news.highwinds-media.com!post02.iad!fx07.iad.POSTED!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help X-Newsreader: Sylpheed 3.4.3 (GTK+ 2.24.28; x86_64--netbsd) Original-Lines: 39 Original-X-Complaints-To: abuse@newsdemon.com Original-NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 19 Nov 2018 22:23:58 UTC X-Received-Bytes: 2830 X-Received-Body-CRC: 3008286268 Original-Xref: usenet.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:224589 X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.21 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: "help-gnu-emacs" Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:118718 Archived-At: On Sat, 17 Nov 2018 07:59:49 -0800 (PST) Rusi wrote: > So the real question is this: If Unicode has a 150,000 code points > and a keyboard can be setup to input a few hundred (say) chars > conveniently which should I assign for my convenience? >=20 > This is a real hard question? Exactly my point. =20 > IOW You are already using a non-trivial input method. Actually, it is a trival input method. Nearly all keyboards have symbol emblazoned on each key; exceptions are rare [1]. The user expects each key to produce one of two characters associated with each key. That, I would say, is about as trivial as it gets. =20 Since we're ostensibly talking about emacs, I'll point you to M-x. Despite emacs' generous capacity to overload keys with meaning, ultimate just the functions of the editor overwhelm the available keys. Where the world are you going to put 150,000 code points when nroff mode steals M-s from occur to center a line? =20 The moment you move from a 1:1 correspondence to key to character to N:1, the possibilities do become endless. The "compose" key in X, Tex, and troff are examples. But they are also daunting. Just as alphabetic languages use letters to form words, such input systems use keys to form characters. It's a new language. =20 I'm simply suggesting that for most programmers, the beauty of reading a non-alphabetic programming language is not worth the hassle of learning to type it. As evidence, I give you APL: every successor dropped the exotic character set, despite being invented since the advent of Unicode and bitmapped displays. =20 --jkl [1] https://www.daskeyboard.com/daskeyboard-4-ultimate/