From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: "Daniel B." Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: C-f, C-b, C-n and C-p or right, left, down, up? Date: Wed, 01 Oct 2003 12:43:09 -0400 Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Message-ID: <3F7B041D.C0048AB@smart.net> References: <1c58a7c3.0310010003.78c0fa00@posting.google.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: deer.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1065065776 24805 80.91.224.253 (2 Oct 2003 03:36:16 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 2 Oct 2003 03:36:16 +0000 (UTC) Cc: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Thu Oct 02 05:36:14 2003 Return-path: Original-Received: from monty-python.gnu.org ([199.232.76.173]) by deer.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 1A4uGD-0003zw-00 for ; Thu, 02 Oct 2003 05:36:13 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.24) id 1A4uFI-0001Ld-KT for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Wed, 01 Oct 2003 23:35:16 -0400 Original-Received: from list by monty-python.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.24) id 1A4r6e-0001gU-FW for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Wed, 01 Oct 2003 20:14:08 -0400 Original-Received: from mail by monty-python.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.24) id 1A4l9F-0005eF-3F for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Wed, 01 Oct 2003 13:52:56 -0400 Original-Received: from [205.197.48.109] (helo=gemini.smart.net) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.24) id 1A4k4b-0001Xg-NC for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Wed, 01 Oct 2003 12:43:33 -0400 Original-Received: from smart.net (IDENT:501@dsb.smart.net [216.253.158.43]) by gemini.smart.net (8.9.1/8.9.1) with ESMTP id MAA00532; Wed, 1 Oct 2003 12:43:22 -0400 X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.79 [en] (X11; U; Linux 2.4.18+dsb+smp+ide i686) X-Accept-Language: en Original-To: Barman Brakjoller X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.2 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 Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:12940 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.help:12940 Barman Brakjoller wrote: > > >From the Emacs tutorial (C-h t): > > "... We recommend learning C-b, C-f, C-n and C-p for three > reasons. First, they work on all kinds of terminals. Second, once > you gain practice at using Emacs, you will find that typing these > Control > characters is faster than typing the arrow keys ..." > > Is it worth it? Yes, but reconfigure your keyboard so that the Caps Lock key functions as the control key. (I'm assuming you're using a PC-style keyboard.) Emacs control-character sequences were designed when the standard place for the control key was just to the left of where the A key is (in the US layout). Unfortunately, IBM put the Caps Lock key to the left of the A key, and pushed the Control key down into a corner where it's hard to reach and is extremely inconvenient for many Emacs control characters. If you reconfigure your keyboard, you'll understand how Emacs control characters were meant to be used. If you don't, you'll wonder how on earth anyone can think control-character sequences are faster. If you're running Emacs on Linux under X11 (e.g., GNOME, KDE), you can reconfigure your control and caps-lock keys in X11's configuration file. If you're running Emacs on MS Windows, see NTEmac's instructions; they mention several ways to swap the control and caps-lock keys. Daniel -- Daniel Barclay dsb@smart.net