From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: harven Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: How to type when using Emacs? Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2008 12:33:33 -0700 (PDT) Organization: http://groups.google.com Message-ID: References: NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1215805395 9569 80.91.229.12 (11 Jul 2008 19:43:15 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2008 19:43:15 +0000 (UTC) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Fri Jul 11 21:44:01 2008 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1KHOX6-0008TS-6Z for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Fri, 11 Jul 2008 21:43:56 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:54657 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1KHOWD-00006j-MK for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Fri, 11 Jul 2008 15:43:01 -0400 Original-Path: news.stanford.edu!headwall.stanford.edu!newshub.sdsu.edu!news-out.readnews.com!transit3.readnews.com!postnews.google.com!p25g2000hsf.googlegroups.com!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help Original-Lines: 33 Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: 82.240.200.149 Original-X-Trace: posting.google.com 1215804813 25190 127.0.0.1 (11 Jul 2008 19:33:33 GMT) Original-X-Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com Original-NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2008 19:33:33 +0000 (UTC) Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com Injection-Info: p25g2000hsf.googlegroups.com; posting-host=82.240.200.149; posting-account=hanW0AoAAADuR-PIr5jGeb298Y3jGR7p User-Agent: G2/1.0 X-HTTP-UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.4; en-US; rv:1.9) Gecko/2008061004 Firefox/3.0,gzip(gfe),gzip(gfe) Original-Xref: news.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:160103 X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:55446 Archived-At: Hi, I am typing on a laptop keyboard. Switching the control and caps lock key really was a big relief for me. Another spot that some people consider is right to the side of the space bar. This is however the standard position for the meta key on many keyboards, and a perfect position for it. I use now the meta key as much as I use the control key. I think that this will be the case for you as soon as your emacs skills improve. These two modifiers are really meant to work together e.g. to reach some point on the line, first jump over words with M-f then move into the word with C-f. The combination of the two modifiers also gives you access to powerful commands -- try for example C-M-f or C-M-k in front of a parenthesis group. A well-balanced use of the meta and control modifiers makes for faster editing and halves the use of the control key. Finally, if you want to learn touch-typing, you may want to have a look to the dvorak layout. See eg http://dvzine.org/ for more information on this layout. You don't need any special keyboard, since the goal is to type without looking at the keys. I followed the abcd lesson from http://www.gigliwood.com/abcd/abcd.html 45 mn a day, became able to touch-type with this layout in three weeks, and reached a decent speed of 50 wpm in three months. I should say that I tried many times to learn to touch-type with the standard qwerty layout, without success.