From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Xah Lee Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: line-move-visual Date: Tue, 15 Jun 2010 15:45:58 -0700 (PDT) Organization: http://groups.google.com Message-ID: References: <089883ee-0a63-4cb4-a0ec-d2fe4e71cc03@y18g2000prn.googlegroups.com> <87wruco5yq.fsf@lola.goethe.zz> <87wrubfd8p.fsf@rapttech.com.au> <848w6ndwn0.fsf@cs.bham.ac.uk> <87d3vx5cku.fsf@gmail.com> <87bpbcrdk5.fsf@kuiper.lan.informatimago.com> <4C17FE36.30102@thadlabs.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Trace: dough.gmane.org 1291835962 1056 80.91.229.12 (8 Dec 2010 19:19:22 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@dough.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 8 Dec 2010 19:19:22 +0000 (UTC) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Wed Dec 08 20:19:19 2010 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 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1PQPXo-0005ah-Ub for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Wed, 08 Dec 2010 20:19:18 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:52824 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1PQPXn-00048a-RH for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Wed, 08 Dec 2010 14:19:16 -0500 Original-Path: usenet.stanford.edu!postnews.google.com!g1g2000pro.googlegroups.com!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help,comp.emacs,comp.lang.lisp Original-Lines: 188 Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: 67.180.85.8 Original-X-Trace: posting.google.com 1276641958 1142 127.0.0.1 (15 Jun 2010 22:45:58 GMT) Original-X-Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com Original-NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 15 Jun 2010 22:45:58 +0000 (UTC) Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com Injection-Info: g1g2000pro.googlegroups.com; posting-host=67.180.85.8; posting-account=bRPKjQoAAACxZsR8_VPXCX27T2YcsyMA User-Agent: G2/1.0 X-HTTP-UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US) AppleWebKit/533.4 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/5.0.375.70 Safari/533.4, gzip(gfe) Original-Xref: usenet.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:178980 comp.emacs:100061 comp.lang.lisp:289229 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:75873 Archived-At: On Jun 15, 3:27=C2=A0pm, Thad Floryan wrote: > On 6/15/2010 1:42 AM, Uday S Reddy wrote: > > > On 6/15/2010 7:54 AM, Pascal J. Bourguignon wrote: > > >> Well, C-f C-n is all you need. =C2=A0I mean, keep C-f pressed until th= e > >> cursor reaches the column you want, you don't even need to count > >> 76. =C2=A0And keep C-n pressed until the cursor reaches the line you w= ant. > > > Except that pressing control-key for that long with your pinky is a > > health risk! > > [...] > > That's why remapping the [Caps Lock] to be a [Ctrl] is very useful. > swapping Caps Lock with Ctrl is not good. =E2=80=A2 Why You Should Not Swap Caps Lock With Control http://xahlee.org/emacs/swap_CapsLock_Ctrl.html plain text version follows: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Why You Should Not Swap Caps Lock With Control Xah Lee, 2008-07-10 Swapping the Caps Lock key with the Control key is one of the bad advice in keyboarding. It's one of the myth that perpetuate bad practice. It does damage to your finger's health. Here are the reasons why: * On a typical PC keyboard of today, the Caps Lock is the most difficult modifier key to press, and is pressed by the weakest finger pinky. The Control key can be easily pressed with palm. * It makes the left pinky do 2 pinkies's work. (try to pick out your right Shift key and type for a week and see how you feel) * It forces the left hand to strain into spider legs positions. Or, it forces your right hand to flies about wildly if the letter key is near the middle of the keyboard (example: CapsLock+T, CapsLock+G, CapsLock+B). * It renders many Ctrl+=E2=80=B9key=E2=80=BA spots void, since now with= only one pinky many otherwise good Ctrl+=E2=80=B9key=E2=80=BA spots are hard to use. * The left hand now constantly shift from home position. The above assumes that you do TOUCH TYPE. If you do not touch type, you really need to learn that first before you can talk about hand health. The above also assumes that you are using a full sized keyboard, not the keyboard on laptops. If you are stuck with a laptop computer keys, then you need to get a full PC keyboard first. Prolonged typing on laptop sized computer is sure way to damage your hands. -------------------------------------------------- Good Tips * If you use the Ctrl key much more frequently than Alt, then do swap them. Because, Alt is much easy to press, with the thumb. (See: How To Swap Caps Lock, Alt, Control Keys On Windows, How to Swap Modifier Keys on OS X) * Buy a keyboard with Control on both sides of keyboard. * Buy a keyboard such that the modifier keys are placed symmetrically with respect to F and J keys. (That is, the distance between Left Control to F should be the same as right Control to J.) * Press modifier keys using both hands, in the same way of using Shift key in touch typing. If the letter is on the left side, use the Ctrl key on the right side, and vice versa. * On most full sized PC keyboard, it's very easy to use palm or semi-fist to press Control key. Do this and save the Pinky. -------------------------------------------------- Why You Should Not Swap Caps Lock With Control Among tech geeking circles, it's widely recommended like a dogma, to swap Caps Lock and Ctrl keys. However, remapping Control to Caps Lock seriously violates some basic ergonomic principles. In touch typing, modifiers comes in pairs, such as Shift. The accepted ergonomic way to press them is using one hand to press the modifier and the other to press the letter key. You can see how it is otherwise by disabling one of the Shift key. With just one modifier, you are heavily handicapped. As a example, try this exercise: TYPE THIS SENTENCE WITH ONLY THE LEFT SHIFT KEY AND WITHOUT USING CAPS LOCK. Quickly, you'll see the pain. Similar is with other modifier keys such as Alt and Ctrl. The reason they are not noticed only because they are seldom used. However, in emacs, it is heavily used. So, by mapping Ctrl to the Caps Lock key, you put a severe handicap by putting all work into the left pinky, and restrict the number of keys you can comfortably use with Ctrl. The reason that many tech geekers still recommend it is because the Ctrl key is traditionally on the corner of keyboard and rather difficult to press. Also, many keyboards does not have right Ctrl. So, in a sense, Caps Lock as Ctrl is a improvement. It is especially a good solution on laptop's keyboards. There are 2 ways to remedy the problem of pressing of Ctrl. One is to buy a good keyboard that has big Alt and Ctrl keys, and on both sides of the keyboard, and symmetrically placed with respect to your thumbs when hands in home position. (some keyboards, such as Apple keyboard, has the right side modifiers far to the right, rendering them unusable for touch typing) Microsoft's ergonomic keyboard are very good with respect to this, and also vast majority of generic PC keyboards. The other way is to learn to type the corner Ctrl by pressing down your palm or semi fist, instead of poking it with your pinky. This can be comfortably done on most PC keyboards. (See: photo of generic PC keyboard) To see which is better, you can type this sentence and press Ctrl for every letter. (do it outside of emacs) You can quickly find out which way is better for you. The above assumes you touch type. If you don't, some tips may not apply, and you really should learn touch typing first. -------------------------------------------------- Anecdotes vs Ergonomics Joel wrote: =C2=AB... do not use two fingers on the same hand at the same time, except in emergencies. ...=C2=BB. YSK wrote: =C2=ABSeriously? I do this all the time. Some of my favorite (non-emacs) shortcuts include stuff like C-M-S-e, all done with my left hand. Is that bad?=C2=BB. -------------------------------- One Modifier Key Yes and no. In general, if you just have one modifier key and one letter key, the proper touch typing guidline is to use one hand on the modifier and the other on the letter. Choose the modifier on the other side of the letter key. You can test this out. Try to type this whole sentence in captical letters (but without using Caps Lock). First, try it using just the left Shift key. Then try it using the touch type guidline as above. You'll see how using single hand creates pain. Similarly, you can try the above with the Control key as modifier. -------------------------------- Multiple Modifier Keys When you have multiple modifier, it gets a bit more complex and the rule applies less. Ultimately, there are several factors involved. For example, the keyboard hardware is not well designed due to historical reasons. (See: Keyboard Hardware Design Flaws) Secondly, many keyboards such as Apple's that has the right hand side's modifier far to the right, making them less usable for touch type. Lastly, the principles of ergonomics presumes you are doing the task repeatitively for a prolonged time. Else it doesn't apply. For example, for vast majority of computer users (say 95%), they only type maybe for 1 hour per day, and there's not much activity of continued typing more than 5 min. Lots of professional programers don't even touch type; partly because heavy duty data-entry is not really part of programing. And when it comes to Control key, or multiple modifiers, they are not used that much often, so whichever works for you is ok. However, this does not mean it's completely a personal issue without any scientific criterion on what is better. For example, of all the styles and anecdotes you hear about how you should press modifier, you can easily test them out and find the better one, by say, force yourself to continuously operate it for 10 min using one way, then do the same test with another way. You'll quickly see which one is more tiring and which is faster with less effort. Xah =E2=88=91 http://xahlee.org/ =E2=98=84