Learning emacs

Learning emacs

[Paul O'Donnell]

Hi All,

I am completely new to emacs, and looking forward to learning how to use 
this much praised editor. I am also new to Linux in general. I am a 
programmer, currently teaching myself Lisp and want to use a tool like 
emacs that I can use for all the languages that I write code in. Coming 
from the Windows world emacs is not at all what I am used to. I am not 
much of a typist, maybe 45 wpm, as long as I don't have to use Control 
and Alt keys, which brings me to my question.

I don't know which fingers to use to press these keys. It seems obvious 
to me that the baby finger of the opposite hand should be used for the 
Control key, but what about the Alt key? The thumb of the opposite hand 
maybe? I don't want to download typing tutorial software. I really don't 
have time for that. I just want to know which fingers to use.

I apologize if this seems off topic for this newsgroup, but there 
doesn't seem to be a usenet group for touch typing. I figured at least 
one of you out there prides himself in his speed when working with emacs 
and knows the answer.As it is now, I am having a hard time enjoying this 
  editor because of its extensive use of these keys.

Thanks.

Paul

Re: Learning emacs

[matt]

Paul O'Donnell wrote:
> 
> I don't know which fingers to use to press these keys. It seems obvious 
> to me that the baby finger of the opposite hand should be used for the 
> Control key, but what about the Alt key? The thumb of the opposite hand 
> maybe? I don't want to download typing tutorial software. I really don't 
> have time for that. I just want to know which fingers to use.

I'm fairly new to emacs myself, at least for everyday use. I have found 
that using my left "baby" finger for Ctrl works best. For Alt, I use 
either thumb, depending upon where on the keyboard the second keystroke 
is located. Since the Alt keys are located on either side of the space 
bar, it comes pretty naturally.

-- Matt

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Remove the X's to reply directly.

Re: Learning emacs

[Paul O'Donnell]

matt wrote:
> Paul O'Donnell wrote:
> 
>>
>> I don't know which fingers to use to press these keys. It seems 
>> obvious to me that the baby finger of the opposite hand should be used 
>> for the Control key, but what about the Alt key? The thumb of the 
>> opposite hand maybe? I don't want to download typing tutorial 
>> software. I really don't have time for that. I just want to know which 
>> fingers to use.
> 
> 
> I'm fairly new to emacs myself, at least for everyday use. I have found 
> that using my left "baby" finger for Ctrl works best. For Alt, I use 
> either thumb, depending upon where on the keyboard the second keystroke 
> is located. Since the Alt keys are located on either side of the space 
> bar, it comes pretty naturally.
> 
> -- Matt
> 

I found an interesting link about reconfiguring the keyboard layout.

http://rgrjr.dyndns.org/emacs/keyboard.html

It is an interesting idea, but I am not sure what he means by a "Super-" 
shift key. Does it mean Shift+Control or maybe Shift+Alt?

Paul

Re: Learning emacs

[A. L. Meyers]

* Paul O'Donnell <odonnellp@rogers.com>:
>  matt wrote:
> > Paul O'Donnell wrote:
> > 
> >>
> >> I don't know which fingers to use to press these keys. It seems 
> >> obvious to me that the baby finger of the opposite hand should be used 
> >> for the Control key, but what about the Alt key? The thumb of the 
> >> opposite hand maybe? I don't want to download typing tutorial 
> >> software. I really don't have time for that. I just want to know which 
> >> fingers to use.
> > 
> > 
> > I'm fairly new to emacs myself, at least for everyday use. I have found 
> > that using my left "baby" finger for Ctrl works best. For Alt, I use 
> > either thumb, depending upon where on the keyboard the second keystroke 
> > is located. Since the Alt keys are located on either side of the space 
> > bar, it comes pretty naturally.
> > 
> > -- Matt
> > 
>  
>  I found an interesting link about reconfiguring the keyboard layout.
>  
>  http://rgrjr.dyndns.org/emacs/keyboard.html
>  
>  It is an interesting idea, but I am not sure what he means by a "Super-" 
>  shift key. Does it mean Shift+Control or maybe Shift+Alt?

The "Happy Hacker" keyboard puts the Control key just left of the "A"
key, making it extremely easy to use in a *nix environment. The Escape
key is in the same row as the number keys, just left of the "1" key.

Lucien

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Re: Learning emacs

[Jonathon Isaac Swiderski]

On Sun, 19 Jan 2003, Paul O'Donnell wrote:

> It is an interesting idea, but I am not sure what he means by a "Super-"
> shift key. Does it mean Shift+Control or maybe Shift+Alt?

Not exactly.  It's a different modifier key, similar to the alt or ctrl.
it doesn't exist on most generic American keyboards.

-- 
Jonathon Isaac Swiderski \\ dangercat-20@dangercat.net
cs.oberlin.edu/~jswiders  \\  www.dangercat.net/resume

Programming (n.): "Bloody instructions which, being taught, return to plague
their inventor ("Macbeth", Act 1, Scene 7)

Re: Learning emacs

[Lee Sau Dan]

>>>>> "Paul" == Paul O'Donnell <odonnellp@rogers.com> writes:

    Paul> I found an interesting link about reconfiguring the keyboard
    Paul> layout.

    Paul> http://rgrjr.dyndns.org/emacs/keyboard.html

If you're  using Emacs  under X,  you can use  'xmodmap' to  remap the
keys, too!



-- 
Lee Sau Dan                     李守敦(Big5)                    ~{@nJX6X~}(HZ) 

E-mail: danlee@informatik.uni-freiburg.de
Home page: http://www.informatik.uni-freiburg.de/~danlee

Re: Learning emacs

[Sören Vogel]

Hi Paul,

On Sun, 19 Jan 2003, Paul O'Donnell wrote:

> I don't know which fingers to use to press these keys. It seems obvious
> to me that the baby finger of the opposite hand should be used for the
> Control key, but what about the Alt key? The thumb of the opposite hand
> maybe?

You're right.

> I don't want to download typing tutorial software.

Are there tutorials for typing computer keyboards? AFAIK there's
only material for typewriter.

Sören.

Re: Learning emacs

[Lee Sau Dan]

>>>>> "Sören" == Sören Vogel <soeren.vogel@phil.tu-chemnitz.de> writes:

    Sören> You're right.

    >> I don't want to download typing tutorial software.

    Sören> Are there tutorials for typing computer keyboards? AFAIK
    Sören> there's only material for typewriter.

And obviously none for Emacians!  :(


-- 
Lee Sau Dan                     李守敦(Big5)                    ~{@nJX6X~}(HZ) 

E-mail: danlee@informatik.uni-freiburg.de
Home page: http://www.informatik.uni-freiburg.de/~danlee

Re: Learning emacs

[Kai Großjohann]

Paul O'Donnell <odonnellp@rogers.com> writes:

> I don't know which fingers to use to press [the Alt and Ctrl] keys.

For me, the key to the left of A is a ctrl key.  I press that with
the fifth finger of the left hand.

For the alt key (it's known as meta in Emacs), I always use the left
thumb.  Now that I think about it it turns out that I very rarely use
the right meta key.

Another thing I do (which reduces the need for meta and ctrl) is to
bind the function keys, in sequences of length two.  So for example,
<f2> is the prefix for window-related things, so <f2> <f2> is
other-window, <f2> <f3> is delete-other-windows, <f2> <f4> is
delete-window.  Here's how to do it:

(global-set-key (kbd "<f2> <f2>") 'other-window)

I'm sure you can modify this for the other keys.

You could think up a scheme to use then implement it.  (I have
reserved <f9> for major modes, for example.)
-- 
Ambibibentists unite!

Re: Learning emacs

[Lee Sau Dan]

>>>>> "Paul" == Paul O'Donnell <odonnellp@rogers.com> writes:

    Paul> Hi All, I am completely new to emacs, and looking forward to
    Paul> learning how to use this much praised editor. 

The key to  learning Emacs: don't be greedy.  You  cannot learn all of
it at once.  (I still don't  know many packages even after 10 years of
heavy use.)   Learn the packages one  by one.  Again,  don't expect to
know each  package from inside out.   You just need to  know enough of
the package for your daily use.


    Paul> I am also new to Linux in general. I am a programmer,
    Paul> currently teaching myself Lisp and want to use a tool like
    Paul> emacs that I can use for all the languages that I write code
    Paul> in.

In that case,  have patience with the Emacs  on-line tutorial (C-h t).
When you've got comfortable using the features that you've learnt from
the  tutorial, leard  to use  'dir-ed' --  the file  browser.  Browser
around your  file system.   The Linux file  system is  organized quite
differently from Windows.  So, having  tours around the file system is
a good way to discover what's in the system.  You'll discover a lot of
helpful documents,  e.g. in /usr/doc, /usr/share/doc,  etc.  It varies
with distros.  But dir-ed does let you browse around easily.


    Paul> Coming from the Windows world emacs is not at all what I am
    Paul> used to. I am not much of a typist, maybe 45 wpm, 

45wpm is already  quite fast.  Very often, we  normally don't think as
fast.  So,  unless you're copy-typing, you seldom  really reach speeds
over 60wpm.  And I bet that no one can do 45 *meaningful* mouse clicks
(shall I  multiple this by  the 5 keys/word  ratio?) in a  minute.  By
"meaningful", I mean  the clicks really do what  one wants.  This must
thus require _hunting and shooting_ the correct GUI buttons and menus.


    Paul> as long as I don't have to use Control and Alt keys, which
    Paul> brings me to my question.

I've "solved" this problem for many years.


    Paul> I don't know which fingers to use to press these keys. 

I don't use  fingers for these.  I  use my palm (not the  PDA, but the
body part).  Rest your fingers on  the home rows.  Now, which parts of
your palm are closest to the  control and alt keys?  I use these parts
to press these keys.  Since  modern keyboards have them on both sides,
you can press control/alt any-letter with minimal hand movement.  (Too
bad that new  keyboards pollutes the space-bar row  with useless keys,
making the Alt keys more  difficult to press correctly in this manner.
So, I prefer AT-101 keyboards to those with "window" and "menu" keys.)


    Paul> It seems obvious to me that the baby finger of the opposite
    Paul> hand should be used for the Control key, 

hehe... I  don't need fingers for  Control.  The part  where my little
finger joins my  palm is where my hand gets in  touch with the control
key!

    Paul> but what about the Alt key? The thumb of the opposite hand
    Paul> maybe? 

This is  quite natural.  I also  do this, although the  palm where the
index finger emerges is also possible.


    Paul> I don't want to download typing tutorial software. I really
    Paul> don't have time for that. I just want to know which fingers
    Paul> to use.

At 45wpm (do  you mean wpm, where w=5 keystrokes?),  I don't think you
really need  any typing  tutorial software, unless  you want  to train
yourself  to become  a real  typist  or audio-typist.   45wpm is  fast
enough.


-- 
Lee Sau Dan                     李守敦(Big5)                    ~{@nJX6X~}(HZ) 

E-mail: danlee@informatik.uni-freiburg.de
Home page: http://www.informatik.uni-freiburg.de/~danlee