Re: Emacs keyboard

[ken <gebser@mousecar.com>]

On 01/05/2013 04:05 AM James Freer wrote:
> On Fri, 4 Jan 2013, Loic J. Duros wrote:
>
>> dkcombs@panix.com (David Combs) writes:
>>
>>> Sun (er, oracle) makes that type of keyboard, but
>>> also makes one with the control key immediately left
>>> of the "A" key, where it was on the original
>>> teletype-like machine (name escapes me now, but it
>>> ended in "33").
>>
>> What's the difference with moving the ctrl key to the caps lock key on a
>> standard keyboard?
>> http://emacswiki.org/emacs/MovingTheCtrlKey
>
> It's not a big difference... just preference - less far to stretch the
> fingers. Capslock always used to be the location of the ctrl key on
> early keyboards which happened to suit those that use the wordstar
> keybindings (which are the most efficient in professional writers
> opinion... and mine). A lot of emacs users like them swapped for emacs
> bindings. Although i've got used to using the right ctrl key for
> wordstar mode.
>
> james

Amen (or +1 if you prefer) on both counts.  Having learned to type on an 
actual typewriter and having started into computers with those old 
teletype machines, and then into PCs with DOS 1.0, I appreciate being 
able to have the Ctrl next to the 'A' key.  That's where it was on the 
first PCs and where it stayed until, perhaps just coincidentally but 
perhaps not coincidentally, Microsoft came out with Word.  At the time 
Wordstar was the top editor.  But because using Wordstar entailed using 
the Ctrl key a lot, moving it to the keyboard's hinterlands made it 
difficult to use and it thereby lost a lot of market share to Word. 
Isn't it wonderful how a market economy can even rearrange your keyboard?

The second Amen/+1 goes to Wordstar keybindings.  Somebody put a whole 
lot of thought into them and made them the most intuitive of any editor 
of that time and since.  You could easily learn how to move around all 
around in a file you were editing in under an hour and then remember all 
of the keybindings the next day.  Most all the Wordstar keybindings for 
navigation were also language-independent; that is, you didn't have to 
know English for them to make sense and so be easily memorable.  If I 
was just starting out in computing and wasn't already so accustomed to 
emacs keybindings, I'd definitely go to something like joe\jstar for an 
editor.