Re: a key system to replace gnu emacs's 1000 default keybindings

[Xah Lee <xahlee@gmail.com>]

Dan Espen wrote:
«Perhaps you should read more carefully. Thad remapped Caps Lock to
ANOTHER Ctrl.  He didn't SWAP anything.»

Xah wrote:
«that doesn't matter. Those who use capslock for Ctrl basically only
use that single key for Ctrl.»

Chris F.A. Johnson wrote:
«Not true. I have capslock mapped to control, but I hardly ever use
it; the only reason for doing it is to prevent turning capslock on
accidentally.»

So, you don't use Capslock for Ctrl, therefore i was right.

Welcome to the thread, LOL.

------------------------------

Now i'll spoil our nice chat by adding more info...

The Capslock position for Ctrl is actually not bad. Excellent design
in fact. For example, of the 3 keyboard designs i admire, one of them
is “Truly Ergonomic” (TE). See:

〈Ergonomic Keyboards Gallery〉
http://xahlee.org/emacs/ergonomic_keyboards.html

on TE, it actually put Shift key on the capslock position, on both
sides of the keyboard! What a fantastic, great, thoughtful, design.

Question: Why are you against the Capslock position then?
Answer: it's because the tech-geeking fuckheads.

There are certain class of programers, a subculture, who pride
themselves around the term hacker. These people, collectively loosely
have certain way or habit and thought pattern, and a subset of them
are loud-mouthers on some issues (such as our Thad Floryan fellow
here, who, every time would sting me about Capslock/Ctrl switch when i
write about keyboard. Which, is perfectly fine, just don't blame me
for my equally reasonable responses.)

The hacker types (for lack of better term), often insists on certain
geek ways that are often scientifically baseless and harmful. For
example, the advice to swap Ctrl/Capslock, the cry against GUI, the
cry against mouse, the numerous unix slogans, the adoration of emacs,
the slogan about laziness (perl), the slogan about lambda knight or
adoration of lisp as god lang, usually given as dogma. Motherfucking
fuckheads. For example, one slogan “Be conservative in what you send;
be liberal in what you accept.” which damaged the web for 2 decade.

But what's technically wrong with swapping capslock with ctrl?

Here's the deal. On a newly designed keyboard such as that TE, the
position to the left of A is a top valued position. Also, notice that
TE keyboard is symmetric, fixing one of the major problem of
traditional keyboard. So, Capslock or Shift are on the right side at
the same place too. (similar to Enter key, but without extra key
column in between)

If you are designing a new keyboard, it's great. But if you are
creating workaround over standard PC keyboard, then the advice of
swapping Capslock/Ctrl is a entire new story. For example, you could
swap Ctrl/Alt. The Alt is used by thumb, and available on both sides.
That is immediately superior workaround on most keyboards (except
laptops). There are many issues, alternatives, i've analyzed in detail
in my article and i won't repeat here.

But the thing about the motherfucking techgeekers, such as our Thad
Floryan fellow here, is that they often blindly insists on hackerdom
dogma.

Sure, on many situations, swapping Capslock/Ctrl is a perfect
solution. For example, on laptops. On laptops, keys are tiny,
especially the Alt key, and usually they are not available no right
side. The Capslock key on laptop is a big key. It's really a great
solution. But you see, tech geekers are not concerned about this.
Thad, never give the qualifications about swapping capslock/ctrl.
Instead, they typically go like this: “I type for decades, never had
problem, you should swap Capslock/Ctrl, it's how keyboard should be,
look at Sun Micro keyboards, and all the keyboard of 1920s. God
designed that way. And look at vi keyboard, h j k l. emacs and vi. and
IBM Model M! God says. Therefore you should. KISS.”

〈Computing Culture: What's Hacker?〉
http://xahlee.org/Netiquette_dir/whats_hacker.html

〈What is a Tech Geeker?〉
http://xahlee.org/UnixResource_dir/writ/tech_geeker.html

〈HTML5 Doctype, Validation, X-UA-Compatible, and Why Do I Hate
Hackers〉
http://xahlee.org/js/html5_validation_doctype.html

〈Are You Intelligent Enough to Understand HTML5?〉
http://xahlee.org/UnixResource_dir/writ/html5_vs_intelligence.html

〈The Idiocy of Hacker Keyboards〉
http://xahlee.org/emacs/keyboards_hacker_idiocy.html

〈GUI Makes People Dumb?〉
http://xahlee.org/UnixResource_dir/writ/gui_and_dumbness.html

〈Paul Graham's Infatuation with the Concept of Hacker〉
http://xahlee.org/comp/Paul_Graham_language_design.html

 Xah