From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Xah Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: How to type when using Emacs? Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2008 01:02:06 -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=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1218530443 11648 80.91.229.12 (12 Aug 2008 08:40:43 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2008 08:40:43 +0000 (UTC) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Tue Aug 12 10:41:35 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 1KSpRX-00013l-Kx for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Tue, 12 Aug 2008 10:41:27 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:43734 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1KSpQb-0003wb-IY for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Tue, 12 Aug 2008 04:40:29 -0400 Original-Path: news.stanford.edu!newsfeed.stanford.edu!postnews.google.com!i20g2000prf.googlegroups.com!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help Original-Lines: 54 Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: 24.6.97.120 Original-X-Trace: posting.google.com 1218528126 1292 127.0.0.1 (12 Aug 2008 08:02:06 GMT) Original-X-Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com Original-NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2008 08:02:06 +0000 (UTC) Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com Injection-Info: i20g2000prf.googlegroups.com; posting-host=24.6.97.120; posting-account=bRPKjQoAAACxZsR8_VPXCX27T2YcsyMA User-Agent: G2/1.0 X-HTTP-UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X 10_4_11; en) AppleWebKit/525.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.2 Safari/525.22, gzip(gfe), gzip(gfe) Original-Xref: news.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:161156 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:56501 Archived-At: On Aug 11, 10:18 pm, YSK wrote: > On Jul 10, 3:40 pm, adams...@email.unc.edu (Joel J. Adamson) wrote: > > > ...do not use two fingers on the same > > hand at the same time, except in emergencies. > > Seriously? 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? 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. 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. 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 scicentific or ergonomic principle. 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, vs another way. You'll quickly see which one is more ergonomically sound, or more efficient (faster and less effort). Xah =E2=88=91 http://xahlee.org/ =E2=98=84