From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Lee Sau Dan Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: Learning emacs Date: 20 Jan 2003 16:45:23 +0100 Organization: Rechenzentrum der Universitaet Freiburg, Germany Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+gnu-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Message-ID: References: <3E2A5DE3.3000405@rogers.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: main.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=cn-big5 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: main.gmane.org 1043084800 11842 80.91.224.249 (20 Jan 2003 17:46:40 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@main.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 17:46:40 +0000 (UTC) Return-path: Original-Received: from monty-python.gnu.org ([199.232.76.173]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 18afzz-000337-00 for ; Mon, 20 Jan 2003 18:46:15 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.10.13) id 18afzg-0005eZ-03 for gnu-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Mon, 20 Jan 2003 12:45:56 -0500 Original-Path: shelby.stanford.edu!newsfeed.stanford.edu!logbridge.uoregon.edu!newsfeed.stueberl.de!uucp.gnuu.de!newsfeed.arcor-online.net!news.belwue.de!news.uni-freiburg.de!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help Original-Lines: 85 Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: camaro.informatik.uni-freiburg.de User-Agent: Gnus/5.0808 (Gnus v5.8.8) Emacs/20.7 Original-Xref: shelby.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:109235 Original-To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1b5 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Help: List-Post: List-Subscribe: , List-Archive: List-Unsubscribe: , Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+gnu-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:5760 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.help:5760 >>>>> "Paul" == Paul O'Donnell 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 §õ¦u´°(Big5) ~{@nJX6X~}(HZ) E-mail: danlee@informatik.uni-freiburg.de Home page: http://www.informatik.uni-freiburg.de/~danlee