Re: Arrow Keys?

[John A Pershing Jr <pershing@alum.mit.edu>]

Eric Abrahamsen <girzel@gmail.com> writes:

> I've been using emacs for less than a year. I feel comfortable with
> python mode, outline mode, dired, org-mode, slime and auctex. And yet,
> the stupid f-b-n-p issue is a constant pain. Why, in an editor that's
> utilized through habit and muscle memory, are the most primary
> navigation keys based on *mnemonic* devices like forward-back-next-
> previous? Why is that necessary?

I don't understand what the problem is, here.  The arrow keys work just
fine, for those of you who don't/can't touch type.  The mouse works just
fine, too.  And, the control-meta-cokebottle keys work just fine for
those of us who *do* touch type.  If you don't like C-f, then don't use
it.  It's as simple as that.

Or, are you saying that you hit these keys by accident?  If so, then
undefine them in your .emacs file.

Now, for the "why":  Emacs is an old editor.  *Very* old.  Dating back
nearly 40 years, when it was implemented as the world's largest TECO
macro, and ran on a DEC-10 mainframe.  Many terminals didn't have arrow
keys, and those that did encoded them (in ASCII) in vendor-unique ways.
The only thing that was known to work were the standard (7-bit) ASCII
characters, with ESC used to add in the META bit.  (I didn't have access
to any of the Knight terminals, which transmitted 12(?)-bit characters,
including a real META bit).  If you had, say, a DEC VT-100 terminal,
then you had to load up the VT100 macro package for the arrow keys to be
recognized.  Most of us simply didn't bother.  Hence, C-f, C-b, C-p, and
C-n.

However, I admit that some of the mnemonics are a bit of a stretch...

  -jp