From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: John A Pershing Jr Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: Arrow Keys? Date: Fri, 12 Jun 2009 13:34:17 -0400 Organization: Optimum Online Message-ID: References: <791jqsF1otu7cU1@mid.individual.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1244840077 14000 80.91.229.12 (12 Jun 2009 20:54:37 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 12 Jun 2009 20:54:37 +0000 (UTC) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Fri Jun 12 22:54:35 2009 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 1MFDli-0003Zl-So for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Fri, 12 Jun 2009 22:54:35 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:38646 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1MFDli-0003Qb-Fj for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Fri, 12 Jun 2009 16:54:34 -0400 Original-Path: news.stanford.edu!headwall.stanford.edu!newsfeed.news2me.com!nx02.iad01.newshosting.com!newshosting.com!69.16.185.51.MISMATCH!tmp-post01.iad!news.highwinds-media.com!news.cv.net!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help User-Agent: Gnus/5.11 (Gnus v5.11) Emacs/22.3 (windows-nt) Cancel-Lock: sha1:ssuQWWlhwWbo1wT0zcOtvLy650k= Original-Lines: 33 Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: 68.199.26.242 Original-X-Complaints-To: abuse@cv.net Original-Xref: news.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:169986 X-Mailman-Approved-At: Fri, 12 Jun 2009 16:52:26 -0400 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:65219 Archived-At: Eric Abrahamsen 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