From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: don provan Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: How to type when using Emacs? Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2008 11:48:47 -0700 Message-ID: References: <03a7c17e-9187-422b-be26-092e15d552be@k30g2000hse.googlegroups.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1215834449 14230 80.91.229.12 (12 Jul 2008 03:47:29 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 12 Jul 2008 03:47:29 +0000 (UTC) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sat Jul 12 05:48:16 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 1KHW5n-0006zc-4l for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sat, 12 Jul 2008 05:48:15 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:45344 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1KHW4v-0005xs-QP for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Fri, 11 Jul 2008 23:47:21 -0400 Original-Path: news.stanford.edu!headwall.stanford.edu!newshub.sdsu.edu!nx02.iad01.newshosting.com!newshosting.com!216.196.98.140.MISMATCH!Xl.tags.giganews.com!border1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!local02.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.comcast.com!news.comcast.com.POSTED!not-for-mail Original-NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2008 13:41:25 -0500 Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help User-Agent: Gnus/5.1006 (Gnus v5.10.6) Emacs/21.3 (windows-nt) Cancel-Lock: sha1:kCSLOEHHqfTNJdDK9Eq8QVChiCk= Original-Lines: 30 X-Usenet-Provider: http://www.giganews.com Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: 24.4.45.18 Original-X-Trace: sv3-SuUOZ6xn9I8xMNtjH0SJ+COqF9ZBoeRloFchW+4nx97I6B7Fqv/LIRVQYRAeVHIiZcthamheBC6KV87!IUC6teqQZisYGoRoAz1xXbPfSmhhpaooZSouuJSl4EEQ0vtDuab55u5YMzKDFxT0MhIhtJx4Th4L Original-X-Complaints-To: abuse@comcast.net X-DMCA-Complaints-To: dmca@comcast.net X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly X-Postfilter: 1.3.39 Original-Xref: news.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:160096 X-Mailman-Approved-At: Fri, 11 Jul 2008 23:38:51 -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:55465 Archived-At: Xah writes: > Turning the Cap Lock key into the Control key is one of the bad advice > in keyboarding. It's one of the myth that perpetuate bad practice. I think this comment is based on limited experience with keyboards. I've found that most modern keyboards are, in fact, OK as is, and I suppose in that sense this is a "myth" because people think it applies to standard Windows keyboards. Certainly on a standard keyboard, making caps lock control is just silly, putting control exactly where you don't want it, as Xah says. (On the other hand, if you do this while leaving control as control, it amounts to simply disabling caps lock, which is, of course, a good thing but has nothing to do with where control is.) But there are some keyboards (I once had one that came with a Sun workstation) that are simply miserable in the placement of control and caps lock, simultaneously making it hard to hit control and way, *way* too easy to accidentally hit caps lock. (As I recall, the placement had all the flaws Xah sees in what would happen if you did swapped them on a standard windows keyboard, plus a couple others.) If you add to that the fact that the layout was different in ways that were just obnoxious compared to the standard windows layout, and there really was no way to remain sane without swapping those keys. -don p.s. Let me second the warning about Xah to newbies. I find that although his observations can be quite illuminating, his conclusions often strike me as raucuously incorrect. But judge for yourself.