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∑ Xah Code

xahlee.info

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Re: ∑ Xah Code

#41

Post by JackMorgan »

marvel_boy wrote: post #11

I did not know about how terribly is that: Famous Programers with Repetitive Strain Injury http://xahlee.info/emacs/emacs/emacs_hand_pain_celebrity.htm... Seems that Emacs is no good in excess!

I used to have bad RSI using emacs, so I enabled evil (vim) mode, got a split keyboard, started lifting weights, and found a job where I could pair program all the time. Sounds extreme, but it eventually healed.

I only have issues now when writing books, since I often set myself a daily word target and that extra load seems to just add to overall strain.

Re: ∑ Xah Code

#42

Post by hatmatrix »

math-dev wrote: post #2

Xah Lee’s tips on elisp were super useful to me. A relic of the usenet era (an infamous troll on comp.lang.lisp), but someone who has added a lot of value to a lot of lives Long love ergomacs!

I learned emacs lisp around 15 years ago - his tutorials were essential. The way he remains prolific is amazing.

Re: ∑ Xah Code

#43

Post by User23 »

sva_ wrote: post #37
deltille wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

VIM started flirting with giving me RSI issues (mostly : and esc keys; yes, even on capslock. I have small hands) after some years. It's a comparison certainly but not a control.

> esc key You may use Ctrl-[ instead. What do you mean about capslock? Mapping capslock to esc?

With a modern firmware or maybe software you can map capslock to be escape when tapped and control when held. I hear this is nice for vi, and it’s also nice for emacs since escape can serve as meta.

I’m going to try that with the key left of space, since it feels completely obvious that the thumb is the natural best finger for modifier keys.

Re: ∑ Xah Code

#45

Post by seanw444 »

On http://xahlee.info/UnixResource_dir/freebooks.html a little over halfway down the page, it says:

> OpenBSD is famous for its extra concern on “security”. (the entire “security” problems in today's computing industry is a egregious insult to how things should be. Security problems are in fact created and fermented by the unix community. If unix did not exist, the computing world would harbor a lot less of hackers.)

That's a bold claim. That can't be factually true. Can it?

Re: ∑ Xah Code

#46

Post by wisty »

xoa wrote: post #9
kleiba wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://xahlee.info/emacs/emacs/_p/KickbanXahLeeFromEmacsChan...

He was banned from HN long ago too. Random long-ass thread he started on the Python un back in 2009 about this stuff I had saved an archive of for some reason: https://www.mail-archive.com/python-list@python.org/msg23603... He even replies for once further down in typical style complete with a classic Also, thanks to many supporters over the past years. Truly Your Superior, Xah Like, yeah he is likely somewhere on th…

I don't know if he had a chip on his shoulder. He just talks like a troll on slashdot or an old BBS board, dropping in with a few paragraphs with a fairly strident position, and says anyone who disagrees with him is stupid.

I think people got super upset because he used his real name, he's a minor celebrity, and it wasn't a BBS forum.

I think he did it because it got attention, and he didn't really care about upsetting a few people on an internet forum. I also find it a bit disingenuous when people talk about how evil and deranged he is like they've never ever seen anything a bit strident posted on the internet.

Yes, there's some correlation between internet trolling and socioeconomic tendencies. He might be the kind of guy who takes milk from the work fridge and never tosses a quarter into the tin. But the people who seem most strident about how he's a terrible person are playing the same game as him.

As far as I can tell, one of his bigger controversies were essentially roasting a certain programming community for being smug and elitist (while being smug and elitist himself, along with a lot of swearing and insults). I wonder if the huge amount of offense caused (and taken) was partly because smug and elitist people don't like to be roasted like that, especially by a guy who is mostly famous for writing introduction to emacs tutorials (thus not exactly a technical elite, in a lot of people's eyes).

Re: ∑ Xah Code

#47

Post by moonchild »

seanw444 wrote: post #45

On http://xahlee.info/UnixResource_dir/freebooks.html a little over halfway down the page, it says: > OpenBSD is famous for its extra concern on “security”. (the entire “security” problems in today's computing industry is a egregious insult to how things should be. Security problems are in fact created and fermented by the unix community. If unix did not exist, the computing world would harbor a lot less of hackers.)…

Unix propagates memory-unsafe languages (c), as well as inefficient and inexpressive IPC mechanisms (pipes or shmem) which lead to monolithic programs where there is only one key to the whole kingdom.

Re: ∑ Xah Code

#48

Post by davidfactorial »

marvel_boy wrote: post #11

I did not know about how terribly is that: Famous Programers with Repetitive Strain Injury http://xahlee.info/emacs/emacs/emacs_hand_pain_celebrity.htm... Seems that Emacs is no good in excess!

The best thing I ever did for my hands was putting ctrl to the left of the spacebar where alt usually is. I hit it with my left thumb. I never have to contort my wrists. And it works across all programs, not just vim/emacs. Capslock is still using the pinky.

I also switched to Dvorak and put backspace on Capslock, which I think also helped but might be diminishing returns. But I still really like ctrl on alt for my single best ergonomics tweak.

Re: ∑ Xah Code

#49

Post by mijoharas »

User23 wrote: post #43
sva_ wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> esc key You may use Ctrl-[ instead. What do you mean about capslock? Mapping capslock to esc?

With a modern firmware or maybe software you can map capslock to be escape when tapped and control when held. I hear this is nice for vi, and it’s also nice for emacs since escape can serve as meta. I’m going to try that with the key left of space, since it feels completely obvious that the thumb is the natural best finger for modifier keys.

I've been using this for years and can say it's very nice.

Caps2esc under Wayland and I think I used to use xcape under x11 though it's been a while. (caps2esc has a configurable framework so you can use that for a different key and it should work nicely for you)

Re: ∑ Xah Code

#50

Post by dTal »

kebman wrote: post #31

POV-Ray <3 Been a while since I used that. I think it's a shame that they stopped developing it. They say things are better, but are they really? The scripting language for it is really cool IMHO.

POV-Ray has a special place in my heart. For the vast majority of artistic tasks, Blender is a hugely superior environment that will produce better images, faster. And you can generate meshes to import into Blender with OpenSCAD if you really like CSG. It doesn't have the precision of raytracing the mathematical specification directly, but you don't really need that ever.

However, for certain very narrow categories of things, it's probably still the lowest-impedance tool for the job. Want to make a website that shows a static image of the current cloud cover + illumination of the Earth, updated every minute? Want to make some geometrical visualizations for a math textbook? Want to experiment with extremely weird and exotic camera projections? POV-Ray!

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