History of Emacs and vi Keys (2010)
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History of Emacs and vi Keys (2010)
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Re: History of Emacs and vi Keys (2010)
#2tl;dr Emacs and vi keybindings are a product of inferior keyboards used at the time of their inception and not (I repeat, NOT) a superior way of text editing which philistines can't comprehend.
Programmers are the worst cargo cultists.
Re: History of Emacs and vi Keys (2010)
#3tl;dr Emacs and vi keybindings are a product of inferior keyboards used at the time of their inception and not (I repeat, NOT) a superior way of text editing which philistines can't comprehend. Programmers are the worst cargo cultists.
Do you have better designs? If you're using Emacs-style editing, you want Ctrl shortcuts. If you're using vi-style modal editing, you want single keys to move around. What would you recommend?
Note that moving your hand to the arrow keys is, while more intuitive, slower and requiring more thought than the other options presented (once these options are learned).
Re: History of Emacs and vi Keys (2010)
#4Previous thread
Re: History of Emacs and vi Keys (2010)
#5tl;dr Emacs and vi keybindings are a product of inferior keyboards used at the time of their inception and not (I repeat, NOT) a superior way of text editing which philistines can't comprehend. Programmers are the worst cargo cultists.
One day i'll be able to downvote
Re: History of Emacs and vi Keys (2010)
#6tl;dr Emacs and vi keybindings are a product of inferior keyboards used at the time of their inception and not (I repeat, NOT) a superior way of text editing which philistines can't comprehend. Programmers are the worst cargo cultists.
That's a bit of an oversimplification. Especially given how none of those keyboards look THAT different than what we use today. In particular, Vim's use of the home row for movement is objectively better than moving your hand off the home row and using the arrow keys (which you can do if you wish as well). I'm sure if someone was creating Vim today, they might choose WASD instead since many are familiar with the use of those keys for movement in gaming.
Re: History of Emacs and vi Keys (2010)
#7tl;dr Emacs and vi keybindings are a product of inferior keyboards used at the time of their inception and not (I repeat, NOT) a superior way of text editing which philistines can't comprehend. Programmers are the worst cargo cultists.
Having caps lock where it is on current keyboards is in no way a superior design. It's a useless key in a prime location!
Give me those "inferior" keyboards any day.
Re: History of Emacs and vi Keys (2010)
#8tl;dr Emacs and vi keybindings are a product of inferior keyboards used at the time of their inception and not (I repeat, NOT) a superior way of text editing which philistines can't comprehend. Programmers are the worst cargo cultists.
Do you have better designs? If you're using Emacs-style editing, you want Ctrl shortcuts. If you're using vi-style modal editing, you want single keys to move around. What would you recommend? Note that moving your hand to the arrow keys is, while more intuitive, slower and requiring more thought than the other options presented (once these options are learned).
Remapping vi's escape function to caps lock or jj/jk seems like a common example, or doing it the other way around and getting a HHKB. It doesn't have to be a wholly different style, just one that fits modern keyboards.
Re: History of Emacs and vi Keys (2010)
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you have better designs? If you're using Emacs-style editing, you want Ctrl shortcuts. If you're using vi-style modal editing, you want single keys to move around. What would you recommend? Note that moving your hand to the arrow keys is, while more intuitive, slower and requiring more thought than the other options presented (once these options are learned).
Remapping vi's escape function to caps lock or jj/jk seems like a common example, or doing it the other way around and getting a HHKB. It doesn't have to be a wholly different style, just one that fits modern keyboards.
Having used a HHKB, the arrow keys and page/home keys are aggravating to have to chord when you are in a program where you can't remap to the expected key combinations (and the chords all have to be done with just the right hand, unless you want to give up your CMD/Windows key).
The swap of del and '\' is annoying too, and creates problematic muscle memory that will fail you when you're forced to use a normal keyboard.
Re: History of Emacs and vi Keys (2010)
#10tl;dr Emacs and vi keybindings are a product of inferior keyboards used at the time of their inception and not (I repeat, NOT) a superior way of text editing which philistines can't comprehend. Programmers are the worst cargo cultists.
That's a bit of an oversimplification. Especially given how none of those keyboards look THAT different than what we use today. In particular, Vim's use of the home row for movement is objectively better than moving your hand off the home row and using the arrow keys (which you can do if you wish as well). I'm sure if someone was creating Vim today, they might choose WASD instead since many are familiar with the use…
Key distinction: they didn't have arrow keys block. You can pry my arrow keys from my cold dead hands!