Show HN: Devil Mode: A twisted Emacs key translator for modifier-free editing

Post by _a_a_a_ » Tue, May 09, 2023, 9:05 PM UTC

brokenkebaby wrote: post #50

_a_a_a_ wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're talking about terminology being a barrier to entry. Terminology is trivial but suppose we changed it (yank -> paste, kill -> cut etc). Now you'll not be happy with the key bindings (C-y to paste, C-k to cut) and want them to be replaced with the Windows/Mac standard – right? Because developing new muscle-memory for a different style of working is a lot heavier than just learning new terms for existing things.…

Now, it's clearer what you mean. But still doesn't not make much sense, sorry! You apparently see something which I didn't say, and refute something which I didn't say with impressive energy. No, making docs using common terms of today won't make you wish to turn Emacs to Visual Studio, or whatever other IDE you don't like. There are Emacs tutorials written in languages other than English where standard terminology f…

Post by eviks » Wed, May 10, 2023, 4:34 AM UTC

SoftTalker wrote: post #28

The postition of the comma key doesn't (to me) feel a lot better than the normal position of the CTRL key. I remap CAPS-LOCK (which I almost never use or want) to CTRL and that works well for me in emacs to reduce finger contortions. It does create minor annoyances when I have to use a computer where this isn't the case, since it's in my muscle memory now.

Post by brokenkebaby » Wed, May 10, 2023, 8:26 AM UTC

_a_a_a_ wrote: post #51

brokenkebaby wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now, it's clearer what you mean. But still doesn't not make much sense, sorry! You apparently see something which I didn't say, and refute something which I didn't say with impressive energy. No, making docs using common terms of today won't make you wish to turn Emacs to Visual Studio, or whatever other IDE you don't like. There are Emacs tutorials written in languages other than English where standard terminology f…

Then you destroy any remaining trace of a link between the key binding and the action. You can imagine the conversation "control p to go up? Control y to paste? v to go down – perhaps that's v for vertically down or something? Who designed this crap anyway". Maybe it would work but I'm not feeling optimistic :-)

Post by brokenkebaby » Thu, May 11, 2023, 8:27 AM UTC

_a_a_a_ wrote: post #56

brokenkebaby wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Emacs is a programmable environment constructor, ain't it? Significant share of users prefer evil-mode, and use "p in command mode", not c-y. There are people who have custom keyboards (and even pedals) and their bindings often tuned to that fact. So "control y" is not more sacred than the leftmost pedal, and link is ephemeral anyway.

I think the mnemonic link matters for beginners, but let's say I agree with you. By calling the link ephemeral haven't you just undermined your own argument that the terminology is a barrier?