[Gllug] bash / go to beginning of line

[Paul Brazier]

> But there's nothing to learn! The vi hjkl movement keys are in the
> same orientation as the 5678 cursor keys that we all already know
> and love from playing games on the Spectrum. What's that? You don't
> remember the cursor key layout on the speccy? What *is* the world
> coming to?

Surely it makes more sense to have the movement keys physically arranged
according to their logical function. i.e. the "up" key should be above
the "down" key. Also, separate arrow keys create a logical division
between the data entry keys (i.e. alphanumeric) and the "data
manipulation" keys.

It seems to me that advocates of the vi-style setup are clinging to
something that may have been useful in the past as a kludge for
undersized keyboards but is becoming less and less relevant as the old
machines die out. Perhaps the primary support should be for arrow keys
but with an optional add-on for those with inadequate keyboards rather
than the other way round?

I don't think the speed thing is really an issue - the Esc key is just
as far as the arrow keys and anyway I'd rather go for simplicity and
logical clarity of design than a few seconds speed increase. If you were
designing a computer from scratch and you didn't know how they were made
before I think you'd go for arrow keys.

Maybe we should all brush up our long division and do all our sums with
an abacus just in case we're ever caught without a calculator?

</deliberately provocative musings>

Paul.


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