[Gllug] bash / go to beginning of line

[Bruce Richardson]

On 2/21/02, 11:30:04 AM, "Paul Brazier" <pbrazier at cosmos-uk.co.uk> wrote 
regarding RE: [Gllug] bash / go to beginning of line :

> 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?

Why change an interface that works?  Especially when the proposed 
replacement is slower and less convenient?

> I don't think the speed thing is really an issue - the Esc key is just
> as far as the arrow keys

Not on my keyboard it isn't (nor on older PC keyboards).  And before I 
had a HHK I used Ctrl-[ rather than reach for the Escape key.

> and anyway I'd rather go for simplicity and
> logical clarity of design than a few seconds speed increase.

It's not simply a question of speed, it's a question of flow.  Moving the 
hands away from the qwerty keys interrupts what is otherwise a fluid process.

> 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.

1. Irrelevant.  I don't use the cursor keys on existing keyboards because 
their layout is inconvenient to me.  

2.  Wrong. *I* wouldn't.  As I said, I found function keys and arrow keys 
an annoyance long before I found a way to do away with them.

> 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?

Skilled abacus users can do calculations much faster than you could type 
them into a calculator.

-- 

Bruce

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