Comments on: Emacs Key Bindings Make You Retarded

By: Escape Meta Alt Control Shift

Escape Meta Alt Control Shift — Sun, 28 May 2006 01:02:35 +0000

Thank you all for your thoughts and comments along these lines. Its comforting to know one is not alone!

ash@uva.co.uk wrote:
> … the clear need for an always-on tool that can map key bindings

you all may be interested in XKeymacs. see http://www.cam.hi-ho.ne.jp/oishi/indexen.html

FWIW, I too have struggled with this condition over the years. For reasons that don’t matter, I acquired the emacs habit many years ago, and have found it exceedingly difficult to let it go.

Many times I have asked myself “why?” and the answer that comes back is not only that one can’t simply erase decades of muscle memory, but also, that as Mitchell L Model recently wrote (http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/pipermail/squeak-dev/2006-May/104265.html), there are “many social, psychological, and cognitive factors that cause people to resist change in general.”

long story short, I think there’s a whole essay if not a book in here. but who would read it?

signed, “Escape Meta Alt Control Shift”

p.s. this note was edited in emacs, and pasted into this lame little textbox.

By: albert

albert — Mon, 08 May 2006 07:06:11 +0000

anyone else suffering from the same sort of chronic alt misplacement in terminal.app? (M-f, M-b *and* Alt-Tab) mapping meta to option has been like walking in 2 left shoes.

By: ash@uva.co.uk

ash@uva.co.uk — Mon, 08 May 2006 01:50:57 +0000

So what this discussion seems to point out is the clear need for an always-on tool that can map key bindings from any application to any application. Totally simple; it takes a set of mapping files, one for each application in your system that does text-editing. A mapping file is a list of ‘input’ key combinations and the corresponding output key combinations. When you switch to an application, the appropriate mapping file is loaded. End of.

By: dennis

dennis — Mon, 08 May 2006 00:37:14 +0000

Whether chords hurt you is going to depend on how you use them. If you leave your hands in place and stretch awkwardly, it might hurt, but if you let your hands move around, you’ll do better, plus it’s fun. Release your inner piano player.

By: Amit Patel

Amit Patel — Sun, 07 May 2006 23:43:28 +0000

I used to be a heavy Emacs user (for ten+ years). I used the arrow keys and function keys (F1-F10) quite a lot, and rarely used the chords. Once I got a laptop though, I found that the arrow and function keys were hard to use, so I switched to the original chords. I haven’t had trouble with RSI (yet), but I’ve only been using the chords for a year.

If you use Windows (and I realize the OP doesn’t), try XKeyMacs. It brings Emacs bindings to Windows apps, including Firefox. When not in a text area, C-n / C-p / C-f / C-b will scroll the web page vertically and horizontally, for example. It’s far more convenient than using arrow keys

By: shaurz

shaurz — Sun, 07 May 2006 23:13:05 +0000

I also grew up with Windows key bindings, but I find myself using (shift)+home/end/pgup/pgdn/arrows very frequently (not to mention ctrl+x,c,v,a,s,n,…). When I find myself on a keyboard without these keys it’s like losing a limb. KWrite is still the only editor on Linux I am comfortable with (yeah, laugh at me), vi is OK, I think I’ll write my own.

By: reeses

reeses — Sun, 07 May 2006 22:49:22 +0000

My favorite (?) is when I take my emacs-lizard-brain and let it loose on Windows apps, especially Office. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve accidentally typed c-a and watched my document disappear. Sure, in most apps, c-z brings it back, but there’s nothing like watching 10 pages disappear to give you a jolt of mid-afternoon adrenaline.

That’s one of the nicer things about switching to the Mac, I guess. It just makes that “thunk” sound to tell me that I’m being retarded.

By: peterb

peterb — Sun, 07 May 2006 21:50:17 +0000

It’s an important function if you’re using your editor for programming. Very often, you’ll want to jump to the beginning (or end) of the line you’re on to make changes. In word processing it’s a less-frequently appearing need.

By: eeb

eeb — Sun, 07 May 2006 21:06:17 +0000

Here’s a potentially dumb question… Unlike the author of the original blog post, I “grew up” with the Windows GUI and am comfortable using the mouse and/or arrow keys for moving the cursor around. When I try to use Emacs or VI, I find it very non-intuitive and alien, although I can see how they both could be highly productive tools once mastered. What I don’t get is the author’s example of ctrl-A as an important key binding. Why is “go to the beginning of the line” such an important function? I know that the Home key does this in Windows, but I almost never find myself using it. I guess the mechanics of mouse-free editing must be radically different than what I am used to. Anyone feel like explaining this ctrl-A thing to a Windows-retard?

By: morgainfully

morgainfully — Sun, 07 May 2006 20:17:07 +0000

I dont believe someone that’s used Emacs for 20 years would write something like this. And if it’s true, then perhaps they were retarded before taking up Emacs.

Anyone suffering from cognitive fixation only has themselves to blame and not their text editor for their inflexible mind. You’ve missed the point of emacs for 20 years if you think its strength is Ctrl-a. If you paid attention in your first couple months you might have learned that the ctrl-a is completely arbitrary. If you want another binding it is a one line command to reassign.