effective emacs
in [Lisp]
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From: Xah Lee on 20 Jun 2008 10:04 Hi Daniel, Thanks for the historical perspective. Very informative. Daniel Weinreb wrote: > Let me put in a quick plug for my own favorite keyboard, which > I am using right now: the Unicomp Customizer: > > http://pckeyboards.stores.yahoo.net/customizer.html By my good fortune, i happened to have used famous IBM Model M keyboard http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model_M_keyboard for maybe a year, back in about 1991, that came with IBM PS/2 computer. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Personal_System/2 ) I'd love to still use this keyboard today except since 2005 i've adopted the split ergonomic keyboard. It's hard to go back now. It's good to know the current reincarnation of the keyboard thought... good for recommending to friends who don't like split ones... (am a keyboard nerd) Xah â http://xahlee.org/ â On Jun 1, 5:35 am, Daniel Weinreb <d...(a)alum.mit.edu> wrote: > xah...(a)gmail.com wrote: > > Effective Emacs > > > (Long term emacs productivity tips.) > > >XahLee, 2008-05-29 > > > I have used emacs daily since 1998. Typically, i spent several hours > > inside emacs, everyday, for the past 10 years. > > Same for me, except the year is 1977. Nobody has been using Emacs > longer than I have (I was one of the original beta-testers. I refer > here to the original Emacs, written in ITS TECO for the DEC 10.) > > > > > Emacs's default cursor moving shortcuts are âCtrl+fâ, âCtrl+bâ, âCtrl > > +nâ, âCtrl+pâ. The keys f, b, n, p are scattered around the keyboard > > and are not under the home row. > > That's true. At the time Guy Steele put together the Emacs default > key mappings, many people in the target user community (about 20 > people at MIT!) were already using these key bindings. It would > have been hard to get the new Emacs bindings accepted by the > community if they differed for such basic commands. As you point > out, anyone using Emacs can very easily change this based on > their own ergonomic preferences. > > > > > GOOD > > Microsoft Natural Multimedia keyboard > > Let me put in a quick plug for my own favorite keyboard, which > I am using right now: the Unicomp Customizer: > > http://pckeyboards.stores.yahoo.net/customizer.html > > I like the feel of the keys very much. I agree with you > that it's important, and worth some effort, for everyone > to find a keyboard that they feel most comfortable with. > > > Problem and Why Emacs's Keyboard Shortcuts Are Painful. > > I generally make few customizations to the key bindings, so > that when I work with another programmer, I can turn the > keyboard over to them and not cause confusion. > > > > > Steve advices users to âLose the UIâ. > > I rarely use the menu bar. On the other hand, I was raised on an > Emacs that didn't have a menu bar, so I could be atypical. Using > the mouse to set point or set the region is great, though, and I > use that a lot. > > Here's another piece of historical trivia. The Emacs keyboard > macro feature was inspired by a similar feature in the Stanford > DRAW system, an electrical CAD system widely-used by the AI lab > hardware hackers at the time. It was very powerful. But if you > made a mistake, it could really destroy your design, and so it > was a good idea to save to disk before running it. We had a saying > for what happened if you forgot to save: "A moment of convenience, > a lifetime of regret." This predates the widespread use of "Undo" > functionality, surely one of the best ideas for user interfaces > ever invented. > > -- Dan
From: Mikael Jansson on 24 Jun 2008 04:23 On Jun 1, 2:35 pm, Daniel Weinreb <d...(a)alum.mit.edu> wrote: > [snip] > > Let me put in a quick plug for my own favorite keyboard, which > I am using right now: the Unicomp Customizer: > > http://pckeyboards.stores.yahoo.net/customizer.html > > I like the feel of the keys very much. I agree with you > that it's important, and worth some effort, for everyone > to find a keyboard that they feel most comfortable with. > I wonder how it compared to the Das Keyboard III, which I just ordered. I've been using the Logitech UltraX lately, which has the nicest feel so far, but they wear out rather quickly. How is the durability of the Customizer, and does it click? -- Mikael Jansson http://mikael.jansson.be
From: Raymond Wiker on 24 Jun 2008 11:47 Mikael Jansson <mikael.jansson(a)gmail.com> writes: > On Jun 1, 2:35�pm, Daniel Weinreb <d...(a)alum.mit.edu> wrote: >> [snip] >> >> Let me put in a quick plug for my own favorite keyboard, which >> I am using right now: the Unicomp Customizer: >> >> http://pckeyboards.stores.yahoo.net/customizer.html >> >> I like the feel of the keys very much. �I agree with you >> that it's important, and worth some effort, for everyone >> to find a keyboard that they feel most comfortable with. >> > I wonder how it compared to the Das Keyboard III, which I just > ordered. I've been using the Logitech UltraX lately, which has the > nicest feel so far, but they wear out rather quickly. > > How is the durability of the Customizer, and does it click? The Customizer is a descendant of the IBM Model M, which is commonly regarded as one of the greatest keyboards, ever. It is rated at something like 10 or 20 million keypresses (for each key), and has all the clickiness you could reasonably ask for (it actually clicks twice for each keypress :-) I have 4 of thse keyboards (the 105-key, USB version - two started life with a PS/2 interface, which I replaced with new controller boards that i boughyt from Unicomp later). The only thing I'm slightly unhappy with, is that Unicompdoes not have alternative keycaps for the "Windows" keys :-)
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