hjkl and touch typing position
Kresimir Kumericki
since I already have to do some adjustments I thought I might
try correcting some of the bad typing habits I surely have.
I can touch-type the usual text but for numbers, function keys and
such I do have to look at the keyboard sometimes. Anyway, the main
question I have is how do you guys (touch-type vi users) position your
fingers when doing hjkl motion? I move my right hand one key to the
left from the default position (i.e. 'hjkl' instead of 'jkl;'). Is
this bad? It is nice to have a dedicated finger for each direction of
movement but on the other hand this leads to confusion because of the
two different default positions (one for command and the other for
insert mode).
I would also like to hear about other vi experiences of touch-typers.
E.g. do you often use ctrl-[ and ctrl-h instead of <ESC> and <DEL>?
--
Kresimir Kumericki kku...@phy.hr http://www.phy.hr/~kkumer/
"Fizika svemira" - http://eskola.hfd.hr/fizika_svemira/svemir.html
Rob Latham
> how do you guys (touch-type vi users) position your fingers when
> doing hjkl motion? I move my right hand one key to the left from the
> default position (i.e. 'hjkl' instead of 'jkl;').
I don't do this, exactly because the switch from movement to insert is
a pain. i rarely have to go left and down at the exact time, so
moving my right pointer finger to strike the key to the left (in order
to go left... see, it's intuitive :> ) is not a problem.
> I would also like to hear about other vi experiences of
> touch-typers. E.g. do you often use ctrl-[ and ctrl-h instead of
> <ESC> and <DEL>?
I'm not sure what the keyboards look like in .hr, but american
keyboards usually put caps lock next to the 'a'. how stupid. anyway,
if i've swapped ctrl and caps lock (so that ctrl is back where it
should be: next to the 'a' ), then i use ctrl-[. I don't use ctrl-h
because i've mapped that to move around my fvwm desktops :>
==rob
--
Rob Latham: linux A-Team Bethlehem, PA USA
GPG Fingerprint: EAE8 DE90 85BB 526F 3181 1FCF 51C4 B6CB 08CC 0897
Gamma
> I just bought a new ergonomic split keyboard (noname) and
>since I already have to do some adjustments I thought I might
>try correcting some of the bad typing habits I surely have.
> I can touch-type the usual text but for numbers, function keys and
>such I do have to look at the keyboard sometimes. Anyway, the main
>fingers when doing hjkl motion? I move my right hand one key to the
>this bad? It is nice to have a dedicated finger for each direction of
>movement but on the other hand this leads to confusion because of the
>two different default positions (one for command and the other for
>insert mode).
>E.g. do you often use ctrl-[ and ctrl-h instead of <ESC> and <DEL>?
As I recall from my high school typing class many, many years ago,
a number key is typed with the finger that would be used for the key
just below and to the right of it. That means 6 is actually the
toughest to reach; it's typed with the right index finger. On my
ergonomic keyboard at home, this is impossible; the 6 key is on the
left bank of keys, so it -has- to be typed with the left index unless
your right index finger is six inches long. Which is just as well;
one of my bad touch-typing habits is typing 6 with the left index
anyway.
When doing hjkl, I keep the home position. It's not like I'm going
to need to do nothing but cursor movement; more typically, I have to
move in one direction, possibly two, to get to where I'm going to
type. Either way I'm only using one movement key at a time, and so if
it's H, I move just the right index finger and that's it. I'll also
use the 5 in conjunction to speed up movement over some distances
(5h vs. h, you see). I almost never use w and b to move by words,
because I find it hard to keep track of the cursor, but that may just
be a personal thing. I use { and } a lot. I'll even do ^F and ^B and
^U and ^D, or even a combination of z. and H and L !
I never use ^H. (tests it out) It turns out that if I'm backspacing,
my ring finger goes up to the backspace key, which is on the upper
right corner of the main block of keys on the keyboard I'm using right
now. I'm not sure if I do the same thing on my ergonomic keyboard at
home. Either way, this is probably a bad habit on my part.
--
Paul Brinkley
ga...@clark.net
Ralf Arens
>Anyway, the main question I have is how do you guys (touch-type vi
>users) position your fingers when doing hjkl motion? I move my right
>hand one key to the left from the default position (i.e. 'hjkl'
>instead of 'jkl;'). Is this bad?
If you ask me, yes. I keep my fingers on "jklö" (german keyboard).
repositioning my fingers for cursor movements would screw everything
up.
> It is nice to have a dedicated finger for each direction of
> movement but on the other hand this leads to confusion because of the
> two different default positions (one for command and the other for
> insert mode).
Exactly my point. And you also do more in command mode than only using
hjkl.
> I would also like to hear about other vi experiences of touch-typers.
> E.g. do you often use ctrl-[
Never. It is much too awkward on a German keyboard (QWERTZ). I'd have
to type "CTRL ALT-GR 9". *shudder*. I mapped the most useless key,
caps lock, to escape (which is much too far away).
> and ctrl-h instead of <ESC> and <DEL>?
Only sometimes. CTRL-h needs two fingers; backspace, which I can reach
quite easily with my little finger, needs only one.
Ralf
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Kresimir Kumericki
> On 17 Nov 2000 14:10:51 GMT, Kresimir Kumericki <kku...@phy.hr> wrote:
>> I move my right hand one key to the left from the
>> default position (i.e. 'hjkl' instead of 'jkl;').
> I don't do this, exactly because the switch from movement to insert is
> a pain. i rarely have to go left and down at the exact time, so
> moving my right pointer finger to strike the key to the left (in order
> to go left... see, it's intuitive :> ) is not a problem.
OK. I see we have a consensus here. I already switched to the jkl;-only
position and transition seems to be easier than I thought it would be.
> I'm not sure what the keyboards look like in .hr, but american
.hr keyboards are terrible. Square brackets and curly braces are in
some awkward positions (like AltGr-something) so I always use US
keyboards and then I map special croatian characters to Function keys.
This is also awkward, but I need braces more often then croatian
characters.
> keyboards usually put caps lock next to the 'a'. how stupid. anyway,
Yep. I remap CapsLock key to function as Ctrl.
Kresimir Kumericki
> (5h vs. h, you see). I almost never use w and b to move by words,
> because I find it hard to keep track of the cursor, but that may just
> be a personal thing. I use { and } a lot.
Funny, but I often use w and b, and have never used { or } in my
entire life. Shall we say: Vi[m] - There Is More Than One Way To Do It :-)
Kresimir Kumericki
> I mapped the most useless key,
> caps lock, to escape (which is much too far away).
Hm, this is a good idea, but I have ctrl at caps lock, and this
is essential since I am also an avid 'screen' virtual terminal user
and you use ctrl key there *a lot*.
Gamma
>Gamma <ga...@clark.net> wrote:
>> (5h vs. h, you see). I almost never use w and b to move by words,
>> because I find it hard to keep track of the cursor, but that may just
>> be a personal thing. I use { and } a lot.
>
> Funny, but I often use w and b, and have never used { or } in my
>entire life. Shall we say: Vi[m] - There Is More Than One Way To Do It :-)
Oh, definitely. Just like Perl. :-)
A fellow named Jef Raskin, who happens to be a great big expert on
human-computer interface (he worked on the interface for the Macintosh
IIRC), dislikes modal interfaces and non-monotonic interfaces, of
which Vi[m] is both in a big way. You may have seen a debate on the
benefits of modality on this newsgroup in the past, in fact.
Modality has to do with the command mode-vs-insert mode thing, in
which any keystroke's function depends on what mode you're in, which
in standard vi is not terribly easy to tell. (Vim, or rather gvim,
changes the cursor shape, at least.)
Monotonicity has to do with there being one way to do something.
Thus, there's the pairing of modality and monotonicity: an interface
is modal and monotonic iff there is one and only one way to do
everything. Monotonicity has always struck me as something one can
accomplish only in the very simplest of devices, like, say, a light
switch, as opposed to a text editor. (Raskin believes this as well,
IIRC; he advocates simply minimizing non-monotonicity, rather than
eliminating it entirely. I disagree with Raskin's final conclusions
on modality and monotonicity, but I respect the arguments he makes
regarding them. But anyway.)
End of tangent...
--
Paul Brinkley
ga...@clark.net
Ralf Arens
[...]
> .hr keyboards are terrible. Square brackets and curly braces are in
> some awkward positions (like AltGr-something)
The same goes for German keyboards.
{ ALT-GR 7
[ ALT-GR 8
...
~ ALT-GR +
This is horrible! All keys are on the right side of the keyboard, you
always have to move your right hand. So I mapped these keys to
{ ALT-GR d
} ALT-GR f
...
on my computer.
> so I always use US keyboards
I'd do that but I work on to many different boxes, which all have
German keyboards.
> and then I map special croatian characters to Function keys. This is
> also awkward,
Function keys? I think that's a bad solution, they're really far away.
Maybe you can use something similar to my solution above:
`'c ALT-GR c
...
(I hope `'c resembles a Croatian character.)
> but I need braces more often then croatian characters.
Depends on the task. For programming I need more braces, for the rest
I need more German characters.