Air Jets
cca!editor-p
[ The following message is in response to a series of messages on
Human-Nets. I trust that Editor-People readers will not find it
difficult to figure out the context, and that readers on both
lists will excuse the duplication. /jq ]
I assume that Phil Agre was not serious about air jets to solve the
keyboard positioning problem. Raised dots on a pair of keys are
just as effective -- I don't know why they are not more common.
I am not surprised that "people who wander into [Phil's] office"
at MIT have a problem with keyboard registration. The EMACS editor
forces use of a new "home" position with the hands at the sides of
the keyboard and the thumbs on the "meta" keys. The right hand
is particularly susceptible to loss of registration if a side keypad
is used for common cursor motion commands.
I occassionally type in near darkness (to let my wife sleep).
I find it much easier to use VI under these conditions, although
I still have some trouble finding the special symbols on the
top (or numeral) row.
If my keyboards at home and at work were not identical I would be
unable to edit except by hunt and peck. I hope that some new keyboard
layout (e.g., the one with separate tilted keypads for the two hands)
will catch on, and that the editing functions will be rationally
assigned to the standard keys (using a mode switch!!). EMACS and
the space-cadet keyboard are not the answer.
-- Ken Laws
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