Re: Emacs learning curve

[Tassilo Horn]

On Thursday 22 July 2010 14:15:51 Lennart Borgman wrote:

> > I think this muscle memory statement is much overstated.
> 
> It would be interesting if anyone has some psychological research to
> support this.

No, but at least it's true for me.  There's some mode that records key /
command frequencies.  Use it for a while and see how tiny the command
fraction is compared to `self-insert-command'.  Then add some time for
thinking before writing to the calculation, and you'll see that the time
needed for typing command key bindings is totally out of relevance.

> I do not believe that is is overstated (but I do not have time to look
> it now). Rather I think that for simple and often used commands (like
> CUA) it is very important.

Yeah, the most frequently used commands should be quick and easy.  And
that's true for the normal emacs bindings for those commands.

But most modern editors waste short bindings also for commands that you
need nearly never, like C-p for printing, C-s for saving, ...

I think that has a purely technical reason: keychords consisting of
multiple keys pressed one after the other were/are seldomly supported.
Some years later, these short but wasteful bindings are standard, and
now people try to conquer the last bastillion of good bindings...

Bye,
Tassilo