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Re: ESC vs Meta for shifted keys


From: Emanuel Berg
Subject: Re: ESC vs Meta for shifted keys
Date: Sun, 15 Apr 2018 03:06:09 +0200
User-agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/24.4 (gnu/linux)

Bob Proulx wrote:

> I use both interchangeably all of the time.
> And so does anyone using an XTerm with "Meta
> sends ESC" configured even if they never hit
> the ESC key themselves. Because there is no
> character sent for a meta key event, just
> escape sequences for the subsequent key.
> Therefore Meta with that setting on XTerm
> sends ESC and it all works mostly seemlessly.

Yes, but that's more of an issue with the
terminal emulator. I mean use Escape instead of
Meta in the physical, keyboard sense.

    xterm*metaSendsEscape: true

Here is how to disable caps and do something
else with it in X:

    setxkbmap -option caps:none  # disable caps lock
    xmodmap -e 'keycode 66=a'    # rebind CAPS (66)

> I think you mean more sense to use meta-key
> using such keyboards? Because it certainly
> makes sense to use Alt-f for example for M-f
> forward-word and the rest of the meta
> characters. Current popular keyboards all
> have an Alt key.

Right, it is a good pick for Meta.

> The symbolics keyboard actually had
> a *different* arrow set than has become
> standard. The current "standard" comes from
> the ADM-3a.
>
>   
> https://deskthority.net/keyboards-f2/lear-siegler-adm3a-terminal-keyboard-t11780.html

The current standard for what? The Escape key
on that keyboard isn't current, it is much
closer which is probably why it was more
popular for this purpose on those keyboards.
The arrow set (h, j, k, l) is close to there
right hand, but somewhat unintuitive with ups
and downs, or at least not as intuitive as it
could be.

I think the arrow keys are best placed as:

          i = up
j = left  k = down  l = right

My first computer was a Mac Plus and the games
there, like Lode Runner, this was used - for
Dark Castle it was correspondingly w, a, s,
d because with the right hand, one aimed the
rock throwing arm with the mouse.
This reappeared much later in 3D games such as
Quake btw.

Anyway I think the i, j, k, l set is the best
at is is close and intuitive. In many
applications, e.g. for viewing images and PDF
documents, I have implemented it, and in Emacs
I use it for Emacs-w3m, scrolling [1], and
so on.

> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space-cadet_keyboard

Ha! I can't see anything on that photo.
Where are the Escape and arrow keys?!

[1] http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573/emacs-init/scroll.el

-- 
underground experts united
http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573


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