Re: Keyboard mapping of Option and Command

[Liam Proven]

On Thu, 6 Jun 2024 at 21:27, Jamie Ramone <sancombru@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I ALWAYS change the default to Alt = ALTernate (<-- hello?), Ctrl = Control, 
> and Windows key(s) = Command.

Same here!

> I just find the Win keys in PC keyboards to be a natural replacement for NeXT 
> keyboard's Command key.

Exactly so.

> Leave control as control, leave alt as alt.

Yes!

> This weird control or alt as Command always felt awkward to me, especially 
> now that keyboards have special GUI specific keys such as the Win key which 
> is otherwise a hood ornament on systems GNUstep runs on other than Windows, 
> such as Linux.

100%. I *wish* your sensible, pragmatic thinking was more widely
shared. Choosing key functions based on their physical relative
position on hardware made 40 years ago is _insane_ and it destroys
both logic and muscle memory.


>    Also, when the Win key is unavailable (e.g. Ubuntu hardcoding it to 
> desktop functionality)

Are you thinking of Unity? That was officially replaced over 5 years ago.


> As for UI settings I made a little preferences app, much more NeXT-like and 
> inspired by Sergii Stoian's one for NeXTspace:

Looks very nice.

> Here, you can see how I have only one Command key and it's set to the Menu 
> key.

> One thing I'd suggest we do is purge things like Meta and Super from our 
> vocabulary. SUN is dead, and has been for decades.

OMG, please, yes.

Please can we exterminate 1970s pre-standardisation terminology? It is
nearly 40 years since PC UIs were standardised in IBM CUA:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Common_User_Access

NOBODY has a Meta key and no new hardware with Meta keys has been made
in about half a century. It is over. It is ancient history. Let it go.

And this applies to Emacs, as well.

By all means, keep the UI and terminology for existing users, but by
default it should be modernised to 1990s UI conventions, as done
fairly effectively by ErgoEmacs:

https://ergoemacs.github.io/

Make that the standard, pick up locale from the OS, and if there's any
existing emacs.el or whatever file, then revert to old behaviour.

Otherwise efforts to recruit new users to the community are doomed and
as the old ones age out and die the editor and the project are doomed.

> Fancy-shmancy terminals are a relic of a bygone era. Just about everyone has 
> either a PC or a Mac. There are Win, Ctrl, and Alt for PC, and Option, 
> Control and Command for Macs. Also Option = Alt and Ctrl = Control, so the 
> only real "extra" or "new(-ish)" keys are the Win and sometimes present menu 
> keys.That's what the everyday Joe Blow will call them, we should as well. 
> It's just one of the many, many little things that hamper wide(r)-spread 
> adoption.

*Standing ovation*

Well said!

-- 
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