A proposal for the keybindings issue
A proposal for the keybindings issue
- Subject: A proposal for the keybindings issue
- From: "Nathaniel Gray" <email@hidden>
- Date: Fri, 23 Nov 2007 18:15:03 -0800
Hi folks,
It occurs to me that there's a modifier binding that could make most
people happy. The motivation is that in most unix software these days
Ctrl and Alt are the most-used modifiers by far. See for example
<http://www.novell.com/coolsolutions/tip/2289.html>. So why are we
wasting one of our precious modifiers on Meta? Here's the idea:
* Ctrl = Ctrl (duh)
* Option = Mode_switch
* Cmd = Alt
This layout has some nice properties:
* A standard Apple layout has the Cmd button right where the Alt key
is on a normal PC keyboard, so X11 users with finger muscles trained
in Linux will feel right at home.
* The Option key does the same thing (for text entry) in Aqua and X11.
* Even modifier-impoverished laptop users have two cmd keys, and thus
will have two Alt keys.
There's really only one slight flaw IMHO. On my Macbook Pro at least,
the option key is also labeled "alt", which could cause some minor
confusion when it's not bound to Alt in X11. However, I'd argue that
this is a "confusing for 5 minutes, then not a problem" kind of issue.
I would strongly suggest *not* considering any default layout that
does not provide two Alt keys. Alt is used extensively in modern (and
even ancient) *nix software, and any layout that lacks this modifier
in convenient places is just a terrible choice.
Cheers,
-n8
--
>>>-- Nathaniel Gray -- Caltech Computer Science ------>
>>>-- Mojave Project -- http://mojave.cs.caltech.edu -->
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