Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!rutgers!sri-unix!sri-spam!mordor!lll-tis!ptsfa!ihnp4!inuxc!iuvax!pur-ee!newton.physics.purdue.edu!pur-phy!mrstve!mdbs!jmg From: jmg@mdbs.UUCP (John Murray Gamble) Newsgroups: comp.sources.d,comp.emacs Subject: Re: when using termcap, get it right! Message-ID: <319@mdbs.UUCP> Date: Wed, 17-Jun-87 11:58:55 EDT Article-I.D.: mdbs.319 Posted: Wed Jun 17 11:58:55 1987 Date-Received: Mon, 22-Jun-87 00:47:28 EDT References: <1149@carthage.swatsun.UUCP> <8601@tekecs.TEK.COM> <6828@mimsy.UUCP> <1166@osiris.UUCP> <189@auvax.UUCP> Reply-To: jmg@mdbs.UUCP (John Murray Gamble) Distribution: comp Organization: Micro Database Systems, Inc., Lafayette IN Lines: 52 Xref: mnetor comp.sources.d:868 comp.emacs:1189 In article <189@auvax.UUCP> tech@auvax.UUCP (Richard Loken) writes: > >The problem for me is that to use function keys I have to take my hands off >the keyboard and reach for the function keys. Worse, I have to take my >eyes off the screen and look at my hands. > >On VMS I use the TPU based LSEDIT where I have mapped the more used function >keys to emacs like control chars. > >I have to conclude that Function Key editors were not invented by typists. > > ********* 73 > ********** Richard Loken VE6BSV > . **** > .. **** Athabasca University > .... **** Athabasca, Alberta Canada >..........**** ihnp4!alberta!auvax Actually, i conclude just the opposite. *Editing* is different from *typing*. The operations involved in editing (moving or deleting lines, words, or characters, searching/replacing) have very little to do with actual creative typing. When i am typing, my fingers stay on the main keyboard for long periods of time, and when i am editing my left hand rests while my right hand works the keypad. I never had to look at my hand, anymore than i look at the keyboard for typing. This is one of the reasons i miss EDT. When doing actual editing, all the keys i need to use are beneath *one* hand, which does not need to move while i am editing. No silly control key to hit (an operation invented to destroy the pinkie finger on the left hand) while simultaneously hunting for the key to be control-ed. Thank god EMACS-style editors allow key rebindings, or my fingers would be useless. For those wondering what the fuss about EDT is, a short, incomplete description of it would be to call it the RISC equivalent of editors. Very few commands in screen mode, but they are very powerful. It is analagous to driving a car, in that the same operations work in forward and reverse, with the directions toggled by a key(pad)stroke. It was a definite change from vi and took a lot of getting used to, but it ruined vi for me. EMACS (any flavor) is now my editor of choice. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- John M. Gamble | Lo! thy dread Empire COBOL is restored; 2550 Yeager Rd. #15-2 | Light dies before thy uncreating word: West Lafayette, IN 47906 | Thy hand, great Anarch, lets the curtain fall, -------------------------| And Universal Darkness buries all. (313) 497-9501 | ihnp4!pur-ee!mdbs!jmg | from "The Dunciad", sort of, by Alexander Pope ----------------------------------------------------------------------------