[LMB] AKICIF: touch typing

[James]

On 11/23/06, Paul Stratton <stratton at oz.net> wrote:
> > I used Emacs for six years at my previous job. The keyboards we had
> > there had the regular keys and then three row of membrane function
> > keys. The function keys were easily programmed with macros and there
> > was a slot to fit in a paper with labels. Every 4-6 months the paper
> > would start wearing out. I would be reprogram the keyboard, keeping
> > the most smudged keys and reprogramming the least smudged. Oh do I
> > miss those keyboards.

Wow, that's pretty interesting. It's interesting that the "gaming"
keyboards these days have that sort of functionality. I think one of
the Logitech keyboards has 12 programmable keys that can do anything
you want. Unfortunately, I think the text labels are hidden under
plastic, so it will take a while to smudge. Unfortunately, I picked up
vi within a week while I was struggling with Emacs for years. So now
I'm a vi (Vim, if you want to start the emacs vs. vi and vi vs. vim
arguments) user and it's one of the first things I install on a new
computer. Also annoys the heck out of people who take over my computer
(Windows...) as it opens gVim by default and they realize they don't
know how to edit with it! (They use the default IDE editor... ick).

Strange thing is, there are a lot more Vim users than Emacs at work.
Seems Vi users are multiplying at work.

> > Adam Ek
> > adamek at mac.com
>
> How nicely would they play on a Mac your address implies?

Hey, as long as you can get a USB adapter for whatever it is, it'll
work. The other thing is that MacOS X comes with both emacs and vim in
the terminal - you have to install the GUI versions. But hey.

(I like the MacOS X terminal. There's a lot of useful things in it,
one being "Paste" and "Paste Escaped Text" - the former pastes/types
as-is, the latter escapes shell special characters. Great for passing
URLs through the command line with lots of shell characters
(especially ampersands).