In WordPerfect, the command to open a file was F7, 3.Its aim was in part to bring about harmony between MS-DOS applications, which until then had implemented totally different user interfaces. The following is a excerpt from the WikipediaĬUA was a detailed specification and set strict rules about how applications should look and function. In the early 1990s, DOS era software, each application has its own Inc's Human Interface Guidelines and IBM's Common User Access in the 1990s. These shortcut conventions are primarily brought about by Apple Computer These are common conventions today in every application across Microsoft Windows, Macintosh, and Linux desktops. Today, most commonly used keyboard shortcuts have been somewhat informally standardized. Addendum: Keyboard Shortcut History in Computing Industry It seems too drastic a policy, to limit user defined keys to only F5 to F9, and key sequence of Ctrl+ c followed by a single letter key. Or, she might assign them to various special emacs modes such as dired, shell, ftp, email, calendar, calc, *scratch*, make-frame-command (Open a new window), insert signature. For example, a user might define them to insert various templates, headers/footers, a system of customized HTML/XML tags. These keys can be used with any combination of Ctrl, Alt, Shift. The digit key shortcuts, 0 to 9, are also good user space. The function keys, F1 to F12, are very good key space for user to define their own shortcuts. The key sequence startingįollowed by a letter, is multiple keystrokes and rather a painfulĬhoice, and there are only 26 spaces there. This is a severe restraint to the utility of customized shortcuts.į5 to F9 are only 6 keys. Sequence starting with Ctrl+ c followed by a single letter key. Users to define, are the function keys F5 to F9, and key stroke This guide, indicates that the only key space reserved for C-c C-e c-macro-expandĬ-c c-hungry-delete-forward A Flaw in Keybinding PolicyĪny major software, maintains a guide for the developers about the choices of keyboard shortcuts, so that the shortcuts will be consistent. For example, here's some of the keys for C language mode. Mode Specific Keys with Difficult Prefix Ctrl+cīy Emacs key policy, key shortcuts for each language mode's commands all have this difficult combination: Ctrl+ c Ctrl+ key. The heavy use of, all require multiple keystrokes with the difficult Ctrl key. The Alt is placed right beside the space bar, while Ctrl is placed far to the corner.Įmacs did not change its keybindings to adapt the PC keyboard.Įmacs simply set the Alt to send Meta signal. The PC keyboard does not have Meta key but have Alt instead. Lisp Machine's keyboards died with Lisp Machines.Īnd its decedents became the most popular. This is why, the shortcuts for the most used commands in emacs involve the Ctrl key instead of the Meta So, the CONTROL key is the primary modifier, and the META is secondary. The keyboard on lisp machines have the CONTROL key immediately neighboring the space bar, and META to the left of CONTROL. (GNU Emacs by Richard Stallman, with builtin language Emacs Lisp, began in 1984.) The keyboard used by emacs developers at MIT AI Lab in the late 1970s are those keyboards from Lisp Machines. The Tragedy of Ctrl/Meta SwapĮmacs's keys are designed with a keyboard that practically has the Ctrl and Alt key positions swapped. For example, they should be on the home row. The top most frequently used commands should have the most easily-to-press That has intensive, repetitive, prolonged human-machine interaction (suchĪs coding and text editing), is to consider ergonomic principles. This article shows why Emacs's keyboard shortcut set is the worst with respect to ergonomics.Ī important aspect in designing a keyboard shortcut set, for a application
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