Re: C-p, C-b, C-f, and C-n... why?

[Mathias Dahl]

bkhl@elektrubadur.se (Björn Lindström) writes:

> Mathias Dahl <brakjoller@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> OK, the distance from the home row is shorter, but I still don't think
>> you can conclude that it is more efficient. For example, C-f require
>> "two" (or one, or one and a half if you want) keypresses while the
>> arrow keys require only single keypresses.
>
> That argument is a bit flawed. Too use the arrow keys you have to
> abandon the basic touch typing position completely and then find it
> again. This will take a lot longer than pressing any key combination you
> can reach from the basic position.

If you find yourself in some mode when you for some reason need to
"move around" a lot, and maybe at some points execute another command,
using the arrow keys with the right hand, and executing the other
commands, whatever they might be (which is not interesting, my example
with games was maybe bad), is in my opinion, quite nice.

Anyway, what I reacted to was some text earlier in the discussion that
sort of "forced an opinion" on me, and I though maybe it could be
written in a more "diplomatic" way if we should keep it in the
tutorial. "small" things like this can be quite heated.

I liked the suggestion made by Drew, where the keys was just
documented and when no special arguments was made for using either of
them.