Re: one key-press to comment out lines of code?

[Dale Snell]

On Thu, 01 May 2014 16:05:21 +0200
Emanuel Berg <embe8573@student.uu.se> wrote:

> Dale Snell <ddsnell@frontier.com> writes:
> > On your keyboard, perhaps.  Mine's set up a bit
> > differently (the "Windows" keys are the Meta keys,
> > the Alt keys, on either side of the space bar, are
> > the Alt keys.)
> 
> Interesting. I have a keyboard from Sun. Turns out, it
> says "Alt" on the Meta key, but it has the Meta key
> behaviour and I don't remember configuring that.

You probably didn't.  In my experience, most personal computer OSs
map Meta and Alt together on the same keys.  So you wouldn't
notice unless you needed both alt and meta variations of the same
character.  Fortunately, such mappings can be repaired, if needed.

> [...] I think (and someone on
> this list confirmed this with a cool image) that the
> Esc solution for Emacs has historical roots when the
> paleo-keyboards had Esc somewhere else. (Get back to
> you on this when I find that old post.)

Heh, yeah, the old terminals had keys wandering all over the
place.  Every manufacturer had a different idea of where things
like escape, |, \, `, ~, and so on belonged.  Sometimes they would
change their minds from one model to the next.  As I recall, the
DEC VT-101 that I learned Emacs on had the escape key where the
`/~ usually is now.  The `/~ key was between the =/+ and backspace
keys, and the |/\ key was to the right of the return key.  (An
awful place.  One had to be careful if one used those characters.)

> But perhaps you re-routed Esc for Caps Lock?

No, I swapped control for caps-lock, putting the control key next
to the A key, where it's much more accessible.  Since I seldom use
the caps-lock function, it doesn't bother me that said key was
relegated to the second most inconvenient place on the keyboard.
(The most inconvenient position, imnsho, is the right control key.
Next to the left arrow key.  Ugh.)

--Dale

--
Q:  Why did the Klingon color his hair blond?
A:  Because it was a good day to dye.