Modifier Keys and the Archaic Meta Key

[Christopher Dimech]

Dear Compeers,

In 1975, when Richard Stallman and Guy Steele started designing
keybindings they used the keyboards used by Lisp Machines which
had Modifier Keys like Meta.

Today, Lisp Machines and their keyboards are only historical
keyboards whose use has become academic.  Thusly, I disapprove
of the practice of continuing with the use of the Modifier Key Mnemonic
'M' in documentation and code. Perhaps a historical note can be
included in the documentation about historical aspects, however
in terms of use and functionality, it is not strategically
productive to continue with the 'M' Mnemonic for things that do
not exist.

The Super Key Mnemonic is currently 's' (small letter s) which
conflicts the the usual letter 's'.  To distinguish Modifier Keys,
Upper Case should be made a rule, with the Super Key Mnemonic
being set to 'P' (the middle letter in Super).

Modifier Keys customarily are categorised by priority as follows.
Focus should be on Priority Levels rather just a letter among
five Modifier Keys.  Such discussion would make commands much
easier to figure out.

Priority 1: Control Key 'C'
Priority 2: Alternate Key 'A'
Priority 3: Hyper Key 'H'
Priority 4: Super Key 'P' (for middle letter, instead of 's')
Priority 5: Shift Key 'S'

This evaluation and modifications outlined is useful for users
today, whilst continuing with archaic elaboration on 1975 Lisp
Keyboards has become unproductive for new users.

Regards
Christopher