#EMACS SHORTCUTS PC#

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 cut paste undo, all require multiple keystrokes with the difficult Ctrl key.

The cursor movements: 【 Ctrl+ p】, 【 Ctrl+ n】, 【 Ctrl+ f】, 【 Ctrl+ b】, 【 Ctrl+ a】, 【 Ctrl+ e】.This is why, the shortcuts for the most used commands in emacs involve the Ctrl key instead of the Meta key. So, the Ctrl key is the primary modifier, and the Meta is secondary to Ctrl.

#EMACS SHORTCUTS PC#

The keyboard on lisp machines have the Ctrl key besides the space bar (similar to the position of Alt keys on PC keyboards), and Meta to the left of Ctrl. The common keyboard used around emacs era in the 1980s are those keyboards from Lisp Machines. 〔➤see photos of several different models of Lisp Machine's keyboards〕 The Space-cadet keyboard, one of the early Lisp Machine keyboards. The Tragedy of Ctrl/Meta SwapĮmacs's keys are designed with a keyboard that practically has the Ctrl ＆ Alt key positions swapped. For example, they should be on the home row. Specifically: the top most frequently used commands should have the most easily-to-press keystrokes. 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 that has intensive, repetitive, prolonged human-machine interaction (such as coding and text editing), is to consider ergonomic principles.

Emacs shortcuts