9fans archive / 1995 / 04 / 97 /    prev next

From: forsyth@pla... forsyth@pla...
Subject: keyboard accelerators
Date: Fri, 21 Apr 1995 18:20:15 -0400

>>By keyboard accelerators, I assume you mean keyboard shortcuts for common
>>operations, such as "go to end of line" or "select the next word". I have
>>used such shortcuts so heavily in MSWord that I have watched for them in

the context was Acme on Plan 9, where `shortcuts for common operations' are
unlikely to be as beneficial as you might think, not least because any
text on the screen is `operative': just click on it using
a suitable mouse button.  it's active text with a vengeance!
consequently, the things usually bound to keyboard accelerators
are not necessarily the `common operations' in Acme (more accurately, in its client applications).  furthermore,
your hand is probably already on the mouse, owing to the way the
interface works, and it would be more effort to shift to the keyboard!

see the Acme paper for examples.