9fans archive / 1998 / 08 / 34 / prev next From: Digby Tarvin digbyt@acm.org Subject: [9fans] using sam Date: Sun, 23 Aug 1998 20:38:24 +0100 (GMT/BST) >From digbyt Sun Aug 23 19:04:20 1998 >Received: (from root@localhost) > by cthulhu.dircon.co.uk (8.8.5/8.8.5) id TAA22656 > for digbyt (9fans@cse...); Sun, 23 Aug 1998 19:04:19 +0100 (GMT/BST) >X-Envelope-To: <cthulhu@pop...> >Received: from TDC.dircon.co.uk (root@tdc... [194.112.34.200]) > by popmail.dircon.co.uk (8.8.8/8.8.7) with SMTP id RAA04008 > for <cthulhu@pop...>; Sun, 23 Aug 1998 17:02:29 +0100 (BST) >Received: from popmail.dircon.co.uk by TDC.dircon.co.uk with SMTP id AA11114 > (5.67b/IDA-1.5 for <digbyt@tdc...>); Sun, 23 Aug 1998 17:02:28 +0100 >Received: from mail.acm.org (mail.acm.org [199.222.69.4]) > by popmail.dircon.co.uk (8.8.8/8.8.7) with ESMTP id RAA03975 > for <digbyt@dir...>; Sun, 23 Aug 1998 17:02:24 +0100 (BST) >Received: from cse.psu.edu (majordom@cla... [130.203.3.50]) by mail.acm.org (8.8.5/8.7.5) with ESMTP id LAA28758 for <digbyt@acm.org>; Sun, 23 Aug 1998 11:53:26 -0400 >Received: from localhost (majordom@localhost) by cse.psu.edu (8.8.8/8.7.3) with SMTP id MAA09668; Sun, 23 Aug 1998 12:02:04 -0400 (EDT) >Received: by claven.cse.psu.edu (bulk_mailer v1.5); Sun, 23 Aug 1998 12:01:54 -0400 >Received: (from majordom@localhost) by cse.psu.edu (8.8.8/8.7.3) id MAA09648 for 9fans-outgoing; Sun, 23 Aug 1998 12:01:49 -0400 (EDT) >X-Authentication-Warning: claven.cse.psu.edu: majordom set sender to owner-9fans using -f >Received: from caldo.demon.co.uk (none@cal... [194.222.207.148]) by cse.psu.edu (8.8.8/8.7.3) with SMTP id MAA09644 for <9fans@cs....>; Sun, 23 Aug 1998 12:01:42 -0400 (EDT) >From: forsyth@cal... >Message-Id: <199808231601.MAA09644@cse...> >To: 9fans@cse... >Date: Sun, 23 Aug 1998 16:52:34 BST >Subject: Re: [9fans] using sam >Sender: owner-9fans@cse... >Reply-To: 9fans@cse... >Precedence: bulk >X-UIDL: 387fb39663bac79bb532d125b36f666d > >last night in a hurry i wrote > >> up/down movement in non-proportional text is included -- > >of course i meant proportional (-spaced) text not non-proportional. >cursor keys make some sense when things are laid out >on a fixed-sized grid (including menu items), >which is why they made sense in >the vt100 and DOS worlds, from which they were imported >into the bitmapped world. > >>my decision was to make it the null selection. there's also >>the question of which end of the selection to use. i chose to >>always use q0 (the start), but could see an argument for using > >that's what i did when i enabled left/right movement as an >experiment, to see if it made people happier. >the world is still a vale of tears, the weather here is worse than ever, >and i conclude the experiment was a failure. > I should probably add that, when I was asking about cursor movement, I was not really asking for 'arrow' or function keys. I would use arrow keys in preference to a mouse if I just wanted to skip over one character in a line, but in general I shun binding functions to these keys on other editors. I avoid PC keyboards when I can, so prefer not to assume they exist, and it is a pain to find arrow/function keys on some laptops. On emacs, I am happy with control-f/control-b/crontrol-p/control-n, and on modal editors like vi, I usr hjkl to move around. Perhaps I could get by with something like having ESC take me to the sam window, from which I could move my cursor and then return. That would still be easier than trying to align a mouse pointer on a laptop in a bumpy train... (although the lack of a standard for positioning things like escape, tab, control etc is another source of frustration :-/) Regards, DigbyT -- Digby R. S. Tarvin digbyt@acm.org http://www.cthulhu.dircon.co.uk