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Re: Learning emacs
From: |
Lee Sau Dan |
Subject: |
Re: Learning emacs |
Date: |
20 Jan 2003 16:45:23 +0100 |
User-agent: |
Gnus/5.0808 (Gnus v5.8.8) Emacs/20.7 |
>>>>> "Paul" == Paul O'Donnell <odonnellp@rogers.com> writes:
Paul> Hi All, I am completely new to emacs, and looking forward to
Paul> learning how to use this much praised editor.
The key to learning Emacs: don't be greedy. You cannot learn all of
it at once. (I still don't know many packages even after 10 years of
heavy use.) Learn the packages one by one. Again, don't expect to
know each package from inside out. You just need to know enough of
the package for your daily use.
Paul> I am also new to Linux in general. I am a programmer,
Paul> currently teaching myself Lisp and want to use a tool like
Paul> emacs that I can use for all the languages that I write code
Paul> in.
In that case, have patience with the Emacs on-line tutorial (C-h t).
When you've got comfortable using the features that you've learnt from
the tutorial, leard to use 'dir-ed' -- the file browser. Browser
around your file system. The Linux file system is organized quite
differently from Windows. So, having tours around the file system is
a good way to discover what's in the system. You'll discover a lot of
helpful documents, e.g. in /usr/doc, /usr/share/doc, etc. It varies
with distros. But dir-ed does let you browse around easily.
Paul> Coming from the Windows world emacs is not at all what I am
Paul> used to. I am not much of a typist, maybe 45 wpm,
45wpm is already quite fast. Very often, we normally don't think as
fast. So, unless you're copy-typing, you seldom really reach speeds
over 60wpm. And I bet that no one can do 45 *meaningful* mouse clicks
(shall I multiple this by the 5 keys/word ratio?) in a minute. By
"meaningful", I mean the clicks really do what one wants. This must
thus require _hunting and shooting_ the correct GUI buttons and menus.
Paul> as long as I don't have to use Control and Alt keys, which
Paul> brings me to my question.
I've "solved" this problem for many years.
Paul> I don't know which fingers to use to press these keys.
I don't use fingers for these. I use my palm (not the PDA, but the
body part). Rest your fingers on the home rows. Now, which parts of
your palm are closest to the control and alt keys? I use these parts
to press these keys. Since modern keyboards have them on both sides,
you can press control/alt any-letter with minimal hand movement. (Too
bad that new keyboards pollutes the space-bar row with useless keys,
making the Alt keys more difficult to press correctly in this manner.
So, I prefer AT-101 keyboards to those with "window" and "menu" keys.)
Paul> It seems obvious to me that the baby finger of the opposite
Paul> hand should be used for the Control key,
hehe... I don't need fingers for Control. The part where my little
finger joins my palm is where my hand gets in touch with the control
key!
Paul> but what about the Alt key? The thumb of the opposite hand
Paul> maybe?
This is quite natural. I also do this, although the palm where the
index finger emerges is also possible.
Paul> I don't want to download typing tutorial software. I really
Paul> don't have time for that. I just want to know which fingers
Paul> to use.
At 45wpm (do you mean wpm, where w=5 keystrokes?), I don't think you
really need any typing tutorial software, unless you want to train
yourself to become a real typist or audio-typist. 45wpm is fast
enough.
--
Lee Sau Dan 李守敦(Big5) ~{@nJX6X~}(HZ)
E-mail: danlee@informatik.uni-freiburg.de
Home page: http://www.informatik.uni-freiburg.de/~danlee