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From: | Joost Kremers |
Subject: | Re: Doc of keyboard macros |
Date: | Mon, 24 Sep 2018 22:17:01 +0200 |
User-agent: | mu4e 1.1.0; emacs 26.1.50 |
On Mon, Sep 24 2018, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
From: Juri Linkov <address@hidden>Cc: Stefan Monnier <address@hidden>, address@hiddenDate: Mon, 24 Sep 2018 22:23:03 +0300There is a current tendency towards deprecating F1-F10 function keys by hardware manufacturers. These keys are already hard to press by default on PC: a special additional key <Fn> needs to be pressed in combination of <Fn>-<F3>, and a Chromebook has no row of function keys at all: in orderto get <F4>, you have to press <Search>-4.Those are still faster than "C-x (", since they are a single key combination, whereas "C-x (" is 2 key combinations.
I think that's debatable. Personally, if I want to hit a function key, I need to move my hand from the home row to reach for it, and I need to look at the keyboard to do it. Also, the <Fn> special modifier key is not in my muscle memory, which means I'd need to look at that as well.[1]
So hitting `C-x (` is definitely faster for me and requires no conscious action, quite unlike the function keys. I never use F3/F4 to define keyboard macros.
In fact, I never quite understood why (some) function keys have default bindings at all in Emacs. To me, function keys are as cumbersome as cursor keys, Home/End, or PgUp/PgDn.[2] Not that I mind, of course, it's just puzzling to me.
Joost[1] My laptop's BIOS allows me to switch the effect of the Fn key, so I could actually get <F3> by pressing just the relevant key without Fn if I wanted to. But I'd still need to look at the keyboard to press it.
[2] Admittedly, those have default bindings as well, but they are standard across applications and operating systems. Function keys are not.
-- Joost Kremers Life has its moments
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