On Sun, Dec 18, 2016, at 17:03, Gregory Ewing wrote: > mm0fmf wrote: > > +1 for knowing where CTRL should be. > > Bonus +1 for having used an ASR33. > > And it's quite remarkable that the designers of the ASR33 > knew exactly where it would need to be for Emacs users > years later! I think Richard Stallman must have a time > machine as well.
Except for the fact that the actual keyboard that Emacs was originally developed for [the Knight Keyboard, and the later Symbolics "Space Cadet" Keyboards] had the control key more or less where it is on modern PC keyboards [slightly further to the right, so easier to reach with the thumb of the same-side hand], and the Meta key to its left. To the left of A was "rub out". I assume the original Emacs users used proper touch-typing style: modifier keys with the opposite hand from the letter they were using it with, rather than trying to contort the same-side hand into hitting both keys at once. Meanwhile, users of Unix systems were stuck with terminals like the ADM-3A and VT-100, which, inherited from the ASR-33 but one must assume the real reason was to save money, only had one control key and no true meta key (one escape key). I suspect there would have only been one shift key if they could have got away with it. -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list