Hi all,
In my first reply to this topic, I had in mind the 'small' keyboards
without arrows keys (I first started to code BASIC on an Apple 2 and the
T arrows weren't on the keyboard). This is why I said "although the use
of h/j/k/l might have originated for other reasons back in the old 'vi'
days". Thanks to Gene to confirm this and here is a picture of an
ADM-3a keyboard: http://neil.franklin.ch/Computers/ADM-3A/IMG_0344.JPG.
About the wrist movement that's just as bad when you hit ESC as when you
use the arrow keys: just do the movement in slow motion for yourself:
Hitting ESC is merely a little stretch with your hand (I use my middle
finger to hit ESC) while you have to move your arm, elbow, forearm and
hand to use the arrows keys. Don't forget either that in 'motion' mode
you have tons of other shortcuts that will speed up your typing and
avoid you to 'move' your hand to HOME, END, PG-UP and PG-DOWN etc. And
as Raimon pointed out, ESC can be remapped to anything you want that
could be easier for you to use.
If it is true that at first some of the shortcuts are a bit 'unnatural'
and could feel like you type twice more to reach the same results as
with using the keyboard-provided keys, in the long term, once you've
mastered motion in Vim, you'll realise that it's tuely priceless and it
does speed up your typing.
Good luck with it!
All the best;
Laurent
