Date: Mon, 15 Jul 1996 14:15:29 -0400 (EDT) From: Tim Vanderhoek <hoek@freenet.hamilton.on.ca> To: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.de> Cc: Tim Vanderhoek <hoek@freenet.hamilton.on.ca>, FreeBSD Chat <chat@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Re: FreeBSD keyboard Message-ID: <Pine.SOL.3.91.960715134956.17819B-100000@james.freenet.hamilton.on.ca> In-Reply-To: <199607151006.MAA04523@allegro.lemis.de>
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On Mon, 15 Jul 1996, Greg Lehey wrote: > Tim Vanderhoek writes: > I wasn't talking about how to hit them, I was talking about how to get > to them when touch-typing. Me too! > I suppose I should make it clear at the > outset that there's no way to access F keys as easily as the base > keys, no matter where you put them. But I maintain that it's easier > to do so if they're on the left than if they're above. Maybe your hands are in some way dysfunctional? :) > > The F keys, however are greatly placed! Just curl the thumb to hit the > > <alt> and extend a finger and you're gone! > > I tried this with Alt-F1. The easiest way to do it is with the thumb > on Alt and the forefinger on the F1. In this position, the other > fingers are over the top half of the left-hand pad, which suggests it > should be easier to reach than the top. Forefinger?!?! My God! No wonder the rest of your hand ends up over top half of the left-hand pad! You should be using the finger right between the pinky and the middle finger (ring finger). If you follow the `xsw2' up a little bit, you'll find it ends up on F1 on most keyboards (I expect). > > By tilting one's left hand to > > the left, you can even hit <ctrl> at the same time! > > Yup, I can even manage that, but it requires the forefinger on CTRL > and the middle finger on F1. What on earth are you doing here!? You can't possibly be using the finger beside your thumb (the forefinger) to hit the ctrl!? That's ludicrous! You have to hit the <ctrl> with the bottom of the knuckle of your pinkie finger. > > I love it! > > It hurts. No. What hurts is twisting one's hand to hit the arrow keys, which are stupidly placed far enough to the right that you can't hit them without twisting your wrist in ways it's certainly not meant to be. > > OTOH, I suppose if your fingers are less than 10cm each (that's 4 inches > > for all the Americans here :) it could be a little harder... ;) > > This must be the problem. I never thought I had short fingers, but my > forefinger is 7.8 cm (3 1/16") long, my middle finger is 8.7 cm (3 > 1/2"), and my ring finger is 8 cm (3 1/4"), if that's relevant to this > discussion. Well, my fingers are 10, 11, 10.5, and 7cm from index to pinkie respectively. I suppose this could be part of your problem... ;) > > To be fair, I suppose the last time I did try the `F' keys on the left I > > was about 10 (years).... However, trying to hit virtual F keys on the > > left must be a pretty good approximation... :) > > What did you use them for? As I mentioned a while back, I use emacs a > lot. A lot of the more complicated functions have key combinations > like c-m-F1 (the example I was talking about). That's a lot easier to > hit when F1 is on the left, though of course it's not as easy as c-m-S > or some such. 7 years ago what did I use them for? No idea... probably not much, since at that time I was still trying to figure out howcome the computer would boot off of dad's floppies and not mine, or why (Sanyo) basic always locked up when I accidentally doubled the `l' in `list'... I just can't see myself hit the F keys on the left nearly as easily as when they're up at the top. Have to twist my wrist quite nastily. > > Ahh.... The days when the mouse sold with your computer still had three > > buttons... > > You mean you let them palm you off with less? Your own fault. I feel so guilty. -- Outnumbered? Maybe. Outspoken? Never! tIM...HOEk
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