The default GNU Emacs key bindings seem to work very well. They seem
particularly well-thought-out, in fact. Like stones in a stream, worn
by movement and time to have very few rough edges... They mesh well
with the ascii control characters, and I particularly like how M-
is often used as a sort of "turbo boost" to C- (like C-f vs. M-f,
for example). In cases where it makes no sense to boost the C-key,
Emacs often has elegant mnemonic bindings, for example, M-u, M-l, M-c.

Were the bindings designed as such right from the beginning by only
RMS? Or have they morphed over the years, with user and developer
requests guiding changes? Can anyone shed any light on the history of
the default key binding choices?

(Please note, I don't wish to start another thread comparing Emacs key
combinations with CUA bindings. I realize that, for whatever reasons,
some people just don't like or can't get used to Emacs key combos, but
I was hoping this thread would simply address the development and
history of Emacs bindings over time.)

Thanks.

As far as I know, the way it happened is that Richard climbed up the
mountain, where God almighty told him the bindings to use.

Stefan

On Nov 14, 9:07 pm, Stefan Monnier wrote:

And carrying those heavy keybindings-tablets down gave him a bad case
of emacs-pinky

On 11/14/07, Stefan Monnier wrote:

Do you mean, God told Richard the bindings He was already using, don't
you? I'm sure not even Him could manage a six-day totally on-schedule
world creation event without some kind of planning mode on Emacs...

Juanma

In article <1195020235.983333.46390@o38g2000hse.googlegroups.com>,
bramble gmail.com> wrote:

Thanks, Barry.

emacs's keybind is actually the worst possible in both ergonomic and
ease of use considerations. Likely a randomly generated shortcut set
will have a 30%% chance better.

See: Why Emacs's Keyboard Shortcuts Are Painful
http://xahlee.org/emacs/emacs_kb_shortcuts_pain.html

The Modernization of Emacs
http://xahlee.org/emacs/modernization.html

Xah
xah@xahlee.org

File: genesis.org

----------------------------------------------------------------------
-*- mode: org -*-

GENESIS - THE WORLD PROJECT

* Environment
** TODO Create Heavens And Earth
SCHEDULED: <0000-00-01 Mon>
** TODO Make Light
SCHEDULED: <0000-00-01 Mon>
** TODO Make The Sky
SCHEDULED: <0000-00-02 Tue>
** TODO Make Some Land
SCHEDULED: <0000-00-03 Wed>
** TODO Make The Sun And The Moon
SCHEDULED: <0000-00-04 Thu>
** TODO Make The Stars
SCHEDULED: <0000-00-04 Thu>

Xah Lee wrote:

Take a look at sticky modifiers:

http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki/StickyModifiers

On Nov 15, 7:06 pm, "Lennart Borgman (gmail)"
gmail.com> wrote:

Thanks Lennart. This is just what I was looking for. Didn't know the
name sticky keys so couldn't ask