3 ms·

Or the reason for the JHKL vim arrow keys - I've read quite often how ergonomic that is, but it's just historical: http://www.catonmat.net/blog/why-vim-uses-hjk

Or the reason for the JHKL vim arrow keys - I've read quite often how ergonomic that is, but it's just historical: http://www.catonmat.net/blog/why-vim-uses-hjkl-as-arrow-keys/ http://www.catonmat.net/blog/why-vim-uses-hjkl-as-arrow-keys... (then again, maybe the original keyboard maker put them there for ergonomic reasons)

jandrese 10y ago
I always thought it was because on slow modem connections the traditional arrow keys could become unreliable. Vim supports use of the arrow keys, but back in the day when I tried to use them over a modem occasionally the sequence would be interpreted as escape then garbage, breaking me out of editing mode and sending some unsuppported command to the vim. That's why I learned to use hjkl instead. Those keys are also reliably placed on Qwerty keyboards, whereas any other keys may or may not remain in a sensible location, especially back in the old days before keyboard layouts settled down.
- _acme 10y ago
  There were no "traditional arrow keys" on the terminal that vi was developed on, but arrows were printed on the hjkl keys; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrow_keys#HJKL_keys https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrow_keys#HJKL_keys.