3 ms·

As the meta key, i.e., hitting ESC then x for M-x.

• jefftk 7y ago
  On a Mac I use "option" for this; much shorter reach
  • mitchty 7y ago
    Indeed, never even crossed my mind to set the escape key to meta, definitely not a default even for Cocoa emacs.
  • pantulis 7y ago
    It's funny but I've been using Emacs for almost 25 years and still use ESC instead of ALT/OPTION, guess that's muscle memory from using Emacs via telnet sessions.
    • fortran77 7y ago
      That's my experience, too, I guess it's from learning EMACS and its ancestors on actual VT-100 style terminals with no meta keys.
    • jlokier 7y ago
      Alt+Key doesn't save any keystrokes over Esc+Key anyway, and I think the Esc version is easier to type. Especially things like Esc : (which is Esc then Shift-;) is surely easier to type than Alt-Shift-;.