3 ms·

With exception of the directional keybindings. I wonder how it came to be that the defaults are "jkl;" for the directions instead of the "hjkl" used by everythi

by jolmg 7y ago

With exception of the directional keybindings. I wonder how it came to be that the defaults are "jkl;" for the directions instead of the "hjkl" used by everything else (vi(m), less, shells, repls, etc.).

awake 7y ago
h for help and your fingers rest on jkl; not hjkl if you are typing with proper form
- jolmg 7y ago
  When you're browsing text, though, it's more common to move up and down in text than it is to move sideways. If you're typing with proper form, "hjkl" results in the index finger moving down and the middle finger moving up. So, your most useful finger is used for the most common action, and your second most useful finger for the second most common action. What's probably the third most common action, moving left would be done with your index finger, and right with your ring finger. You'd never have to use your awkward pinky finger for anything. With "jkl;", you'd be moving down with the middle finger, and up with the ring finger. Your dexterious index finger would be waiting for the moment when you'd want to move left, which is not as often, and you'd be encouraged to use your awkward pinky finger quite often. This isn't necessarily the case when working with windows, but by now it's a matter of consistency. Although, encouraging to use the pinky finger and not being able to use the index finger for 2 actions still sucks.
msoucy 7y ago
Probably just QWERTY "home row" layout
yyhhsj0521 7y ago
It seems that the intention was to emulate Vim [0], maybe the author was not familiar with it and made a mistake? [0] https://github.com/i3/i3/commit/6d0071db197031845b5f77febc22718869770a97 https://github.com/i3/i3/commit/6d0071db197031845b5f77febc22...
- ppseafield 7y ago
  IIRC it was deliberate so that users wouldn't have to move off the home row. The User's Guide states this is the reasoning behind it. > To move the focus between the two terminals, you can use the direction keys which you may know from the editor vi. However, in i3, your homerow is used for these keys (in vi, the keys are shifted to the left by one for compatibility with most keyboard layouts). Therefore, $mod+j is left, $mod+k is down, $mod+l is up and $mod+; is right. https://i3wm.org/docs/userguide.html https://i3wm.org/docs/userguide.html
  - jolmg 7y ago
    > in vi, the keys are shifted to the left by one for compatibility with most keyboard layouts I wonder where they got that idea. The keys are "hjkl" simply because they were inscribed with arrows in the machine Bill Joy used when creating vi[1][2]. From [1]: > Joy used a Lear Siegler ADM-3A terminal... the keys h,j,k,l served double duty as cursor movement keys and were inscribed with arrows, which is why vi uses them in that way. The StackExchange question has a picture of the keys. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vi#Creation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vi#Creation [2] https://vi.stackexchange.com/a/9315/14283 https://vi.stackexchange.com/a/9315/14283
    - secure 7y ago
      I remember reading about that, but it must have been after I wrote that part of the userguide 11 years ago: https://github.com/i3/i3/commit/1fcad44f66926e679f4af6e4f4d6abcba700034c https://github.com/i3/i3/commit/1fcad44f66926e679f4af6e4f4d6... :) Can you send a PR for https://github.com/i3/i3/blob/30e886b0319ee948863a36a65e5b7283f6dd8938/docs/userguide#L59 https://github.com/i3/i3/blob/30e886b0319ee948863a36a65e5b72... with your correction please?
      - jolmg 7y ago
        I'm not sure what you want the correction to be. Just delete the note in parentheses? Or change the default to "hjkl"?
calvinmorrison 7y ago
i am always surprised when people do not have noremap ; l noremap l k noremap k j noremap j h
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]

by jolmg 7y ago

awake 7y ago

h for help and your fingers rest on jkl; not hjkl if you are typing with proper form

jolmg 7y ago
When you're browsing text, though, it's more common to move up and down in text than it is to move sideways. If you're typing with proper form, "hjkl" results in the index finger moving down and the middle finger moving up. So, your most useful finger is used for the most common action, and your second most useful finger for the second most common action. What's probably the third most common action, moving left would be done with your index finger, and right with your ring finger. You'd never have to use your awkward pinky finger for anything. With "jkl;", you'd be moving down with the middle finger, and up with the ring finger. Your dexterious index finger would be waiting for the moment when you'd want to move left, which is not as often, and you'd be encouraged to use your awkward pinky finger quite often. This isn't necessarily the case when working with windows, but by now it's a matter of consistency. Although, encouraging to use the pinky finger and not being able to use the index finger for 2 actions still sucks.

msoucy 7y ago

Probably just QWERTY "home row" layout

yyhhsj0521 7y ago

It seems that the intention was to emulate Vim [0], maybe the author was not familiar with it and made a mistake? [0] https://github.com/i3/i3/commit/6d0071db197031845b5f77febc22718869770a97 https://github.com/i3/i3/commit/6d0071db197031845b5f77febc22...

ppseafield 7y ago
IIRC it was deliberate so that users wouldn't have to move off the home row. The User's Guide states this is the reasoning behind it. > To move the focus between the two terminals, you can use the direction keys which you may know from the editor vi. However, in i3, your homerow is used for these keys (in vi, the keys are shifted to the left by one for compatibility with most keyboard layouts). Therefore, $mod+j is left, $mod+k is down, $mod+l is up and $mod+; is right. https://i3wm.org/docs/userguide.html https://i3wm.org/docs/userguide.html
- jolmg 7y ago
  > in vi, the keys are shifted to the left by one for compatibility with most keyboard layouts I wonder where they got that idea. The keys are "hjkl" simply because they were inscribed with arrows in the machine Bill Joy used when creating vi[1][2]. From [1]: > Joy used a Lear Siegler ADM-3A terminal... the keys h,j,k,l served double duty as cursor movement keys and were inscribed with arrows, which is why vi uses them in that way. The StackExchange question has a picture of the keys. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vi#Creation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vi#Creation [2] https://vi.stackexchange.com/a/9315/14283 https://vi.stackexchange.com/a/9315/14283
  - secure 7y ago
    I remember reading about that, but it must have been after I wrote that part of the userguide 11 years ago: https://github.com/i3/i3/commit/1fcad44f66926e679f4af6e4f4d6abcba700034c https://github.com/i3/i3/commit/1fcad44f66926e679f4af6e4f4d6... :) Can you send a PR for https://github.com/i3/i3/blob/30e886b0319ee948863a36a65e5b7283f6dd8938/docs/userguide#L59 https://github.com/i3/i3/blob/30e886b0319ee948863a36a65e5b72... with your correction please?
    - jolmg 7y ago
      I'm not sure what you want the correction to be. Just delete the note in parentheses? Or change the default to "hjkl"?

calvinmorrison 7y ago

i am always surprised when people do not have noremap ; l noremap l k noremap k j noremap j h

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]