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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 betwe

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"?
    - secure 7y ago
      Ideally, replace the note in parentheses with the correct historical reason that you explained in your comment here? :)
      - jolmg 7y ago
        Isn't the note there to explain why i3 differs from vi? Adding the historical reason why vi used hjkl doesn't seem to justify i3 differing. It's almost irrelevant. Or do you think that not having arrows on "hjkl" is the justification of using "jkl;"? Personally, I can't see a good reason for "jkl;". The rationale that those are the keys where the fingers rest has been brought up here, but here is my response: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22349868 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22349868 The thing is that I believe the designers of ADM-3A made a good choice in putting the arrows on "hjkl" as opposed to "jkl;". It's much more ergonomic.
        jolmg 7y ago
        s/the justification of/a rationale to/ and s/justify/rationalize/. Couldn't think of the right word at the time.

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"?
  - secure 7y ago
    Ideally, replace the note in parentheses with the correct historical reason that you explained in your comment here? :)
    - jolmg 7y ago
      Isn't the note there to explain why i3 differs from vi? Adding the historical reason why vi used hjkl doesn't seem to justify i3 differing. It's almost irrelevant. Or do you think that not having arrows on "hjkl" is the justification of using "jkl;"? Personally, I can't see a good reason for "jkl;". The rationale that those are the keys where the fingers rest has been brought up here, but here is my response: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22349868 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22349868 The thing is that I believe the designers of ADM-3A made a good choice in putting the arrows on "hjkl" as opposed to "jkl;". It's much more ergonomic.
      - jolmg 7y ago
        s/the justification of/a rationale to/ and s/justify/rationalize/. Couldn't think of the right word at the time.