5 ms·

j goes down because it looks like a down arrow.

jolmg 3y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADM-3A#Legacy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADM-3A#Legacy > The use of the HJKL keys for moving the cursor in the vi editor and its descendants originated from the ADM-3A [...] The ←, ↓, ↑, → and Home labels printed on the H, J, K, L, and ~ ^ keys were a visual reference to the control characters Ctrl+H, Ctrl+J, Ctrl+K, Ctrl+L, and Ctrl+~ ^ that were required to move the cursor left, down, up, right, and to the top/left corner (or "Home" position) of the terminal, respectively [...] The Ctrl+H and Ctrl+J functions were the standard ASCII backspace and line feed respectively, but the interpretations of Ctrl+K, Ctrl+L, and Ctrl+~ ^ were new to the ADM-3A. Seems almost a happy accident. I personally like the placement because the most common movement in a document is down and it's placed right under the most dextrous finger, the index finger, by a coincidence between ASCII encoding and the QWERTY layout. Up being the second most common movement was put under the second most dextrous finger. Nice.
- yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago
  It really is funny how much vi's odd-looking key choices aren't odd at all once you see the keyboard it was developed on:)
  - gjvc 3y ago
    The value of being taught something by an expert.
- tylerhou 3y ago
  I didn't know about the history, thanks for sharing! (j = downarrow was a mnemonic I used while learning vim.)
- semi-extrinsic 3y ago
  Here is a direct link to the ADM-3A keyboard layout: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADM-3A#/media/File:KB_Terminal_ADM3A.svg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADM-3A#/media/File:KB_Terminal...
  - woleium 3y ago
    Great, now I want a "here is" key
arcanemachiner 3y ago
I just looked down at my keyboard... The letter 'j' has been rubbed off.
- taneq 3y ago
  None of the keys on my keyboard have markings on them. :D
  - fuzztester 3y ago
    Just worn out from use, or do you have a Das keyboard, the kind with blank keycaps? I knew a developer who had one. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Das_Keyboard https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Das_Keyboard
    - taneq 3y ago
      Das Keyboard, yep.
      - quickthrower2 3y ago
        Let me guess: Dvorak

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADM-3A#Legacy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADM-3A#Legacy > The use of the HJKL keys for moving the cursor in the vi editor and its descendants originated from the ADM-3A [...] The ←, ↓, ↑, → and Home labels printed on the H, J, K, L, and ~ ^ keys were a visual reference to the control characters Ctrl+H, Ctrl+J, Ctrl+K, Ctrl+L, and Ctrl+~ ^ that were required to move the cursor left, down, up, right, and to the top/left corner (or "Home" position) of the terminal, respectively [...] The Ctrl+H and Ctrl+J functions were the standard ASCII backspace and line feed respectively, but the interpretations of Ctrl+K, Ctrl+L, and Ctrl+~ ^ were new to the ADM-3A. Seems almost a happy accident. I personally like the placement because the most common movement in a document is down and it's placed right under the most dextrous finger, the index finger, by a coincidence between ASCII encoding and the QWERTY layout. Up being the second most common movement was put under the second most dextrous finger. Nice.

yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago
It really is funny how much vi's odd-looking key choices aren't odd at all once you see the keyboard it was developed on:)
- gjvc 3y ago
  The value of being taught something by an expert.
tylerhou 3y ago
I didn't know about the history, thanks for sharing! (j = downarrow was a mnemonic I used while learning vim.)
semi-extrinsic 3y ago
Here is a direct link to the ADM-3A keyboard layout: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADM-3A#/media/File:KB_Terminal_ADM3A.svg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADM-3A#/media/File:KB_Terminal...
- woleium 3y ago
  Great, now I want a "here is" key

arcanemachiner 3y ago

I just looked down at my keyboard... The letter 'j' has been rubbed off.

taneq 3y ago
None of the keys on my keyboard have markings on them. :D
- fuzztester 3y ago
  Just worn out from use, or do you have a Das keyboard, the kind with blank keycaps? I knew a developer who had one. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Das_Keyboard https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Das_Keyboard
  - taneq 3y ago
    Das Keyboard, yep.
    - quickthrower2 3y ago
      Let me guess: Dvorak