3 ms·

>Is faster typing really the solution to the problem of wanting to professionalize computer programming? I think both you and the article are making a mistake

by EdiX 12y ago

>Is faster typing really the solution to the problem of wanting to professionalize computer programming? I think both you and the article are making a mistake here. If you listen closely to the 1968 demo and, especially, its 1969 follow-up (available on archive.org) it's clear that Engelbart was not using the chorded keyboard for text input but for command input. You should think of NLS text editor as a vi without cursor addressing: you would enter the command to execute with the chorded keyboard then select the target character/word/sentence with the mouse cursor. You can follow the evolution of this idea throughout history. Many of Engelbart's "employees" went to work for Xerox Labs, the Xerox Alto used the keyset to give commands just like Engelbart's NLS. The keyset was removed from Xerox Star after it proved to hard to learn and replaced with an extra block of keys on the left of the keyboard [2] with the most used commands. When apple copied from xerox they got rid of this extra block (probably in the name of ease of use) but someone kept the idea alive by inventing the ctrl-zxcv for undo, cut, copy, paste that are conveniently placed all on the left side of the keyboard, so that you can use them while your other hand is on the mouse, like Engelbart always intended. On this page [1] you can see some of the command given using a combination of the keyset (the chorded keyboard) and the mouse, it is not exhaustive however. [1] http://chm.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?NlsTechnical/KeysetMap http://chm.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?NlsTechnical/KeysetMap [2] http://www.digibarn.com/friends/curbow/star/keyboard/keyboard2.JPG http://www.digibarn.com/friends/curbow/star/keyboard/keyboar...

DennisP 12y ago
Vim even has the verb-noun structure that Engelbart advocated. A while back I played around with some old Windows 3.0 software based on Engelbart's Augment. The modern tool closest in spirit to it is probably Emacs org-mode with evil-mode.
leoc 12y ago
> Engelbart was not using the chorded keyboard for text input but for command input. It was designed for both, and certainly Engelbart himself could and did type with it. Context menus (originally from Smalltalk) are another substitute for the expanded command set of NLS' chording-augmented mouse. The advantage of having a chord keyboard for typing is that you can avoid the mouse-to-keyboard-to-mouse hand-movements that are so annoying when you can only type with a two-handed keyboard. However a one-handed chord keyboard is even slower than two-handed QWERTY when it comes to typing, all else being equal, and there is obviously the burden of having to learn it. For programmers and many other people, then, a better setup is probably a two-hand keyboard that lets you control a mouse pointer with minimal hand movement: and in fact we now have these, in the form of pointing-stick keyboards and keyboards with a trackpad in relatively easy reach of the user's thumbs http://www.loper-os.org/?p=861&cpage=1#comment-16138 http://www.loper-os.org/?p=861&cpage=1#comment-16138 . The mystery is why why people are still selling and buying expensive keyboards without either.

by EdiX 12y ago

DennisP 12y ago

Vim even has the verb-noun structure that Engelbart advocated. A while back I played around with some old Windows 3.0 software based on Engelbart's Augment. The modern tool closest in spirit to it is probably Emacs org-mode with evil-mode.

leoc 12y ago

> Engelbart was not using the chorded keyboard for text input but for command input. It was designed for both, and certainly Engelbart himself could and did type with it. Context menus (originally from Smalltalk) are another substitute for the expanded command set of NLS' chording-augmented mouse. The advantage of having a chord keyboard for typing is that you can avoid the mouse-to-keyboard-to-mouse hand-movements that are so annoying when you can only type with a two-handed keyboard. However a one-handed chord keyboard is even slower than two-handed QWERTY when it comes to typing, all else being equal, and there is obviously the burden of having to learn it. For programmers and many other people, then, a better setup is probably a two-hand keyboard that lets you control a mouse pointer with minimal hand movement: and in fact we now have these, in the form of pointing-stick keyboards and keyboards with a trackpad in relatively easy reach of the user's thumbs http://www.loper-os.org/?p=861&cpage=1#comment-16138 http://www.loper-os.org/?p=861&cpage=1#comment-16138 . The mystery is why why people are still selling and buying expensive keyboards without either.