h,j,k,l in vi

[Jerry Peek]

In article <726 at ucbtopaz.CC.Berkeley.ARPA> mwm at ucbtopaz.UUCP (Praiser of Bob) writes:
>
> >If you have ever seen an adm-3a terminal you will know where h,j,k,l come
> >from. Those keys had arrows on the keys and ^h,^j,^k,^l moved the cursor
> >appropriately. Those keys also control the movement of worm(6).
> 
> The adm-3 I used didn't *have* arrow keys :-). Yes, I know where those key
> choices came from. That's not a good reason to force them on other people.
> Sort of like IBM insisting that you have a 32xx to use some of their tools.

I think there's another reason for using h, j, k, and l: If you're a touch
typist, you'll notice that the keys are on the "home row", where they're
very easy to reach.  It gets so natural to use j and k for up and down
that when I'm using an electric typewriter and want to make a correction,
I end up with a bunch of k's on the paper...

--Jerry Peek, UNIX Training Instructor, Tektronix, Inc.
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