From: John Gabriele <jmg3000@...>
Date: 2006-04-27T00:48:54+09:00
Subject: Re: Ruby IDE

On 4/26/06, tsuraan@tsuraan.net <tsuraan@tsuraan.net> wrote:
> > Besides that, in general I find myself slowed down constantly hitting
> > Ctrl-[, forgetting whether I'm in command mode or not. Either that, or
> > I'm filling my files with ":w" or ">>" or "i", "b", "w"...
>
> The Ctrl-[ thing is interesting to me, because I've never heard of
> anyone else escaping that way.  Out of curiosity, is your control key
> in the corner of your keyboard, or next to the 'a' key? For me, with
> my control key right by my 'a' key, hitting ctrl-[ is really quick and
> easy.  The escape key is just too far off the home row for me to bother
> with :)

On the Contoured keyboard (see link in my previous post), you hit the
control keys (and alt keys, and a few others) with your thumbs. It's
symmetrical, so you can use either thumb.

The escape key is way up to the top left side of the keyboard and is
just a little rubber nub of a key, about 6 mm X 9 mm, and is not
useful for regular use. You have to take your left hand off the home
row to reach it (and hope you hit it instead of one of the also tiny
rubber F-keys).

Incidentally, I type using the dvorak layout, and on my keyboard the
'[' is in a fairly awkward position (2 rows down from the home row on
my right ring finger), but is still way easier to deal with than the
Esc key.