{"id":4579,"date":"2023-10-20T10:32:59","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T18:32:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bendwavy.org\/wp\/?p=4579"},"modified":"2023-10-26T12:22:06","modified_gmt":"2023-10-26T20:22:06","slug":"whither-arrows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bendwavy.org\/wp\/?p=4579","title":{"rendered":"whither arrows"},"content":{"rendered":"

In anticipation of my next keyboard<\/a>, I have been doodling layouts of the non-alpha layers<\/a>, as one does. Today let’s discuss arrow keys. <\/p>\n

Regular users of vi<\/a> often arrange them as in that editor:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
h ←<\/td>\n j ↓<\/td>\n k ↑<\/td>\n l →<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

although they often have other letters in those positions. They may shift this row one step to the right so that all arrows are on home keys. On another row they place these loosely analogous keys:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
home<\/td>\n page down<\/td>\n page up<\/td>\n end<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Others prefer the inverted T arrangement of traditional fullsize boards, known to videogamers as WASD:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
 <\/td>\n ↑<\/td>\n  <\/td>\n  <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
←<\/td>\n ↓<\/td>\n →<\/td>\n  <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

and fill the adjacent slots thus:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
home<\/td>\n ↑<\/td>\n end<\/td>\n page up<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
←<\/td>\n ↓<\/td>\n →<\/td>\n page down<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Another possibility:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
↑<\/td>\n home<\/td>\n end<\/td>\n page up<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
↓<\/td>\n ←<\/td>\n →<\/td>\n page down<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

I first honed my typing speed on the PLATO IV<\/a> keyboard, which had symmetrical arrows:
\n

\"keyboard<\/center>
\nOblique arrow keys are not available to me now, but I can try this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
 <\/td>\n ↑<\/td>\n page up<\/td>\n  <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
←<\/td>\n home<\/td>\n →<\/td>\n end<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
 <\/td>\n ↓<\/td>\n page down<\/td>\n  <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

though I am prepared to learn that this (or indeed one of the above) is easier to keep straight:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
 <\/td>\n ↑<\/td>\n page up<\/td>\n  <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
←<\/td>\n →<\/td>\n home<\/td>\n end<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
 <\/td>\n ↓<\/td>\n page down<\/td>\n  <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In anticipation of my next keyboard, I have been doodling layouts of the non-alpha layers, as one does. Today let’s discuss arrow keys.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[79],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-keyboard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bendwavy.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bendwavy.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bendwavy.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bendwavy.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bendwavy.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4579"}],"version-history":[{"count":30,"href":"https:\/\/bendwavy.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4579\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4615,"href":"https:\/\/bendwavy.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4579\/revisions\/4615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bendwavy.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bendwavy.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bendwavy.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}