Editor Ergonomics [was: Important features for editors]

[Roy Smith]

In article <2fdf282e-fd28-4ba3-8c83-aaaace1201ec at googlegroups.com>,
 jussij at zeusedit.com wrote:

> On Wednesday, July 10, 2013 2:17:12 PM UTC+10, Xue Fuqiao wrote:
> 
> > * It is especially handy for selecting and deleting text.
> 
> When coding I never use a mouse to select text regions or to delete text.
> 
> These operations I do using just the keyboard.

For good typists, there is high overhead to getting your hands oriented 
on the keyboard (that's why the F and J keys have little bumps).  So, 
any time you move your hand from the keyboard to the mouse, you pay a 
price.

The worst thing is to constantly be alternating between mouse actions 
and keyboard actions.  You spend all your time getting your fingers 
hands re-oriented.  That's slow.  This is why I never understood the 
attraction of something like xemacs, where you use the mouse to make 
text selections and run commands out of menus.  It means you have to 
keep switching hand modes.  I use emacs in non-window mode, which means 
my hands never leave the keyboard.