I was reading about vim the other day and found out why it used `hjkl` keys as arrow keys. When Bill Joy created the vi text editor he used the ADM-3A terminal, which had the arrows on hjkl keys. Naturally he reused the same keys and the rest is history. Here is how the `hjkl` keys looked. ADM-3A keyboard's hjkl keys...
And the home directory is aliased to ~ in UNIX-like systems because the tilde key doubled as the Home key.
Oh, I know. I’ve been using VI since 1992. I was just wondering, given that wasd is the popular navigation format now thanks to gaming, if VI would have been coded differently today.
WASD in gaming is generally used with the hand shifted one position left of the home keys, so it would require a typist to continually reposition. ESDF or IJKL would be a better choice, and closer to what vi does.
Oh, I know. I’ve been using VI since 1992. I was just wondering, given that
wasdis the popular navigation format now thanks to gaming, if VI would have been coded differently today.WASD in gaming is generally used with the hand shifted one position left of the home keys, so it would require a typist to continually reposition. ESDF or IJKL would be a better choice, and closer to what vi does.