Using Microsoft's New CLI Text Editor on Ubuntu

Yep, which is really handy. I was specifically talking about copy and paste shortcuts being the same even in the terminal though.

Win+c works too on windows. So does ctrl+insert/shift+insert on the terminals I just tested (cmd.exe, microsoft terminal with tabs, git bash, blue powershell terminal).

Win+c/win+v looks like a good compromise, using the Windows button for OS/DE commands, instead of application commands.

On terminals, the control key masked off the 6th and 7th bits of the 8-bit value sent by the letter key. That's a bitwise AND with octal 037, or in decimal subtracting 96 from the lower case key value. This happens in the terminal (or keyboard) itself, so the computer doesn't see it as two pressed keys, it just gets the masked value. In ASCII 'c' is 99 (decimal), so when modified with control is 3, ETX (end of text), which teletypes used to indicate the end of text. So unix shells reused that control character to terminate the current program with SIGINT. But every letter key maps to a control character at the start of the ASCII range, like 'g' maps to BEL for the bell, or 'h' maps to BS (backspace). '[' maps to ESC (escape) which is handy when Apple decides to move the escape key on their laptop keyboard.

Alt-F4 is pretty reliable on Windows, but it's not as catchy because no one likes craning their left hand to reach the function key (even though you could just hold right Alt).

On a US keyboard where these shortcuts were developed, you'd have to stretch your hand across the keyboard to reach Ctrl-P. That's why it's Ctrl-V, it wasn't arbitrary.

I miss Sun keyboards and their dedicated copy/paste keys.

> I'd be curious to know if anyone here actually uses the ctrl or alt keys that are located on the right.

You must be located in the US, because the US is probably the only keyboard layout with a right Alt key. All the others have an AltGr key in that position.

I use the right Ctrl key in combination with the arrow, Backspace and Delete keys. Also with Return to enter the same content in multiple cells in Excel.

A lot of eu keyboard layouts use right alt as alt-gr for special characters. Because of that right control gets a lot of usage since you're using right alt constantly anyways.

Many keyboard layouts use the right alt as the AltGr key for additional characters like language-specific letters or currency symbols (or at least many European ones do).

As for the right ctrl, by association with the AltGr, I usually map it as the Compose key.

Hmm my Lisp Machine has control, meta, super, and hyper but no alt!

I used to use them back when Ctrl-Alt-Del was something you had to press daily.

There are old studies from the 70s showing that moving the cursor with mouse is faster than navigation keys. Tog famously claimed that Apple's internal studies consistently showed that mouse felt slower than it actually is, whereas keyboard navigation felt faster.

It's a signaling mechanism more than anything, as you can see from the other responses here.

"I can touch type" == "I spend enough time writing things on the computer every day that I have invested in the fluidity and comfort of my own hands" == "I'm enough of a nerd to actually be good at my job".

But it's also worth it from an ergonomics standpoint. I learned to touch type over the space of a few weeks of practice, meant years ago, and it's the reason I can use a split ortho keyboard today, which is much nicer on my wrists than the alternatives. I can also keep a notebook between the two keyboard halves which is much nicer to scribble on than having it to the side somewhere.

I would personally say that you should ignore it.

Programming isn't bottlenecked by how fast you can enter or type text, it is about focusing and thinking and then solving a problem. In other words, being able to enter text faster does not imply also being able to solve a problem faster.

I would even say that on the contrary, taking longer and reflecting on what you are typing more may perhaps result in a better quality solution of the problem being solved.

Consider me amazed! I would have thought it's something people pick up naturally by virtue of spending hours every day working with a keyboard.

I wouldn't link it to competency as a dev.

It’s exactly because of having more valuable things to do that you should have typing just be a subconscious act instead of having to take your eyes off the monitor all the time.

Thoughts go faster than fingers. It's already hard enough to keep up with my stream of thoughts when coding, when I'm touch typing pretty fast. I can't imagine my coding experience if I had to look at the keyboard to input my thoughts into the editor. It's subjective, everyone has a different experience, but I feel I would be severely impaired.

Touch typing is not super useful. I picked it up naturally over time, but it was just an accident. In general, the desire to type fast is a symptom of insufficient automation.

It is sort of nice to turning your laptop screen red and dim, and code on a dark porch at night (OLED screen required to get real darkness). Just you, the vim, and some fireflies. Your eyes will adjust to the darkness, and maybe you’ll see some animals that you don’t normally see.

Out of curiosity, why is this a yardstick for SW developers?

In my college, if you couldn't type 40 WPM, you didn't graduate.

As a software developer, written communication is your main output -- no matter whether it's code, Mails, documentation or presentations

Unless you are thinking slower than you are typing, you should invest in learning a basic and very easy skill