Category: Article

Ortho-Linear Emacs and VI Keyboard Designs 1-7

Keyboard Layout Editor is powerful. It lets you easily explore layouts. As you type on them in your mind’s eye, you really “try out” the keyboad. Just put your hands on your current keyboard and do your best. At every try you learn something new about what you want. It is like programming with Elisp!

The following are my first 7 revisions of my experimental keyboard layout.

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Ëmäcs and the Heavy Metal Umlaut

Jon’s article reveals the Möglichkeiten for inputting umlauts in Emacs. Maybe you’ve been avoiding some words because they are difficult to input. In particular, maybe you’ve been avoiding using the Metal umlaut.

For example:

  • Motörhead (RIP Lemmy)
  • Mötley Crüe
  • Queensrÿche (Version 1)
  • Blue Öyster Cult

It seems perfectly natural to apply to Emacs, christening it:

Ëmäcs

Give it some time to grow on you, because Magnar Sveen has already established that Ëmäcs Rocks!

Addendum: <2016-04-16 Sat>

Re-published because I broke my RSS feed syndicated for Planet Emacsen and @hober fixed it. Thank you @hober.

Ortho-Linear Emacs and VI Keyboard Design 8

For creating key-binding name-spaces (key-spaces), modifier keys, key-chords (single and dual key) and Hydras each have unique strengths. For my use case, I wanted a bigger modifier key-space so I started there with Super.

Although Super is supposed to be reserved non-native packages, it is already getting scarfed up because the native key-spaces are painfully overcrowded. To top it off, when you run Emacs on Windows, Windows intercepts a bunch of key-presses for itself and never sends them to Emacs. Yea you can disable some, but not all and it is irritating. For my configuration, this is a showstopper issue and all of workaround are too painful. I enjoy using modifier keys, so I turned to Hyper.

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Interruptions During Meditation Practice Are Gifts

When you get serious about your meditation practice you will surely encounter external interruptions you had never before imagined. Your first reaction will be frustration and anger at them. That is fine and it is normal. The fun comes when you take these interruptions as an opportunity for expansion.

Turn them into your practice. Take the critical phone call about the issue that everyone will forget tomorrow. Tell the kids playing in the hallway to have fun and to be careful not to trip. Come to think of it, those interruptions seem pretty typical. It is your reaction to it that is atypical; that is what contains the magic.