Many applications mimic the VI in that they use hjkl for movement, but i3 uses jkl; (shifted by one to the right). What’s the reason?
i3 uses jkl; because these keys make up the "home row" underneath your right hand when touch typing. That is, your fingers should be in that position anyway, so you don’t need to move them when switching windows.
Note that hjkl was most likely chosen just for historic reasons, not for ergonomic reasons: http://www.catonmat.net/blog/why-vim-...
Therefore, i3’s choice is more ergonomic, IMO.
Also, if you really want to change them, it is really simple, and gives you a good reason to dive into i3’s configuration file :-).
As an aside, I personally don’t use hjkl anywhere, but instead use the arrow keys on level 4 of http://www.neo-layout.org/ (an alternative keyboard layout optimized for ergonomics).
Asked: 2012-10-31 12:04:41 +0000
Seen: 3,590 times
Last updated: Dec 12 '12
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