From: utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!C70:editor-people
Newsgroups: fa.editor-p
Title: EMACS Keystroke Statistics
Article-I.D.: ucb.1207
Posted: Fri May 28 02:24:06 1982
Received: Sat May 29 03:01:54 1982

>From z@CCA-UNIX Fri May 28 01:19:50 1982
There was a recent question asking about EMACS keystroke
statistics.  In order to know what functions to assign to function keys
for those who like that sort of thing, a week and a half ago I put into
the Unix EMACS that I wrote a function to collect keystroke statistics
from all users on our VAX.  The sample is now up to almost 700,000
characters, and as my EMACS is used by everyone from secretaries to
programmers to managers, it provides a good snapshot of well-rounded
editor usage.

	The first part of the output is a chart of ASCII characters vs.
prefixes.  My EMACS uses the standard Tops-20 method of assigning
character and prefix codes, with the addition of a new Control-C prefix.
The Meta-O, Escape, and Escape ? prefixes are present solely to
accomodate terminals with wired-in function keys.

	The second part of the output is just a rearrangement of the
first part, ranked by key.  It's interesting to note that one out of
eleven characters typed in EMACS are spaces.  Typesetters out there may
almost recognize the string "etaoin srldu" (?) in the frequency table.

	The third part of the output is a ranking by command, tying
together all the keys which invoke a single command.  It is here that
you can see that C-N and various function keys combine to make 
^R Down Real Line the fourth most often invoked command.  Interestingly,
^R Up Real Line is used less than half as much.

	Here's the sample output, which should be a gold mine for
statistical types.  Enjoy!  (For best results, this should be printed
out on a 132-column line printer.)


[ Editor's note:  the original message is some 56000 characters long,
    much too long to send to all Editor-People members.  I am
    truncating the message at this point.  Anyone intersted in
    actually seeing the statistics should FTP the file:
         [SCORE]<ADMIN.JQJ>Z-EMACS.STATISTICS

    If you don't have access to ARPAnet FTP, send me mail requesting a
    copy of the statistics.     /Admin.JQJ ]