Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!cmcl2!adm!xadmx!rbj@nav.icst.nbs.gov
From: rbj@nav.icst.nbs.gov (Nilbert T Bignum)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: AT&T 630 terminal - software ??
Message-ID: <18414@adm.BRL.MIL>
Date: 21 Feb 89 00:54:31 GMT
Sender: news@adm.BRL.MIL
Lines: 41

? From: Ross Alexander <rwa@auvax.uucp>

? I am left handed.  I am _very_, _very_ left handed, always have been,
? & no apologies to anyone about it B-).  But, I always put the mouse on
? the right and use it dextrally.  Why?  Because it demands only fairly
? gross motor skills (pointing, and two to three buttons).  Whereas the
? left hand, on any keyboard worthy of the name, is the hand that needs
? good co-ordination.

And I am _very_, _very_ right handed. And we `normal' people are much
more inflexible about handedness than you sinister people are. Some
activitys don't even have a left-handed paradigm. For example, I bet
you play the piano right-handed :-) I think what is at issue here is
to what does `handedness' apply? Read on.

? I mean <CONTROL>, <SHIFT>, <TAB>, and <META> live on the left side
? almost exclusively, right?  And any emacs-hack knows that those are
? the most important keys on the keyboard, n'est ce' pas ?? Is Richard
? Stallman left-handed :-) :-) ??

I thought the most important key was the coke-bottle :-)

? And so, on my 630, my VaxStation, my Sun, and my Atari-ST it's "mouse on
? the right, left hand does the _clever_ stuff", such as META-SHIFT-< or
? whatever.  And of course, my coffee cups live on the left side too (to
? avoid swatting them with the mouse, since I never look at the mouse
? when I'm using it...)

Me neither, I'm a touch-mousist (:-), even tho I have a random typing
style.  What I quibble with is your notion of that the clever hand
must do the clever stuff. Consider playing guitar. Until you get to
finger-picking, the opposite hand does the clever stuff. Strumming is
pretty dumb. When I type, I use the left shift key always.  I submit
that either you have actually adapted to a right-handed paradigm, or
that handedness isn't really much of a factor as far as terminal
layout goes.

? 	Ross

	Nilbert T Bignum <rbj@nav.icst.nbs.gov>
	NTSI: Never Twice the Same Institute