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created August 14, 2002 · complexity intermediate · author Alex A. Naanou · version 5.7
This is for programmers too lazy to move their hands to reach the far away Esc key. Actually the less your hands move around the faster you type.
Here is a small snippet from my mappings file, ready to speed things up. The key overloading might be a somewhat confusing at first.
imap <S-Space> <Esc>l imap <C-CR> <Esc>o imap <S-CR> <Esc>O nmap <S-Space> i nmap <Space><Space> i nnoremap <CR> o nmap <S-CR> O
Comments
I would rather extend my pinky quickly to <Esc> than pressing two keys at the same time. What is wrong with <Esc> key?
By trying to press <SHIFT> "and" <SPACE> at the same time, your whole hand is already moved downward, which actually delays the process. I think that you are not a touch typist, in which case this is not bothering at all. However, for the touch typist, moving the whole hand is the most annoying thing.
By pressing <Esc> alone with your pinkie, you don't need to move your whole hand, and get back to the your typing very quickly without looking at the keyboard.
It would seem that you have an odd keyboard if it is easier for you to press ESC than SHIFT+SPACE ... Resting the pinkie on 'a', there isn't any further to shift than there is to TAB ... Which happens to be more than two keys below ESC, usually. That, and most people rest at least one of their thumbs on SPACE anyway.
Reaching for ESC, at least on this keyboard, means having to actually lift the hand - a great deal. If you can extend your pinky to reach ESC on my keyboard (a very standard logitech layout), you either have a finger twice the length of my longest, or a home row of "1234".