I have to think (and experiment) every single time | Hacker News Reader

I have to think (and experiment) every single time

37signals.com

94 pointsfogus39 comments

There's very little context in the "article" or these comments. Can someone give some background for users who have never entered a keyboard shortcut on an Apple computer?

What exactly is the author concerned about that's interesting enough to post about on the internet and interesting enough to link to on HN?

I'm interested and feel like I'm missing part of the picture.

The symbols Macs use to represent modifier keys (control, alt/option, command) are hard to decipher, and on newer Mac keyboards only the command key contains the symbol printed on it.

This is true mainly on US keyboards. UK keyboards have all but the 'ctrl' icons printed on them. I have never understood why the US keyboards only have their text equivalents.

Because the symbols are hard to decipher, of course.

In the comments, someone points out that the option/alt symbol looks like a branch or a highway turn-off. I never realized that but it works for me.

Even more interesting is this uncited explanation from Wikipedia (also mentioned in the comments): "This symbol, originating on the Apple Lisa, represented the pull-out plastic card situated under the Lisa keyboard."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Option_key

The story behind the CMD key is always a good read if you haven't heard it: http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Swedish_Campgroun...

I always assumed it was a stylized representation of the word "ALT"...

Now that you said it, I can see that too... interesting.

Entering many of these combinations on a MBP feels like playing Twister with my hands.

Also ↖? Seriously? (Where the hell is the "Home" key on a current Mac laptop?)

"Where the hell is the "Home" key on a current Mac laptop?"

On mine, it's the right Command key. And End is the right Option key.

I decided I needed Home and End way more than I needed another set of Option and Command.

Also, Eject is remapped to (forward) Delete, and Capslock is now Control.

Here's the program I use: http://pqrs.org/macosx/keyremap4macbook/

Home is C-a (hold control, hit a), End is C-e. Delete-forward is C-d. Delete-line is C-k. C-o inserts a newline after your cursor without moving it.

To help start using these, go into your keyboard options to remap "caps lock" to "ctrl", your pinky will thank you.

I was aware of the Emac-isms (as I think of them) of C-a and C-e for start and end of line in the terminal and elsewhere in Mac applications.

But do those two serve the same function that Home does in applications where Home and End send you to the start or end of the whole page? To put it in terms I'm more comfortable with, I thought that in some contexts Home was like Vim's gg.

For example, I just opened Safari. fn + right arrow brings me to the bottom of the page; fn + left arrow brings me back to the top of the page (home and end). In that case, C-a and C-e do nothing. I'm not really sure if you're wrong or I'm very confused or both at this point. But I don't think C-a and C-e are exactly Home and End. (I suppose it doesn't help that in a browser, there's another Home - ^⌘H in that case.)

cmd-left

Actually, I believe it's fn-left.

I guess my MacBook isn't "current".

I'm a new Mac user, and I concur. I have only figured out the simple one-key shortcuts. and I am a key-macro person normally!

So I copy files to my Windows desktop, manipulate them there, then copy them back. Speeds up development.

If you have to think and experiment every time, you probably aren't using the functionality bound to the keyboard enough to need shortcuts.

I took it to mean that he has to think and experiment each time he's learning a new shortcut, not each time he uses the shortcut. (Because I've had the same experience.)

On the contrary, having difficult to decipher shortcuts discourages their use, robbing us of practice and in turn making future shortcuts even more difficult to decipher.

"Why is it that only the command key (⌘) actually has the symbol printed on the key itself?"

Hmm? What keyboard is he using? Has there been a change recently? For the old "Pro" keyboards and the chiclet keyboard I've got he alt/option key has the switch symbol on it, the shift keys have the arrows. The only odd man out is the control-key.

On my MacBook Pro, only the command key has a symbol on it. All other modifiers only have text.

Interestingly, european and US International keyboards have symbols on almost all those keys (the only one missing is ^ on CTRL). You never wonder.

And for the USIans out there, it means you can buy key caps with the symbols on them, from european caps sellers. They'll have both the abbreviation (alt or cmd) and the symbol.

I have never understood, either, why something like "new window" is actually "Command N" (as labeled in the menu), when it is really "Command n". "Command N" is actually: "Shift, Command, n" (as the shift key makes a lowercase key uppercase). I know, I know, the keys on a keyboard are labeled in uppercase letters, and the menu-items are supposed to correspond to what is on the keyboard, but I feel this only confuses things even more.

(This is not just a Mac problem, as referring to a lowercase key using an uppercase symbol is how it is done on Windows, and Linux (Gnome and KDE, at least), too.)

I find that most, if not all, of the shortcuts on a Mac are confusing. Sure, the icons don't help, but it's even worse when there's no visual indicator.

To this day, I still don't properly remember how to take a screenshot even after using the system for over a year. It's not that I don't take screenshots, it's that I have to form a mantis with my fingers to actually use the shortcut. That really makes it difficult to remember. In the end, I ultimately mash a combination of command, shift, option and some numbers and I hope for the best.

There are too many of these keys on mac laptops: fn, shift, ctrl, alt, command. Do we really need five? I'm sure you could work it down to three with a bit of thought.

You mean like the ctrl, alt, shift, & windows keys on a Windows keyboard? Add in the lack of a separate F-key row, similar to many laptops, and you effectively need the fn key.

So we're back to 5. Shift can't be killed for obvious reasons, it's main use is for inputting text, not commands. Fn can't be killed due to reduced keyspace while needing to remain compatible with full 101(+)-key keyboards. So all that really exists are 3: ctrl, alt, and command / win.

Oh, it could be much worse... http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/Space-cad... :-)

Though other comments appear to have found the true, Lisa-derived history, I remember a great explanation from "Macworld Mac Secrets" (quite the noble tome; it certainly fed me full of tidbits about lesser-known features)

Their explanation was that it looked like a finger pressing on a key in the way people do when pressing modifier keys, searching with their other hand for the correct normal key to press.

I share a clicky-key IBM model -M style keyboard (with embedded trackpoint!), via a KVM switch, among Vista, Kubuntu, and Mac Mini boxen.

Not being that much of a regular Mac user I've ended up using a Sharpie to draw little symbols near keys on the keyboard.

I got really frustrated with my macbook pro until I discovered the magic that is the cmd key. At work I find myself hitting the control key all too often now when Im using a standard windows keyboard.

I definitely can relate to the OP's pain though.

This has kept me from trying to master Textmate. Luckily TM has the 'Select Bundle Item' dialog, which more apps could definitely adopt.

If you can't remember the four symbols for Cmd/Opt/Ctrl/Shift then you have a bigger problem.

The squirrelly ones like Home and Escape I can understand.

To remember them, you need to know what they are in the first place. I once spent at least 5 minutes just trying to figure that out.

I take it the downvotes mean "No, it is a real challenge to remember four symbols that are used throughout OS X"

No, the downvotes mean saying "hurr you must be stupid" is not a good enough comment.

Learning something trivial vs. the creation/promotion of a blog post complaining about it. Which is stupider?

Which makes more sense: simply accepting something that is needlessly weird (note the affirming comments in this post), or making a post to complain about something you see wrong and in hopes that it will change? Apple is a company that is supposed to be excellent at design. I'd guess they pay attention when people complain about something that could be better, at least I'd hope so.

I'm not saying I disagree that it's stupid, I'm saying the downvotes are because people here don't want to read comments saying "if you can't do this you are stupid" (and nothing else).

Although I do actually disagree - it's like the saying "if you agree to give people 'just a minute' of your time then very soon, all together, they will take 100% of your time and clamour for more" - in computing and many other everyday things, every system you deal with has "something trivial" that you "just have to learn" until it seems my whole life is taken up with "just a simple thing" details that I don't care about which don't help me achieve anything.

As has been mentioned elsewhere in these comments, new Apple keyboards in the UK do have these symbols on them! So why not in the US? Then 'just learning' wouldn't be relevant and the whole scenario would have passed by unremarkably.

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