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Exactly what I mean. It is insane. I can't get it straight. I really tried years ago. But it is plain and simple stupid.

Words once written don't need to be abbreviated. Abbrevation is only useful when writting for speed. When writting for being read don't use them.

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I think that is wrong actually.

I find it harder to scan my eyes over Ctrl+Alt+a than C-M-a (notice that Apple, too, uses single glyphs for modifier keys).

I've used macOS for ten years now and I'm still regularly confused by Apple's modifier key glyphs.

Those aren't "Apple's glyphs", they're part of the ISO/IEC 9995 standard for common keyboard layouts. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO/IEC_9995 Perhaps Emacs and the Linux desktop should start using these characters by default, seeing as they now have good Unicode support.

Control and Option/Alternate are different. Most keyboards and most software don't use either set.

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