this post was submitted on 12 Nov 2023
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Why use hjkl instead of jkl;? (programming.dev)
submitted 10 months ago by Debuholden@programming.dev to c/neovim@programming.dev
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Hello, I was trying to configure i3 to match the functionality of vim (i3 uses jkl; because h is mapped to horizontal split), but when I was doing it I was wondering what the reason is behind every vim or vim-like editor using hjkl. It's rather inefficient to have to move your index finger to the h key every time you want to move left. I know that the creator of vi had his hjkl keys mapped to arrow keys, but why hasn't this changed. Is it a historical thing, or is there an actual logical reason.

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[–] zygo_histo_morpheus@programming.dev 3 points 10 months ago

I don't really think it's much of a problem that h isn't on a touch typing key because you don't need to press h very often. I probably use : way more than h. (: requiring shift isn't ideal though, although that's another can of worms)