[swift-evolution] Thoughts on replacing \() with $() or some other symbol

[Xiaodi Wu]

On Tue, Jun 21, 2016 at 7:10 PM, Kenny Wyland <specialk at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Tue, Jun 21, 2016 at 5:07 PM, Xiaodi Wu <xiaodi.wu at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> (Whoops, reply to list; also adding a reply.)
>>
>> On Tue, Jun 21, 2016 at 6:55 PM, Kenny Wyland <specialk at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> On Tue, Jun 21, 2016 at 4:40 PM, Xiaodi Wu via swift-evolution <
>>> swift-evolution at swift.org> wrote:
>>>
>>>> On Tue, Jun 21, 2016 at 6:25 PM, Brandon Knope <bknope at me.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> How can it be unpersuasive? I can *show* you that keys that are easier
>>>>> to type/reach exist for a large majority of user’s.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> As I pointed out, your results are flawed because there are two keys
>>>> frequently reached for in the vicinity of \ which are excluded from your
>>>> analysis. Those keys are delete/backspace and return/enter.
>>>>
>>>
>>> True, however, both of those keys (delete/backspace and return/enter)
>>> are over-sized for the specific reasons that they are difficult to hit in
>>> that position and we use them a lot so we compensate by making them larger.
>>>
>>
>> If you google some pictures of typewriter keyboards, you'll see that the
>> backspace key was once the same size as all other keys (whereas the shift
>> keys and space bar were not). Moreover, if you check out international
>> keyboards, you'll find that several of these keys vary in size based on
>> country, so clearly their specific size is not considered to be very
>> important (even though (I presume) people delete things and advance lines
>> at similar frequencies regardless of language). So I don't really buy the
>> idea that these keys are sized "for the specific reason that they are
>> difficult to hit."
>>
>
> International support and ease of use is certainly important, but I'm not
> sure how old typewriter keyboards are any sort of valid data point in the
> discussion.
>

Well, given that hand sizes haven't really changed, it's an entirely valid
data point with respect to your assertion that certain parts of the
keyboard are difficult to hit. In fact, I'd argue it's probably one of the
better data points. Our keyboard layouts today are constrained in part by
habit and tradition, and what's more, we're more numb now to how learnable
typing really is because the skill is now so commonplace. But given a blank
slate, and with ample concern about the learning curve, our forbears could
make the keys almost any size they wished--and they chose a small backspace
key.


>
> Kenny
>
>
>
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