[silentbicycle]

Escape used to be located closer, IIRC it was next to 1 (on `) on some older keyboards. (Much like Ctrl used to be where CapsLocks is now.)

Moving it is easy, of course. Also, Ctrl-[ is usually the same key as Escape, and if you have CapsLock remapped to Ctrl, they're practically on the home row. (The article hints at this, but doesn't explicitly note that C-[ is Esc.) You could also remap CapsLock to Esc, of course.

[oliverkofoed]

I'm on a danish keyboard; the programmer-handy keys like "[" and "]" have been moved to shortcuts (alt-9 for "]") to make room for the danish letters "æøå", so some of the combo's that are easy to make on english keyboards are next to impossible on mine.

Once in an effort to reach maximum typing efficiency, i attempted a switch to VIM+Dvorak. However, i quickly realized that i would have to use a Danish variant of Dvorak (there is no official standard..) and remap VIM to oblivion, which would make me too much of an oddball masochist.

[silentbicycle]

A bunch of my coworkers are Swedish, and I've had similar issues with the brackets. It's aggravating.

I use the English/American Dvorak, but it takes me a second to switch back to qwerty as necessary. (I'm probably in the rare niche of mixed vi/emacs users, FWIW.) Vi + Dvorak isn't so bad, though I feel like Dvorak is (somehow) more compatible with Emacs.

[slug]

I have the same problem, although for a different language, and solved it by using a shortcut (alt-ctrl-k) to switch between layouts (en-us,etc). I do it both on KDE and fluxbox, which are fairly easy to configure and the "mental" switch is not problematic.

[rix0r]

This is what keeps me off switching to Dvorak: I have all these keyboard shortcuts wired into my muscle memory that I would have to either relearn or remap when switching to Dvorak that it's just too much of a bother...

[eelco]

If you're on OS X you can ease into it by using the 'Dvorak except for shortcuts' keyboard mode.

[chancho]

The happy hacking keyboard has both the esc and ctrl keys in these (proper) positions. Highly recommended for vimming.

http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/26/happy-hacking-keyboard-li...

[silentbicycle]

Yeah, but re-mapping is easy. Personally, I'm fond of the (gasp!) Microsoft 4000 Natural Keyboard, with several remappings.

[hoprocker]

A-men. Plus, OS X makes swapping caps<->ctrl super easy, so do that on a MS4000 and you're two large steps nearer to healthier longer-lasting wrists.

[jff]

vi was developed on the ADM-3A terminal, which indeed has the ESC key in the space occupied by ` these days. It also had Control in the proper place, but the arrangements of some of the punctuation keys on the right side of the keyboard always seemed rather hosed to me.