[fn1]

⌘ Key is often equivalent to ctrl on windows. Ctrl-C,-V,-X copy'n'paste actions are done with that key on Mac.

I think it's much better placed since you can reach it with your thumb and don't have to rotate your wrist when using it as opposed to ctrl, so when typing macs you might have less strain on your hands.

[sbf501]

Unless you have tiny monkeypaws for hands, ⌘-V is a painful gesture and doesn't make sense on any human hand. This is one of apple's major human interface messups. And I'll die on that hill.

Ctrl on the far left of the keyboard (where FN is on apple keyboards) is far more ergonomically laid out, doesn't require a radical twist of the fingers, and also allows your fingers to remain in home-row with thumb on space.

Personally I think ALL modifier keys should be on the far left/right of a keyboard where they can all be accessed by a pinky finger. It is faster, doesn't require bone crossing, and allows you to remain in a typing position. Combinations of multiple modifiers should be very rare, if it isn't someone needs to go back to UI/UX school. (I blame Emacs for that!)

[whoooooo123]

> Unless you have tiny monkeypaws for hands, ⌘-V is a painful gesture and doesn't make sense on any human hand.

I don't find this true at all, and as far as I can tell I have normal-sized hands.

How do you rest your fingers on the keyboard? When I have my eight fingers on the home keys, I can hit ⌘-C by bending my index finger in isolation. To hit ⌘-V, I have to rotate my entire left hand very slightly to the right while also bending my index finger. However, I've never once thought consciously about how to perform this action before today, despite having hit ⌘-V millions of times - so it's never struck me as a difficult or uncomfortable maneuver.

[sbf501]

> How do you rest your fingers on the keyboard?

Standard home-row position. Having to scoot my thumb over to square-loop is very uncomfortable because it naturally rests on the spacebar.

It might be that I've been programming for close to 40 years and have grown accustomed to CTRL being an involuntary gesture for the pinky. Just like escape (from using vi for 30+ years).

It could be that people born using loop-* are used to it, plus Apple pushing ctrl into a weird place on its keyboards just means that your never had the opportunity to experience the ergonomically superior CTRL-C/V from the "old days" of keyboards before modifier madness took over. TBH emacs CTRL-ALT bothered me as well, and I had similar debates on Usenet. :) Or you are young and flexible. :)

[rcoveson]

I'm confused by this subthread. Are people hitting the Spacebar-adjacent modifier key with their index finger? It's meant to be hit with the thumb, and it's far more ergonomic than the pinky holding the bottom-left modifier key. ⌘-A should be nothing but an easy thumb contraction.

I use the usual Caps Lock position as my "Control" key, which is faster and more ergonomic than any of the traditional modifier positions, but the second place is easily the Spacebar-adjacent modifier key (I use it as my Super key, for window manager controls like workspace switching and application launcher). I have Alt bound to the bottom-left position where Control usually is. Alt doesn't get used nearly as much, and that's the third-best spot. The spot in between the two bottom-row modifiers is the least accessible by far (hard to hit accurately with the pinky, out of reach of the thumb). 101-key keyboards don't have it at all. I've recently started using it as push-to-talk, which works fine since it's not used for anything else and you don't have to chord it with anything.

[twobitshifter]

Agreed, if trying to do it with one hand. If you chord with the alternate hand’s thumb all is well. However, I would expect most people tend use only one half of the shift ctrl alt cmd/win keys. Typically with the left hand from what I’ve seen.

[daneel_w]

Agreed, Apple keyboards' placement of CMD/⌘ is a better fit for the human hand.

[mjlee]

My favourite aspect of this is that I have ctrl-c for SIGINT when I'm working in terminal and cmd-c for copy. No tracking which terminal emulator or IDE I'm in and which keyboard shortcuts to use for very common actions.

[bloopernova]

This is partly why I wish I could mimic the Mac's keyboard on my Linux desktop.

I remap capslock to ctrl on my Macs for Emacs use, which also helps with "emacs pinky syndrome".

[VTimofeenko]

There are tools like xremap which intercept key combos and re-send different ones.

[ilvez]

When using desktop keyboard, then Ctrl key is so easy to take with your palm, this small part below pinky. Doesn't work on laptops, but this is one of the reasons to prefer normal keyboards.

[nikau]

I've only ever used the control key with the side of my palm, so the bottom left isolated from the alt key a bit is perfect.

[koenvdb]

I usually hold the left side of my palm down a bit in order to press the ctrl button. So I rarely touch the ctrl button with a finger.

[dontlaugh]

For that reason, I swap left Ctrl with left Alt on Windows machines.