I came to Mac relatively late and only after years of using Windows and Linux, but I really wish everyone else would copy Mac’s default English keyboard layout & shortcuts. Super+x/c/v for cut, copy, and paste, their relatively ergonomic combos for typing m-dash and various “special” characters using option/alt, and their screenshot shortcuts, especially.
>but I really wish everyone else would copy Mac’s default English keyboard layout & shortcuts. Super+x/c/v for cut, copy, and paste
Isn't this something that benefits mainly developers, at the expense of everyone else? Most people don't use the terminal, so they don't have any use for control-x/c/v. At the same time super-x/c/v is less ergonomic than control, at least for me. With control I can use my pinky + index finger, which is much more comfortable than using super, which requires me to awkardly use my thumb + index.
Admittedly it’s better on Mac keyboards, with Super directly next to the space bar. Less strain and movement to hit that with my left thumb than to stretch down to ctrl (if I hadn’t mapped caps lock to control). The rest of the layout is wildly better than any other I know of for composing text in English, which is a thing you’d think every default layout would be good at, but they’re not. Better than “standard” layouts on Linux and Windows, better than the “international” layout, and better than “alt-gr” layouts, at least.
[edit] every default layout for English, I mean. I wouldn’t expect a default layout for another language to be great for composing English text, obviously.
>Admittedly it’s better on Mac keyboards, with Super directly next to the space bar. Less strain and movement to hit that with my left thumb than to stretch down to ctrl
I'm not sure what you mean by "stretch down to ctrl". On a standard keyboard, with the control key in the bottom left corner, all you need to do is rotate your left hand slightly and use your pinky to press it. Doing so also puts your index finger in position to press the x/c/v keys. On a mac keyboard this is less doable because the control key is swapped with the fn key, but it also doesn't make pressing the command key any easier, as you still have to bend your left thumb to reach the command key (this is most apparent with c/v).
>The rest of the layout is wildly better than any other I know of for composing text in English
The cmd version with the modifier directly next to the spacebar involves no wrist rotation at all. I tried it to check before making my last post, and my hand feels way more tense doing ctrl+z/x/c than cmd+z/x/c, using a desktop PC keyboard for the former to make it fair. I can also move back into homerow position faster. If you’ve got super directly next to the spacebar, it’s both faster and causes less strain, as far as I can tell. Granted it’s a roughly neutral or very slightly worse change if super is between alt and ctrl.
Again, I did the standard Linux/windows thing for like 15 years before switching to Mac, so I don’t think I prefer it just due to familiarity.
[edit] the key to their layout being so good for writing is how Option/Alt is used. Option plus a character will often get you a common modified version of that character that’s very useful (so you can type, say, façade, or a —, quickly and easily). Holding option changes practically every key on the keyboard, and shift+option does it again to a different set of chars. They’re not perfectly discoverable and some are compose keys (but visible on the screen, not hidden as a key that seems to do nothing!), but if you forget where the cent sign or euro or or pound are it’s easy to remember they’re in the numbers somewhere near dollar and find them again in a second or two.
[edit edit] the international layout can be better for some people but is basically obsoleted by Mac’s “hold a key and see accented versions to choose from” functionality, and alt-gr is similar to what Mac’s standard English layout does, except worse.
