Re: "Python for Lisp Programmers"

[Lauri Alanko <address@hidden>]

On Sun, Dec 09, 2001 at 03:25:40PM -0500, S. Alexander Jacobson wrote:
> Historical question: Ergonomically, Parentheses are annoying because they
> require constant use of the SHIFT key.  Square brackets would have been a
> better choice.  Who chose parentheses and why?

This is a locale-specific issue. For example, in standard scandinavic
qwerty-keymaps for PC keyboards, parenthesis are placed on Shift-8 and
Shift-9, while square brackets are on AltGr-8 and AltGr-9. Since there is no
left AltGr-key, the brackets are actually rather hard to type, so
parenthesis are preferable.

Of course, Real Hackers define their own keymaps. :)


Lauri Alanko
la@iki.fi