1. I didn't get the feeling that the author was claiming (here) that hjkl was so awesome, just saying, "hey, have you ever wondered why hjkl and ~home and esc key? Well, this is why."
2. It turns out that some of these original design decisions, made on systems with much more limited capabilities, are really efficient. HJKL, if you are used to it, is an order of magnitude faster than arrow key navigation when typing, because every time you want to use arrow keys you have to move your hand.
On the other hand, ~ being HOME is just historical cruft, as you say, and using the ESC key to exit insert mode is worse -- historical cruft that actually is worse and slows us down compared to, for example, using CAPSLOCK as many do instead.
Right, it made sense back then, but doesn't make sense now, so it supports the previous poster's point that historical leftovers shouldn't be celebrated for no reason. (But on the other hand, some, like hjkl, are still valuable.)
1. I didn't get the feeling that the author was claiming (here) that hjkl was so awesome, just saying, "hey, have you ever wondered why hjkl and ~home and esc key? Well, this is why."
2. It turns out that some of these original design decisions, made on systems with much more limited capabilities, are really efficient. HJKL, if you are used to it, is an order of magnitude faster than arrow key navigation when typing, because every time you want to use arrow keys you have to move your hand.
On the other hand, ~ being HOME is just historical cruft, as you say, and using the ESC key to exit insert mode is worse -- historical cruft that actually is worse and slows us down compared to, for example, using CAPSLOCK as many do instead.