They're the cursor movement keys by tradition from the original vi (before arrow keys existed on most keyboards - in vim you can also use the keyboard cursor keys, but it's often faster to use hjkl if you have them coded in your brain, as you don't have to move off the home row.)

h=left, j=down, k=up, l=right

If you play roguelike games, the movement keys in the "traditional roguelike" key map are also hjkl - plus yunm for the diagonals on everything but the original Rogue, I think - IIRC Rogue had no diagonal movement.

So yeah, when you're moving the cursor (or your @ adventurer) you've probably shifted one key to the left from the right hand's home. But that obviously takes less time than lifting your hand (I'm a palm-rester) and moving it all the way over to the arrows. But I guess in the Dvorak layout they're split between the two hands (haven't tried it myself, so I don't know.)

I have to confess a bad habit though - I tend to play Nethack with the IBM keymap and "number_pad:on"

I've used vim before, I just didn't understand what palapiku meant. Maybe when you've used it more, you get the urge to move your hand to use the hjkl keys.

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Occupy Babel!

Sorry to resurrect this thread, but I ran into a problem and hopefully a keyboard master can help me. Simply stated, I spilled a glass (quarter full) of tea on my Steelseries 7g. I tried to dry it out with a towel and popped keys out to get as much out from the bottom as possible, but...yeah, is there anything I should do to prevent, say, corrosion? None of the keys feel sticky (tea > soda), and from typing out this post it seems the keys work okay...so I should be good?

Should be OK. If you're worried about residuals, you pop the keys out again and take a qtip/low lint towel with Isopropyl alcohol (rubbing alcohol) and clean things up. If you wanted to get really hardcore, you'd probably pull the back off and pull the board/sensors out for cleaning. The key for spills is to cut power as soon as possible, and not restore power to the keyboard until you're certain that no circuitry is still wet.

If you've moved past that point, and everything is responding as normal, you are likely doing well.

Alright, sounds good thanks .