kungfubeaner
commented
4 years ago TLDR version: The rest of the arrow keys alternatives don't have a cult following and doesn't become muscle memory. Most people who use WASD and the other alternatives would prefer the arrow keys themselves. For VIM users it becomes almost a necessity. I'm sure vkareh would vouch for this.
Long version:
Its hard to describe or understand unless you experience it yourself after learning and using VIM. I'm sure vkareh would vouch for this. When you learn VIM much like typing it becomes muscle memory and it just feels natural after the fact. Its on the home row keys and it would be inviting for people who use vim. XFCE already offers these options but for some reason MATE feels so much more complete and looks a lot nicer imho. I'm coming from a tiling window manager (bspwm) but I've always felt like something's missing. I've finally found a desktop environment I like (MATE) and and its 99% perfect. The only thing missing for perfection is this. Being able to move and resize windows using VIM keys. I've been able to make it fit my workflow 99% and I'm even being able to navigate 10 work spaces all with just home row keys on the keyboard.
Wikipedia lists +10 alternatives to the arrow keys, why add the ones used by VIM? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrow_keys
* 5678 keys * WASD keys * ESDF keys * DCAS keys * IJKL keys * IJKM keys * AZ keys * HJKL keys * SDF-SPACE and ASD-SPACE * WQSE keys * QAOP keys * ESDX keys
Just a few simple lines of code to be able to move and resize windows using VIM keys.