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Comment by digi_owl | Hacker News Reader

I can understand this. I keep seeing examples of people cherishing the largely keyboard operated ANSI/ASCII interfaces because once they had the navigation keys internalized, they could operate them largely without looking.

And frankly HN regulars should not be surprised. Just look at the continued love for tiling window managers and terminals for development work. Never mind the "minimalism" of HN itself, largely consisting of text.

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In the same vein, the Nokia 32/3310 could be navigated easily without looking. There were four buttons, a pair of arrows, ok, and cancel. A real, pure touch interface provided you could memorize the button sequences.

Later models with 4 directions and spatial menus were a step backwards in terms of usability IMO. I always had to look to ensure I hadn't accidentally clicked a corner and moved in diagonal.

Best i recall, the full dpad and such came because of J2ME requirements. the specs for that expected at minimum two soft buttons and a dpad.

Full productivity on dumbphones was realized when you learned you could hit 1 to activate the first item in a menu, 2 for the second etc. 5-2-3 boom new text message

Not to mention writing a text while driving, all without taking your eyes off the road...

Not failing to mention how handy that 'Menu-523' came in handy when the dpad wore down(usually the first keys to fail on a feature-phone). It kept me from having to buy a new phone for months.

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