I've always found that behavior baffling so it's interesting to hear someone using it as intended instead of being frustrated by it.

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consp 9 hours ago | parent | next [-]

It used to be a de facto standard in many programs. Since almost no mouse had a scroll wheel, you'd use the space bar or the cursor keys. Spacebar was usually faster, I guess some people still do.

	▲	TeMPOraL 9 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		I do this too. The pattern probably dates back to first Unix pagers, or perhaps to the paper era.
	▲	zelphirkalt 7 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Still doing that, also in Thunderbird, to scroll through E-Mails and go to the next one when reaching the end (or pressing "n" or "p" for previous). I even use shift + space to go up again. I thought it was very common. Another alternative, maybe a bit more intuitive is using page up and down buttons.

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asimovDev 11 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

i love it. my mac doesn't have the home row (don't know if that's how that row of buttons is called) so I use spacebar and shift+spacebar as pgdown and pgup when I am reading

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fsckboy 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

>the home row (don't know if that's how that row of buttons is called)

the "home row" is where your fingers start out if you know how to type by touch, and it come from the days of typewriters instead of keyboards.

on a QWERTY keyboard, the home row is ASDFGHJKL; with your fingers resting on ASDF and JKL;

when they teach you to touch type, they say "put your fingers on the home row" and "home is where your fingers always return to."

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unkl_ 10 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

[fn]+[up arrow] = pgup, [fn]+[down arrow] = pgdown, [fn]+[left arrow] = home, [fn]+[right arrow] = end

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lxgr 5 hours ago | parent [-]

These are impossible to press with just one hand (or the bottom of my coffee cup in a pinch), though.

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justin_dash 4 hours ago | parent [-]

I use option + up arrow or option + down arrow sometimes, works the same as spacebar to page up / page down.

	▲	lxgr 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		In which browser? Doesn't work in Firefox, unfortunately.

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zelphirkalt 7 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

"Home row" usually refers to the row where you initially put your fingers when touch typing, to not have to move them much while typing.

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LoganDark 10 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

They're called the navigation keys. Fn + Up/Down (arrow keys) is PgUp/PgDn, and Fn + Left/Right is Home/End. But of course, those keys are on completely opposite sides of the keyboard, so Space is more convenient.

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asimovDev 10 hours ago | parent [-]

yeah, with spacebar i can use either of my hands while the arrow keys would require me to use both of my hands

	▲	LoganDark 10 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I am often annoyed Mac does not have a right Ctrl or a right Fn.