Why are these keys used in ae?

Over the years I have had many bug reports complaining about the various keys
used by ae to perform its edit functions. Since it took several years to get
a working set of keys, I am not willing to continue to move in first one
direction and then another with these key assignments.

The current key assignments have been crafted to allow ae to work in as many
situations as possible. Everything from a dumb tty connection to an xterm is
expected to run ae with all of its functions available, and is known to do so
with the current key assignments.

So, you don't like these keys and wish to do something about them! Well, first
be aware that ae is not expected to be used every day on a "normal" Linux
system, as there are many more useful editors available under those conditions.
If you still insist that there are good reasons to use ae, except for the way
the keys are defined, simply copy /etc/ae.rc to ~/ae.rc and edit this file
so that the keys that you desire are configured instead. Examples of both
modal and modeless configuration files can be found in:

    /usr/share/doc/ae/modal.rc
       and
    /usr/share/doc/ae/modeless.rc

There is also a function-key-based configuration example in:

    /usr/share/doc/ae/fn.rc

A bug report about default key assignments must include a full description of 
the situation where this key code fails to work, along with a new key that will
work in that and all other known situations. Bug reports requesting another
key simply because it makes more sense, or is more convenient, will be closed
with reference to this README file.

Luck,

Dwarf