I understand that \bf and \it are now obsolete in LaTeX and that \textbf and \textit are proper, as they produce more sophisticated (in particular, cumulative and properly kerned) changes to font style. I have read the English version of "Obsolete commands and packages", v. 1.8.5.7 of l2tabu, Sec. 2.1 and I understand the rules and their reasons, as well as the several other commands that are affected.
However, I find it convenient to use LaTeX for notetaking during lectures, and in that rushed environment, shortening a command by any number of keystrokes helps keep me from falling behind. \bf and its two-letter kin are still very useful to me for that reason, and once a presentation is finished I can go through and replace all appearances of \bf et al. with \textbf et al.
My question is this: is there a plan eventually to replace the short font style commands like \bf with the implementations of \textbf etc. some day, or should I expect \bf always to remain in existence but obsolete, for reasons of backward compatibility with original TeX? Original TeX has been greatly improved on in countless ways, but in the heat of transcription I sometimes miss its conciseness.
Best Answer
The simple answer is no, because the new font commands work better for the reasons in the links you cite.
The best way to reduce your typing to customize your editor. In my editor (TeXShop on a Mac) I have the command
\textbf{}bound to Command-B, and\emph{}to Command-I. (I generally don't usetextit{}) This makes it simple to use the "new" font commands in my source but with drastically reduced typing.Most editors should be able to do this sort of shortcut.