Date: Sun, 14 Jul 1996 15:21:59 -0500 (EST) From: John Fieber <jfieber@indiana.edu> To: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.de> Cc: FreeBSD Chat <chat@FreeBSD.org> Subject: Re: FreeBSD keyboard Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.3.94.960714143102.1889C-100000@Fieber-John.campusview.indiana.edu> In-Reply-To: <199607141148.NAA21827@allegro.lemis.de>
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On Sun, 14 Jul 1996, Greg Lehey wrote: I wrote: > > It has nothing to do with typing ability. It has everything to > > While I agree with this, I'm not sure it's relevant. The statement as I understood it was that because people are poor with the keyboard, they find icon based more friendly. My response is that other factors have a much greater bearing on people's preference for icon based interfaces. On the topic of how to make keyboards more usable, yes it is irrelevant. Different topics. :-> > hunt-and-pecker looks for the keycaps (that's why they're reverting to > ideograms like this Microsoft key for people who can't read). I think that is a completely unwarranted conclusion. There are *many* motivations to use icons that are completely unrelated to the literacy of users. If someone can't read, having three keys on the keyboard with pictures instead of letters or words isn't going to make a bit of difference in their ability to use Windows. Even if it were motivated by helping out illiterate people, do you have a problem with that? > There's > absolutely *no* reason to put a switch like CapsLock where it can be > used in conjunction with other keys. I'm certainly with you here! Thank goodness for xmodmap. I've also got another keyboard that has a switch on the bottom to swap caps-lock and control. > I believe even Microslop uses things > like Alt-F4, don't they? How does a touch typist do that on one of > these "ergonomic" keyboards? Same way as always, either strain your hands, or use one hand for alt and the other for F4. Incidentally, on the MS keyboard, because of the "Windows" keys, the space bar is a little shorter and the alt keys moved inward enough to make them easily usable by the thumb. This is better because the thumb, while the strongest, is the most under utilized in typing on regular keyboards. The little finger gets a much deserved break on alt-heavy programs, and with control mapped just left of the A, control combinations are not too much of a strain on that weakest finger. > > It is important enough that people will put up with cheesy operating > > systems that crash on a regular basis if that is the only way to get > > it. > > People put up with Microslop because they're uneducated, not because > it's the only way to get recognition-based user interfaces. Practically, MS and Apple the only options. Unlike us techno-dweebs, most people purchase the operating system that runs their applications, not the applications that run on their operating system. Decent recognition-based applications are simply not being developed for non-windows/mac environments. OS/2 could be in the running but it doesn't have the application base and if all you do is run Windows applications, using OS/2 buys you very little. Even with this CDE monstrosity, Unix doesn't enter the competition and NextStep isn't really a viable solution in many settings. (No comment on NT since I have no direct experience with it.) In business settings most people don't really have a choice what they use, at home they do but practicality demands compatibility with what they have at work. > BTW, what does this Microslop key do? Under XFree86, the "Windows" keys by default generate Meta_L and Meta_R and the menu key generates the Menu keysym (which, to my surprise, a fair number of programs respond to appropriately). Of course, you can xmodmap them to anything you like. -john == jfieber@indiana.edu =========================================== == http://fallout.campusview.indiana.edu/~jfieber ================
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