Date: Tue, 16 Jul 1996 12:07:00 +0200 (MET DST) From: grog@lemis.de (Greg Lehey) To: jfieber@indiana.edu (John Fieber) Cc: chat@FreeBSD.ORG (FreeBSD Chat) Subject: Re: FreeBSD keyboard Message-ID: <199607161007.MAA17210@allegro.lemis.de> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.3.94.960714143102.1889C-100000@Fieber-John.campusview.indiana.edu> from "John Fieber" at Jul 14, 96 03:21:59 pm
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John Fieber writes: > > 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. I think my original statement related to the position of the keys, not the appearance of the caps. > 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? I wasn't being completely serious here. Maybe I'm conditioned by the great dependence on only marginally recognizable symbols in Europe (originally motivated by the number of languages spoken here), and the subsequent decrease in literacy. And no, if the flags help illiterate people recognize the keyboard better, more power to them. But I do get thoroughly fed up with consumer appliances such as video recorders which have keys marked in such a bizarre manner that I keep needing to refer to the instruction manual to understand what they mean. >> 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. Just by chance I bought a Microsoft "ergonomic" keyboard yesterday (no, not for me, for a customer). I tried it out and found it much worse than I expected. I couldn't type at all, and the Alt-ctrl-foo combinations were even worse than on a normally broken keyboard, due probably to this damn silly flag key. In addition, I had difficulty finding the normal keys, and I found the rotation of my arms difficult to handle. Normally I rest my forearms on the armrest of the chair, and that doesn't work if you have to twist them through 15°. >> 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. The guy I sold the computer to yesterday told me that under Windoze 95% they pop up a menu. Interesting, eh? I thought the mouse was intended for that. I wonder if this is the beginning of an indication that the mainstream has seen the error of its ways and is coming back to using the keyboard for data entry. Greg
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