tr@wind.bellcore.com (tom reingold) (08/14/87)
In article <3735@well.UUCP> hrh@well.UUCP (Harry Henderson) writes: >> >> o Why are the control and caps lock keys swapped? ARGG. Who designs >> those silly keyboards? I use 4 different keyboards on a daily >> basis, and three of them are IBM (the other's a VT100)! > >Can't think of any good reason. The old position for Ctrl allowed you >to reach many more keys with the same hand. Who designs the keyboards? >Maybe concert pianists with long fingers. The reason, though not incredibly sensible, is probably to make it more like the Selectric (this is my own guess). Lots of people criticized IBM for coming out with a lousy keyboard for the original PC. It was lousy, most of us agree. Then the AT was not much better. People yelled, "You did such a good job with the Selectric. Why do you have to be so clever and mess things up?" So they put CapsLock where it was on the Selectric. The problem is that that's a good place on a typewriter but a bad place on a computer. Typewriters don't have Control keys. And with computers, CapsLock is not needed very often, partly because CapsLock doesn't even work as a shift-lock as it does on typewriters. So they went with what was proven, not with what made sense for the circumstances. These two concepts were in conflict here, as they often -- but not always -- are. It was a good idea to make the PC keyboard more Selectric-like, but now they went too far. Anyway, I'm used to it by now. It used to hurt my fingers to use the control key because it's so low. But now, whenever I remember, I use the control key on the opposite side of the keyboard from the letter key I'm using. This alleviated the pain. That's the "correct" way to type, if you are a touch typist anyway. (No, I'm not a touch typist but I did gain a lot of speed when I started using the shift key this way.) And yes, I do hit CapsLock when I don't mean to. Over all, I like the keyboard. And you _can_ run a little program to turn NumLock off when you boot, if you want. Tom Reingold INTERNET: tr@bellcore.bellcore.com UUCP: {seismo,ihnp4,ucbvax,decvax}!bellcore!tr {ulysses,allegra,clyde,princeton}!bBtory esue
nwc@cunixc.columbia.edu (Nick Christopher) (08/14/87)
The new keyboard is to make it easier on people used to IBM mainframe
terminals (3270's etc). Nothing like a GIANT step back.....
/nwc
--
"I am the Lorvax. I speak for the machines."
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USENET: (seismo | topaz)!columbia!cunixc!nwcch@hpisla.HP.COM (Chuck Heller) (08/21/87)
>Regarding the hosed-up control and caps-lock keys on "enhanced" >keyboards (I wish I could come up with an insulting phrase that >sounds like "enhanced")... has anyone tackled the problem? ... > - how about a TSR that takes over the lowest level keybaord input >and maps the keys back? > - Does SuperKey work to do that? I needed it SO BADLY on my 3270/PC, >but it didn't work on my level of the control program I use FANSI-CONSOLE [(313) 994-3259] on my PS/2 80, but I had to call them up and download some patches from their bulletin board to get it to work. I think that SuperKey will also do this, but you need version 1.17 to work on a PS/2. Mine is on order. Chuck Heller hplabs!hpislx!ch